No, We Were Not Ready for Winter!

Last week I waxed poetic about being ready for winter. Ha! It’s so easy to delude yourself. And even quicker to discover the truth. The snow and cold weather that arrived a couple days ago reminded us that we’d forgotten to do a few things. So we’ve been busy. 
 
Lisa used her tractor to remove the pile of manure from under the ramp. We should now have enough space for all the manure coming out of the barn this winter. I dug a shallow drainage ditch to divert water, which bubbles out of a small spring every winter, from flooding the driveway. It seems to be working so maybe this winter we won’t have a sheet of ice covering the parking area. I also put the barn windows back in, which will keep the snow and blustery wind out of the barn (next time). And we hooked up the small heater in the walk-in cooler. This time of year, the challenge is not to keep products cool, but to keep them from freezing. The walk-in was 32 degrees one morning when I went to fetch some broccoli, which is too cold. And while not really a get-ready-for-winter task, we also finished remodeling a section of stanchions in the barn. We now have room for an additional six cows -which we need. 
 
So I’m not going to say that we’re now ready for winter, only that we are more ready.