Well, the snow squalls have subsided for now. Winter has finally settled in. After finishing the morning chores, we're sitting in the sunroom, watching the birds congregate at the feeder, and reflecting on the past year while looking forward to the year ahead.
With good weather over the holidays, we were fortunate to have many guests at the farm. Of course that meant lots of good food and conversation. As the holidays wore on we became more anxious since our pigs were due at the end of December. December 31st was cold and wet and still no babies but, New Year's Day we welcomed Maggie's litter and 3 days later Nellie had hers. Mothers and babies are doing great. A good start to 2019.
We are starting the year off as a registered farm. It's been a while in the works but we have finally made it through all the steps - having our property reclassified as farm land, getting our farm tax exemption, and finally having enough farm sales to be a registered business. Our property is all set up with a barn, extra shelters, fencing, pond, a farm store, garden, orchard, and of course an assortment of livestock. Farm sales continued right up to the last day of 2018 and we now have regular customers and more people are interested all the time.
There is much to look forward to this year. We will have a couple more litters of pigs and lambs will be arriving this spring in time for Easter. Our seeds have been ordered (including some new heirloom varieties) for our vegetable garden and soon our sunroom will become our greenhouse. We will have more products to add including fresh lamb, meat chickens, and turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also, we now have a Lifestyle section on our web site which will include recipes, gardening ideas, and more.
Right now, we're looking forward to enjoying the winter by snowshoeing, baking bread, trying new recipes, reading, painting, brewing beer, and just slowing down a bit. Already 2019 is looking pretty great.
