Lessons on the Farm

Today, the girls have learned two very important lessons about living on the farm and it's only 9:30am:

1) How to dispose of the chicken that the coon got ahold of yesterday, since we found it this morning during the morning egg check. The key to this task is to hold your breath and move very, very quickly. If you follow our numbers, were down to 3 chickens now. Urrrggghhhh!

Did I mention that we were are having beef for a few days!

2) The importance of putting the darn lid on the feed so that mice will not get in and contaminate the food. My eldest child learned the importance of this one with Carla's (the dog) food this morning. And now, she is learning the fun of washing and sanitizing Carla's food bin with soap and bleach! The screams coming from the garage when she found the mouse was the highlight so far today.

I have to say though, the mouse was kinda cute, so I let it continue to live... out in the field... far from the house.

The coon on the other hand, they will be meeting their maker shortly. Very, very shortly!

Chapter 13: Teenagers

Pre-Teen: "Mom, I can't wait to be 13!"

Me: "Why?"

Pre-Teen: "Cause at 13 I will be a real teenager."

Oye, don't remind me child!

Chapter 13. No, I am not talking about debt - I am talking about teenagers. I am sure all parents have those times where they say to themselves "my baby is growing up so fast", but that thought in your head doesn't really have the impact that it does until the age of 12 and 13. At least for me. Granted, she will not be officially 13 until this fall, but the transformation is upon us!

Why is 13 such a mile stone? There must be something in history that our society believed that 13 is such a grand number. Maybe it has to due with Judaism and the belief the a boy becomes a man, girl becomes a woman, at age 13? Maybe it was the age hundreds of years ago where a girls father could sell her for a goat or a cow? Who knows? All I know is that while I am happy for my daughter to experience life, her turning 13 this year overwhelms me and makes me feel, well, OLD!

I think the reason we feel "old" when our child reaches a certain age is that we so vividly remember being that age ourselves. I still remember what it felt like to be 13, the thoughts I had, the feelings of wanting to be older and how my parents knew nothing. So how can I now be old enough to have a 13 year old? How is this possible? Well, when a man and a women love each other... and 13 years later...

Besides making me feel old, there are just some things I detest about raising a teenager. The hormones for one! I remember my dad telling me "Just you wait. One day when you get older, you will have a daughter and it will all be payback and all I am gonna do is watch! Muhahahahhaha". Seriously dad? Was I that bad? I couldn't have been THAT bad. I was perfect! (cue my little sister's remarks LOL) The hormones are quite fun though ! The slamming of doors. The back talk. The "your so mean!". There is a reason that Midol was made: it was for my daughter.

With all that being said, there are some great things about having a teenager. The ability to force her into babysitting her younger sibling(s) and my friends kids. Yeah! Mommy can start to have a life outside of children again. We can attend a Zumba class together or take walks with the dog and she can keep my pace without having me to stop and wait for her to catch up. I can have conversations with her about things other than what happened on this mornings cartoons or about boogers. "Mom, what's the difference between republican and democrat?", "Mom, if this is a free county, why do things cost so much?" and my all entertaining question "Mom, why do some girls date so young? I mean, boys are just boys right?" Hallelujah, she is not boy crazy... yet.

I also enjoy our morning routine of making coffee together. Yes, she drinks coffee with me, but with her ADHD it's a good thing (and the doctor suggested it too so don't judge). I enjoy shopping together with her (well, as much as I can since I HATE shopping) as we can both buy from the same store section/store. She is tall enough now (5'2") that she has out grown the children's section and now wears a women's size 3/5 and a size 10 in shoes. Oh how I miss being a size 5, if I ever was actually was a size 5.

I also enjoy getting to know her. She has wonderful ideas and views about the world (and yes, some views that only a teenager would have). She asks to be able to watch the news so she can get an idea of whats happening in the world. She asks about why Israel and the Middle East fight so much. She tells her dad about what she learned in homeschool that day; about the Egyptians and their belief systems, how in science she can classify a animal by it's bone structure, how in math "if x2 times b3 is...".

While she does lead me to drink and smack my head against the wall sometimes, I look forward to seeing how she turns out. I wonder what she will make out of life. What will she do for a career. What kind of man will she marry. Things like that.

And I will close with the most best part of raising a child: I look forward to when she has kids, especially girls, and I can say:

"Now it's your turn to experience being a parent of a teenager!"

