Winter evening sky, no rain!
We finally had a week with no precipitation and lots of sunshine, which has helped to dry things out. The past few days we’ve had nights in the 20s so the ground has been hard enough that even the remaining wet areas are not a problem.
What a joy to see horses out in their pastures again, and Corgis able to romp without coming in to an automatic bath to remove mud!
We’ve been enjoying a long and treasured visit with my son and daughter-in-law here since before Christmas. It’s been a treat for all of us, animals included, particularly the cats and Corgis who have absolutely loved being snuggled and played with.
There’s not much going on in the gardens right now, though the daffodils are coming up and have been since late December. I think this is the earliest I’ve seen them. A number of balmy days triggered the blooming of neighboring trees and local beekeepers reported maple trees blooming and honey bees coming home with pollen baskets full. I found a honey bee floating in a water bucket last week on one of the warmest days, and rescued her so she could get back to her hive.
We’re about halfway through the back shelter grid project, and hoping to finish it today before a cold rain rolls in tonight. We also quite suddenly hired a crew to replace all our gutters and repair some rotting fascia board. They are here today working hard. We have opted for seamless gutters with guards and hopefully this means no more leaves in gutters. It was a needed home repair but not one that is very exciting. They went ahead and replaced the gutters on the barn as well - the ones we added a couple of years ago were seamed and already leaking, and with all the rain and snow we’ve had this past year it has added to the muddy areas near the barn. This time the barn gutters will be seamless and they are also running drains out to the fence line to carry the water well away from house and barn. I think we’ll see a big improvement.
Next week when it dries out after tonight’s rain I’ll be bringing in stone screenings to add to some areas that need them. That’s all that’s on my to do list for January, as I’m trying not to overbook myself and make sure I save days where nothing is going on except being at the barn with the horses.
This week I’ve cleaned the rest of the tack and it’s so inviting to walk in there and see it nicely clean and oiled.
Mostly it’s a dormant time on the farm, which I appreciate and intend to enjoy.
4 comments:
We just had all our gutters done last month too. And,yes there’s nothing like a tack room full of clean tack. We did ours recently too. So nice you got to spend time with your son and daughter in law. This is a quiet time here too. It’s nice to be able to relax a little after the holidays.
We must be on the same wavelength this month! I agree - relaxing is nice and it’s good to be looking at another sunny week after today’s cold rain moves out.
This photograph makes me feel peaceful and quiet inside. :)
The sunsets always do that for me.
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