Winter preparations?

[Beekissed]

I do too! That was a nice thing to do, giving firewood to your friend.

That was one of the reasons I put so much in this year....last year people were scrambling~myself included~to get more firewood during our big snows.

I wanted to have more this year so I could share if it were needed. Its a bad thing to need heating fuel and not have it.

 

[freemotion]

It must be the farmer genes in me....

I got our wood for this winter late last winter, when the snow was still on the ground. As soon as we had a little unexpected cash, it went on wood.

All the gardening is winter prep, really...ok, not all, since we eat from it all summer, but a lot of it!

The pigs are winter prep. I got 10 meaties as more winter prep.

The barn is filled with hay (Aaaaaaaah! Big sigh!) and I would've liked to have a few bales of straw, but we ran out of room. If we don't get a lot of dry leaves for bedding this fall, I'll buy a few bales of straw to put right down in all the stalls, to start out with a nice, thick layer. I'll buy as I go until they eat up some hay and I can fit a few bales so I'll be stocked up for kidding season.

And the livingroom is torn apart right now as we prepare the floor for the new, highly efficient wood stove that is coming in on Sunday. Don't know when it will actually be installed, but I am showing the old one to a couple of people who responded to my ad tomorrow, hopefully it will be gone tomorrow and I will have enough cash to pay for the installation and put a little more towards paying off the "new" one!

I'll start canning in earnest in a couple of weeks....catfood, stews, soups, chili, beans, etc. Then the pork will be arriving!

The chill in the air is making me think about breadmaking and doing stuff with my fleeces, too. Later. Too much to do before the snow flies!

 

[journey11]

Things suddenly get more windy up on our hilltop too, Asian lady beetles are starting to show up, now just waiting for a first frost.

Gotta batten down the chicken coop. Bring all the firewood around back and stack it. Clean out the garage a bit so the cars can go in. Bring out all the winter clothes. Put the plastic panels up on the front and back porch. And bring in all my yard and garden tools. And anything else that could blow away!

 

[jambunny]

It has been very warm for Wyoming so I know I am behind. But when hunting season starts I kick it into gear and start getting my birds in, lights up, goats into breeding pens, propane tank filled, and wome of the winterizing of the house. Then I knit like crazy for that extra wool covering.

 

[country freedom]

I LOVE Autumn!

 

[FarmerChick]

for me it is grass also

when it stops the big growth and that wind has that "cold chill" feeling in the breezes it is time to switch gears and think winter prep

and it has happened lol

I don't prep much being in the South my winters are not bad. I just have to empty the pool filter for freezing problems but heck I haven't done that yet. I have into Nov. to get that done lol

I absolutely love my winter weather opposed to the poor souls who have 16 feet of snow....I lived in the North and "did" snow and I sure love my Southern winter more haha

 

[me&thegals]

When the house is consistently chilly in the morning, it's time to get moving I gathered pumpkins for the birds, we hauled wood for the house, I'll start washing windows (for being cooped up a bit more) once our boxelder and Asian beetles are gone and stop leaving specks. Need to finish digging potatoes, store the squash and pumpkins. Actually, for once, a lot of the garden fall work is already done! Need to tuck the strawberries under mulch once it gets colder.

 

[lalaland]

oh,thanks for that reminder about the strawberries!

its the huge migrating flocks of blackbirds that tell me fall is here there is nothing like the sound of thousands of birds taking off from the cornfield!
fall cleaning of the coop
hay on the garlic , asparagus, and strawberry beds
spray the apple trees and cherry trees and assorted gooseberry bushes with plantskyyd to ward off the dear
spsend a sunny fall day gathering kindling from the woods
get wood
find the winter shovels,scrapers, chicken coop heat lamps and put in place
wrap the bed on the screened porch in protective layers
clean out the garden beds ( this one is highly unlikely to get done)
get a load of manure in to age over winter so it will be ready for spring
put hardware cloth cages around the blueberry bushes to protect from voles/mice/rabbits
load the truck with winter survival stuff (those 3 hour drives in to work on blizzardy days)
make a snow stick
mark off where the plow guy should not plow ( he tends to think I want every inch of snow removed from everywhere!)


the very very last thing I do is turn the heat on! I make a game out of waiting as long as possible to do it, and since I have in floor heat, it takes 3 days to heat up the house. Thats why I have a fine little wood stove, which also could heat the house if the power went out.

Most of the leaves came down in the last few days - winters comoing!

 

[AL]

Yeah, I know most of you will laugh at the idea of "winter prep" in Florida

Our cooler weather is pretty predictable. When the Fair comes at the end of October, temperatures start going down. Also my 28yr old mare starts putting on a thick winter coat just a couple of weeks before temps start dropping (she had thick fur in September - sure enough we have had temps in the 50's).

I didn't have much luck in my garden this year, but we do have peas and corn in the freezer. A couple of good days at the pond put plenty of catfish in the freezer as well. I have 25 meaties (my first!) ordered and will be processed around Thanksgiving. I am also talking with a friend about splitting the cost of a side of beef... but I have to get another deep freezer .

I have a new trailer with heat - after 4 years without any- but I don't use it much. Last year when it was below freezing for 13 days I "cranked it up" to 56.

I'll put some bedding on the floor of the chickenhouse, right now it is just dirt. There is only the big walkin door that I leave cracked, so I will cut out a chickensized door for cold weather. Tarps need to be hung from the chickenhouse to help with drafts, and I will rig up some shelter for the meatie pen.

We have 70 bales of hay put up, but found several bad ones from last year so I may run short.

Still have some growth in the garden, but then I'll pull that out and put down a deep layer of compost, leaves and manure and till it all in to rest till spring.

 

[tortoise]

We are citified, so our list is different.

Replace a cracked window.
Cover the carport with steel (the tarp finally fell apart this summer)
Prune pine trees, crabapple, everything to take off low branches.
Mulch in strawberry bed
Rake leaves
Finish fall plantings that we bought on clearance - mums, lilies, bulbs, etc.
Patch up hunting gear.
Burn rabbit wool off cages.
Time fall/winter rabbit breeders to have winter babies within safe temps and have winter meat.
Clean out the shed and set mouse traps.
Stash more food in my winter-storm stash.
Try to shoot a deer for the freezer.
Pick up butchering rabbits from breeders that need to thin out herds before winter.
Gather windfall apples for rabbits.