Gettin' Ready

Weatherwise, we seem to plunge deeper into winter each January.  Yet, the winter solstice marks a meteorological as well as astronomical midpoint to winter.  That means, in the new year, we really are clawing our way towards spring.  I think it's why I start thinking about gardens as soon as the confetti from New Year's Eve has been cleared away.

Right now on my kitchen counter, I have seed catalogs, a shoebox of seed packets, graph paper, and gardening books.  I have spreadsheets galore for planting dates, layouts, and note-taking.  Gardening won't be this much fun again until harvest time.  This year, I'm planning on starting a bunch of seeds indoors to test which of my seeds are still viable--some are kind of a long shot, but you never know.  These will provide the bulk of my plants this year, and if something doesn't grow, we will do without.  Except for tomatoes.  There's no point to a vegetable garden if it lacks tomatoes.  I'm going to order a few new things too, some for the chickens, and some for us.

That brings us to this week's most momentous event: I sent off my chicken order.  I've been making plans for our brooder and hoping the chicks come sooner rather than later. I can't wait to start this journey!

On our snow day, when AW woke up and saw the snow, she immediately wanted to go "crunch" the snow.  She could barely contain her excitement through breakfast and the very lengthy process of getting three people dressed for snow and temperatures in the twenties.  Genny positively frolicked in the snow, acting much younger than her almost ten years.  AW enjoyed a ride in her sled, while DC watched all the goings-on with much suspicion.  He's not too crazy about the snow yet. 

The week wrapped up with a dinner party with friends. The conversation ranged from discussions about rhotic English versus Received Pronunciation, to which wild fowl were available to New England puritans to the merits of the various James Bonds. 

 David started eating more solid food.