Earth stood hard as iron .......

......... water like a stone.   Familiar lyrics from "In the Deep Midwinter, " and very descriptive of the conditions here, only it isn't even winter yet, much less 'mid.'   We had a couple of inches of snow here last weekend that are still hanging on, because it's so coooooold! 

Not much farming goes on at an urban farm in the winter.   I still haul bunny poo out - 5 gallon buckets at a time - and dump it on the garden, but I quit composting when it started getting so cold.  I know it should still be able to 'cook,' in the winter, but mine is such a haphazard pile, I doubted it would do that for me. 

I've upped my diligence about filling the bird feeder - and don't mind other critters that share in the dropped seed.  Last winter I saw definite wild bunny tracks going from heap to heap of bunny poo - checking it out.

Abigail is still broody, the Angora bunnies are about halfway through a coat-growing cycle, the Mini Rexs are molting, and the cats are practically hibernating.   Not much going on here - farm wise.    I went to Versailles after work one day this week to pick up chicken feed, and there inside the door was a huge, black, stove (coal? wood?) giving off lovely rays of heat - just the thing when walking in from the cold.  The hiss of the stove, the homely smells of the feed, the people in coveralls coming in and out.......why do I live in the city?

I made another score at the auction last week - that as usual I did not plan to go to - a lovely old piece of transferware: 

I had said in another post that I would like to find another piece or two of brown transferware, and even though this is a LOT more elaborate in design than what I really like - it was mine for a low bid.  A blogger who seems expert in this area was nice enough to tell me the pattern when I e-mailed her.   The really exciting part is she is sure it was manufactured between 1826-40.  I don't have to have old things, and I'm usually just has happy with reproductions and Home Goods ware, but the history-lover in me was impressed with the age of this.

Lastly, thank you to Michelle , who surprised me yesterday with a package of some samples of her Shetland fiber, because I said that was one breed I had never spun.  The samples are luscious, and I can hardly wait to get to them.  I may even pull out a spindle for the occasion.   I keep telling Michelle I wish someone in this area would get into Shetlands for fine fiber, and now that I've felt her Shetland roving, I'd like that even more.

Until next time from Wren Cottage ..........