Winter Woes

This will be a bit of a catch up post.

I’ve posted a few new pictures of the new laying flock at 3 weeks of age.  They are getting quite active now.  We’ll give them another week before opening up the other half of the brooder box.  For now we’ve been keeping them enclosed to half the box partly to conserve heat because it’s been so cold.  They are getting quite a few feathers in, but their little neck and arm pits are still down and you can see down poking out in between their tiny little feathers.

The weather has been unseasonably cold and dry.  We dropped down as low as 10 degrees a couple nights, with several being in the 13 -16 degree range.  The goats are in their coats and get hot water once a day, and an evening check to break the ice on their water bucket if it’s frozen.  The “big girl” chickens have one of the brooder lights hanging in their coop for some extra warmth.  They don’t seem too phased by things though.  Their hanging fount (waterer) keeps freezing over so I’ve been putting a small feed bucket of hot water on the back patio for them each morning. 

One morning I got up to see Sassy scratching around by the greenhouse.  It was quite early and I was surprised that Bengt might have let them out that early.  I said, ’oh, you let the chickens out already?’ and he looked at me quizzically and said he hadn’t.  Well it turned out that he hadn’t counted the chickens when he put them in the night before and Sassy can tend to straggle behind.  She had managed to spend the entire night outside of the coop and the low was 16 degrees!  We ran out and opened the coop and she happily went inside, had some breakfast, and laid an egg.  I suspect I know where she may have found a nice place to spend the evening…

The well pressure switch froze again.  This happened during the winter holidays last year when we got about 4 feet of snow.  Several other issues compounded the situation leaving us with out drinkable or hot water for a good part of a week.  This time we were a bit more versed in the mechanics of all of it and I quickly granted Bengt permission to take the greenhouse heater to put in the well house.  The water was flowing again with in 10-15 minutes and the hot water cleared up quickly thereafter.  We either need to permanently fix this problem or get in the habit of making some adjustments to the well house for fall and spring.  A permanent fix would involve relocating the water heater or the well so I suspect that we’ll just need to get used to it.

Sweet Pea Currant Tomatoes

I had been harvesting currant tomatoes up until as recently as a week ago from a volunteer plant in the greenhouse.  It hadn’t really dawned on me that the volunteer was rooted in the ground so as soon as all this dramatically cold and dry weather hit the plant was a goner.  It’s probably for the best though.  We got the first electric bill with the greenhouse heater running and it was about 3 times normal.  Ouch!  The tomatoes were a lovely treat but not worth that much.  It was certainly nice while it lasted though.  I’m going to try growing some tomatoes intentionally in the greenhouse eventually.

So I suspect Sassy spent the night in the space under the now, well heated, well house.

To add to our winter “fun” our septic pump blew up this weekend.  There’s been some challenges with the system (read: a lot of hacks), but it finally gave up.  We don’t know how much the very cold weather contributed to it, but we are on limited water use until a new pump arrives today or tomorrow.  We are sucking it up (and digging in to our credit cards) and having all of the known issues with the system addressed.  It’s really unfortunate and the timing couldn’t be much worse, but the septic serviceman made a strong point that resonated well with Bengt: If a septic system is maintained properly, over it’s life it will STILL be cheaper than the municipal sewer in these parts.  Hopefully this will be it for a few years for us.

We’ve been cooking over our wood stove more and more this winter as I try to get the hang of it or get the courage.  It’s not a cook stove by any means, but it’s not too bad.  I made my first attempt at biscuits last week and they turned out okay.  It just makes more sense to use the heat for the house for other functions as well.

That’s a better segue, than from our septic woes… I also thought I’d share a recipe I just typed up for a friend.  It’s a staple for us for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that it’s fast, tasty, and highlights high quality eggs!

(From “How to Cook Everything”)

Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Time: 30 minutes
Makes about 4 servings

1 TBSP olive oil
4 ounces minched bacon, preferably slab bacon, or pancetta
2 eggs
1 cup fresh grated parmsan cheese, plus more
1 pound spaghetti, linguine, or other long pasta
Salt and freshly ground black peper to taste

1. Combine the olive oil and bacon in a medium skillet over medium
   heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crisp.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Warm a large bowl
   in the oven, or by filling it with very hot water.
3. Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in teh warm bowl.  Salt the
   boiling water and cook the pasta until it is tender but firm.  when it
   is done, drain it and toss it immediately with the egg-cheese mixture;
   add the bacon and any fat remaining in the skillet.  Add lots of
   pepper; taste and add salt and more pepper if necessary.  Serve
   immediately, passing more grated Parmesan at the table.