Saturday, December 11, 2010

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

December certainly came in with a blast, A COLD BLAST!! We, at the Crooked Cedar Farm, have been enduring, as well as everyone else in these parts, a very cold time of it and it's not going away quite yet. Last Saturday morning we did make it back to the All Local Market and had a good day selling our produce. Not so this week, however. We covered most of the greens and salad mixes with frost blankets at the beginning of the week and just removed them today. No picking last week or market today, either. Just too cold. Rain is expected tonight and the temps should be above freezing. The plants really need some rain and thawed soil so their roots can take up the water. Tomorrow afternoon, the frost blankets go back on as the weather is going to be freezing again until mid week.

While it's been so cold, we have done a little decorating and shopping for Christmas. It will soon be here. It seems to come around faster every year.

 Our son, his wife and his two children came over last Sunday and brought me a beautiful flower, a red cyclamen, for my birthday. It looks so pretty on the kitchen table. We had such a good time with them and our two grandsons. I also had calls from our other son, his wife, other family members and friends for my birthday. It was a good day.

I was able to work in the greenhouse this week, which was a toasty 70 degrees. I planted the window boxes that Selvin gave me for my birthday. They are going on the three windows on the front of the house that aren't covered by the porch. I've wanted to have window boxes there for a long time and they should be very pretty when the plants grow enough to be seen. The broccoli and kohlrabi seedlings are looking great and will soon be big enough to come off of the heat mats. I'll keep them under the lights, though, so they won't get leggy.

Everyday I are replenishing the wood pile on the porch and the wood stove is pumping out wonderful warm heat. Love that wood heat. While it's a lot of work to cut, split and haul the wood, we would rather have this kind of heat. We do have a gas pack furnace for a backup heat source.

Selvin's back continues to improve and he is able to do a few more things around the farm. Just light tasks, but still taking it slow.Today I picked just a small amount of spinach, which I put into omelets for supper tonight. We also had our great "Summer in a Jar" tomato soup. Nothing better on a cold winter's night.