A Different Kind Of January

I am writing this on Monday January 30, 2012. This is normally our usual sights on the farm in January. Gray skies and the browns of winter. Dismal long overcast days. Days of resting and waiting for those warm days and warming rays of sunlight to return. Anticipating even the preparation of the upcoming planting and harvesting season.

This is the time to armchair garden. To pour over those seed catalogs and plan for the coming year. A time to learn and read new ways to improve those crops and planting practices. A time to rest. A laid back time to ponder.  With the lingering traces of last weeks scrawny half inch of snow that lasted not even a day still visible. Only the second small snow event all year. Only a memory now as only traces remain in the deep shade hiding from the light of day. But wait!

Do I see the mercury on that old thermometer in the upper 60's. Do I see the Hen House Ladies out there in that sunshine fluffing and strutting their stuff.

I hear the roar of an engine in the distance as O Wise One rides his old trusty little green tractor.

Ah.... I smell the perfume of freshly turned soil. The little green tractor turning in all those rotted leaves and old straw bedding from last years pig house into the soil along with coffee grounds, banana peels and crushed egg shells that we have been throwing on there. And the old compost pile thrown on for good measure. Soil being prepared for the early crops of onions, peas and potatoes that it will receive in just a few short weeks. St Patrick's Day just at 6 weeks from now.  Potato planting time.

I have to wonder what February will bring? Will this winter be a bust or is she saving her best for last? Time shall indeed tell. This kind of weather worries me. It taunts my fruit trees to bud out prematurely and bloom earlier than they would normally. Only to then be zapped by those sneaky last of the season freezes. This freezes the blooms and then no fruit for the year. Nothing I can do about it but worry i guess. If not that then something else. This homesteading can sure be a guessing game some years.

Blessings from The Holler

The Canned Quilter