Harvest Monday Nov 1, 2010

Brrr!  It is certainly November here in New England.  It was 25 degrees when I woke up this morning.  The kids were bundled up in winter coats and the heat was turned on.  The living room was 58 degrees, so there was no messing around today.  As a result, I decided to harvest a few things that I was unsure of.  Tonight is supposed to be just as cold.

There was quite a bit of broccoli and a few beets that were big enough to harvest.  I left the broccoli in to see how well it does.  There are a few more heads started and some side shoots that may develop.  Since I've never had anything planted this late, I'm not sure how well they'll do.  The beets are not sizing up as well as I would like, so I thinned them and we'll see what happens.  I know both broccoli and beets are ok with some cold, but I'm not sure when they'll be destroyed.

The rest of the greens, cabbage and carrots are looking good, so they'll stay in the ground.  My Pac Choi has gotten far too big, so the chickens have been enjoying it instead.  The cabbage is still forming heads, I'm curious to see what will happen with them.  It would be great if the cabbage, beets and carrots would continue to size up, the light is getting scarce though.

This post is part of Daphne's Dandelions, head on over and see what everyone is harvesting this week.

Busy

This is my basement.  The light pink parts of the carpet are floating.  After killing 2 pumps, we're getting the water out with a neighbor's pool pump.  We'll be fighting it for a few days though.  The water table is so high, the water is coming in through cracks in my foundation.  You can see it bubbling up. 

This is the back corner of my yard.  Even the neighbor's trampoline is under water, something that has never happened.  

I'll catch up in a few days.  I'm busy remembering that it could be much worse.

After the rain

We have had several days of rain in the northeast.  Flooding is everywhere, people being evacuated, basements ruined and cars stuck in water.  It was made worse by the fact that the ground was still partially frozen and didn't absorb the 8-10 inches of rain that we got as well. 

Luckily, I didn't get water in my basement.  We live on a hill and have never gotten anything but some drops of water by the bulkhead in the basement.  My backyard has an area that dips down.  It's great for sledding, but not so much for all this rain.

This is also where my blueberries live.  They have been sitting in several inches of water for a few days now.  We'll have to wait and see if they make it through.  I knew we got lots of water down there, but it has only flooded once before.  It's certainly my own fault if I lose the bushes.

You may also be able to see all the trash that collects here over the winter.  My yard seems to be the area that the wind deposits any trash that is flying around.  Every spring I have to clean it up again. 

The nice thing is that we're supposed to have temps in the 60s and possibly make a run for the 70s this week, with lots of sun.  All of my overgrown lettuces and cole crops will be hardened off and planted later this week.  That will free up space to start my tomatoes.

Baby it's Cold Outside!

This is what my thermometer read this morning.  Now, mind you its 8:15, so the temperature has already risen a bit in the past hour or so.  Normally, I've already done all my outdoor, morning chores by now, but I'm waiting for it to get above 10.

The chickens are feeling it.  A few of them have some frostbite on their combs.  It isn't bad, but must be kind of painful.  I'll be going out to attempt to put some vaseline on them, to prevent further damage.  Their eggs are freezing in a very short time, so we have to be quick or they end up frozen and cracked.

Toby loves the snow and is thrilled to be home, but even he doesn't want to be out for long.

The water dripping off the house splashes up into the most beautiful designs.

The trees look pained.  Like arthritic fingers, brittle from the cold.

Reaching for the sun and whatever warmth they can get.

The garden sits, lonely, waiting for Spring.

See who else is strolling over at the Quiet County House

The Weather Outside is Frightful

This is the scene from my back door this morning.  I woke up and realized that I have a dog that needs to get out in this and chickens that I need to be able to get to.  Then I questioned why I would have these animals in the first place.  Finally, I just put my boots on and went out in the mess. 

We have at least a foot so far, but its hard to tell since its blowing so much.  The snow in the backyard was consistently over my knees as I was shoveling out to the girls.  Toby thought it was just for him to play in.  He loves the snow and hops around in it like a puppy. 

When I finally made my way to the chickens, they were hiding out in their house.  We had put plastic on the side of their run that usually gets the wind, of course this time it came from the other side.  The result is that there is quite a bit of snow in there and they don't want to come out in it.  The ramp leading down from their house has about 4 inches of snow on it and its no better on the ground.  I ended up tramping back out with some smaller feed and water containers that we used to use when they were smaller.  That should get them through until the snow stops this afternoon.  When I opened up the coop they were all complaining about it.  Poor girls.  They seemed nice and toasty inside though.  Chickens give off quite a bit of heat. 

Now, I'm going to sit and have a cup of tea (or several) and watch the rest of the storm unfold.  It looks like we'll be close to 2 feet when all is said and done. 

Freaky weather

Today has run the gamut of weather.  We started out with 3 inches of snow.  It then turned to slush and eventually rain.  By evening we had fog and tonight we had thunder and lightning!  In December!  This is insane.  I am assuming all this wild and crazy weather is climate change issues.  It sure is making things interesting around here.  It would be nice to have some normal weather patterns to make it easier to plan things like gardening and the like.