Dear Reader,
Well, here we are mid-February. Time has flown again since I wrote last and there is a lot to catch up on!
First to thank you for the inquiries and well-wishes for my husband. He has been making good progress since his surgery. (If not familiar with that particular adventure you can read about it here: https://farmweekreview.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/the-long-road/ ). He now walks mostly without a cane and has been able to get his shoe back on his foot which was a pretty big deal. We are still waiting for the incision to completely heal and occasionally he has to take a day from work and keep his foot up because swelling is still a problem, but we are extremely grateful for his good progress! He is in physical therapy and has been very diligent with that, so that has helped him a great deal as well.
It has been a very busy winter for us here with our Etsy shops. Such a change from last winter. A lot of times it is feast or famine in the art world, so we keep our noses to the grind stone when things are busy and make the most of the busy times 🙂
daffodils!
Our weather has been amazing this winter. We have had a few cold snaps that have sent the temperature plummeting below zero, but for the most part it has been very mild. (thank you, El Nino!) The weather has been in the 50s today, and the chickens are spending as much time outside as possible. It is so hard not to get Spring fever. We’ve even got daffodils and tulips coming up.
Ducky, the hooligan rooster, givin’ me the stink-eye.
We had to get rid of one of our roosters… Mr. Shy. I miss him. He was such a gentleman. But it was just too hard for the hens; two roosters. They were loosing so many feathers. So Mr. Shy was re-homed. He now has his own farm with lovely chicken ladies all his own. I hope he is happy. I am stuck with our hooligan rooster, Ducky. How he hates me. He trys to spur me if he can… but I keep my eye on him. He takes excellent care of the flock. When Jason is completely back on his feet and able to keep the chickens again Ducky may be for the stew pot. We shall see.
It’s that time of year again where I plan the garden and orchard for the coming summer. It gives me hope that winter won’t last forever 🙂 We are getting additional strawberry plants, blackberries, 2 sweet cherry trees, 1 tart cherry tree, 1 apricot, and a relative newcomer to the berry world here in America… the honeyberry. They are supposed to be very similar in taste and looks to the blueberry, but don’t require all the fussing with the soil acidity etc. We’ll see how they do. I’m excited to try them!
We are still planning on getting turkeys in the spring. We are also planning on selling our chicken eggs as well. We have ideas for other poultry and livestock, but we are taking it slow. The accident has made us both kind of hyper-aware of just enjoying what we have… taking things at a slower pace… that has been another change.
We’re hoping to get a lot done on the inside of the house this year as well. We spent so much time getting the outdoors up and running last year that nothing much happened on the inside. That starts up in March or April, most likely.
Hope you all are having a good winter! Spring is just around the corner 🙂 It will be here before we know it!
Until next time,
Jodi Alvord
Ps. As always, if you’d like to keep up with more of the day-to-day happenings on our little farm you can find us on Facebook @ : https://www.facebook.com/Turkey-Foot-FarmThe-Old-Farmhouse-1495593607246914/
The Farm Week in Review 