Record Breaking Temperatures & Spring Activities. February 20th, 2017

This past weekend we had record breaking temperatures at 18 degrees Celsius!  With this balmy weather we just had to spend most of the weekend outside in the yard.  With the help of Aaron's Mom, his sister, and brother in law, we had a pretty good team that continued to pull out grape vines, brambles, old rotten logs, and even poison ivy along our south fence line.  Aaron also felled some dead aspens with the chainsaw. Looks like one more weekend's worth and we will finally be done.

Our beehives are now built.  Just some final tweeking and a coat of paint and they will be ready to go when we receive our nucs in late spring.

Aaron made sourdough bread this weekend from the starter that he continued to feed for the last couple of weeks.  Unfortunatly, it didn't rise much.  We are thinking the final proof after kneading the dough wasn't long enough for the yeasts to properly activate. We were hoping to have some sourdough bread with our microgreen salad, but instead we just shaved off the crunchy crust and ate it.  We will give it another go this weekend.

Our failed first attempt at sourdough bread.  The chickens loved it though, so not a complete waste

 

We finally placed our seed order for 2017! Here is a run down of what we are planting this year: 

- 3 types of dry shell beans plus a red kidney bean
- Edamame
- Green and Yellow wax beans
- Carrots
- Sweet Corn
- Leek
- Pumpkin
- Acorn Squash
- Zucchini
- Butternut Squash
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Snap Peas
- Brussel Sprouts (new for 2017)
- Peanuts (new for 2017)
- Dill
- Golden Zucchini (new for 2017)
- Sunflower (new for 2017)
- Pickles (new for 2017)
- Celeriac
- Beef, Roma and Cherry Tomatoes
- Bell, Poblano, Jalapeno, Habanero, and Ghost Peppers
- Scorpion Pepper (new for 2017)
- Red and Yellow Onion sets
- French Breakfast Radish
- White Clover, New England Aster, Black-eyed Susans, Purple Coneflower (for the yard)

Hopefully the wildflowers will arrive in the next few weeks since March is the time of year to broadcast the White Clover and start the other flowers indoors.

Sunday morning on the 19th there were clearly signs of spring as some of our resident Common Grackles returned, flocks of Canada Geese and a lone Killdeer flew over, and our Cardinal and Mourning Doves were singing.  We also had a single Robin in the yard that evening as well.  The warm weather is supposed to stay with us for most of the upcoming week so today we planted our French Breakfast Radishes.

It really looks like we are nearing the end of winter.  Overall it was a pretty mild one, which was positive for us and our chickens, though the milder temperatures may bring us more pest problems for the summer, especially in the form of Japanese Beetles.  We did buy some netting for our Cherry trees since they almost stripped the leaves right off of them last summer. Hopefully it helps!