Today’s view of the field, my first since last fall! I’m about a mile (1.6 km) down the road, and I do sometimes pop by in the off-season. Usually, though, it’s out of sight, not out of mind for the whole winter. I’m still getting used to how much tinier the garden has been since I left the farmers’ market and the pandemic had its way. In any case, it’s looking fine. Most of it was cleared last fall. The straw-mulched garlic on the left seems cool, nothing poking up yet, I suppose not too early is good. And it’s really not wet, not the former usual dense, clinging, suck-you-down mud of the after winter melt-off (I’ve pulled my foot out of rubber boots trying to step forward in that stuff). Unless there’s a mini monsoon season coming up, I’ll be able to get out there pretty early, to set up the anti-deer-and-groundhog electric fence and prep beds. There’s still a broken rototiller to deal with on the tiny tractor, so that could slow things down. As always, we shall see!
Weather
Firestarter II
Enjoying the flames and the slowly building heat from starting the wood stove for the night. Guess this is saying goodbye to the semblance of winter we’ve just had. Wood heat and tending the fire seems best enjoyed when it’s so cold outside, you really bask in the indoor warmth and outdoors seems like a harsh alien force trying to get in. This year, it’s hardly ever gotten so chilly inside that a decent sweater wouldn’t offset if you had to make do. Of course, the wood stove did bring a huge level of…comfort! Here, it’s in what I think of as stage two of firestarting. The kindling and smaller pieces have done gotten things started. Now, medium pieces are kicking in. The air vents are at least partially open, so fire burns hotter and faster. After 15 minutes or so like this, it’s burning nicely, and there’s the start of a bed of hot coals. Then the full-size chunks go in, the vents are closed, and another round of wood heating is underway. That’s my method with this particular stove, and it does seem to work!
Wetness warning
Pretty sure today’s was the first heavy rainfall alert of the year. It’s still early March! Is it worth asking what happened to April showers bring May flowers, and in March you can still go…skiing? The weather warning isn’t all that dramatic: chance of 25-40 mm of rain (about 1-1½”), with uncertainty about where exactly that might happen in the greater region. It started raining here earlier, light nd steady. Not worrisome, but still weird…
Spring is in the air
Spring is in the air, there’s no easier way to put it! The warmth of the sun where it touches your skin erases the chill from a mild breeze. Thermometer says it’s 64°F/80°C. Not quite T-shirt weather, but a T-shirt will do. Is this it, a straight shot to summer, or more winter still to come?
Traces of snow
We’re back to browns and yellows with a hint of green, and a few faint reminders of snow hanging on. There’s been no real winter this year, only a few visits from serious subzero cold and snow. At least, that’s how I’m remembering it. The photos here on the blog may tell a different story!
Temperature the old way
It’s around noon, and an unseasonably, pleasantly warm 62°F/17°C. This cheap old plastic analog thermometer has been hanging in a doorway for at least the last 10 years. It’s a quick and reliable way to see how warm or cold it is. No worrying if batteries are running down. No looking for the right angle to read the screen. Only this column of dyed-red alcohol—safer-than-mercury!—expanding and contracting, going up and down. The simplicity is soothing. The way it’s positioned, the afternoon summer sun hits it on one side, causing it to shoot up. Otherwise, all through the winter, it’s shaded from the direct sun, and it gives a roughly accurate reading of the air temperature, 24/7. Why not reposition it so it’s always shaded? Checking it for the temperature on a hot summer afternoon hasn’t seemed to be a big concern. Not sure why!
For tiny farming, I’ve used a few electronic weather gadgets, alongside analog devices like the trusty old min-max thermometer, and a plastic weather vane/thermometer/rain gauge combo that looked like a toy, that I stuck on a post. The thing about seeing the temperature in real-time, it’s a little late to do anything. It’s mostly about satisfying curiosity. On the other hand, min-max thermometers, that record the lowest and highest temperatures they hit until you reset them, they’re super-useful tools, for example, to monitor how cold it gets in the greenhouse at night and adjust! And soil thermometers, now they can come in handy!
Weather forecasts are another story. A day or so out, I’d say they’re around 60% right maybe a bit more (I could be off, it’s just a guess). Overall, it’s hard to tell how useful they actually are, though if you’re in tornado country, you may have a different view! Since yesterday, there’s been a weather alert on my phone. Not color-coded in alarming red and yellow, so far this one is only grey. Still, it’s a “warning”, not the milder “advisory”… The temperature may suddenly plunge in the afternoon, with heavy gusting wind, and the chance of instant ice on the roads. A cold front is coming, so, I guess, beware…
As the sun sets
You can only come up with so many titles for the same photo, taken every few days, to show the ups and downs of the local weather. The sun is getting warmer, more head-on. That’s normal! Wondering when the fields may dry out enough to start working is still a ways off, six weeks. Before then, even if it seems like it’s gotta be summer, the risk of a cold snap, or a week or two of snow, makes it probably not worth getting such a super-early start. When will they ever get weather forecasting working like we want it to?!?