Snow!

Ok well, it was more like hail, but there was a lot of it and it looked snowy. This was yesterday, Feb. 25. Here you can really see it coming down.

A few minutes later, the "snow" is much deeper.

The steps are covered.

The pumpkins are all snowy!

Later in the storm, the sun came out, but it was still really really cold.

So I stayed inside and did some baking. Isn't this a lovely loaf? This is no-knead with ale and vinegar, cooked in the clay pot.

Buddy messaged me some pics from the farm. I guess I should have gotten that row cover cloth up...

Even Amber looks cold.

Buddy had some fun!

Seed Starting

Ok now I'm caught all the way up to last week... On Wed. 2-16, Karen came over to help me start seeds.
She planted peppers and tomatoes. The peppers were from saved seeds, and she let me taste the peppers. The round ones are hot, dark, and raisiny and would make good mole. The conical ones are hot and citrusy.

 

 For tomatoes she planted Purple Russian, Scatalone, and San Marzano. I planted these and a 9 pack of Borgs:

The weather continues to be dramatic. Here's the almond tree in full bloom with a stormy sky to set it off.

 We got the last tree planted: the Algerian Mandarin.

 And this pic is to take note of the location of two interesting daffodils that we want to spread around the in the back borders.

Last Weekend

Ok now I"m all the way up to last weekend (Feb 12 and 13)...The fruit and almond trees are in bloom. This is the ancient apricot.

Here you can see how the whole tree is blooming.

The lilac is putting out leaves.

And the forsythia is showing the first glimpses of yellow.

Rene came over to work on the bar. First he just had Rick to supervise.

But then Bill came over to help. How many hippies does it take to shingle a bar?

David, Miho, and Cosmo came over to visit.

Cosmo was a little shy. 

The peas are coming up.

And the broccoli is gorgeous.

This just cracked me up: 4 Priuses (Priucese? Priui?) in a row. Gotta love this town.

More Planting

Later that weekend and through the week, we got out again to enjoy the sun and get the garden ready for spring. We all took turns digging up the grass around the new peach tree. Here the hens do their share while enjoying a sun break. Notice the piles of discarded outerwear on the chairs.

Rick tilled up a patch (row 4-A) and we planted it in onions. Rick had ordered up a big batch of onions and we needed to get them all in.

Here it is all set in with onions. The garlic next door in 3-A is thriving as well.

 Rick and Buddy work on getting the irrigation fixed and ready for the new season.

 The radishes are well up in their raised bed.

 And the fruit trees are just starting to bud out. This is the backmost plum.

 On Tuesday (2-8) we went over to Rick C's house to plant the rest of the onions. They had put in a lovely row of lavenders along the front.

 

Rick tills up the spot.

And we get them all set in neat rows. RickC feels triumphant.

New Trees: Peach and Mandarins

Every year, we get a little taste of spring in the middle of February. This year was no exception. We've had two weeks of mostly nice weather. We're glad to have days warming up to 65 degrees!

Two weekends ago (I know! I'm woefully behind!) we went out to Hodges and bought three new fruit trees. We got a Fay Elberta peach, a Satsuma mandarin and a Algerian Clementine mandarin. We sited the peach in the hole where the pear used to be, pretty much. It's almost exactly 8 feet from any other tree. That gives us plenty of room to move around. This isn't an orchard, it's a glade :) Here RickC fertilizes the tree in its commodious hole.

 And there it is.

 We put the Satsuma in the newly dug up flowerbed. There's still room for flowers around the base, and it gives some lovely height and evergreenness.

That weekend (2-5) the daffodils were just starting to bloom, and the quince was out but not much else.

The chickens think it's spring too, and they are laying well. I thought these 4 eggs were a lovely example of the color variations we get.

 And speaking of lovely, wow! The sunsets have been just amazing.

Pwn!

I have a lot of new pix and stuff about farming, but I've been stupid busy working... However, I gotta post this:

Our guild on Lord of Ultima made the first level 8 palace of any guild on any server! We rock! This was posted on the main forums:

And the game continues… the first of our dedicated alliances have managed to upgrade a palace to Level 8! These people are truly committed to becoming a Lord of Ultima!

The alliance that has achieved this is Demigod on World11(USA East Coast). We want to wish you the best guys, well done!!
(forum)

Winemaking with Delina

We've been working the area around the bar. Here the chickens do their part, finishing up where I dug out bermuda.

Ricky C wheeled in several barrows of mulch from the giant pile he donated and Rick spreads it around.

Tuesday night we went over to Delina's to help her rack some wine. Rick washes bottles.

And Delina sterilizes them. Such an appropos chapeau.

Delina works the corking machine. We had to bottle the three gallons in the carboy so we could rack the three one-gallon containers into it.

Rick shows off the finished bottles.

They get ready to siphon.

And voila!

*******************************************************
What We're Eating

The carrots are from the farmer's market, but the cabbage is the first of the season. I made bread and cooked cranberry beans from the market to go with.
************************************************************
The daphne is just starting to bloom.

Unfortunately, this branch broke on the orange tree. We need to prune it back anyway, and this just proves why.