Missing milk and eggs

January and February are the "lean times." The two commodities we love and work for most, eggs and milk, (those are ours in the picture) are in shortest supply. It is really hard to spend good money at the store for products that pale in comparison to the farm fresh ones. We have been without the goats' milk for a month now. I suppose no one misses it more than our young beef calf. It is cold and the chickens are cutting their work days- severely. There are plenty for us but our co-workers and friends are feeling left out. November, our turkey, is really faithful in her laying. Never mind the fact that you need a chisel and hammer to get through the shells. I think she is just glad to have made it safely through Thanksgiving. She is safe. Any turkey that can sit and sleep in my arms shall not be eaten. She is so ugly she's cute. Besides, she is the only survivor of eight that I started with. I'm not so good at turkeys. I'm gonna try again this year.

We are expecting record cold this next few days. I don't do cold. I resent the water freezing. I resent the incarceration of clothing required. I resent the color brown. I am a barefoot Florida girl. Darn good thing I didn't move any farther north. I read the farm journals of a woman who farms one hundred twenty five head of sheep in Connecticut-alone. She has been doing this for twenty five years. Her stone house registers twenty to forty degree temperatures inside. This is what happens in the colder climates. You freeze, you lose your cognitive abilities, and you don't have sense to do what rational and thawed people would do -pack and move south at the first sign of spring.

Anyway, the temperatures should make the processing of the meat birds interesting tomorrow. To the right they are pictured as chicks. Even then (note feeder and chick traffic jam) their soul existence was about eating and pooping. If you step in their containment they will happily remove your leg hairs and any incidental skin that they can get. I know I sound callous, but this is the opinion of every family member, they will not be missed. They are eating their last fifty pound bag of food today. Woohoot!!!! Tonight we are to remove their feed and leave them with water only. If there is no governor's stay in the a.m.... the undertaker cometh. It's roast chicken and veggies tomorrow evening, mmmm. I think I'll bake up some Parker House rolls to celebrate.