Winter, are we ready for this?

YES I THINK SO!!!! YAY!!!

After all the stresses with Papa's back and him being flat on his back for a couple of weeks we have really been working hard at getting our winter 'to do' list done!! Now that Papa is on the mend and able to sit again we've really chopped that list into manageable bits and trashed them :) Today we are doing a bit of window plastic and sealing the old door on the trailer and cleaning up some hoses so we can find them again before spring but pretty much everything else on the list is FINISHED!!! Oh wait the calves do need to go to the neighbors yet but not just yet :)

SO
~ The chickens have a sealed winter house with a light and a pen made from panels, with straw for bedding. They will need more straw for bedding over the winter.

~ The cow has water, hay (covered) and her winter pen set up. The milk machine is covered with a tarp and heated :) She has a sheltered spot Papa made with some of the large straw bales. She also recently got AI'd to a jersey bull and will hopefully calve in 9 months :)

~The addition is plumbed and sealed and the water is ready for winter :) The milk sink got TAPS and the hose is no longer in the house.

~The two extra pigs we had here for the summer are butchered.

~The skirting on the trailer is fixed of holes and sealed up :) The water tank is closed up and has a light. The heat tapes that keep our water running all winter are plugged in and working :)

~ The pigs have the rest of the old large straw barn that Papa and I dismantled and are totally enjoying digging through the straw. They also have a barn filled with straw. Their water is ready for winter as well :) Papa had to make them a step so they could get at it :)

~Chip and the cat have a bed under the front porch :) It's cute how they share it. The cat gets days and Chip nights :)

~Both the car and the Travelall have winter tires :) I do need to put together our 'emergency pack' for trips in the winter : granola bars, candles, blankets, and other things to keep us warm if we do end up waiting in the cold or anything like that.

~The kids outside toys are safe in the bus :)

~Each of the kids have hats, jackets, snow pants, gloves and everything else they need for winter. Actually they each have work and town jackets and gloves :) As farming is dirty work :) Though the boys boots from last year need replacing we found out Saturday which means a trip to the 'city' soon.

~We have a nice row of FOUR dump truck loads of firewood and I believe 5 or 6 pickup bed loads of poplar firewood all under a large white tarp that makes it look like we've got a pile of snow beside the house!!

~The kids are DONE their term 1 school stuff and it's going to town with Papa today to be sent away to their teacher :)

~We PURGED the house and took SEVERAL boxes and bags out of here of tools, summer/out grown clothes OUT to the floor or the shed :) Boy does that feel nice :)

~Papa went through the trailer and sealed and cleaned all the vents and we are hoping this will enable us to run the furnace in the trailer on fan which pulls heat out of the house *wood heat* to heat the under side of the trailer and the back bathroom which has freezing problems. We sealed all of the vents except the back bathroom two, which will have filters over them,  so that NO dust can come up EVER and irritate E's asthma.

~The skid steer is ready to plow and we have extra ether and fuel waiting for those plowing days.

~Part of our getting ready for winter was also getting ready for Baby G :) Her bed is set up, carseat and diaper bags are ready to go, blanket finished, and baby book bought. Clothes are washed and placed in drawers. Diapers in TINY sizes bought and the camera has fresh batteries :) Baby sitters are set up and clothes for the older kids packed just in case, now we're just waiting on her arrival.

Winters in the North are LONG and COLD and we do our best to prepare for them the best we can. After several years of 'OH NO we forgot ____!!!!" Papa and I really hoping to get everything covered this year.
 So help us out.. WHAT ARE WE FORGETTING??!?!?!? 

We do have pigs for sale :) They are no longer weaners and I believe at their size they are considered 'growers.' We have a bunch to get rid of yet so if you know anyone who wants some nice sized pigs PLEASE tell them about ours :)