I am remiss in posting updates here. Winter is escaping us. It’s mostly been warm and dry, not entirely atypical (“it’s a desert,” right?) but much drier than the norm. Dangerously so, in terms of the absence of mountain snowpack that creates next summer’s river flows.
So we are celebrating last night’s small snow. It’s dry and slight, but it’s something, and anything is better than nothing. Migratory birds were wheeling excitedly all around this morning, clearly pleased with the overcast weather.
Many things on the farm have been moving steadily forward over the winter, one step at a time. the contractor is working on Mahazda now, getting permits and organizing the plumbing and electric and such. we’re starting to make very concrete decisions about various bits of the house, which is exciting. it is about to become quite tangible.
Our winter intern, Barbara, built a fabulous new door for the chicken coop — a daily quality-of-life improvement for anybody doing animal chores here.
Jenny has been working hard on paths, fences, and the small ritual ground. Soon the front acre will be fenced in, for full containment of dog and child, and the path to the greenbelt will run up the north side of the Mahazda field and along the south fence. Already there is a bridge, a thicket cleared, much deadwood removed, and new gates going in, in all the right places.
Seeds are ordered for this season’s garden, and we’re a month away from the arrival of most of our baby birds. in fact, the plan for this weekend includes tilling the garden, if things aren’t too wet. it doesn’t feel that close, yet, somehow, with the grey sky lowering over the day, and snow on the ground.
and ice monsters in the aquaponics tank. (under ordinary circumstances, these are plants.)
the aquaponics tank siphon, having a weather experience.
three wheelbarrows:
barnyard in snow:
poultry enjoying the novel weather:
in the field:
volunteer broomcorn. i suspect this is growing here because we used broomcorn seed more or less symbolically in an Ostara ritual one year, and since then we’ve had some volunteer patches of it.
a wider shot of the field:
the view across the neighbor’s field:
snow in the playground:
and Kat’s yurt:
and making mandalas on tables.
as always, there are more photos on the Farm Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunflowerriver