Cold Nights

It is 4:30 in the morning. The temperature has gone down to 26F. and will probably keep dropping until after dawn. We have had a string of warmish days and even a shower in the last few weeks. The asparagus is under a deep hay covering and insulated. The bulb flowers like the tulips and irises, the rhubarb, and overwintered onions are all pushing out of the ground and through the hay ground cover--growing and blooming. The flowers of the tulips were beautiful.

So I sit in the dark and I wonder, could I have done more? The weather this season has lulled me into thinking it was May and we should be planting. But the ground is still cold and the maples and oaks aren't budding leaves yet. Dad would say, 'Plant corn and beans when the new oak leaves were like a squirrel's ear'.

This week the weather switched back on us and we started getting North winds from Canada. They just pulled the warmth out of me. Back to layers again. My arms still hurt. I tried to shovel up a wash-out in the slough. I didn't do much but I had to quit and icepack again. I hurt when I have to extend my arms. I am a lot stronger when I can keep my hands by my chest. My right shoulder is getting better all the time. I think I am lucky to be healing so well.

Yesterday I sat with the radio in the greenhouse. I cleaned out the winter stuff that was piled all over. I got the weeds out of the bed and raked it a little, Slowly.... with my arms in. I planted it with hardy salad seeds and covered them with composed dirt. I added a lot of water, and now it feels like Spring. If I take care of them we can have fresh salads in three weeks. I know I can't do much, but I will try to do somethings. AND if/when I ask my neighbor and family are helping me with jobs I can't do. That feels good.

It is getting to be morning. 30 degrees now, there is light in the East, a bird is really fussing and I saw the lights from the car that delivers newspapers. The wind is down, the sky looks clear, another day is starting. It is time for a 'walk-around.'

November Carrots/ Jewels in the Dirt

The last rows of carrots got left over the winter. I tried to give them a break by putting bags of leaves over them. The Frost is out of the ground now and my daughter brought me a handful of carrots. The tops were soft but the rest of each carrot was crisp and sweet. What a moment! I'll dig a bunch up later this week.

It is raining now, a break in the drought we have been having for the last 3 years. All the time I have been out here there has been a drought. There are acres of wild raspberries up on the hill and I haven't taken a bucket up yet. It is nice to listen and hear rain all afternoon.

This morning I covered the asparagus bed and walking path with loose hay. If someone roto-tills for me, then they know what to miss. So there is a 30' by 5' bed soaking up some water. I was just walking around thinking about what I could do this year. The surgery has left me with upper arms that can't take stress, or twist, or lift. But I can hold things that aren't heavy. Maybe with help I could manage enough to fill the freezer and eat like a vegetarian all summer. Maybe.... Maybe....

2011 Garden ----maybe.

Sometimes it is hard for me to wrap my head around changes. I think I have been struggling for months to figure out what to do. Do I ......? or Do I not...?

Anyway, last summer I did days of too much lifting and heavy work. I hurt my shoulders. I thought I would get over it.... and besides I had too much to do and I couldn't stop. So this winter I have been going to doctors and a physical therapist. I am getting stronger but not healing. Next month I go in for Rotator cuff surgery on my right and in a couple of months, I get my left repaired. As I heal I start a 6 month recovery and I pretty much 'not do anything.' So I have to pass on gardening and raising chickens. The chainsaw gets to sit along side the lawnmower, the tractor and the weed wacker. What a deal. It seems like a black hole in my life.

The gardens? I'll get rhubarb and asparagus for sure! Left handed. I'll have herbs coming up again for cooking and salads, raspberries, apples, and mutant squash from the compost pile. Well thats ok. Maybe by August I could plant some fall crops.

No chickens. No lifting. No driving. But I can walk! I like that as much as anything. So I'll do OK. Maybe now I'll really retire........ Sure.

The 2010 garden

The 2010 garden is taking shape. This cold weather experience has given me the energy to adapt and change. My papers have a plot that shows the borders of fences and woodpiles. The center is blank. No rows or crops yet. OK, I put in the small greenhouse in the upper left corner. Next to that in the upper right corner is a dotted rectangle [maybe a high hoophouse] about twice as big as the greenhouse [about 15x20]. Down the page from the greenhouse is a row of 8 cold-frame boxes. Then beneath the 'maybe' hoophouse draw 2 more rows of cold frames. That would be 24 cold frame boxes. The rhubarb bed is in the way, so take 2 boxes out of the center row. Now there are 20 Coldframe boxes that are the Kitchen Garden. In '09 I had 11 frames. Some were perennial herbs, others flowers, garlic, leeks, and vegetables. The big summer garden is farther down the page --for another day of planning.

So here are spots for about 6 coldframes that I can plan with night covers to start a March garden of frost-loving plants. My wood-shop got finished this summer so I can saw and assemble the pieces inside. This could work. The studio is slightly heated so I could germinate some seeds inside at maybe 50 degrees. I will keep thinking......

Merry Christmas!

December carrots!!

Ok, I'm bad. There were two rows of carrots that were planted late and weeded over. I got one row out in November and I thought that was pretty good. With this late season, I got some out when the ground wasn't too frozen. They were good. Last week after the ground had frozen hard, I put bags of leaves on this last row. I thought maybe some insulation would help. So this week I went out with a bucket and started digging and chipping. Most of the ground was soft and the carrots came out easily. On the outside edge I had to chip out chunks of dirt with the carrots. So I got a bucket of dirt and carrots. I put the bucket in the bathtub and filled it with cold water. Today I cleaned them. They were crisp and sweet.

So I will think about this. How about a winter garden? Planting hardy plants like Kale, spinach, beets, carrots and turnips in a section of the garden, could be a good idea here. So I can do that. I will even get to eat some foods that I haven't had for years.

The snow is serious here. My homemade hoop house got a big snowdrift. The more it collapsed, the more snow piled on top of it. Is shoveling snow a garden activity?

Smart talk

Ok, I got out in the carrot patch, nipped the green tops off a row, got the fork out and found the ground frozen hard. Chip it or wait...... I decided to wait and dig them out later. I'm not totally stubborn[determined]. Since the ground was frozen I spread hay on the trails where I am laying out next years beds. I make 4x8 planting beds with paths around them. This part of the garden had daffodils last spring. We moved them and the ground got chicken manured hay that composted in during this summer. So next year I have plans for more herbs and flowers.

There should be 25 beds and rhubarb in this part of the garden. So now I have the paths made for walking between the future beds.

The logging was tough. We worked steady for 3 hours. He sawed trees and I carried wood chunks to the edge of the trail where the wagon can pick them up. When I am by myself I work like that for about an hour. So I guess I am way stronger than I thought I was. Am I sore now. Tomorrow we do the same thing. Then I should have wood until March. Life is good.

Happy day to you.

Frosty morning

It is cold and crisp this morning. Soon I will go out to get some buckets of carrots. Not going to the store for them anymore. I have 3 rows still in the ground and this 20-40 degree weather doesnt seem to affect them. After the rains and snows thing have dried out a little so I wont be digging in mud.

Anyway the garden is mostly put to rest now. The tall plants have been mowed and the ground has been shallow tilled to compost the greenery and extra zucs. I have about 40 garlics to plant this week and that is about it. My sister got me onto a Greenhouse experiment. She is moving little beets and kale from her outside bed into a greenhouse bed. She hopes to keep them going for salad greens until Dec.

Today I am working in the woods cutting firewood. I am working with a 'pro' so I can keep on task and work with some urgency. I work alone toooooo much.

Happy Days!