Winter on the farm:
A rare sunny day brought us outside and made for some great photos. The barn and clearspan with the pigs in the snow make a classic picture. The clearspan currently houses about 1400 chickens in three different groups. The barn houses the goats, sheep, dairy cow, and Russian Boer sow and her babies.
The tractor is indispensible to feed potatoes to the pigs, add chicken offal to the compost pile, and bring in wood to burn in the house. Jim still loves to help drive, which is interesting in the snow. He got his hands on the John Deere magazine and drooled (well, literally) over all the tractors.
We finally got the snowmobiles running, so the favorite afternoon activity is driving in the fields. Getting pulled around on a sled is great fun–a little cold, but no one complains. Other fun things include making forts in the snow piles and running Jim around in his little sled. Keith has kept his “farm” going and bemoans having to keep it plowed–but he keeps it well cleaned and as tidy as can be! He had pine sticks stored up down there and was bringing them in to help Mom with the fire. Jim liked to run them all over the house with his dump truck, though, so Dad requested Keith save his wood for summer campfires. Even in the winter, things never get dull here!