Only in Minnesota does it go from sub-zero to 62 degreesin a week. We did have about 2 feet of snow on the ground, but today it’s totally gone except in shady areas or in the woods. And even there, it’s going quickly with the sun shining brightly and 60 degrees today! It doesn’t seem possible. Today Will’s madly cutting up the remaining poplar trees in the new pasture clearing before the frost goes out of the ground and it gets too wet to drive the truck down there. It will take a few days for the ground to dry up after all of this melting snow.
And because it’s so warm, I’m starting to can meat like crazy. We bought a small, energy-efficient freezer but it is not as energy efficient as they rated it! So our generator has had to run too much to keep our battery bank from draining. To help cut expenses and to keep our meat good, I’m canning most of it up, a big batch at a time.
I did take time out this morning to walk our orchard and check for damage to the trees. All but one look great. And the one that doesn’t is an old one, a semi-dwarf, that will be dug up and replaced with a more hardy rootstock standard tree this spring. I didn’t realize that the semi-dwarf trees, available at nurseries around here, supposedly “hardy in Zone 3” are grafted on rootstock that is NOT hardy in Zone 3! Seven years later, I’m smarter and won’t repeat that mistake again.
Oh, I’ve got to tell you — I saw a pair of geese flying down the creek to land on the beaver pond. What a wonderful sight and sound!
Well, back to canning. Today, it’s hamburger. Tomorrow it’s ground pork; I think I’ll make breakfast sausage patties to can in wide-mouth jars. I hate working inside when my fingers are itching to get at the flower beds! — Jackie
