Connie of Urban Overalls shared what it takes to keep homesteading alive during the cooler months of the year.
Growing up on a farm in Iowa, I have vivid memories of my hard-working dad. He was up every morning to milk the cow, then tending to the rest of the livestock, and finally…the rest of the chores in order of importance. This cycle repeated itself every day. It didn’t matter if it was early summer or the dead of winter. He was outside working from dawn till dusk.
As an urban-dwelling adult, I have settled into my own routine. You see, I live on an urban homestead. Now while my acreage is significantly less than what my dad tended to, there is still plenty of work to be done…even in winter.
Now while we don’t have a cow, there is livestock to deal with. For us, that means backyard chickens. Every morning, we take out fresh water, feed them their morning scratch and layer mash. We also check the nest boxes for eggs just in case there is an early layer. Repeat checking for eggs in the afternoon. (This prevents missing any eggs for a late layer that may freeze overnight.) If the weather forecast calls for temperatures in the teens or colder, the heat lamp is set up (safely and securely). Once dusk arrives, that means one more trip to the chicken house. This time, it is to shut the doors on the coop so all the chickens are inside for the evening. Then once a week, the nest boxes as well as the straw on the floor of the coop are cleaned out and replaced with clean straw. Sanitation is still important during the winter.
Tying into chicken chores is our compost system. During the winter months, we continue to add dirty straw from the coop as well as add vegetative kitchen scraps. On warmer days, the compost piles are turned to help promote the break down of organic material into compost. Then when spring rolls around- continue here…….
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