Welcome to A Victorian Year in Ontario

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen, the year is 1865, Her Majesty Queen Victoria has reigned since 1837 and we are in the midst of a prosperous era. The purpose of this blog is to record the daily round of chores, tasks, trials and triumphs of our household in rural Upper Canada (now known as Ontario). We have embarked on an experiment to live a year as close to the way it was done in 1865 as we possibly can. We will post our remarks and await your comments, suggestions and critiques. So join us as we travel back in time.

Friday, December 2, 2011

It is officially the Christmas season!!

Well december has arrived and I suppose that means it is officially the christmas season.
We have lots to do around here and thankfully the snow hasn't arrived in full force yet. But it is definately colder and we are well into "packing the furnace" to last the night so we do not turn into popsicles in our sleep. This starts our time of staying close to home  in order to keep the house warm and the pipes from freezing. We are going to try something new with the chicken coop this winter.We are putting straw bales around the coop to hopefully keep the warmth in the coop. We will report back to you on how that is working. Other years we have used a heat lamp in order to keep the birds warm . We may have to do that as winter comes on stronger. Now you may ask how that fits into our no hydro usage . Well it kind of doesn't but we cannot lose our entire flock of chikens if the straw insulation does not keep the heat in the chicken coop.
If this was truely 1865 we would have our chickens in a coop most likely above where the larger animals are in the barn. So perhaps above the cattle . The larger animals would provide the heat. Or so I am told. We will see what happens and report back to you..Well I am going to head upstairs ,,,I am really tired and need my bed.Talk to you soon.
M

1 comment:

  1. I thought I was going to have to use a heat lamp last year, but despite the weather being very cold, the coop not being insulated and not horribly well sealed, the birds survived without issue. I've read the biggest problem with chooks and cold weather is condensation, which can cause frostbite.

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