Seriously!?!?!?!

Seriously?!?!?! I haven't posted since September 5th, 2011. Where does the time go? But, silly me, I know the answer to that! Where should I start?

Well, alot has happened in the last five months. We had a wonderful turkey harvest in late October. The turkeys ended up in wonderful freezers and were/will be enjoyed very much. I would take down their picture on the right, but the little buggers were just too darn cute and we do plan on more in the future.

The end of October also was the time that we dropped our lease on our horse. Long story short, it just didn't work out. It happens.

November brought some wonderful news, we were finally pregnant again!

Flash forward to January 17th - we had a tragic miscarriage that I will go into more detail in a later post.

It is safe to say, February sucked a whole heck of alot.

And now we are at March! March has had it's fair share of yays and nays. We have had WAY too much snow for what should be expected. I mean, seriously, the following picture just does not look like March 6th to me... it should have been December - darn that mother nature!



With that said, knock on wood, we have not seen snowmagedon this year. Yeah, we were snowed out for about four days in early February, but it could have been worse (don't smack me in the back of the head my fellow Washingtonians). Luckily, the trees are showing some new buds and some of the bulb flowers are starting to grow... spring is highly considering and making a foreseeable, possible comeback - well, maybe.

Any who, I know this is alot of rambling but I need to bridge the gap between now and last September. I promise to have more interesting details and smart alec posts soon! I will leave this crazy-of-a -post with some fun pictures from the last few months:

Carla and her new winter snow wear:


My little monsters:


The Front Yard:


One of my husband's Christmas gifts that he is too embarrassed to take to work even though it is awesome (yeah, ok, my words but COME ON - those file folders are AWESOME)


More Monsters:


A special trip with teenager and mom:


Can you tell how much Carla LOVES a bath? Were sooo mean!


And, finally, some easybake fun with a friend:


Till next time peep's!

The Building of a Rain Water Cistern: Part 1

I love my home and our land. Yeah, there are a few downsides, like getting snowed in or flooded in, but nothing is harder on a family then a water problem. Problem you ask? Well, it's like this: our farmstead is sitting near the top of a large pile of iron ore. There is not much water inside of a rock. Our well is 350 feet deep with a 1,600 gallon storage tank and we still lose water from time to time during the year. The whole neighborhood is like this, the whole hill for that matter. Some have good water systems, some have no water at all and have it hauled in and then there one's like us where we get a gallon every five minutes on a good day. It just depends on your luck around here. So, after three years we have decided to up our luck and be proactive about a problem we have no controller over. We have decided to put in a rain water cistern system that will run off of our gutters along the house to collect the ever flowing Washington rain (might as well use some of it other than to make mud right?). We purchased a 550 gallon tank that will hold the rain water to use for animals, gardening and yard stuff, which will then help free up the good, small amount of water for the inside of the house. Heck, with the cisten water, we can ever flush toilets when the power goes out - BONUS!!!

So, we started the cistern project Labor Day weekend 2011. Yeah, I know, you don't have to tell me - it's March. We've been a little busy, but the process starts like this...

It starts will a family-team effort to move the cistern over the fence...


Then it's time to dig the whole. Yeah, it could be above ground, but it looks nicer below ground and with the kids wanting to dig, why not? ;-)


No you gotta putt it in the whole (don't you just love free child labor)


It's in, FINALLY!


and now the hard work starts! TO BE CONTINUED...

Where Did the Summer Go?

Wow – is it really September 4th already? What happened to July and August? Have I really not posted anything since June? Geesh, I’m a slacker! Not really. We have just had one busy summer here on the Jowett Farmstead.

Let’s first catch you up on the horse situation. If anyone has noticed, there is a change in horse pictures on the right side of my blog. No, we didn’t give our horse a dye job. We have a new horse! Why a different horse you ask? Well, it’s like this. When we first welcomed Princess Kiera home, she was somewhat of a rescue. She had been left out to pasture for some time and was very out of shape. In her previous condition, she made a great children’s horse. With my love of rescue and rehabbing animals, we, my friend/co-owner and I, started our new project of rehabbing Kiera and soon found out with good care that Princess Kiera was born to fly – quite literally! She is a jumping queen with huge skills to match! The issue though is, while Preteen will eventually become a jumper in her skills in the future and with her little sister just starting to learn how to ride, Princess Kiera is too advanced for our family. So, we found a lovely woman who LOVES to jump and loves Kiera just as much as we do and we can now say - Welcome to the family Mister Reggie!

