Firestarter
Wood heat has been the winter way around here for the last few years. The old wood stove, and stacks of firewood. In cold snaps, where it stays well below freezing, day and night, the fire is always burning. In … Read the rest
With a little snow
What a difference a little snow makes. Winter has changed around here over the last 20 years, It’s hard to really remember how it was exactly, except that I’m pretty sure there was a lot more snow. And it was … Read the rest
The new year!
The first fine day of the all-new year! Not as wintry as it might be in the Great White North. Guess I’ve gotten used to the new winters: a few days of any sort of weather, then a complete change. … Read the rest
Scratching the zuke
Groundhogs are back again, and they seem to be more active than last year. I’m checking everything out every day to see how far they might go. It comes down to what they turn their beady little eyes and big … Read the rest
Kale under cover
Kale and Brussels sprouts are tucked away under floating row cover (with straw-mulched garlic in the back). This is usually to protect them from flea beetles that can devour the seedlings. This year, unfortunately, it’s also a deterrent to the … Read the rest
Early mini-harvest
A small harvest of spinach and bok choi for dinner! It’s always a pleasant little shock to taste the first of the season’s garden-fresh veggies. After the winter months when the only fresh produce is grown in faraway lands, it’s … Read the rest
Pellets of goodness
One person’s low-interest bin of unidentified golden-brownish stuff, is another’s stash of pelletized alfalfa goodness. This is plain old alfalfa, the plant in the pasture that cows especially love, dried and compressed into pellets. No additives, nothing but dry plant … Read the rest