Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Wild West Weather

Well, the wind is roaring outside, and the temperature is dropping steadily.

I feel a bit sideswiped, as no mention seemed to be made of this terrible storm until late last night. Then, the national weather service issued this warning that was to the effect of, "Oh yeah, by the way, there's going to be like a foot of snow between tonight and tomorrow. So, be, like, forewarned. Sorry about the last minute notice! Good luck!" As I said, totally sudden announcement in my opinion! I have been running around like a madwoman today, trying to get everything on the farm ready for the high winds and heavy snow. We are almost entirely out of usable firewood (what's left is pretty much rotten and termite-ridden), so I had to scrounge and chop what I could in order to have enough firewood to last for at least the next day and a half. I emptied and refilled animal waters, made sure to weigh down any garden/farm items that might blow away, etc. Heavy snows usually mean power outages here, so I've been trying to stock up on water around the house and make sure the animal waters are full before the storm hits. Someday, I want to install a hand-pump well. I don't enjoy relying on the power company for vital things such as WATER!

In other news...

For our once-a-month date this March, Ryan and I scored front row (in the CENTER!) tickets to the Oregon Cabaret Theater's production of "Let's MisBehave." It's set in 1935 (my favorite time period!) with lots of Cole Porter songs - I'm SOOOOOO excited to go! Especially because whichever of my lovely hats makes the cut will be on display in the front row! Yippee! You can also show up early for dinner, and Ryan and I are going to do the full dinner-and-a-play experience. It's SO rare that we ever get to go out, let alone go ALL out on a date, that we wanted to really "live it up" a little!

Construction has begun on the new privacy fence between our property and the winery. I'm so relieved to see that fence go up that I cannot even begin to describe it! We will also be starting work on the Apothecary Suite deck sometime in the next couple of weeks. We have decided against an elaborate fish pond, and instead are just finishing out the empty rectangle, and putting a gazebo-like structure over the hot tub to add privacy and help shade the Apothecary Suite during those hot summer afternoons.

I have just begun germinating my tomatoes and peppers. My kale and artichokes have sprouted, and have been switched out of the germination trays and are awaiting their "adult" plant pots. I love gardening season! I have been making a little extra pocket money selling Jerusalem Artichoke tubers and herb starts to folks lately (I made the mistake of letting my Valerian, Clary Sage, Primrose, and Borage go to seed last summer, and now I have a gazillion starts all over the property that I either need to dig up and sell or destroy).

And now I must bid you adieu, and put some more logs on the fire!

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