Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Fever
This is about the time of year that cabin fever strikes.
It’s February, two-thirds of the way through winter, by my reckoning. The year actually only has two seasons: the portion of the year where the livestock can be grazed, and the portion of the year where they must be kept indoors and fed hay. Where we live, that conveniently splits the year into two six month seasons.
The beginning of grazing season is April 15, plus or minus two weeks. That means we’ve been fighting rain, cold, and snow for four months, with only two more to go. The end is in sight, even though we’re fighting three foot snow drifts, with two more snow storms scheduled for the next week.
We pretty much go into hibernation mode after Christmas. In November and December, it is usually not that cold yet, and there is plenty to do with the holidays, so life is still pretty interesting. January and February bring hard freezes, usually plenty of snow, and sufficient cold to make working outside for any length of time difficult or impossible. We still have chores to do, and those are usually a battle. Between ice-capped hay stacks, frozen water spigots, and sub-zero wind chills, it is something to be tolerated, not enjoyed. Then there is the rare morning where I get outside right before sunrise with the weather perfectly calm, the stars and moon still in the sky, the horses and sheep greeting me, the world beautifully glistening, and suddenly the cold and snow drifts don’t seem that bad.
The real torture starts when the seed catalogs start to arrive. Thanks to the wonderful marketing companies out there, once you order from one seed catalog, the next year you receive a hundred. I could probably heat the house just by burning junk seed catalogs. After picking out the one or two that are actually decent, the planning begins. What are we going to grow? What do the kids want to try? How many different varieties of X should we plant? It’s dreaming, just like winning the lottery, but without the millions of dollars. It’s fun while it lasts.
Then of course that spills over into planning everything else. What repairs need to be done? Fences mended, buildings constructed, equipment purchased, barns cleaned, training accomplished… It’s usually a huge list, one that we’re not always sure we’ll be able to get finished by fall. More always comes up, and plans change accordingly. But sitting inside in February, that doesn’t matter, and the dream of a perfectly functioning farm is tangible. Once the snow melts, the grass greens up, and the ground thaws, we’ll plow into the work like newly freed prisoners.
In the meantime, I think a month or two more of hibernation sounds pretty good. Wake me up when it’s spring, ok?
Comments
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When I lived in Alaska, we’d get cabin fever around the middle of February, too. We fought it by having a huge ice cream party. Everyone brought his ice cream maker and favorite recipe, and we made about 20 gallons of homemade ice cream. While it was ripening outside, we had a potluck. It was usually -20F or so outside, so the ripening was easy. I think you’d want at least 0F for it to work best.
We figured that making ice cream was the functional equivalent of thumbing our noses at winter.
Try it and write us a post!
Weetabix | 2/15/2008 11:07 AM CDT -
Ice cream is a summer-only treat around here. We usually freshen the cow in the spring and dry her up around November or December. It’s just too much of a pain to milk through the winter, and we’ve usually got all the butter we need for the winter put up by then anyway.
Nice idea though. We’ll have to think of something similar.
American Farmer | 2/15/2008 12:18 PM CDT -
I’m certainly looking forward to the beginning of grazing season, even though I’m going to have to do some serious pasture improvement this year. The wife’s hobby of miniature horses is not quite as much fun this winter ... considering the global warming (feh) contributed to an abysmal growing season, and I was caught quite unawares of the effect on the hay crops. Where normally I would be contacting one of my two sources for another 50-75 bales, I’ve already burned through my stockpile and been relegated to going to the local livestock auction to get me through. I’m trying to talk the wife into giving away some of her hayburners just to get the place back to reasonable.
As far as the winter blues/blahs ... I guess my years of northern Alberta and high arctic winters got me used to bundling up and finding things to do outside. Just bought another snowmobile, and also a couple of skibooses to fix up for the possible eventuality that grandkids will come visit in the winter. If the snow sticks around a while longer, I may even pull the cross country skiis out of the garage rafters ...
The only winter blues I get is not being ot climb on a motorcycle and get away from it all.pete in Midland | 2/20/2008 11:34 AM CDT
