Enjoy this Essex Farm Note from Kristin Kimball at Essex Farm, in Essex, NY!

Real cold this week for the first time in two years. The thermometer at the house read negative 8 just before dawn yesterday morning. I kept the woodstove jacked all day on dry split wood. I don’t know if I will always love winter but I know I do now. Especially these clear frozen nights, with shards of moonlight, chips of starlight, glinting off fresh snow. Hooray for the frost free waterers serving all the cattle and the horses. I’m happy to report they worked. The only real difficulty was the pulsators for the milking machines, which froze during yesterday’s milking. Amy heated up first-aid gel packs and laid them on top of the pulsators and that got her through it. Speaking of heat, Amy is off on a trip to Thailand next week, so Kelsie will be distribution coordinator in her absence. Happy travels, Amy!

The dairy cows had a rousing New Year’s Eve. They broke out of the covered barnyard through a weak gate and caroused all over the farm. We found tracks in every part of the barnyard, and at the house, where they explored our woodshed. By dawn, though, they’d had enough of the fast lane, and put themselves back into the covered barnyard, where Amy found them, chewing their cud… (Continue reading Kristin Kimball’s Essex Farm Note)