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…
Food factory
In town today, on my regular supply run every three or four weeks, this view caught my eye. The big food factory, seen through an open lot between two houses. Not sure what stood out, or moved me to take a photo. It’s not beautiful architecture, yet still somehow striking. The huge old Quaker Oats plant is on a whole other scale of food production to the Tiny Farm veggie plot, there’s no real comparison… So maybe the photo is there just to gaze at as the mind wanders through thoughts about food. Anyhow, quite a nice walking around day, for early March!
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?
Flatbread ritual
It’s a weekly slow and peaceful ritual, making a batch of flatbread. Pretty similar to doing some mindfully-drifting or podcast-listening weed pulling on a balmy summer’s day. Been making flatbread for my regular bread needs for maybe a couple of years now. Before that, it was quite a long stretch with sourdough loaves, but that suddenly seemed too complicated. This is simple: flour, water, salt, olive oil, baking powder. Rest for 10 minutes, roll out with rolling pin, place in pan. Does the baking powder mean it’s not strictly a flatbread? Don’t know–they’re still pretty flat!
I think I enjoy this primitive form of bread as much as a perfectly light and buttery croissant, or a still warm baguette… There’s some deep basic attraction to the taste and texture of cooked flour dough. As a kid craft activity, I remember making playdough with flour, salt, and water, and thinking how the same that was to the dumplings (that I loved) that we had in stew. Wonder where that might have gone if I’d been allowed to use the stove…
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…