Frosty

It's been very frosty lately, both day and night.  We finally dropped down into the low 20's and I've been afraid to peek under the remay to see if the lettuce survived, I put a triple layer over it in hopes of adding protection, tomorrow it's warming up above 40 and I plan to take the top off and see what the damage was.  I'll be kicking myself for not harvesting a lot of greens before the cold weather hit if its all wrecked, I'll see tomorrow.

I've been super busy, I feel like I went from zero to sixty in the past few weeks.  After the sleepy, slow days of December and the holidays, its been a bit of a shock to my system to try and get back to normal.  I've been trying to think of a name for my business which I'm trying to get incorporated this month, doing research on the difference between an LLC and an S Corp, oh my.  Also organized an "all about birds" workshop for a group of kids at the local  shelter for women with children, that was for my community service component of my EE certification.  That was a blast, we made "binoculars" out of toilet paper tissue tubes and bird feeders with pine cones and peanut butter and recycled soda bottles.  Everyone had fun, me most of all perhaps.

The writing group started up again so I'm encouraged/pushed to write more often, every day if I can, to produce something of substance that I am proud to read to my group of ladies who are all excellent writers.  We've been cutting mountains of firewood with my brother and his father-in-law from trees that fell in the wind storms last summer.  Trying to get it all cut and stacked and not let any of it go to waste, we've already done 7 trailer loads!  and there is more to get, we will be very well stocked for firewood next winter and possibly into 2014.

Davey with a cabbage harvested before one of the cold nights last week.  We've been enjoying it shredded into bowls of posole that he cooked up this weekend, perfect to warm the cockles on a cold night.  Supposed to get up to 70 again later this week, the topsy turvy climate gets crazier all the time.

Hello 2013!

 Camellias and Hellebores; fresh flowers in January, ahhh

My GOODNESS it's been a while since I found time to bring myself to this page.  Between the holidays and winter illness we have been lost in a fog for about 3 weeks.  It seems almost everyone I know has had some form of flu or cold including upper respiratory, cough, fevers, sniffles, vomiting etc run through their house and family.  I am happy to report that all here at the Hitt-Jenkins home appear to be finally well and getting back into some kind of normal groove once again.

And it's high time to get rolling on 2013 now that we are a full week into the new year.  I am busy organizing my life and figuring out what my priorities should be in the year to come and feeling fairly positive about where I'm headed.

In the mix are:
1)  Completing my certificate in environmental education; I'm down to the wire on my four year time frame and closing in on completing the 200 hours of coursework, outdoor experiences, teaching and community project required for the certificate.

2) Completing the Playful Pedagogy training at the NC Zoo:  I've done one section and have 2 more to go which are being offered in March and May so I will then have my certificate in PLAY!

3) Writing and hopefully publishing (beyond this blog)!  I was invited this week to return to an excellent writing group with my long time teacher Carol Henderson.  I was part of this particular group a couple of years ago.  I am thrilled to be given a second chance- I was a fool to drop out when I did.  This is a feet to the fire group where the 5 members bring 1,000 polished words weekly to read and give and accept constructive critique.  This really forces me to produce and gives me the confidence to send the work further afield.

4)  Community gardens: Continue to work with existing gardens and help them become self-supporting and sustainable.

5)  Child care centers and teachers:  Continue to help improve outdoor environments and learning opportunities for staff and kids, getting everyone more into nature.

And of course I'll still be gardening, cooking, helping David take care of our place and trying to live the good life here on Trout Lily Lane.  The winter garden is still producing lots of fresh food for us.  The weather has been mild so we are continuing to harvest broccoli, kale, lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, turnips, collards, carrots, arugula, and bok choy.

Ready to pick

Spinach and lettuce getting some sunshine. The remay (white fabric) gets pulled over the hoops on nights below 32 and it makes a big difference.  Still tender and sweet and producing more than enough for us.

From the larder we are still enjoying sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes (canned and frozen), black-eyed peas, blueberries, pickled beets, fig jam and winter squash.  We will not go hungry.  I am already thinking about seeds and plants for spring.  Now if I can just lose that extra 10 pounds.....

I think 2013 is shaping up to be a great year and hope I can accomplish all that I have set out to do and more.  I hope you will continue to check in with me and see what's going on at Morgan Creek Chronicles, drop me a line (or comment) from time to time and I promise to try and post more often in 2013 than I did in 2012.

Happy New Year!