What does a Farmer do in January?

On this chilly January night (< -30*c), you may think to yourself, its so cold, a farmer can't possibly be doing much but cozying up in a comfy chair next to a fire with a warm cup of tea.

Well to tell you the truth, that's exactly what I'm doing, but at the same time, I'm researching on the computer many different things, from trends in the food industry, political and social issues in agriculture and general current events that might affect  us on the farm.  A few other themes I am focusing on right now are vegetable zero-minimum tillage practices, and a particular project of late has been planning out the field plan and planting space required for harvest yields to meet our CSA and market customers' needs.

Some of the global, national, and local current events that I think people should be concerned with (I'll post some links for each issue), I'll try and limit my concerns to food and agriculture issues (try):

• GE Salmon-Aquabounty's Frankenfish
  http://goo.gl/vzHbb
  http://goo.gl/wrnZU
  http://goo.gl/01gj1
• USA 2012 drought causing food prices to increase
  http://goo.gl/mlX3Z
  http://goo.gl/w7D6D
• GMOs in general, more studies showing how toxic they are
  http://goo.gl/r7aPi
  http://goo.gl/j6ptk
• Insecticides that are harming the bee population
  http://goo.gl/MviFi
• QuinWhat...Quinoa, yah I already posted on it, but here's another article
  http://goo.gl/H8xfO

I will be placing our first seed order of the year in the next couple of days, focusing on our early starts, like onions, leeks, rosemary, parsley, and brassicas.  I am also looking at ordering asparagus crowns so that we can provide at least some asparagus for the market this year, more for next and even more after about 2 years!

These are all things I generally do in the morning over a cup of tea and some breakfast, or in the evening under the lamp, during the day I have been mixing feed (today was overly joyful with the windchill warning), collecting wood to heat the house, cleaning up around the yard to get ready for the move up to Adam and Dacia's.  Helping Adam with chicken chores when we're up there, pooring feed, filling water, collecting eggs, spreading bedding, and mucking out the barn every few weeks; not to mention hovering over the chicks to make sure they're doing alright!  Soon added to that list will be starting plants in the window, and then moved into the greenhouse closer to March.

As of late chasing cute little never-before-seen (by me or Ashley) has taken up some time.  First we had a Northern flying squirrel come down the stove pipe and into the wood stove (luckily for it, the fire had gone out) and then chasing it around is glided around the kitchen!  And now in the last two days we've been chasing a little ermine around the pantry as it tries to take our eggs down a sewer pipe hole!

Anyhow it will be February soon and the title won't do, so now I have to get my curling stuff ready to go curling on the weekend!