Reggie has a history in our family as he is the horse that Preteen learned to ride on, her first love. So, when the original owners came to our friend saying that they couldn’t care for Reggie anymore, my friend and I jumped on the chance to have Reggie back and now he is ours for keeps! Poor guy was left out to pasture for six+ months in the winter and lost some weight and muscle, but with the TLC he has received since we brought him home in June, he is already making a fantastic recovery. Preteen has never been happier!

What else have we done? Well, the hubby and I spent a week and a half on a light vacation/family reunion in Europe. We saw the UK and France and even a little of Canada during our layovers. We got to see Stonehenge, Bath, London, Oxford and Paris to name a few sights. I even got to feed some of my love for Harry Potter and see sights where the movies were filmed. Yeah, I know, I am dork, but I still love Harry Potter! While we were gone, Gramps held down the fort and watched the kiddos. The kids did spend a few days with their aunt and a friend of mine, so they had as much fun as we did. The Farmstead did just fine while we were away, no animals died so we are just fine! Hehehehe.

August was crazy busy, just trying to catch up on things, prep for the upcoming fall/winter seasons and prepping for the upcoming Homeschool year. We here at the Jowett Farmstead will be starting our school year close to what the public schools do on September 6th, as it makes it easier for the kids to have similar schedules as the public school friends who start on September 7th. My kids usually end earlier though as we do not take off as many days as public schools. We really don’t have the need for school improvement days nor teacher work days – those are called Saturday and Sunday around here!

Anyways, I know a few of you have been asking about the turkeys so I will leave you all with a few pictures of my tasty little morsels. We now know that out of the 12 turkeys we have, there are two Toms and ten Hens!

A Tom and his hens...


My guy Finger (the biggest and heaviest of the bunch)...


The other, more showy Tom...



To show their size and just how big they are, Preteen is 5'1" and 92 lbs next to the smallest hen we have...

Yes, I Harvest My Animals...

Yes, we raise our goats, chickens and turkeys for the purpose of harvesting.

I find it so surprising at the reactions I get from that statement. The reactions tend to be either one of these two:

1) Oh wow, that is so cool. I wish I could do that but I can’t because XXX. Do you share or sell?

Or

2) Oh wow, how could you? And then it ends with something about me being some kind of murder.

The thing I find most fascinating and sad all at the same time from both of these reactions is the shear amount of shock on the fact that I actually raise my own meat. Has society gone so wrapped up in themselves that they have forgot were meat comes from? No, is does not come from the supermarket that you bought those hotdogs from. Safeway and Fred Meyers does not have any chickens nor does it have any cattle in the back of the store. Chickens and cows, in nature, do not have any plastic wrap nor Styrofoam anywhere near them. Even though I state this and most reading this would think “Yeah, we know where meat comes from” and yet the following statement (which is from a real newspaper that has been circulated for over a year now on the internet) shows where most think their meat comes from:



Seriously People?!?!?! You think meat is ‘just made’ at the store. Yes, it’s made, but not by the store, it’s made by God. Yes, I am going there – I SAID GOD! If the fear of me using the terms “God” and “I raise my own meat” offend you, then stop reading now. I hope you don’t though, because I feel that some truths need to be said! If anyone feels like judging me or others raise our own meat, I feel like someone needs to stand up and defend us! Let me be a martyr!

If you are God believing folks, if you believe the bible is the word of God, let me leave you with these few notes:

Genesis 7:8 (NLT)
With them were all the various kinds of animals—those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not—along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

1 Samuel 14:34 (NLT)
Then go out among the troops and tell them, ‘Bring the cattle, sheep, and goats here to me. Kill them here, and drain the blood before you eat them. Do not sin against the Lord by eating meat with the blood still in it.’” So that night all the troops brought their animals and slaughtered them there.

God gave us animals to eat. There it is folks!

