Good Morning! The crazy weather continues.......it is 40 degrees outside and 40 mph wind gusts expected then freezing rain. At least I am not doing nearly as much shoveling as last winter. Have started a bunch of lettuce and herb plugs. Sproutin nicely, now to see if I can harden them off and transistion them into my winter greenhouses.  They are cold hardy so we will see how cold hardy....The chickens have been under serious assult early on this winter. Light snow amounts usually mean a fair amount of food out there for the critters. After the mink incident last week I wandered outside to round up a stray chicken. It would not go into the coop. So after chasing it down and carrying it to the coop and tossing it in......I look up just in time to see a huge Gosh Hawk fly 6 inches from my head to get out of the coop, another layer gone and a huge pile of feathers. Then the stinker was back out there again the next morning perched in the tree line waiting for another meal.  So in the last month I have lost 3 hens to a fox, mink, and Gosh Hawk.  Starting to do some tractor shopping. I turned 45 this Saturday and it's time to give my body a break and start working more from the neck up than the neck down.....I will keep you posted.