In Like a Lion...

As the saying goes...In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb.  I am sure hoping that the end of March brings some warm and sunny weather!  

This was on Friday.  It snowed off and on and it was so cold.  Not quite cold enough to stick (unfortunately, because the kids sure do love snow play!) but cold enough for big flakes and steady snowfall.  

Friday was our "fun day".  I read all.day.long to the children until my voice was scratchy and my throat felt raw!  They made forts to listen in and colored (and Glorielle dozed).  Wednesday, I started one of my novels and couldn't put it down and ended up staying up past midnight to finish it.  We buy a book kit every month that has a novel for a read aloud, a picture book, a teen book, and one for grown ups.  I want to read the teen and the grown up book from the kit every month.  It doesn't seem too far fetched that I should be able to read 2 books a month.  Well, I finished the teen book for the month of October and I still have the grown up book to read.  I guess that makes me 9 books behind.

By the weekend, the sun was out but it was windy and so very cold!  I have spent most of February inside and very sedentary.  I didn't feel well and I have slept poorly for an entire week.  I really just wanted to be outside, to have the cold air refresh me, to feel the sun rays, to move my stove up body and use my muscles.  It felt so good to get out into the garden!!

Big winter coat, gloves, and balaclava.  I find the later a life savor to keep my ears and face warm.  I can be in just a sweatshirt if I am working hard enough but warm ears and a warm face makes all the difference on windy acreage (and it is sure windy here!) even if it does fog my glasses!

The start of quadrant 1.  

The garden will have 4 quadrants, each with 6 raised beds.  There will be a large tractor aisle that will run North/South and East/West dividing each quadrant.  The aisle ways are 3 feet between the beds and 4 feet around the quadrants.  There will be an outside boarder that is fenced along the South, roses (4 long narrow beds) along the West, raspberries and strawberries along the North, and blueberries along the East.   We decided to do raised beds because of the "mess" of deeply rooted grasses, gravel, and weed seeds, (and don't get me started on the broken glass!).  We rented a sod cutter and got most of what we cut rolled up and I am in the process of transferring it out to the pasture where it is more moss than grass.  The tractor is broken so we can only use it for a few minutes before needing to shut if off and let it cool.  Once we get that fixed and if it is dry enough, I can continue prepping for the raised beds in quadrant 2.  Quadrant 3 and 4 may have to wait until next year but I am not so secretly hoping for late Spring/early Summer.

Even though the plot looks fairly flat, there is a 2 foot difference between the diagonal corners.  We have to raise up one end of the garden and lower the other and then have a mild incline.  I never knew there would be so much math involved:  calculations and leveling and squaring off.  Luckily, Phil is quite good at doing this.  

The first quadrant had to be built up so we put a foundation of leaves and chips that we got free.  I hated to use such wonderful mulch but there is no way we could afford to pay for the materials to build up the garden.  It is expensive enough just buying dirt to fill the raised beds.

We are half way done with quadrant 1.

The first bed is already planted with asparagus.  I wanted to plant seeds but the dirt is just a little too wet.  Next weekend, I am hoping to get the other 3 beds done.  Then, I can plant a second bed of asparagus, sweet peas (I have earmarked some beds just for fresh cut flowers), eating peas, radishes, spinach, endive, and mustard.  I am craving fresh veggies!!

On a side note, I snuck in some studio time last week and felted this.