The Shit Show at Big Ash Farm

The sparkle of the long holiday season has once again faded into a fond memory, and we are once again faced with at least three more months of cold dark weather here on the farm. Not that I don’t enjoy the quietude of the winter months, as well as the cooler temperatures; however, even I must admit that it can be a bit boring by comparison to the summer months. A bit routine, bland even. A season of feeding new life as it grows deep down in the earth, or in our case, in the bodies of some very chubby goats. The trouble with this stage of budding new life is that it doesn’t really involve anything entertaining. No flower buds, no shoots of soft green grass, no fluffy baby goats leaping around the meadows. Just snow that has lost its’ fresh luster, muddied and bleak with road salt, and fat grouchy goats, arguing endlessly over who might be getting the most grain. But hark! A bright spot, a glimmer of hope, a few days of warmer weather! THE JANUARY THAW. A week of sunshine and mud. Just enough time to clean the chicken coop and start building a new pig pen. Just enough warmth to convince yourself that the woodpile will definitely last for the rest of winter. Just enough of a glimmer of hope to start flipping through the seed catalogs and buying potting soil. Most importantly, it gives just enough hope that you will invariably, as any good homesteader would, take yourself off to the local livestock auction in search of some variety of baby animal to buy, that it might carry you through until your own goats decide to release their hostages. It happens every year at Big Ash. Maybe a piglet to raise for meat. Perhaps a calf, a bottle lamb or two, even a few baby goats that we can resell in the Spring. Some years it’s ducklings or chicks that have to live in the basement for months. Last year it was goslings, amounting eventually to an entire flock, now honking around the poultry yard, refusing steadfastly to live in any sort of housing. In our hearts we know that it’s false hope. That spring is months away at best, that we will need to buy at least one more round of firewood, that we will be feeding baby animals in blizzards before this is over. But even false hope is still hope. Because even in the long dark months there is still new life, and where there is life there is always hope. So my friends and followers of The Shit Show, sponsored exclusively by Big Ash Farm, keep on keepin’ on, and hold tight to hope.