Hibernation Season
Le feu doit être alimenté toute la nuit quand il fait si froid.
As the flames in the fireplace roar back to life, I shiver and huddle closer to its warmth. It is after midnight and the farm is currently gripped in the coldest nights of the year so stoking and refilling the fireplace is essential to keep us warm. Evening chores took longer than normal last night as we brought fresh straw to each group of pigs, made sure the cows had extra hay and collected any wayward eggs before they froze. With the winter solstice behind us, hibernation season is in full swing and this weary farmer is reveling in rest.
For those who don’t know, I was a high school teacher before becoming a farmer. I had always wanted to be a teacher- one of my earliest memories was forcing my brother to be a student in my makeshift schoolroom. I have a deep affinity for office supplies–nothing gets me geared up for the New Year more than a new agenda, some fine tip marker pens and a fresh pad of Post-it notes. I loved teaching high school and I poured myself into it and when the work got tough (as teaching invariably does), I would cling to the reminder that I got 7 weeks off in the summer.
I would dream of all the sleeping I would do, of the relaxing moments floating in a pool, of the luxurious hours with nothing to do but read my stack of ignored novels. The minute the final bell rang signaling the start of summer, I was giddy. I was going to relax, and relax HARD. The bliss would only last for about 6-8 days before I found myself getting antsy, though. The early morning sun beckoned me from my bed, the heat felt good on my skin and I found myself soaking it up outside, and the lingering daylight hours coaxed me to stay out past my bedtime. Before I knew it, my summer days were packed with camping trips, boat excursions with friends, and late-night bonfires. The end of August would roll around and although I always felt invigorated for a new school year, it never lasted long and I would tumble back into feeling tired, stressed and counting down the days till summer.
I see now that I was conditioned to count on summer as the recovery period for my year but I kept returning to school depleted because it is hard to embrace restorative rest when the earth is at its peak. It feels unnatural to slow down, to rest, to reflect when nature is at its most expansive.
I have said it before and I will say it again- the biggest shift we have embraced since moving to the farm is following nature’s rhythms throughout the year. Instead of forcing unnatural rest during the energetic summer, we lean hard into the long daylight hours and squeeze every last bit out of the dog days of summer. It is normal to see us up before the sun and still working until long past twilight. But as those leaves begin to change colors and the sun gets lower and lower on the horizon, I begin to find that motivating myself becomes more difficult, I begin craving large, carb-filled meals and I am crawling into my comfy bed earlier and earlier.
As the New year has come and gone, I am entering maximum hibernation mode. I sometimes don’t leave the farm for two weeks at a time, dinner is served earlier and earlier in order to have maximum hygge time in the evening: tea, warm socks by the fire, a good book or board game. This relaxed bliss lasts until mid-March, when that familiar antsy feeling begins again, except now that I am tuned-in to Nature’s rhythms, my cravings for movement and action are met by the earth’s re-awakening (maple syrup season!) and the necessary preparations for the upcoming growing season are upon us.
Instead of feeling tired and drained before the new season, I am deeply rested and bursting with plans, since the darkest days are also the perfect time for reflection and planning.
Over the years of growing this farm and growing ourselves as entrepreneurs, we have discovered the importance of reflection and planning. Gone are the days of making New Year resolutions about diet or exercise, instead we focus on looking back on our successes and our mishaps so that we can re-strategize and come back stronger and more aligned with our values every year.
- We review our annual calendar
- For 6 years now, I have used the same brand of calendar on the side of our fridge as command central for our family and farm. Appointments, meetings, butcher dates, delivery days, baby chicks, farrowings, rotations… everything gets marked on the calendar. Corey and I sit down together and review month-by-month, cross referencing with pictures on our phones. We transfer over any important dates that stay the same and create monthly post-it notes on the new calendar for important reminders (such as order turkey poults, book butcher dates during busy periods, vaccination reminders for certain animals).
- We finish up our bookkeeping and pull some key reports to review costs and revenue
- Not only does this get us ahead of schedule for our accountant to finish our end-of-year taxes, it gives us the tools we need to make important decisions about growth, reduction and diversification.
- We assess our food preserves
- Every year, we get closer and closer to being self-sufficient for our food. While looking through the freezers and pantry, I know that the broccoli and diced tomatoes are already gone and no one likes the frozen green beans. This helps with planning the garden for next year because I know I need to double the amount of brassicas I grow and maybe cut down the number of bean plants (I hate picking beans anyway ha!)
- We buy seeds for next year and plan farrowing dates
- One of my favorite activities during my intense resting period is to sit by the fire with a cup of tea and my seed catalogs. I love reading the variety descriptions and admiring the beautiful colors, scheming up my garden plots and trying to convince Corey that I need more fruit trees. We also sit down and roughly plan the pigs breeding schedules, based on the needed volume of pork from last year’s sales reports (adjusted to hit our New Year’s revenue goals)
Winter is now a time I joyfully look forward to every year because I now embrace it for what it truly is- a period of rest, reflection and rejuvenation. I can’t wait to share with you some of my favorite ways to rest and recuperate so make sure you join us for my Notes from the Farm newsletter.
