Garden Notes: December 2023

   Rainfall 

• 1st: 0.3"
• 2nd: 0.4"
• 3rd: 0.02"
• 9th: 1.33"
• 10th: 1.08"
• 17th: 0.17"
• 25th: 1.9"
• 26th: 2.01"
• 27th: 0.03"
• Total: 7.24 inches

Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 21 to 58°F (-6 to 14°C)
• range of daytime highs: 45 to 67°F (7 to 19.5°C)

Garden Notes:

• I have a few things growing in the garden: kale, daikons, turnips, and Swiss chard.
• Continuing to finish up mulching the remaining beds.
• Then I'll start on tidying up and re-mulching the aisles.

Greenhouse Notes

• Everything is doing well so far, although slow to grow.
• Our coldest night so far this month was 21°F (-6°C), but the greenhouse didn't get below 32°F (0°C). My cherry tomato plant is still alive and well. 
• As are my transplanted green pepper plants.
• Once the sun hits the greenhouse, it warms up quickly, so I have to keep an eye on the temp and turn on the vent fan if needed. 

cherry tomato vine with quite a few flowers

sweet pepper plant

kale

broccoli

Planted (in the greenhouse)

celery base (from Thanksgiving stuffing)

sprouting garden potatoes from the pantry

The potatoes are an experiment. Potatoes are typically planted around here in March, which doesn't make sense to me because a frost or freeze will kill the top growth. Depending on what the rest of the winter is like, these may do okay for a few early potatoes.

Parting Shot

December salad: daikon leaves, kale, Swiss chard, chickweed,
dandelion leaves, feta goat cheese, & greenhouse cherry tomatoes.

Garden Notes: December 2023 © Dec 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

A Twist on a Christmas Tradition

Firstly, no matter what holiday you celebrate, I wish you a happy one! 

My holiday offering for my readers is a bit different this year. I first heard this a couple of weeks ago at my granddaughter's school Christmas program. She plays trombone in the junior high band, and this was one of their concert offerings. It intrigued me enough that I had to look it up on YouTube to find—shall we say—a less beginnerish rendition. This one was uploaded by the composer himself. I think you'll see why it would have great appeal to school bands, especially with the great percussion part.

I give you Santa the Barbarian: Snowpocalypse by Randall Standridge.

 

A Twist on a Christmas Tradition © Dec 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Status Quo Days

December, January, and February pretty much make up the winter season on our northern hemisphere agrarian calendar. In our part of the world, that means more indoor time with quite a few lovely afternoons to work outside. Having switched my creative pursuits from writing to weaving, I feel productive in a different sort of way, and it's nice not to spend so much time at the computer.

So while there's not much new news, I do have tidbits to share, such as, I got our Christmas tree up!

I get a live potted tree every year and then plant it afterward. Except that for the past several years I've gotten rosemary bushes that never seem to make it. So I decided to try something else. This is an arborvitae. 

With gift giving days coming up, I've been busy weaving Christmas presents.

 

twill table runner

crackle table runner

woven red plaid scarf

woven gray plaid scarf

The links go to technical details.

Dan spends his morning and evening indoor time woodburning.

The panel is from the bottom of one of the doors he bought off craigslist for the greenhouse. The top was glass panels, which he cut off to use for the upper center of the greenhouse roof. 

In the department of needful things, Dan built something we've been talking about for years; a headgate for the task of trimming the buck's hooves. 

Our bucks are all pretty friendly, but no goat likes having their hooves trimmed and tends to be uncooperative. This time of year they are still in rut, which means they are rambunctious and harder to handle. The bait, of course, is feed, but we have to have only one at a time in the pen. When we're working on one buck, the others want to take advantage of his restrained situation by butting him (and us, if we're not careful.) It's all goofy play, but they are rough and their play is not something the humans want to be caught in.

With feeder. They're always more cooperative if there's something to eat!

The headgate works very well. I just wish I'd remembered my camera the last time we tackled the job.

The chickens are moulting and so not laying at the moment. But the ducks are obliging us with eggs.

These are lovely for Christmas baking.

As you can see, not much exciting going on. We're just enjoying our season of rest. Hopefully, you'll enjoy these parting shots of Riley. 

He loves to play in the water dish, which gets water everywhere.

I hope you all are staying warm and dry.

Status Quo Days © December 2023

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com