Home on the Hill

Yesterday brother Tom came up and we dug all the skidsteer parts out of the snow banks and got them ready for use. I have a four way bucket, Forks, Tote box, and of course a snow plow for the rig. Nice to have all the parts ready to go. I am using the bucket to get snow piles away from the house so any melting gets directed away from the foundation. I went in the shop and couldn't find Boose the shop cat. Lo and behold she was sleeping up on the lumber rack. Body wise, if I could leap the same distance, I could stand on the ground and leap up to the roof. Now that would be handy. And in cat years I could still do it when I am Sixty! Forget those Swedes. Today is more snow removal some firewood chores and shop organizing. Now that's a whole post in itself. I also started to dig a path to the retired garden so that I can get the tire tops and bring them into the shop for replacing the plastic lids.

We've had some sun lately and I have started to see the snow shrinking around the tire planters in the "re-tired" garden. Planting time in getting closer. The inside six inches of soil that is against the tires is frost free. The middles are still frozen. We left most of the tires with agricultural cloth covering the lids and they didn't stand up to the winters snow. The ones that had plastic on them did. Soon it will be time to repair all the lids, put some more tinfoil in the tires and get ready for planting. Lettuce in May! Yesterday Jo-Ann declared the remaining turnips in the inside out cold storage fridge were now inedible and bound for the compost pile. They lasted over five months which, I believe, is generally pretty good for turnips in cold storage. The big surprise was the zuchinni which lasted three months. We got off to a bad start last year and the turnips especially got crowded out with lambs foot, as the yard help we had hired when we left fo...