In the Cold Rain and Snow

The month of January has been a trying time for us at Puzzle Peace. As we clammer to come up with a plan for the upcoming season, we are excited, overwhelmed, and regretful that our winter projects are not where we want them to be. This month we took inventory on seeds and drooled over pictures from our seed suppliers' catalogs as we ordered more of the same, debated back and forth over which varieties to try and added a perennial stand to our regular planting of annuals...look out for asparagus three years from now. The onions and garlic we planted in December were mulched and the much anticipated soil test results finally arrived. With ph, CEC, and NPK up, it looks like we're doing something right.

The winter projects chugged along as we created a grow room out of the spare bedroom (below), which allowed an early jump on transplants when there was snow on the ground.



Our new grow room for seedlings.



Onion Sprouts



We started work on a packing shed, a luxury that has elluded us for too long, took down a small deer fence in order to construct an enormous deer fence that might actually work, began moving Lindy's greenhouse from her former life as a bachelorette farmer in Rutherfordton, and aquired a milk truck body which we hope to convert into a walk in cooler very soon.  In the thick of these long term projects, we fed goats, hogs, and chickens to help them through the winter when green pasture is an unappetizing shade of brown. Right now we're chomping at the bit for a series of dry days so we can re-shape beds and finally put the first seeds and sets of 2011 in the ground. Here's to spring which can't come fast, or slow enough.

puzzle peace out,

Thomas and Lindy