Thanks to the wonderful warm day, the plants in the greenhouse got a nice dose of pre-spring fresh air, and a visit from a junco, who was plenty annoyed after ending up stuck in there all night. He’s free now, though.
I wonder if he spent any time in the chick enclosure (which is a couple of cardboard boxes), because you’re supposed to be very careful about wild birds being anywhere near chickens, but I don’t think it should be a problem. Hmmm.

Snowfall, Wednesday – Friday: 12 inches.
Calories burned shoveling snow: 1224 (408 x 3 hours).

Man, my back is not happy today. I’m hoping it will loosen up while I’m out snowshoeing.
In other news, the chicken coop delivery is rescheduled for some time when we can see the ground.
The box & heat lamp are set up in the greenhouse for the chicks, when we get them, but I think we’ll all be a bit more at ease when we actually get the coop and run set up.
We’re getting closer and closer to seed-starting time: it’s technically just a few weeks until the peas get planted, too, but it’s a little hard to imagine with the beds under 12 inches of snow.
(And of course the apple trees still need to be pruned, but the repair of the chainsaw will dictate when that can happen.)

We just got over an underwhelming “snowstorm” on Saturday, and are heading for another tomorrow: I’m at home, doing freelance work & am up to my eyeballs in homework, so I’m hoping I get out to play in the snow for a few minutes.
All the hard work of spring still seems like a million miles away.
(and yes, the apple trees still need pruning: the weather has not been cooperating at all AND we’ve been lazy. This month, it’s gotta happen this month, or we suck.)

We’ve finally got a coop worked out, and it will be delivered in March, and that means we can get chicks soon after. Yay! No idea of breed yet, but at least we’re making some headway.

I’ve been tinkering a lot in the kitchen: growing various bean sprouts (yummy), making vegan caramels (successful & sticky), and I’m thinking of trying my hand at fermentation, as in pickles, sauerkraut, natto, etc. I LOVE Asian pickles, and can rarely find them or afford them, so I thought I’d get fresh daikon radish & lotus root & make the pickles myself.
And everyone knows I love natto, but no one else does, or even likes hearing about it, so I’ll shut up. I have a fine gallery of natto pictures on Flickr, if you’d like to be frightened by fermenting, stinky beans, be my guest: here’s the link
Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though.

Fermentation is supposed to be a much better source of probiotics than taking acidophillus pills, so I’m strongly considering it. We’ll see.

Otherwise, not much happening around here. Let it snow.

I’m gearing up for the planting season (I assume that the unseasonable warmth today is contributing to my garden-y thoughts), and thought I’d share what we’re planning to grow this year:

From Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:
Organic Brandywine Tomatoes
Organic Dinosaur Kale
Organic Bloomsdale Spinach
Mayo Amaranth (for the chickens and local wildlife, really, though we may eat the young greens)
New Zealand Spinach

and from Nichols Garden Nursery
Organic Calabrese Broccoli
Chinese Kale (Gai Lohn)
Cocozelle Bush Zucchini
Takinogawa Burdock
“Land Seaweed” Agretti (Salsola Komarovi) (I have no freaking idea, it looked very interesting, so we’re trying it out)
Rat-tail Radishes (again, curiosity struck)
another package of Organic Dinosaur Kale (also called “Tuscan” or “Lascinato”), since we’ll probably replant in the fall for a winter harvest.
Celtuce (Stem Lettuce) (curiosity again)

So, it should be interesting! This isn’t an exhaustive list at all, we’ll still be buying seed potatoes, pepper plants, and herb plants, as well as other plants that we tend to buy as seedlings, rather than sprouting ourselves.

I’ve also got designs on some random stuff, like actively cultivating the purslane that’s planted itself throughout the raised beds (for us & for the chickens, since it’s very high in Omega-3), and stinging nettle, which we’ll have to procure locally, once Well Sweep (our local herb nursery) opens for the season.
I’m also looking for some seed swaps, so if anyone has any recommendations, please pass them on!

I actually rejoined myfolia.com to track this stuff better, since they’ve got some awesome tools, so you may see some cross-posting or references to my information, which can be found here.

So, when everyone gets the same person chicken books for Christmas, it quickly becomes ridiculous. Luckily, my dad’s not the type to expect grand extravagance, so he took the four chicken books in stride.

Replete from dinner, actually more like: too full to be at the computer so I’m going to hibernate for a bit & come back later.

We’re having serious talks about the prospects of raising chickens for eggs…not for additional revenue, but so we can turn some of our compost into food for chickens, and some of the chicken’s leavings into even better compost.
It’s all a matter of researching permaculture & chicken tractors, now, and I’m picturing the shuffle through the snow to a small, hay-filled coop, and hoping we’re smart enough to make it all easier rather than harder.
Right now, we’re resting up from shoveling out from under a pretty massive snowstorm, and I’m hoping to get on my skis soon. Soon!