I meant to post these earlier in the week, but time has been a little tight.
We got about 15 inches of snow on Sunday.
It’s a real old fashioned New England winter.
I took the top off the chicken run and shoveled the snow out. Then I laid out fresh hay. The chickens don’t seem to mind the cold but they hate the snow.
How is this season treating you?
I am just about finished for the day. It is currently 13°F outside and with the windchill it feels like -5.
This blog is one of the last things on my to do list before heading off to bed. It was my day off and so that meant work around the house. I got a boatload of reading done, and I added extra straw to the chicken pen. Melanie came over tonight and helped me plastic, the stained glass window and the book nook window.
The Stairwell already feels warmer. We also put plastic on the tall window in the kitchen.
As I sit here with all the storm curtains drawn, I can hear the wind raging outside as it has been all day and for the last two days. It feels wrong, somehow, unnatural.I can’t quite say why, but it sets my teeth on edge.Maybe, this wind is one of our region’s climate change effects. I don’t know. But this weather feels different down in my soul.
One of the reasons that the leaves here in New England were so brilliant this year was because we have been cool and dry. We are currently in a level 3 drought here in Winchendon MA which means we are in critical drought. We are also in a severe fire threat. With 518 fires in the state having burned 1500 acres so far, outdoor burning of yard waste has been banned through January 15th here in MA.
That means here in the forest garden my growing pile of brush is not going anywhere at the moment. It’s Ok. I am still putting plastic on the windows inside just now. I don’t really have time for a fire in the fire pit.
I only have a few minutes to post today. So I wanted to share a few quick pics of The grounds of The Vicarage after the recent snowfall.
Winter has come to the Vicarage for the holidays. As Thanksgiving closed out the storms came in. We have had about 28 inches dumped on us over the last week. For those of you who use the metric system that is 71 centimeters. Most of that came in one storm or set of storms depending on how you look at it.
As you can see, the new fallen snow has melted back a bit after a few days of warm weather and it is truly beautiful now.
From here through the end of March we will be in a weather pattern of alternating snow and rain if the trend from the last couple of years holds. Last night it poured and this brook flooded as it has been doing the last few years filling the back yard.
When I awoke this morning that little fire pit was submerged in the water up to its base.
Tell me what it looks like where you live.
Notes From the Vicarage 