Winter’s quickly approaching! First we had a terrific freeze (down to 20 degrees) with a hard frost. The frost was pretty, as it made beautiful patterns on our truck and lawn. But right on its heels, was SNOW. I’m talking about an inch here, not a few flakes! Boy, does that shove us into “getting ready for winter” mode!

Yesterday, before the snow, I spent the day pulling tomato cages, piling spent vines, and stacking tomato stakes. I did three rows of 14 cages/stakes each. I still have another row and a half to go, but I’m getting there. I’m piling the plants to burn. Burning spent tomato vines helps reduce the possibility of blights or insects wintering over in the dead vines. And the resulting ash is good for our acidic soil.

Meanwhile, Will has been busily working on the barn and also picking up various “messes” around the yard. Some of these included some old lumber and logs, which we sawed up for firewood. I helped split them and we ran them into the house in the wheelbarrow just before rain came. Now our back porch is piled high with emergency wood and the woodshed is getting really, really full. What a great feeling. Especially when we woke up to that inch of snow this morning! — Jackie

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 29th, 2011 at 3:00 am and is filed under Gardening, Self-sufficiency, Winter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.