It may be turning into an unusually wintery winter! More snow today…
2025 from the start
All the posts from this year, starting at the beginning…
Fluffy puffy snow
What would they make of that? I imagine people who’ve never been exposed to cold and snow, waking up to this post-snowstorm scene, a thick layering of fluffy powder, gently rolled over everything like soft white dunes. Holy cow…
Melting in March
A kind of harsh day. Squinting against sun glaring off puddles and patches of snow. Damp and on the freezing side of chilly—just warm enough for melting. The cold air is filled with the musty aroma of dead, wet, thawing vegetation. It’s mucky where there’s mud, although the ground remains frozen underneath, so you won’t sink into boot-trapping depths just yet. Not the most pleasant day for walking in the field. Still, it’s welcome early spring weather, a pretty sure sign that a brand new growing season is on its way!
Robin at the window
Looked down at the patio door and what did I see? A robin on the outside, standing right up to the glass between us, kind of looking back at me. Or maybe (more likely) seeing its reflection as another robin. It’s a bit of a surprise. Robins are usually summer company in the field, darting around, searching for bugs as I weed or harvest, not hopping around in near zero weather, in snow and freezing rain. It’s like being let into another part of their life. In any case, this guy or gal looks pleasantly plump and unperturbed. I’m glad to see they are quite all-weather and doing fine in the off-season.
Best not to touch!
Meet the oil beetle! When I see new insects that I don’t immediately recognize, there’s an automatic, “Who goes there?!” challenge in my head. So many little critters can do so much veggie damage, one can’t help a “you’re either with me or against me” reaction to the unknown. In this case, I have to identify this fairly spectacular, sparkly beetle, sitting on a thistle that will soon be tilled under. (More to follow… Think powerful blistering agent, voracious beehive raider,… I doubt there’s a single insect species that doesn’t have it’s own odd and elaborate quirkiness )
Long slow sunset
It’s seven and the sun is only slowly setting. Every year, at probably around this exact point, I’m surprised again by how long the days get. How much changes with all that light! It’s quite the swing from winter, when you’re indoors anyway thanks to the cold, and daylight gets down to 10 hrs—wake up in darkness, dark before dinner. Suddenly now, you wake in the middle of the night and grey light is already creeping through cracks in the curtains. Mildly disorienting… I used to be more tuned to the daylength differences when, for half the year, May through October, I was up at five every Saturday for the farmers’ market. Still, awake around dawn or not, there’s always a particular time in spring and fall when the changes hit. Anyhow, right now, this is great for fieldwork—more hours in the day!
Boldly low-tech grass clearing method
An experimental procedure, effectiveness so far unknown. In some spots, sections of tall grass are swallowing the single strand of electric fence that has so far protected the veggie patch from deer. To keep a nicely unpleasant jolt running smoothly, the grass must be cleared! I’ve used various methods in the past. There’s been the 48″ deck mower on the tiny tractor. Running over the strip under the fence line with the same tiny tractor. Or the handy string trimmer, aka weed whacker, that spits out microplastic particles as the nylon cutting line wears down. And the low tech large garden shears. This year, I’m doing things as manually as possible. If I had a scythe… Since I don’t, and the garden shears haven’t been at all as quick and efficient as I’d hoped, I had a new idea. Lay down a plank under the line—here it’s a 2x4x8—to bend the grass, slide it over a bit so the strip of bent bottoms under the plank is exposed, and slice through with a utility knife, using the plank like a ruler. It went pretty quickly, with only 60-70′ (18-21m) in total of sections to do. And the grass is gone! Whether this really works we’ll find out in how long it takes to grow back. Hopefully, the cut grass will dry into a mulch that helps block future growth. I’m modestly optimistic—the minimum expectation for me to try it at all. Stay tuned!