It isnt entirely common for us to begin the calendar year at 10° above feeezing and raining, but the weather does strange things at times. It was warm and extrwmely wet for several days, and now it is quite cold and windy. This has upsides: we can use the driveway for the nonce, and downsides: the trees are utterly without protection and may experience cold damage. According to the weather app (wildly inaccurate as they are a more than a day or two in advance), the week after next we will be recieving our annual cold snap (reaching the -20s). Such fun.

While the weather was warm, we managed to chip out the chickens for their fresh winter bedding. The used chips, I hauled into the orchard to mulch all the things. The kids’ garden beds, my herb beds and about 1/3 of the orchard plants now have mulch blankets. In the late spring, we will chip out again, and I’ll get another  batch mulched. Of course, by then, I shall have many more that need mulch also.

My list(s) for the garden season are already extensive. I have carts ammassed from 2 nurseries already, and I am awaiting an email from a third, answering an inventory question. There are also 7 vegetable seed varieties I need to bring in, and there will be, of course, the local garden center also….