I know, I know. Some of you are thinking/saying, but how can you torture God’s creatures? But, you need to ask yourselves “Who is torturing God’s creatures?”. Not me!!! This website said it best:

Our society is showered with images of happy animals living on farms where the cows graze in lush green fields and the chickens have the run of the barnyard. This vision of free-roaming animals living out their days in sunny fields is very far from the reality. A majority of the animals that are raised for food live miserable lives in intensive confinement in dark, overcrowded facilities, commonly called "factory farms."
- http://www.idausa.org/facts/factoryfarmfacts.html

Now, here me out. I am NOT condemning anyone who purchases their meat from a store, but what I am doing is saying that before you condemn my way of where my meat comes from, claiming that I am torturing my animals by doing so, first look at where your meat comes first before you judge me. The above website is a wonderful way for someone to see if you do buy meat from the store “where no animals are harmed”, yeah, they were not harmed at the store, but they were where they were raised.

Here at the Jowett Farmstead, we do not over crowd our animals. Our animals are those animals you see in those pictures and commercials of happy animals running around care free in the pretty and sunny green fields. Although, our pretty green fields are kinda muddy right now since we are at the end of the monsoon season here.

We do not cage our animals. The goats, chickens and turkeys are raised free ranged. Yes, currently the turkeys are technically caged in the garage, but that is because they are babies who need to be protected from the outside until they are of size to be outside. Their cage is however, an inside paradise because I choose for them to be safe and happy.

My animals are allowed to roam free as the please in a safe, large, protected fields areas where they can do whatever they please. They are given beautiful, warm, dry and clean living areas where they can seek refuge from the weather. I have even gone above and beyond and put sweaters and coats on my animals to keep them warm. They are allowed to eat all the natural things that God has provided. Yes, they are additionally fed grain and hay not to “plump up” like most do, but are fed grain in order to insure optimal health and to never allow them to starve. I give them supplemental feed to make sure they are getting all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals to insure that they are healthy and happy. I also take the time and money to insure what I do give my animals is not just filler foods, not just stuff to make them unhealthy and fat. I have chosen to give my animals a diet free of chemicals, pesticides and anything that is not found in nature.

My animals are not stressed. They are not told what to do. They are not tortured. They are in fact, FREE.

Now, on to the next claim that I “torture” my animals by killing them. Yes, I “kill” my animals, but I do it in a humane way. Have you ever thought about how animals are killed in a factory? Again, I am not condemning ANYONE who purchases their meat that is factory raised, but I am strictly speaking to those that question me on my practices. Heck, I buy some of my meat from the store too people! So, how are animals treated/killed in a factory:

With corporate factories replacing traditional animal farms, it is not difficult to find animal factory workers kicking cows, ramming them with the blades of a forklift, jabbing them in the eyes, applying painful electrical shocks and even torturing them with a hose and water in attempts to force sick or injured animals to walk to slaughter.

After one year battery hens are dubbed “spent hens” and sent to the slaughterhouses. Slaughterhouses are kept busy by the growing demand for broiler chicken which beautifully hides the bruises from consumers.

Over the last 50 years there has been a dramatic change in the way animals are fed. Unwise and inhumane approaches to raising animals in animal factories have led to mad cow disease, increased liver abscesses, and rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, increased liver abscesses, and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Food for animals are no longer raised in farms but in crowded animal factories known as large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Just like other factories animal factories too always look for ways to cut costs, without consideration about what is good for both animals and humans. Animals are designed by nature to eat a kind of food. Ingredients used in factory feed do not meet these requirements.

A cow eating a normal grass diet is unable to produce milk at the abnormal levels expected in modern dairies, and so today's dairy cows must be given high energy feeds. The unnaturally rich diet causes metabolic disorders including ketosis, which can be fatal, and laminitis, which causeslameness.

- http://www.copperwiki.org/index.php/Animal_Factories

We do not harvest for the fun of it. We harvest for a purpose. We harvest only a few at a time. We harvest only what we can use.

When it comes time to harvest my animals, it is more of a ceremony of sorts; an event if you will. We have a family discussion of the harvest. We discuss many things during our family discussions:

Why do we want to harvest?

Who do we harvest?

If we do a harvest, how can we make sure not to waste anything?

Is our decision to harvest a good one?

I pray before our harvest as well. I ask God if the reasons I want to harvest are sound. I ask God if the reason for me harvesting is not one of pride nor of selfishness.

Before we harvest, we take care that the animal is not stressed. We make sure it has no idea of what is happening. I even talk to my animals before we harvest. I thank them for their life. I make their passing quick and painless as possible. By taking these steps, I am creating the circle of life.

