In The Meadow We Will Build A Rainman?

To date, this has been the most unusual winter of my life.

As far as the record books go, it has been the warmest.

It's nice to not have to suffer the polar vortices that beat down upon us the past two years...

especially in the morning, when heading out by the light of the moon.

Along with these warmer temperatures has come tons of rain.

I can't even imagine how this amount of rain would translate into snow if it were colder!

For this we are lucky... although I have to admit I am getting a little tired of 

trudging through the mud.

But here we are in the midst of winter...

and winter is all about trudging...

at least here in Central PA.

I cannot complain however...
as many in our country are suffering with horrendous winter storms this week.

One upside of the warmer rainy weather is the life that remains in the garden.

Swiss chard has made a comeback...

and kale continues to produce...

new lettuce has emerged from Summer's leftover seed...

and the herb garden is bursting with rosemary, thyme, sage, and parsley...

not to mention a ton of Sorrel that remains green.

Have you ever tried sorrel?

It's quite delicious and I would highly recommend adding it to your herb garden.

It grows leaves that are similar to spinach, although lighter green in color.

It has a sour flavor often described as lemony or that of green apple candy.

It can be added to salads and soups, or sautéed with vegetables.

I sauté it with onion and butter and serve it over salmon....yummy!

The downside of the extra rain is the extra work.
With so much time spent seeking shelter,
the animals' houses need to be cleaned more often.

I spent an hour yesterday morning cleaning the sheep houses.

Sheep have a habit of eliminating while they are laying down...
and so their houses get foul quickly when they are spending time indoors.

I cleaned out all of the soiled hay and replaced it with fresh clean pine shavings.

Then I added a flake of hay to each house for nighttime munching.

I had a curious audience for most of the work.

Once fresh hay was loaded in the feeder, they were no longer interested in what I was doing.

As for the chickens...
their houses also take a beating during rain storms,
so frequent cleaning is necessary as well.

These girls are keeping egg production up in spite of it being winter....
three dozen eggs/day is their average right now.

My what dirty eggs!  Don't worry, they get cleaned up and repackaged.

I owe this to the lights that come on in their houses from 5 PM til 9 PM...
extending their daylight hours.
Every winter, reliably, this practice prevents decreased egg production.
In fact, my hens lay better in the winter than they do in the heat of summer!