Friday afternoon Eva and I went for a run and
lookie at what I saw!! A sun dog!
I actually saw two, this one is to the left of the sun
and the other one was to the right. But these 2 sun dogs came
and went so fast. Both times I paused to get my ipod to take a
photo and by the time I got it out, it began to fade, and fast.
Not sure if it means anything, but the last one I saw was very
deep in color and remained in the sky for at least 15 min,
But I do know that it means it is gonna snow!!!!
~~ Saturday was one of those days,
one that I will forever dream of having ~~
~~ enjoying the afternoon all to myself ~~
~~ playing in the garden for hours ~~
~~ able to enjoy being outside on a warm February day ~~
~~ Great Ear Candy ~~
~~ achieving that hard work outside high ~~
~~ taking a steaming hot bath with a glass of vino ~~
~~ snuggling in the loft with my Sweetie ~~
~~ watching "Into The Wild" ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since the weather had been warmer,
it had allowed the earth to defrost a bit.
I was going to spread our Perkins Organic Black Gold
on one of the beds in the garden last weekend,
but our compost was pretty much frozen solid.
So I headed outside at 11am and did not return inside until 4:30pm
(although I did come in for a moment to grab a handful of almonds,
a bit of hummus, a tangerine, and to refill my big ole water cup)
Weather was perfect,
partly sunny, with a slight breeze dancing with the
tops of our towering pines.
After all this cold weather we've been having,
45° felt pretty warm.
Occasionally the sun would peek out from behind
the clouds and warm the air briefly,
felt good to soak up some Vitamin D.
doesn't look like it, but there is enough compost
on the right side of our composter
to fill my wheelbarrow twice!
you can see the layers,
with the bottom being the black gold....
we alternate layers of scraps with leafs.
....the top is layered with scraps of banana peels,
egg shells, coffee grounds, apple cores,
lemon-lime-orange rinds....
really any produce scraps.
Crazy how fast it accumulates.
I loaded up the wheel barrow and hand spread
(for an even application) our compost.
Time to tackle the 100 foot bed
![[12411803555_036b4c1461_n]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7399/12411803555_036b4c1461_n.jpg)
just enough black gold to cover
![[12411982603_a3c7475541_n]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3809/12411982603_a3c7475541_n.jpg)
....turned - one shovel at a time
I love that we can take our table scraps, egg shells, etc. and
turn it into such a rich black compost for our garden!
As I was turning the soil,
I hit more than a big rock......
Now that I used all our compost on the right..........
it is time to turn over the compost into
the other side. It helps to aerate and also
distributes the microbes and gives them
as chance to find more food
to break down turn into dark rich black compost!
One of the rituals I so enjoy every Spring
is the "getting of a new pair of gardening gloves".
I think this pair is just about ready to retire.
Sunday morning after fulfilling the kids request of
pana~cakes made from scratch....
I headed back out to the garden.
Today I am sprinkling our fireplace ashes
and some organic Chickity Doo Doo
on the bed I was working on yesterday.
I then took a hard rake to work in the ashes and doo doo
and also break up any large clods of dirt for a smooth bed.
Now this bed is ready for Spring!
This is where our maters were last season,
as we like to rotate where we plant our produce,
so this will be the bed for our corn.
Now it's time to head to the chicken coop to rake the leafs from
around the electric fence to keep the current strong.
as one stands at this corner of the Chicken Coop area,
if you were to look to the right,
you can see the big hill through the trees,
and just past that is the hike down to the Pigeon River .
I think our peeps are laying on the ground to get warm.
Put several cans of leafs in the coop.
The chickens love to kick it around and forage;
and it helps to spread it around their coop.
Helps to turn their poop and older leafs into a sort of compost.
It also aids in keeping the coop healthy.
Heading back to the house to check on the kids and they were outside playing Corn Hole.
Hard to believe after such a beautiful weekend,
we are expecting a (hopefully) GOOD snow!
after awl .... I did see 2 sun dogs!!
Til next time .......
~~ Peace Out ~~
ok, since I wrote this yesterday,
the sun dog held up its end.....
this is just the tip of what we are to see
over the next two days....it has just started......
Peace ~ Love ~ M*O*F*R*O
