Snowy and cold

We've received more than two feet of snow in February, with low temps regularly at or near zero. Two sunny days (although with highs still well below the freezing point) led to some nice snow clearing work to widen the cleared width of the driveway or move lots of white stuff away from the frost walls. Happy Win-tah!!!

Long way to growing season

Based on frost and freeze data, our growing season lasts 148 days a year on average. As obvious from the raised garden bed, we're quite distant from Day One.

Great loaf

The first 2025 loaf of cocoa pumpernickel just came out of the machine! The aroma for the last two hours has been truly marvelous.

Birches rule the winter

About 8 inches of snow has fallen since the New Year's thaw. As usual, the forest becomes even more beautiful when the horizontal white mixes with the vertical variety.

Major thaw

Morning temps almost reached 50 degrees today! The two pictures below show the same scene 20 hours apart. Much snow has melted from early yesterday afternoon to this morning.

A trio of species in winter

On the first day of winter, the sun never rises very high. In this early afternoon picture today, the sun almost appears close to setting! We will at least be gaining light every day for six months, until there is nearly 18 hours worth!

Three young trees growing up together made the most of the winter in this picture: Red oak, paper birch, and black cherry.

 

Six degrees

The coldest morning of the new season arrived today. Once again, a clear sky and bright sun contrast with the low of six degrees. As always, the stove does the job, with two pieces of yellow birch going up.

In the woods, yellow birch thrives and always catches the eye. The wonderful species only becomes stove fodder when it spring poles or if dieback is occurring. Sometimes even a red oak has to struggle with more shade than desirable if a great yellow birch dominates a neighborhood of trees.