Seems like it's been cold and cloudy since before Christmas. I'm probably exaggerating a bit, but on the whole, it's been quite dreary. Today, it's cold (hey, it is January!), but the sun is shining brightly.
The goats are out on in the pasture instead of hiding out in the barn, and the chickens are actually venturing more than a couple of yards from the hen house and barn. In fact, Mike, the rooster, was at the front door a little while ago, along with 3 of his hen harem. The fowl DO know where I live, and since I am "She who feeds us, yet steals our eggs", they often hang out waiting for me to bring treats from the kitchen (vegetables past their prime or if it's really cold and awful out, I cook oatmeal with molasses for the chickens).
I like it when it is sunny out because I feel happier and more energized. I'm much more likely to spend more time outside doing chores and preparing for planting veggies and herbs for canning and dehydrating once spring rolls around.
Last year, I had an awful, awful growing year. We had too much rain and the ground was so saturated that my green onions and potatoes all rotted and many more veggies never got going at all. I think I need to go back to raised beds (as I did the previous year). The raised beds are a lot of work to start out with, but the improved drainage really helps my onions, peppers and potatoes. I need to start putting together supplies to build those beds now.
I also need to get some soil tests done. I have some very, very rich soil where the previous landowner fed his calves - it's so rich, though, that I might need to add some sand or something to the loam to make it better for growing things.
So, hopefully, I'll be updating my blog more often and getting some pictures up and preparing my gardens for a successful year, no matter how much rain we might get!
And it was finally warm and dry enough that I got the spare tire reloaded to its spot on the truck!
Out in Western Oregon, spring is just about here, at the turn of January into February! Trees are budding out, spring bulbs are shooting up their leaves and the first migratory birds are back. This is at least 6 weeks early, maybe 10 weeks. We are in a moderate to strong El Nino year, and they are characterized by a mild, short winter. We had severe freezes in December, but I’m prognosticating no more of them. I’m un-winterizing as fast as I can here.
Of course, this bodes ill for the Castle, because all that mild, sou-westerly-driven Pacific air pushes off to the Nor-east, penetrates NW Canada, then turns hard right, now changed to Arctic air, and blasts down at you. You will have Arctic incursions as long as we are having mild sou’west weather events.