Still Frozen
March 25th, 2014 · No Comments · Posted in farming
Walking back to the house from farm chores the other day I wondered: What’s better, mud, or perpetual winter?
There are certain advantages to not sloshing around in mud–like all the stuff you don’t track into the house. Or the huge ruts you don’t make in the driveway with the truck. Just walking can be more of a pleasure when you’re not slip-sliding all over the place.
Winter does have it’s advantages. But it takes a toll. I’ve worn to tatters the cleats I slip over the bottoms of my Muck boots. My winter socks are full of holes. So are my Gore-Tex gloves: There’s very little separating my right thumb from the elements these days, and that can be painful when the mercury dips below zero.
A further downside to perpetual winter: the animals soon would have nothing left to eat. We need sunshine and warmth–the soil needs to thaw–before we can grow hay. So even though our livestock are thriving now despite all the snow and ice, I don’t think they’d adapt well to eating things like lichen and tree bark.
Our heating routine inside the house also is disrupted when temperatures climb. We don’t need a fire all day in the wood stove. Between the sun coming through the windows and the stove, it gets too hot. We only burn wood part of the time. But we had to buy space heaters to control the temperature.
March 25 and it’s 8 degrees outside.
Oh well, we’ll just have to cope with spring eventually and leave winter for another day. Bring it on.
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