Sarah and Nathan

 We had a lovely visit with Sarah and Nathan, my niece and her new husband. Nathan was amazed by all my peppers.

 We took them to the farm, of course. It was sort of nice for a while, but we left when the sun dipped and the cold wind sprang up.

Next was the obligatory stop at the pub. Look at how TALL Nathan is!

 The waitress took our picture.

We also took a walking tour of downtown, to breakfast at Coda, and lunch at Thai Basil. I joked that what I like to make for dinner is reservations. But Nathan is a chef, so we put him to work. We went shopping at S&S and then for lunch, he made "posh sandwiches."

 Mmmm, posh and delicious.

 And then for dinner, Sarah helped him make fishcakes, one of his signature dishes.

 They were delicious as well.

 

Garden Sweet Garden

The end of December was cold and raw. It wasn't always nice garden weather, but we did what we could. Laura brought us this wonderful sign. I was going to put it on the gate, but I realized that a. someone would quickly steal it, and b. I couldn't see it from there! So we put it on the sink. It fits there beautifully, and gives us something pretty to look at while cleaning eggs.

We've got the chickens working on the old flower patch. There is actually a nice bed there now.

We decided to use the old umbrella stand to fix the fence around the tub. It worked great, but then we had some big pavers left over. They made a perfect stoop area for the bar.

The oranges are almost ripe.

About the only other thing in the garden now is raddiccio. I must remember to start more plants in mid summer. We could have lots more chard and kale now, and I should have gotten more broccoli in sooner.

Hodgepodge

The broccoli is definitely broccling now.

And the cabbage is starting to head up.

 The newest garlic is looking great.

 I even noticed the faintest bit of yellow showing on the forsythia

And the pea plants are getting bigger.

 

RickyC said he was gonna bring some wood, so we cleaned up the woodpile and made a place to stack the wood. So... feel free to bring that wood any time, Rick....

 Bill and Laura came over to the farm to play Santa.

Catherine likes her present. 

Very nice.

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What We're Eating
Lots of pizza! Bill and Laura came over to our house after farming, and we had delicious pizzas. The boys were in charge of the toppings for the second pizza... the one with icky stuff!

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And here's my new bench. It's so tiny and cute!

Winter Snapshot

Winter doesn't stop us! Here are the chickens working the rows in the rain.

Here's a snapshot of where the garden was on 12-5:
Row 1 with the first bit of garlic planted.

Row 2.

Row 3

 Row 4

Row 5

Row 6

 

Row 7

Row 8

Rick is glad to be inside out of the rain!

And here's a closeup of the broccoli in row 8. Notice that there aren't any "broccles" happening yet.

Then we got busy! I tossed a bunch of straw around, and made it look ready for planting.

I still have both pens of chickens working the soil. There are no bugs left after our pet dinosaurs forage.

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What We're Eating
Lots of homemade bread! This was cooked in the regular oven. It's even more delicious cooked in the earth oven. Also, it's pumpkin bar season, and I need to make about 5 more pumpkin's worth.

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Back on the homefront, I made a new window shade.

Isn't this a great shot of the moon?

Saturday was delightfully warm. Seriously warm: 70 degrees in December? Gotta love Chico.

The nice weather brought out visitors to the bar, like Matt.

But we didn't just stand around. RickyC got the rest of the garlic in row 1, and tilled the back of row 5. I put snow peas in row 3 and more Paso peas in row 5. Row 4 has Paso peas that were planted about a month ago. Rows 6, 7, 8, 2, and 3 all have some broccoli, and there's a bit of cabbage in rows 2 and 3. Row 3 front also has the onions.

And, as of just a day or so ago, the broccoli are starting to broccle!

Winter Fun

Winter isn't the nicest time in the garden, but Chico winters are still pretty pleasant. We've been taking it easy, just puttering around the farm. The starts in the hotbox are coming along nicely. This shot is from a week ago, when Karen's favas were just starting to sprout. Yesterday, we took them to her house (along with her birthday present) because they were 3 inches tall and bursting out of the paper pots.

 

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Weather Note
We already had the first big freeze on Nov. 23, and it got into the mid 20s. It was freezing for several nights, warming only to the 40s in the day. Then cloud cover came in, it rained, and temperatures rose considerably. We freeze proofed the irrigation at the farm (and our house), strung lights in the citrus, and covered the orange tree with a greenhouse tarp.
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 Back at the farm, the peas are starting to sprout as well, so I guess the birds didn't get them all.

Yesterday, after croquet, Rick and Buddy pulled up the last black, forlorn looking tomato vines, and we put the chickens to work on the space.

We had some pretty skies, although it sprinkled now and then, and rained hard later

That just makes good firepit weather! The guys stand around... no doubt planning the next project (or BSing...)

The summer cutting garden is black and lifeless, but I managed to scrounge a few things to make a bouquet.