I grow peas, fava beans, radish, dill, onion, garlic, petunia.

I'm already growing impatient with no dirt to play in. I'm about ready to go outside all bundled up to work in the 18 degree weather and hang the two gates on the new 6x6 posts, and then start hanging the fence on the posts. My old rocky boots are wore out so I need new ones and thinking about Lacrosse alphaburly boots, but until then I don't think I can stay outside more then 6 or 7 hours before the feet get cold.

Before it snowed I put several cords of partiality decomposed Elm wood into the end of my wood composting pile and covered it up with near finished compost from the front with a bunch of nitrogen. In two or three years it may be good enough to go into the end of the main composting pile that may be used 6 years from now. I don't really turn them much and draw from the front and add to the back of each pile.

I also took two free old round moldy rye straw bales and busted them up and covered with finished compost and nitrogen in the end of the main composting pile. I will turn that next year because it may be needed two years from now. It takes a long time getting to my black gold.

I am traveling and I noticed that all y'all (southern speak) in South Carolina have not raked your leaves yet. WTH?!! Don't come crying to me when you have no leaf mould next spring! And even though I'm from the Pine Tree State, I decided to bring home four bales of pine straw from here, wrongly thinking that they'd be soft and lovely like our northern pine needles are. We don't have baled pine needles in Maine. The pine "straw" bales I got are spiky and hard and will not be pleasant to walk on barefoot. Plus, I forgot that they might be filled with planaria or lizards or plant diseases we don't have in Maine yet. I may have to take them back to S.C. and spread them on all those unraked leaves.

Where's the man who liked uncomposted cow manure and used mushroom compost? From PA or DE? John was it? I hate when people go away, I worry so.

annpat, it was John in PA who used cow manure and mushroom compost. Unfortunately for us, he passed away some time ago. His widow kindly let us know and said how much he had enjoyed being part of this online community.

I just gave away two wheelbarrow loads of Western White Pine needles tonight, we don't have bales of them here either. I don't know whether I'd call them soft or spiky, just that we have a lot pines out here in the West. Most of our leaves have fallen, what haven't will when the 'atmospheric river' of rain hits us this week! The Magnolia × soulangeana are the leaves I don't like-they're a big, thick leaf and they don't break down easily-or fast.

I've still got winter lettuce under a little plastic tent--it will last all winter. But the savoy cabbages for the very first time since I've been growing them--years--are simply covered with aphids. I've never seen anything like it. Cleaning the aphids off to use the cabbages takes repeated dunkings in water and even then never really gets all of them. I've had to peel off leaves and scrub them lightly with a soft nail brush. It's just dreadful, but they're a major winter crop for me.

Oh, thank you for letting me know, leah.

Déjà vu .........another pic of our persimmon tree through the window just 3 days later as another snowstorm hits us today...

A low temp of 19F is predicted tonite so this snow ain't going anywhere fast, this one will be about 5 inches deep. I picked that last cabbage early this morning before it hit and the coming temp drop, the lowest temp so far. The collards and carrots are on their own but should be fine under the blanket, the young spinach too.

I just drove through your frozen state yesterday. N.C. was even colder and snowier.

The temp will drop down to 16F tonite, the lowest so far this season. High tomorrow around 32F then another dip close to 20F. That will set back the collards but not kill em', and the carrots should be ok underground, the tops not so much. The young spinach will laugh it off. Looks to be warmer later in the week, upper 50's which is our normal/average high. Don't know if I mentioned it but we lost our last hen a few weeks ago, probably for the best since I doubt that she would have made it through the coming winter. I have shut down the coop and pulled the ele plug, it's been nice not having to worry about heating the drinking water and heat lamp.

So are you going to get new chicks in the near future?

It hit 13 below here last night after about 8 inches the day before. I hit a curb wrong plowing and busted up my back blade so, I had to hustle to straightening things out and welding it up before the deep freeze hit. I spent Saturday and today indoors hibernating.

^^ Nope, no more chickens for me Kevin, it was on my bucket list so I can scratch it off now. Trying to reduce my extra chores and make things a little easier. Ouch on that 13 below, the lowest temp I can recall here is +3F several years ago. Officially it dipped down to 15F this morning, I hope that's the coldest temp we see this winter, and it's not even winter for another week, ugh...

Well I made my first batch of sauerkraut today out of that last picked cabbage, plus a few carrots mixed in. We'll see how that ferments over the next week and give it a taste test. One whole head + 6 medium carrots will easily fill up a quart jar once it shrinks down during the pre-salt mix stage. Otherwise, all is calm though it's been cold of late. The collards and carrots seem ok after the big freeze, looks like a warming trend for the rest of Dec here, and hopefully for the next 3 months too, nyuk.

We got about 2" of rain last night so I went ahead and harvested the rest of the carrots, they may split with that much rain or get rooty with some warmer temps ahead. Left small ones out there to bloom next spring and attract beneficials, the local soldier beetles love those blooms. Collards are the last veggie out there, they should recover well from the recent teen temps. Also started some fruit tree pruning, trying to get a jump on things before the next freeze. Pretty windy here today too, but thankfully no power outages like in some states.

Like here. My third day without heat, electricity or water. I once harvested frozen carrots for Christmas and they split while cooking and looked like orange snowflakes.

I still have some green onions, spinach and rosemary hanging on in the unheated greenhouse in spite of that one -4F night we had. I also have a raised bed with carrots that don't look terrible, I was wondering about those although they are only the size of a pencil, I planted them too late, apparently, and it got cold quickly and early here in Michigan. I think I'm just going to leave them and see what happens, if the sun shines it gets pretty warm in that small greenhouse, but I don't think they'll grow much.

We have been without power for 3 out of the last 4 days, but do have a small generator for the house. We've mostly been pumping water into barrels and taking it to the farm to fill the 160 gallon cattle watering tank. Break the ice, fill the tank, repeat. Today we have power, yay, so we quickly filled the water tank first thing. First the ice storm, then the blizzard, I'm waiting for the next "event", LOL.

Annie