I think I have previously said it best on my blog back on February 17, 2011 when I said:

But, my favorite way we complete a “circle of life” if what we have started to do recently. Did I tell you I love chickens and goats? I really, really do. When I make my human family’s meals, the animals take care of all the food waste. The “compost” clippings get fed to the animals: the goats get first pick of the veggie parts and the chickens take care of the left overs and meat stuff.

So, food goes to humans. Left overs go to the animals. Even when I go through the fridge before every shopping trip, all the leftovers and the stuff that is getting kinda nasty and old go to the animals (mushy apples, that left over soup we forgot to eat).

The leftovers feed and fuel the animals.

The animals grow. The chickens produce eggs (eventually, my babies are not quite there yet). The animals fulfill their lives by feeding the humans.

So, tell me again. How am I torturing my animals? How is my intent to grow my own meat any different than someone’s decision to purchase meat in that of a store?

The difference in my decision is that I know where and how my meat was treated when it was alive. I know what was feed to my animals before they were harvested, therefore, letting me know exactly what I am feed my family. I know I am not being greedy because I only grow what my property can hold and what my family can eat.

Yes, I will still buy meat and what not at the store, but it is not wrong of me and my family to take pride in the meat and what not that we grow ourselves. It is not wrong for me and my family to create a since of independence that we are not totally reliable on others to feed us.

Just as I will not judge you for your decisions, do not judge me on mine. Just remember, for every finger you point, you have three fingers pointing right back at you.

Sincerely,
Mama Jowett

The Turkeys Are HERE!!!

My new babies are here, a few days early, but never the less they are home! They hail from New Mexico via the local feed store. These little guys are American Bronze Turkeys. Are they not completely adorable? They LOVE the camera and already eat out of my hand. They are quite and very docile little ones...






Some info on the American Bronze Breed:

 In the US, the American Bronze (AB) turkey is considered to be one of the few true "heirloom" turkeys, the first heirloom turkey in the United States.

 The AB turkey is as close to the wild turkey as domestically possible.

 The AB turkey is often mistaken for the wild North American turkey, which has caused over hunting and under breeding.

 The difference in taste between an heirloom turkey and commercially-raised turkey is definitely worth the effort to raise your own!

For some wonderful information on the American Turkey please check out this link

Here is what my babies will look like all grown up...

Where did January go?

Wow, where did January go? A friend of mine just restarted her blog and it opened my eyes to the fact that I, myself, have not blogged in almost a month. Bad blogger BAD! LOL
January has been quite a month this year. We have had crazy weather! Freezing temperatures that led to some snow and ice. Then, a warm streak that caused major flooding. The cold, damp, gray and gloomy days. I think I can speak for all of us here on the farm when I say “Where’s Spring?”. Between the wet and the soggy, the thought of spring is an amazing dream to say the least!


With the continuing chills in the air, we have switched out Mama Goats coat for a better, non-ducktape model that fits like a glove. I went with a Dover brand 2XL dog coat that fits Mama much better than the old foal coat. The foal coat was too long in the front (hence the ducktape) and with goats having similar body sizes and structure to a dogs, the Dover coat worked wonderfully! The way Dover makes their dog coats is similar to the wonderful quality of a horse blanket so it’s a prefect option! Heavy duty, water/mud proof and super warm.


January also included the first, which will not be the last, chicken harvest. Yes, I know most of you are thinking “Oh my” or “Ewwww” or even a “How could you?”. I have heard it all. But, yes – to answer all of your questions, I harvested my own chickens. Why you ask? There are many reasons. Due to a nasty tempered rooster and another handful of mean roosters and well, it was their time. My sister, her friend, my uncle and I went ahead and did the deed. We harvested 4 that day. Two are in my freezer and two in my sisters’ freezer. Yes, yes I know… again “How could you?”. Well, this was my response to most:

“In order to give an animal a wonderful life, we must have their lives full of happiness. That means good food, free of stress and a wonderful home. But then, when their time is up, to let them not live without meaning, but live a life that can be shared with others. By the chickens giving up their lives, we take respect to them by continuing their gift of life by fueling our lives; thus, the circle of life. Their passing’s were humane and without pain.”

