Amazing how the weeks have flown by since the last ‘Friday on the Backyard Farm’ post which was December 11! We have had Christmas and New Year Day on Fridays and because of that I just decided to skip, plus too much going on getting ready for Christmas and then the transition to the new year!

All the plants in the green house are dead! We’ve had some really cold days and even colder nights.

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Yikes this picture does no justice to how the plants look! It’s super blurry here but on my phone it’s clear. 🤔 However, I think you still get the picture! I’m going to have to clear all these plants out. I’m wondering if some of the pepper plants will come back next year. I need to do more research on it.

My plan for this winter is to read about fruit trees and gardening. I am reading the book ‘Gardening for Dummies’. It’s not too interesting so I’ll probably look for something else! If you know of any interesting books for gardening please comment below!

We have had so much rain that the coops and pens have puddles and are muddy! Yikes! Thankfully I bought myself a new pair of boots last month! My other boots were literally falling apart.

Our egg supply has drastically decreased. The ducks haven’t laid any eggs for several months. This however seems normal for ducks.

We don’t have any heat lamps in the coops. Some people put lamps in there to help with egg production but we just allow them to rest. I haven’t done research into it but some claim heat lamps help chickens to produce eggs in winter. Others say that it’s just the light that will help hens to produce eggs since daylight is shorter in winter.

I believe one reason that chickens roost is because they are able to lay their body onto their feet. Their feet are very warm! I had read before that their body temperature is higher than a human’s. In fact a lot of animals are. Pretty interesting, huh?

While we are talking about temperature, the ducks have a grand time in 30 degree weather splashing in the pool and puddles. I couldn’t image swimming in cold waters but they do!

I plan to go over my planner this weekend and try to set up some organization to get posts and videos out. Thanks so much for reading! Have a great weekend! 😊