Winter isn't giving up...

Winter just won't go away here. Normally I'm pruning my trees at this time of the year.

One thing I should mention, these posts on my giant pumpkin blog are now being routed to Facebook. I'm not sure how that will work out. If it confuses people I just might kill the connection.

My neighbors now have windmills. One neighbor has one, and another has two. They are quite interesting. I don't mind them at all, and maybe someday I'll get one. Pictures are forthcoming.

Winter's Last Stand

Ha ha, we can only wish. But when this current deep freeze is over, the subsequent ones won't be as deep or as long. Yes, we'll get more snow and cold temps, but all this is coming to an end soon. Really.

All winter I've been pondering soil temperature. I live in an area where the temps really fall off at night. If the soil is shaded, well, the soil doesn't really get all that warm. We can have a 90-degree day, and then when the sun sets, it can get too cold to go barefoot on my back lawn.

One thing I've been thinking of trying is to get some large rocks (about the size of a fat loaf of bread) and use these to form a circle about five feet in diameter. This then gets backfilled with soil and other good stuff, to form a "raised bed" for a seedling. This whole spot gets covered with clear plastic in the early season. With the raised bed, and the rocks, and the plastic, and the addition of some dark colored "sharp sand", this might help raise soil temp.

Best laid plans... but this year I might actually have the time to pull it off.