This is my winter desk. It’s the same year-round, but for most of the year, the warmer, outdoors part, it’s just a chair in front of a computer where I pop in to check stuff. In the winter, it becomes a mildly monkish workstation, a place to be a bit of a modern DIY scholar and scribe… To someone who’s loved books and reading from way early on, the Web is a completely over-the-top place. Billions of people surf around, but I wonder how many have a first-hand inkling of HOW MUCH STUFF IS REALLY IN THERE. It has EVERYTHING, just kinda piled up, like an endless, fantastically-stocked, 24/7 garage sale of ideas to put in your head. I don’t know if it’s ultimately a good thing, this type of extreme abundance, but it sure is interesting. And great for looking into things. So, I spend a good deal of winter time online, much of it related to farming. I bookmark a lot, and save (as in, download) pages that I think I should have around if the Net somehow went away. I seldom print, or take many notes on the computer, steno pads are perfect for all that, writing things out helps keep the volume manageable. And that’s about it, the modern, simple (but tech-entangled), tiny farming research station. Handy…! (Bonus game: What makes this not just any computer station, but a GARDEN station? Can you spot the soil thermometer? :)
Winter
Wrecking and building
Made it back to the new farm to start demo for the new seedling room. I don’t get to do much bigger construction work, and this is really just interior framing and insulating, nothing complicated or structural, but it’s a fair-sized project, involving new windows and doors, what I’d still call big rough carpentry fun! The barn is a small one, 24’x30′ (7.3x9m), about 20-30 years old. The structure is simple, basic, easy-to-understand—what you see is what it looks like. The beam in the pic is one of a dozen or so that support the upper floor. What could be clearer! We’re turning half of the lower level, with its poured concrete floor and concrete block walls, into a fully winterized space that’ll hopefully be home to new herb seedlings by the end of January!
A little winter rain…
Just when all the cold was getting a bit monotonous, we get some crazy weather changes to keep things interesting. By late morning, the packed snow on paths had turned to ice and puddles. Today was the first of two days forecast to be “unseasonaby warm,” with rain and 50°F+ (10°C+) daytime temperatures. By tomorrow, most of the snow will be gone… The day after, it’s back to double-digit subzero and…more snow! Meanwhile, this morning I was happily sliding around outside in a T-shirt and shirt…!
Christmas bear…
Hmmm… Christmas. I don’t think I’ve heard more people unenthusiastic about the Holidays than this year. Of course, here in the country, I run into a tiny fraction of the people I used to when living in cities…so maybe it’s different right in amongst the masses! For a variety of reasons, the Farm was extremely quiet this time around. I looked at the Tree—it’s been up since early December—as a sign of the times. Until a couple of years ago, the decades-old tradition was to cut one from the strip of woods at the north end of the farm. Then, suddenly, we got an artificial tree. It’s deluxe, tall and slender, and a perfect fit for the narrow corner between two doorways in the kitchen-dining room. It’s the first thing you see when you enter the house. I don’t remember why the change, it wasn’t me that did it. I think it was just convenience winning out over a dwindling connection to the tree-cutting tradition. In any case, the new guy is a fine looking facsimile tree that needs no watering, poses no fire hazard (I think it’s fire-retardant, you know how crispy these old farmhouses can get), and due to location delivers way more upfront Christmasy ambiance than the real trees used to from their old spot further back in the house. The decorations are elaborate and cheery as well, with a designer old-time feel, the classic balls and streamers and tiny Christmas lights, along with tons of little, antique-looking doll ornaments: puppets and wise men, songbirds and Santa bears. They’re all mostly plastic, but quality, non-plastic-looking plastic. All in all, a beautiful (and practical!) MODERN farmhouse tree that should last for years and years! Great. Then again, it’s up to people, not trimmings, to make the season. Happy Holidays to all! :)
Chickens want in
It’s officially WINTER, finally, and now the days get longer… Yay. Chickens and snow are the only real farm action around here at the moment, although things are going to get real busy really soon! Meanwhile, there’s always CHICKENS. On one hand, the 25 girls are productively laying away in the chilly but still kinda snug chickenhouse. They do eat eggs, with gusto, but I don’t think any of them have turned into egg-breaking fiends, although the investigation is ongoing. And then there are the guys, past their meat-bird prime, and now a bit of a puzzle—if you’re not gonna eat ’em, why are they here?—but fun to watch, especially on ice (and still really economical on feed). Every day, they come up with a new, apparently random decision on whether to head out into miserable weather, or not. Today, they decided to exit the coop, but then made straight for the main lower barn door, where they’ve been trying to get in for hours. If they want back in, why wait till dark, why not GO HOME NOW? Do they expect me to lead them? Carry them? (Can chickens really play checkers?)
Stacking cages
The backdrop of snow turned the puzzle of sorting tomato cages into a bit of abstract art. I don’t use these exclusively, most of the 500-600 plants each year are tied to stakes or sprawled. But the cages get used, too. After every season so far, I’ve been determined to move beyond these lightweight wire gizmos to a more robust tomato support solution, but come spring and the transplanting rush, I end up with even more of ’em. They work great for the first eight weeks after transplanting, but once the toms really get going, they’re kinda useless, too short and not strong enough to hold up the plants. At the end of the season, they have to be hacked and torn out of the tangle of dead toms. And then, they have to be bent back in shape and stacked, tossing the ones where the rings have broken from the spines. I’d left this last little task till today, and now it’s done: the before (above) and after, around 200 cages, stacked and ready to store. Next season, something new!
It’s really cold
It’s taken a couple of days of this pretty intense cold snap for me to realize it’s yet another whimsical display of the crazy weather we’ve been having for the last six years or so. It’s not that overnight temperatures around -14°C (7°F) are unusual for southern Canada, just not in November. This time last year, there was a ton of snow, but without the unreasonable deep freeze. The winter before, I posted here in mid-January that “winter’s a no-show”—I was still digging carrots! Interesting… Inspired by the cold, I decided to see what it would do to chicken eggs and left a couple out overnight (there was a kinda practical purpose, it’s pretty cold in the chickenhouse). Of course, they froze as hard as hockey pucks. And cracked..