After the flurry of vegetable and fruit harvesting, canning, and fall garden clean-up, it’s been nice to slow down and just enjoy the farm these last few weeks. I’ve finally managed to find the time to sit and read or just gaze out the window at the beautiful surroundings while enjoying a roaring fire in the woodstove. After finishing up the morning chores of cleaning the chicken coop and replenishing the feeders and waterers and getting in some snuggle time with the Sweet Peas and Squeaky, these rainy fall days are also good for reflecting on all we’ve accomplished over the past year. We started work on the vegetable garden back in January with chainsawin’ and stumpgrindin’, followed by berry planting, building raised beds, and cool season vegetable planting. Mid-march was a highpoint of the year with the arrival of the 25 chicks for the farm. You can see the varieties of chickens we got for the farm in the chick order is in. From March to April, chicken coop building was the big priority. The veggie garden was fully planted by May, and the slug wars began in June, followed by the deer ravaging the strawberry patch in July, so it was time to put the electric fence around the garden into action. In July, our two overly frisky banty roosters, Henry and Lil’ Red Rooster were moved to their separate bachelor quarters. Sadly, we lost one chicken this year, one of the 5R Farm namesakes, Ruby, but we were fortunate in being able to successfully nurse one of my favorite new girls, Sweet Pea, back to health from a potentially fatal condition. By September we had a very full hen house with all 25 hens laying eggs. Not long after that the summer vegetables were going gangbusters, and I began putting food by in every spare moment. As you can see we accomplished a lot in 2012, and the to do list has gotten quite short. Luckily, there will be lots of rainy days for me to daydream and plan for what’s to come in 2013.