Tuesday, October 22, 2013

First Snow

Our first snow arrived on October 20th this year and put an end to St. Luke's Summer which was quite lovely.

Early morning in the front yard
Before it snowed I was able to get quite a bit of work done around the house.  Like the enlarged chicken run

Enlarged chicken run

and the fixed up maple syrup rig

Winterized maple syrup rig
I raised and re-oriented the bricks surrounding the fire ring so that North and South winds are less able to blow onto the fire.  There is a piece of scrap plywood topped with a plastic tarp for a cover and should keep the set up pretty accessible.  I will maintain a path through the snow to the rig so when maple sap season starts up it should be easy for me to quickly get started boiling down sap.  (The other two paths I'll keep will go to the compost bins and the greenhouse.)

I also cleaned up all the garden boxes, planted the garlic, and moved all the perennial onions into one box.  Boy, did the chickens love all the garden refuse!

Walking around this morning let me take some nice pictures with Tom's camera:

The worm fence
The log pile

My sister, Mary, and I went to the annual Small Farm Conference sponsored by the Agricultural Extension.  I left my camera in her car so after I get it back I'll put up a post about the day along with the few pictures I was able to take before the camera batteries died on me.  It was a fun day and I look forward to telling  you about it.

Till then, may you all be safe and warm!