Nine Degrees!

Well winter arrived with a vengeance. I know people up north will think I'm silly when I say its been really cold. I know compared to places where the mercury has been below zero for days that 9 degrees could seem like a heatwave, but its cold in this house, despite burning the stove hotter than normal, I can feel it seeping in through the windows and the walls. And it's not going to warm up much for several days.

I'm so glad I do not live in the north. We took a stroll down to the creek this afternoon to check out the ice and there was quite a bit decorating the edges of the creek around the rocks, abstract patterns created by sheets of ice thawing and refreezing. It's a rare sight around here and made everything extra sparkly in the sunlight.

I've been meaning to post these photos of the garden taken on January 3rd. This time last year I had made a big harvest of veggies just before a cold snap. This time I put the blanket over it all and am hoping for the best. I have not peeked under there but I will tomorrow and see how things fared. Monday I harvested tatsoi and kale and last week I actually harvested a bit of lettuce that was protected under the big leaves of the broccoli plants.

For this design, I pounded 2 foot pieces of re-bar into the ground about a foot deep and then slipped PVC pipe over the re-bar to form the arch. The remay is two layers thick and I weight it down with bricks and open it up when its warm, close it at night. I tried clear plastic to see if it would be warm enough for things to actually grow but it got too wet inside and things just started to rot so I scratched that idea and went back to the remay row cover.

The veggies are all tucked in and I hope you are. Keep Warm!