It’s truly that simple. Really, it is! I also give this tidbit to think on... By me raising and harvesting my own chickens, I know EXACTLY where my food is coming from. I know what they eat and I know what they don’t eat which means I know that my meat and eggs (when they come) are free of chemicals, pesticides and just gross and nasty stuff the most of the factory food has today. I also get a great since of peace raising my own animals. I receive a great since of pride when I can take great care of an animal and have something to show for it – a great meal for my family.
So, I am currently down on the number of animals here on the farm: 9 chickens (2 roosters and 7 hens), 4 goats, a dog and a horse. We do have plans to extend our family though. Later this winter/spring we will be getting more hens and also a handful of turkeys. I know, I know – TURKEYS?!?!?!?! Yes, turkeys. Turkeys are so easy to raise, just like chickens, and make a WONDERFULL holiday meal. Turkey is also great any time of year and since we have a large freezer in the garage – why not I say!
So that is January in a nutshell. Lots of weather, lots of animals and lots of homeschooling. Till next time blog world!

It's a New Year on the Farmstead

That's right, it's 2011 now and we are looking forward to what the new year will bring us. So far, we have had nothing but below freezing, frigid temperatures and a snow that has not left. It's so cold, the snow is growing ice crystals! Luckily, we have not lost any animals and had no illnesses during this cold snap. Mama B's coat is holding up, even though its too big. I found a 2XL Dog coat online that should fit her more correctly. Here's to it arriving soon!


Even with the low temps, the weather has been quite beautiful with clear sky's and a bounty of sunshine. Today is the last day before the hubby goes back to work after taking a week and a half off for the holidays, so we thought we would make it count and do some farm chores outside. The garage is cleaned and organized, the Christmas lights are down, the driveway pad & walkways are shoveled and de-icer has been spread everywhere.


While me and the hubby were working, the kids had fun playing in the snow. It was so beautiful outside, I had to stop to take some pictures around the farm. Here's what I found...

It's Winter on the Farm...

The holidays have come and past and it's winter on the farm. We've just had our second snowfall of the season in a whirlwind of weather. Yesterday, we saw snow. We saw hail. We saw rain and then snow again. At times we had almost five inches, then two or three and then four again. The weather dipped down into the low 20's over night and we reached a high 28 degrees when I went out to feed the lot at 3:45 today. What is left is now about two or three inches of crunchy, partially fluffy glistening snow and judging by today's news report, it looks like its here to stay a day or two more. My father, who lives across the street, took 35 minutes and 10 trys to make it up his driveway to my house so I believe it's safe to say: we aren't going anywhere anytime soon and were perfectly happy with that! After being snowed in three weeks in previous years, its safe to say I properly stock up the house for all of us. From October through March, we always have at least three weeks plus of rations for all members of our house: whether human or not!

Here's the homestead around 1:30 or so when we arrived home from running a few last minute errands and stocking up for the weekend on Wednesday.


It was snowing so hard that in the fifteen minutes or so it took to empty the car, my tracks were gone. And oh my, was it fun getting home too! I have a van and we were sliding (and even burned some rubber) getting up the hill that day. Just ask the kids - they were so scared! The little one even wanted me to stop so she could walk up, silly girl. Honestly, I would have if it wasn't for the fact that if I stopped, I would have never of made it.

And here is what it looked liked around 7pm or so, about 4 compacted inches of snow, rain and hail. There was about two inches on the roads, but it was also nice, crunchy and compacted. All in all, not fun stuff but it sure looks pretty!


And with the snow, we used the opportunity to try out Mama B's new winter coat. It is technically a foal coat, but there is no such thing as a "goat coat" so this works. Unfortunately, it's still too big so I think I will start looking for a mini-horse coat. Mini horses tend to be the same size as goats so we will see. And yes, that is duck tape you see. With it being to big, it kept coming down in the front and she would trip. It's pretty funny that the first thing I grab was duck tape to help me, but hey, duck tape solves everything right? Every household she have duck tape if you ask me! LOL In any case, it works great and Mama doesn't mind! :-)


And here are a few more pictures from today (Thursday Dec 30th)at feeding time around the farm. You can tell it's frozen and cold as the animal pen is not muddy like it usually is. I made a few "chicken hills" around the yard as the chicks do not have anything to dig. My chicken hills are a mound of orchard grass hay that I feed all the animals with that has some chick feed with a touch of scratch in it. They love these mounds and gives them something to do during these cold days.