Reusing Fall/Halloween Decorations for The Farm

Hi all! It is November now and time for us to begin taking down some of our fall/Halloween decorations. I decided it was time to move our straw bales out of the front yard since 2 out of 3 were beginning to grow grass. Eeeek! Not so cute when that happens. Our jack o'lanterns were sunken in and rotten and our scarecrow had a moldy butt. Time to go!

I decided that we could use the rotten pumpkins in the compost pile, so in they went. I got a twisted sort of glee tossing them in and watching them splatter. Probably good for relieving stress! Just keep your mouth closed to avoid yucky pumpkin gloop.

The 2 grassy straw bales presented a bit of a problem since the twine had rotted and split immediately upon use. So, unfortunately I had the task of picking them up in 2-3 large (wet, stinky) clumps. I toted them to the garden where I split them up into flakes (where they naturally divide into sections upon splitting apart) and tossed them in all around. These will (and already have begun to be) split up further by our curious, yard roaming flock of chickens. This will break down somewhat during winter and will be tilled into the soil in the spring. Hopefully helping to create a straw "mulch" that will slowly breakdown in the soil, keeping things moist and amending it little by little. *Fingers crossed*

Some straw in the garden before and after the chickens flattened it out.

The bale of straw that was still wet, but not rotten was used in the chicken run. It was too wet to be used in the confinement of the coop, but I thought it would provide some entertainment, bedding, bugs, and grains for them. I split it up into flakes and tossed it sporadically throughout the run and left the rest up to the birds. Within no time their curiosity was piqued and they had it spread out beautifully.

One more chore marked off our winter prep to-do list. I'd love to hear how you reuse/recycle your fall/Halloween decorations! Good luck with your winter prep. I know we need the luck!

Thanks for reading!

Stocked Up On Hay

Hi all! Fall is upon us. Our trees here in Southern Ohio are covered in beautiful shades of red, orange, yellow, green, and brown. It is quite a sight to behold, and fall is my favorite season. I love the way the leaves smell and the smell in the air. I love the "crunch" of dry leaves under foot. I love the fanfare of Halloween. I love apple cider, hooded sweatshirts, pumpkin flavored food and drinks, Indian corn, fall foliage, and the sound of leaves rustling in trees during a light breeze. Ahhhh... I told you it was my favorite!

Unfortunately, we all know that fall is also the harbinger of winter. We all know that once the splendor of fall is over, Jack Frost will be nipping at our noses. For procrastinators like me, fall also means that you're quickly running out of time to make those oh so important winter preparations.

I'm also the type that tends to put the cart before the horse. It doesn't make sense and it usually results in hurried preparation (I do not recommend this behavior, but I'm thinking it's more of a disease for me! :D ), but all the same it is what it is. This "illness" caused me to buy some very cute little goats without much forethought into winter prep. Heck it was spring when we brought these guys home, so winter was quickly becoming a bad dream. Well, uh-hmm, it's a reality now. And as vampires say, reality bites.

Among the many activities we must partake in to prepare for winter, is buying and storing hay for our goats. Like most ruminants, the goat requires daily hay in its diet. This is partly for nutrition, but mostly for fiber/roughage to aid in digestion.

Our two goats consume roughly one bale of hay every 2 weeks. Sometimes they will eat one in one week. Keep in mind my goats are small. At any rate, it is an essential part of their diet and it is important to try to stock up on hay when feeding any hay eating animal during cold weather months. For this time around we purchased 20 bales of hay.  It is a timothy, clover, orchard grass mix. It smells so nice and it still has plenty of nice green pieces in it. We are hoping this will get us through until people begin cutting hay again next year. We may buy 5-10 more in December based on our useage rate of our current stockpile. This hay is a bit loosely baled compared to what we normally get, which may mean we will go through it faster.

We have it stored in our garage right now (which is less than ideal because hay is messy!), but we are hoping to get it better situated once we complete a barn. (Ha ha)

At any rate, wish us luck this winter! We'll do the same for you! Thanks for reading!