What will the new year bring the farming community? Cattle, calf and milk prices are horrible here in my area. I wonder how many barns will be empty by the end of 2020? It is a very sobering thought.

If you feel the need to rehash the last couple of months, we were here......

The thread "Farming November 2018........??" in Farming forum

We have a little snow on the ground; it came a couple days ago after we had about 2 days of rain. Luckily, the roads are not slippery.

I am glad I don't have to work out in that any more. The worst I have to do is go up to the old greenhouse building and feed the 3 cats every day. I moved them up there in early November. It is 1800 square feet, they have baskets with pillows and old blankets in them and when the sun shines it is nice and warm up there. We also took up the cat tree that was in the barn. The barn would have been very cold for the kitties with no other animals like cattle to help keep it warm. They are safe where they are; I won't let them out again till spring. They get a couple spoonsful of moist food, a dish with dry food, and their pan of water. I also have 2 big litter boxes up there, but one of them seems to be able to scratch around and find some dirt, enough that she thinks she can do her #2. Grrrr...........but at least there are no plants up there for them to mess in. I covered all my big pots that have extra dirt in them so they can't get into those.

No snow here - thank goodness! But lots and lots of rain. The farm has never been this wet before. Normally we can drive a truck through any of the pastures as the ground is sandy and stays quite solid, not now. I nearly got stuck in the driveway going down to the barn. I did profit from the slop in one way; an area of fence needed repair and it was super easy to drive the needed T posts. I could even push them in the first four inches by hand! The worst consequence of the wet is that several of the racehorse pensioners have developed hoof abscesses which require soaking and poulticing every couple of days. Fortunately they are all mannerly and accustomed to a lot of handling and thus cooperate well. No foot rot among the cows - yet...

I was thinking not much happens in January but I guess I am wrong as the cows always have to be milked.

- and fed, and calves are being born, and fences fixed and, and, and...

Our goats started to kid this last week we have 8 kids on the ground.All in good health, I think there two more to go now and the rest will come Feb and into spring . Been great weather
Need to work on some fence this afternoon . the high today forecast is 65 20+ over the average We closed down the rabbit barn sold the last of the heard Saturday and will have the electric turn the 18th of the month

If you have time, please share some photos of the new kids!

Hi Dave!! Miss seeing you around!

Not much happens in my part of the world in the winter except for everybody feeding cattle (beef, no dairy). A few ranches have some early calves. Winter wheat is in the ground and has not shown anything above ground yet. My garlic is busy growing roots, and won't come up until the middle of March. Hopefully the pocket gophers won't eat too many of them. The ground is frozen but fall root growth plus a layer of straw mulch keeps the garlic cloves from being heaved out of the ground. I've started some seeds in the greenhouse just to have a few fresh greens for salads, and also have planted onion seeds. We have had a mild winter, not much snow, no below 0 temperature, no big windstorms. The jet stream has sent a lot of moisture north and south of us. The weather guys are calling it a weak El Nino. (Spell check says that is wrong, I don't care). Hubby has the snow blower hooked up and hasn't used it yet. The most snow we have had on the ground at one time was about 6 inches.

Dave. yes, pictures please. What kind of goats? The kids are a lot of fun to watch.

Anna, are you still overwintering house and patio plants for other people?

Mary, no, I am not overwintering plants any more. That is why my stuff is down in the truck garage at home......with not much sun. I just hope I don't lose half my plants. I think I have lost ay least a half a dozen from what I saw when we were home for Christmas,

Aw, darn. I'd hoped you'd be able to winter over your plants even though you were in Texas.

Well, they are being wintered over, just without the proper amount of sun. Heat is in the building but.......I will see how things look in 3 more months.

If you have heat, they should end up ok. Lack of light hurts, but they won't die. Good luck with having them be ok when you get back from Texas.

Losing leaves, etc. I know that was to be expected. And amother plus is they don't take much water. The stephanotis looked horrible at Cjristmas.....I sure hope that one did not croak. It has been just gorgeous during the last 4 summers.

I know the brugs will be ok. The ferns look pretty crappy. I did cut all the ferns' growth off.

I cut my Brugs back constantly. They get way too big, and full of bugs. :(
I love stephanotis, but haven't ever tried growing it. That was my 'Wedding bouquet flower.

Anna, are you one of those sunbirds now? North in the summer, south in the winter? Living in luxury in your big trailer? Catch me up, please.

Winter is still deciding here. This weekend we might get a storm. So far we only have bone chilling wind.

Mary, the people that winter here do not like to be called snowbirds, we were told. The term is Winter Texan.

Wel, I don't know if this is the lap of luxury, but it is pretty good, even tho the temp yesterday was 88 and it was 48 for a high today. This was definitely the year to head south. We came down just after Thanksgiving, came home for
Christmas and were back here January 8th. Tentatively we will leave jere April 1st, depending on the weather back in Wisconsin at that time.

Yesterday it rained here for the first time this year. The sheep are looking dirty because they have been scratching themselves on the remains of the bonfire we had before Christmas. Our apples are a month away from being ripe but that doesn't stop the birds from picking the fruit at the top and dropping in on the grass for the wallabies to eat. Our annual agricultural show, which is like your county fair, is on this Saturday so the village is busy making their livestock pretty and fussing over their vegetables to enter in the different show categories. I only have two entries this year but I am still hopeful I can at least get a third place with one of them.

Lola, what are you entering in your local fair??

Nothing interesting, just some flowers and a craft item. My late father used to tease me about the show because as a teenager I thought it was the lamest thing ever. It was just old women baking cakes and knitting, and men with sheepdogs and cows. He went through the competition booklet and said, "Look, you can win 50 cents for the prettiest coathanger" and I rolled my eyes at him. Fast forward 40 years and I have entered a coathanger in the show in his memory. The title of that particular contest has been changed to 'covered coathanger' and the prize money has gone up to $3, but I really want to win this particularly lame contest.

Your apples are beautiful. What kind are they?