V I L L A G E S I D E F A R M: Shovelling Acres

Usually we refer to the +/- 4 acres of crops that we plant and cultivate and harvest but this winter we are into acres of snow removal. Prentice and the Ford plowtruck have kept the driveway passable with dozens and dozens of trips to and fro. I am not counting that in the snow removal calculations, however.

The only building on the place when we bought it in 2001 was a delapidated pole barn south of where our house sits now. At that time, we were happy to have a place to shelter and milk our small herd of cattle and to stash all of Prentice's wood collection (he was a cabinet maker before farming full-time, remember. . .) Well that 40x 60 pole barn is still delapidated. You might say more delapidated now than ever, despite some minor improvements for the cows' quarters. . . and with all this snow, and hearing of collapsed barns around, Prentice set to shovelling it off. It took him several hours over a couple of days. The roof was "spongy" underfoot (Uh-oh).

Then there are the hoophouses. We have both been somewhat maniacally shovelling up and down all sides of the tomato house and heated greenhouse lest the snow builds up above the hipboards = about shoulder height boards that anchor the plastic and form the top of the roll up sides. Yikes. So far (knock on wood) all is well but he have seen and heard of collapsed (hoop) houses and it makes a farmer want to cry.

We long ago stopped shovelling to the chicken tractor, outdoor water hydrant, even the cellar door has been turned over to King Winter's drifts. We do have the all-important snowforts however, and a path from the driveway to the front door. Shovel-shovel.

A few weeks ago Josey realized that he could climb up three graduated lumber piles then the old green house roof to arrive at the top of a fairly steep slope and the peak of the garage/shop building. Sledding has never been such a thrill. This week he has been jumping off the roof as well. Weeee!