Spring-Winter

It technically isn't Spring yet, but it's been awfully nice down at the farm. We usually get a nice few weeks in February, but this year it was sunny and warm the whole month. The hyacinths are blooming, and the daffodils are now finished. The irises and forsythia are starting and the ceanothus is in full bloom.

The plum trees are blooming like crazy. They are nicely pruned and they seem to like their new size and shape. Here the blossoms are just starting out.

And by the end of the month, you can't even see us through the explosion of blooms. The peach has especially lovely blossoms.

Boston, we feel your pain... er actually, we don't! Boston is having record snowfall and we're enjoying the sunshine. We still need to carry our coats and hats, but in the middle of the day, it's quite pleasant.

All the starts are doing great, and I've been planting more seeds (because clearly I don't have enough...). On 2-14 I seeded lettuces where the tomatoes had been (all the tomatoes are transplanted by now). I planted Bibb, Buttercrunch, Continuity, and Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed, but none of the Buttercrunch came up. Then on 2-15 I planted Padron and Shishito peppers in flat G. I planted basil also: Ararat, Cardinal, Corsican, Persian, Profumo, and Thai, along with a bunch of Genovese.

We finished the tub enclosure, so I can have a nicely upgraded swimming hole. Here Rick links up the pvp framework. He hooked the pieces together and I painted them. Then we attached them to stakes and then wrapped the reed fencing around and secured it with zip ties.

With just one run of fencing, it was still a little see-through, but when we added the second layer, it got pretty opaque.

We also relocated the pen door so we could have better year-round access. We've made one panel. We plan to replace the whole run with panels so that it will be sturdier and easy to reconfigure.

There isn't a whole lot going on in the garden right now, so we occasionally let the chickens out for a little while. They love getting to roam around and peck up all the bugs.

Like this guy! This is a sphinx moth, the adult form of the tomato hornworm. She could have caused a lot of havoc if she got her eggs laid, but in this case, she became chicken feed!

Speaking of scary looking bugs... oh wait, it's Jae!

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What We're Eating and Drinking
Not much is ripe in the garden now, but we do have some lovely radishes. This is a Candle of Fire.

We're drinking Hop Hunter, and loving it. Rick calls it "his preciousssssss."

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There was a stunning moonscape on 2-20. I came out of the taproom and actually gasped. The newish Moon, Venus, and Jupiter were all lined up.

One more shot of the orchard in bloom...