My Boyfriend skijorring with our dog Dio. Dio is pulling John along on his Nordic skis. Skijorring is  great excercise for both parties and a great way to have fun in the snow. The commands are very similar to sleddog commands. Hike to go, Whoa to stop, Gee for right turns, Haw for left turns. Dio caught on within days and loves going skijorring.

 

Here is a link to a video of John and Dio Skijorring.

Growing Asparagus

We planted male Asparagus crowns last spring. They are really quite easy to plant. The site needs a bit of preparation, you dig a trench, work in compost and organic matter, make small mounds for each individual crown and carefully fill in around the roots. It is a very similar procedure to planting strawberry crowns. The hardest part about growing asparagus is the wait. The first year you cannot harvest the spears. There is some debate as to whether you can harvest any the second year, some say you can for the first couple of weeks and others say not until the third year. I think we'll wait until the third year to be on the safe side. We should have lots of greens growing in our cold frames to keep us from snagging any spears. Weeds can be a problem with asparagus so it's important to keep on top of the weeding. If we take good care of our Asparagus bed we should have asparagus welcoming us into spring for years to come.
You can learn more from this Mother Earth News online article right here- Growing Asparagus.

Happy Holidays!

This is our kitty Boris lounging under last years tree. I debated getting a living Christmas tree this year. When Christmas is over I take our tree outside and cut all the limbs off of it. I  then use the limbs to cover and protect my flower beds for the winter. You put them on your bed really lightly and take them off in the spring.

It works great and you need not obtain extra materials to cover your beds. I don't feel so bad about having a  Christmas tree since I use the remainder for another purpose.

Mountain ash or Rowan berries covered in snow. Partridges, Blue Jays and all kinds of birds eat these berries in the fall. Our chickens are HUGE fans.  

Have a Carrot.

My Best Buddy, Dio, enjoying a carrot from our garden. This is a picture from last year when Dio went into the garden and dug up all our carrots we were storing in the ground. Carrots, Parsnips and Turnips can all be left in the ground, covered with a mulch and then dug up over the winter as needed. They keep really well that way...as long as your dog doesn't have a taste for or access to them.   

Brussel Sprouts and Squash Soup for Breakfast.

Here's the girls chowing down on some leftover Squash soup that was destined for the compost bin and some surplus Brussel sprouts someone gave us. We will likely be growing our own Brussel sprouts next year as they seem to do really well around here.



This is how they grow, out of the ground of course, I don't have anything growing behind my sink.

I picked through these ones and we will eat the ones that are still good, the chickens get the rest.

Sunday Project.

We've been meaning to build a large cold frame for several weeks now. Sometimes when you own your own business and try to do everything you can for yourself with your own hands time is more valuable than money and not something we have a lot of.

My Kale, Radishes, Swiss Chard and lettuce greens are remarkably still holding on despite their lack of shelter and the cold weather we've been having. The cold frame will protect them for a little bit longer but it's mostly being built so it will be ready in March for planting onions, greens, radishes and any other delicious veg that can handle the cooler temperatures.

Cancer 'is purely man-made' say scientists after finding almost no trace of disease in Egyptian mummies.

Still Growing.

I picked these radishes this morning with some Romaine lettuce to make a wrap for my boyfriend's lunch today.

A Hollyhock flower, simply because I love them.