This is the weather of march. Up to 10°, down to -5°. Up again to 7°, down to 2°, plunge to -10° and round and round we go. Last week, things thawed off nicely and we were set to plant the peas and spinach and lettuces this past weekend, but when we went to do so, the soil was frozen again. So, we shall wait another week and see. I got some pruning out done, though. Removed a few more of the scrub willows from the orchard space, and cleaned the small trees out of the kiwi arbor space. The kiwis SEEM to be alive, although it’s a bit early to tell for sure. The male is the one I am most concerned about. It’s only 4″ tall and got heaved right out of the ground over winter, so I do not know if it will break dormancy. We havent had the best of success with getting a male to survive. Hopefully.

It is snow/freezing rain/rain this morning, but supposed to reach 10° this afternoon. No wonder the kiddos are down with laryngitis. Good day to keep the fire burning and sit with quiet schoolwork and books.

I am somewhat worried that the schisandra vines I grew from seed last year and loving tended and overwintered in the greenhouse may in fact be scrub willows. I’m not sure how that would have happened, exactly, but the buds are breaking open fuzzy and silver like pussywillows. I havent been able to find out if schisandra buds do that or not. All I can do is wait and see what happens after the fuzzy, I suppose. I do have more seed planted, so even if these are the wrong rhing, maybe a couple of the correct thing will yet grow.

I have three types of seed germinating now (YAY!). The Yukina savoy is absolutely not a surprise, as it likes COLD weather, and the high mallow and pinks are peeking up as well. It gives me hope that I didnt plant overly early and waste a ton of seed. I do this every year – plant when it is too cold and then worry for weeks if not months that I wrecked everything.

The first of my tree orders shipped late last week! This is the order from ZeroFox – butternuts, pawpaw, persimmons and an asian pear, hopniss and crosne. My eldest claimed for themself a little wild apple tree we found in the elderberry clearing the other week, and has pruned it up and cleared it out, so of course the others needed a tree of their own also. One has claimed the asian pear and the other has chosen a persimmon to be their own special tree. On these tree, each will be taught to prune and thin blossoms and tend according to the needs of the tree. Each has named their tree, also. The American Persimmon (Diopyros virginiana) will be called Ginny, and the Asian Pear will be called Asia. The aforementioned wild apple is called PommeFleur. We talk to trees, here. Names happen.

I got the new veg bed assembled last weekend, and part of the layer of old wood put in. It’s a large bed though (12×4), and will take a LOT of wood.

We do a layer of old pine in the bottom of any new bed to not only reduce the soil cost, but also to serve as a water sponge and integral compost/microrhizal host as it breaks down. We have a bunch of old, punky pine that needs used anyway, so it works. This bed, because it is SO big, and also because this one will be all above-ground veg this year (tomatoes, okra, cabbages, peppers, that sort of thing), will also have a layer of dirty goat-hut-cleanout straw overtop of the pine, then the soil over that. The old bed (4×8) that I’ve grown in now for 2 summers is too depleted of calcium to do tomatoes again for a couple years, so this year it will have the root veg in it (along with compost and bonemeal and soil amendments, obviously). Between my two beds (4×8 and 4×12) and the kids’ 3 beds (each 5×2), plus the perennial greens bed (4×4), asparagus bed (6×2) and the multiple in-ground perennial edibles scattered through the orchard, we *should* do very well. As the years go by, I hope to have a few grain patches to rotate through as well. Wheat, barley, rye, upland rice, corn, that sort of thing. Also in the future, I hope to have small wet-ponds for wild rice and american lotus, as well as to harbor frogs and dragonflies and the like.

We’re HOPING to make progress on the house build this year. I’m still researching and debating between helical screwpiles and another concrete slab. There are pros and cons for each, both are expensive, and neither is DIY able (although the concrete moreso). Either way, it will likely only be the foundation that goes up this year, and some of the logs acquired, barked, cut and set to drying. As anyone who has ever done the homestead-with-cash-and-DIY journey before knows, everything takes longer and is more expensive than you’d hoped or planned. Slow and steady. Slow and steady. It will happen.