Ordering Chicks, Sleigh Riding, Fire
No major updates this week. Sometimes no news is good news. Still coping with winter weather and keeping the cows, pigs, and chickens fed and watered. Looks like some harsh temperatures ahead next week. Ready for spring.
Speaking of spring, it’s time to be preparing this year’s chicken schedule. This week we ordered over 6,000 chicks to raise on pasture this growing season, adding about 1,000 to last year’s numbers. The first batch of chicks is scheduled for early April with this year’s first on-farm harvest planned for early June. If you’re wanting some ORVF pasture raised chicken between now and then, we can hook you up. Although we’re out of most chicken parts, we still have plenty of whole chickens and a few packs of wings left.
Sunday afternoon's round up of cows and pigs was a success, as was the trip down to N.C. on Monday to take them to the processor.
Amy and I finished filling this month’s beef herd shares this week. We both went to Bristol and Kingsport to deliver herd shares and orders yesterday evening. Date night #1 of 2025 on the way home.
The highlight of the week, especially for the kids, was on Saturday, sleigh riding down the hill at my aunt and uncles with friends and neighbors. Uncle Jimmy even provided an ATV shuttle service back up the hill for the kids. Some of the kids enjoyed the 4-wheeler ride up the hill even more than the sled ride back down.
With much to be thankful for, our outdoor wood stove ranks near the top on these wintery days. Though it does a fine job of heating our house and water, it burns the wood about as fast as we can chuck it in. Fire is a fascinating thing. This week while feeding cows, I listened to a short story by Jack London entitled “To Build a Fire.”
“He worked slowly and carefully, keenly aware of his danger. Gradually, as the flame grew stronger, he increased the size of the twigs with which he fed it. He squatted in the snow, pulling the twigs out from their entanglement in the brush and feeding it directly to the flame. He knew there must be no failure. When it is 75 below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire, that is, if his feet are wet.”
“He had not thought his fingers could go lifeless in so short a time. Lifeless they were, for he could scarcely make them move together to grip a twig, and they seemed remote from his body and from him. When he touched a twig, he had to look and see whether or not he had hold of it. The wires were pretty well down between him and his finger ends.”
I got cold on Tuesday afternoon filling herd shares and orders after a morning of feeding and thawing waterers. Temperatures not rising above the low 20’s. Fingers not wanting to work. After a while, I had to go back in the barn to warm up. My hands hurt as they thawed back out. I was cold. Or so I thought. Jack London’s story informed me that I don’t know what real cold is. But it also made me all the more thankful for fire and the warmth it provides.
Have a good week.
Will