Merry Christmas

Here are some holiday photos from the farm:This picture is not from this holiday, because we're on behind with decorations and don't have such a pretty snow right now, but it does illustrate that delaying taking down Christmas decorations until February can result in a pretty picture for next year's Christmas card.You can see the lights on the star through the trees at spots when driving up the road. Some neighbors refer to it as the "star barn."

Gourds and gold ribbon on the mantle--using what we have for decorations.

And to all a good night!

Christmas season!

Last Saturday was our last market for 2007; there will be a few farmers there this week, but not us. Since the ground is fairly frozen right now, there's not much to do outside. We put the last of our squash in the basement for storage, and called it quits for this year.
Of course, "the year" ends in eleven days, so after the holiday it will be time to get back to work. Seed catalogs have been coming in since October, so come January it will be time to inventory what we have and order what we need for the spring.

Merry Christmas!

Winter is here

Snow is covering the ground, so mom is in raptures over the beauty, and dad is grumbling about the cold. At the end of last week, before it snowed, mom planted the garlic in the rows where sunflowers had been growing. It was a little bit late, but at the recommended time in mid-October we were too busy. Good thing we're not superstitious about planting at the right side of the moon--there never seems to be time to farm according to that schedule.

Now that the temperature has really dropped (it was 9 degrees last night) the garage is too close to freezing for storage, so the last squashes were moved to the basement. The best climate to store squash is somewhere cool (about 55 degrees) and dry. Some squash will store exceedingly well. When they were putting the squash away, mom found this butternut squash that was left from last year. It has a few spots, but hasn't rotted yet. I'm just thrilled that there's room to park in the garage since the squash and sorting tables have been put away.