Polar vortex and staying warm

It is bitterly cold this week. The wind chill factor has brought the temperatures down to -6’C tonight (21’F) and tomorrow should be even colder with half an inch of freezing rain. The gusts of wind have been reaching 45 km/h (27 mph) and that should also get increasingly worse as the week moves along. Needless to say, much time has been spent indoors the last 2 days and I suspect there will be more snuggling warmly in our cozy little home for the next few days to come.

Today called for crafts and pjs. Nobody but my husband (who still went to work by bike, bless his soul) felt the need to do much but stay warm. But I bet sweet hubby would have stayed home if work didn’t call him out. We made crowns and played with blocks, ate preserved peaches and hemp seed crepes with fresh honey. How wonderful it is to start popping open those beautiful rainbow colored jars. I was hoping to not have to dig into our winter preserves quite yet, but cold weather gardening didn’t quite happen this year and with our CSA closed up for the year, it’s time to start eating what we worked so hard to put by.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked “shop” so to speak. Our little burgeoning homestead has been tucked in for winter, the beds covered in leaves after having been filled with over 15 cubic feet of fresh dirt.  That is right, the pile is gone! We added a new bed in the front yard, almost 200 square feet. After observing a lot of the sun exposure over the summer, we realized that about 25% of our front yard was getting hit by direct sunlight for over 10 hours a day. That seemed like a waste of a good space if you ask me! So my husband double-dug and lasagna planted us a 5 ft X 24 ft bed with a keyhole feature around a baby magnolia tree sapling we put into the ground less than a year ago. Needless to say we have great plans for this new little garden patch.

Another interesting piece of news : We have gained back over 30% of our backyard. Let me explain : A while back, I walked you through our little 1/3 acre property. Well, if you remember, the back of our land was thick with trees, shrubs, bushes and a row of 100 year old pine trees that were separating us from our neighbors. That only meant one thing : shade, shade and more shade! Well, we were approached by them last week asking if we minded if they took down some of the pines. See, their lot is filled with them and they haven’t been able to grow anything due to the extreme acidity of the soil. Really, the trees are on their land so we couldn’t really say anything, but they were sweet to ask and we gave them the green light.

And then, in return, they gave us LIGHT!

This was the end of the day before (picture taken when we first bought our home):

And this is the end of the day now :

Again, can we say possibilities?!?!

So we are excited for this coming year. We’ve already started planning for next spring, having fun exploring new veggies and fruit we would want to try. We are thinking that now, everything is pretty much within our reach. It seems like things are lining up and confirming that the choices we made are the right ones. And I thank the Universe everyday for this blessed life I lead.

Good night everyone! xo