Week of 12/15/24

This week on Monday the weather was warm, cloudy, and foggy with some light rain around noon. I put a couple of gator loads of wood by the maple syrup cook shed in the morning. In the afternoon Ted and Tayden came and I helped them work the calves here on this farm.

Tuesday stayed warm with a high of 37 and it started out sunny but was cloudy by noon. After chores and filling the bale feeder on the ridge, Ruth and I went to the apple orchard at Gays Mills. They were having their Christmas sale that went as each box you buy you would get the second one free. So we got a couple bushel that Ruth will cut and freeze and use for her pies as needed. On the way back we stopped in Boscobel and had lunch. We then went to the Paisley Star where we scheduled a book signing for February 1st 2025, on a Saturday from 10:30 to 3:00. When I got home I bedded the calf barn.

On Wednesday it was a more normal day with a high of 30 with some sun early them clouds. It was a good day to work in the woods. So after chores I went to cutting wood most of the day.

Thursday was a snowy day, we got a light snow that started early in the morning. I started splitting the wood I had cut yesterday and by noon I had 2 gator loads split and put in the barn. I took a nap after lunch. At 3 I went out and shoveled the sidewalk off. There was 5 inched on it by then. I then called it a day.

Friday winter was back, I woke up to a chilly 5 degrees, however it was a bright sunny day without and wind; not bad at all. I had a doctors appointment in Muscoda in the morning. In the afternoon I cleaned up the snow around the farm with the skid steer.

Saturday was the first day of winter. It came in very cold with a low of -9 degrees. But again, like Friday, it was sunny with no wind. So, after chores, I went out to the woods and cut wood until noon. I rested up in the afternoon in the evening and went to the Krause and Moneypenny Christmas gathering at Scot and Tammy’s in the big machine shed on their farm.

Sunday was a warmer day with a high of 31, the snow will settle some. A few birds coming to the feeder now but no cardinals yet. Seen some deer tracks since the snow but nothing like a few years ago. Some hinters are finding dead deer with swollen tongues and look like they had starved to death. Is there another new disease out there killing them? I know on my farm there is only one doe with her two fawns whereas 10 years ago there would be around a dozen.

-Helmuth R. Krause