Western Washington is having a long string of wintery weather just when usually the garden should be starting! It’s frustrating to still be inside watching the snow, hail, sleet and dreary weather. I was able to run out after work THursday and till up most of the garden areas including the cover crops planted last fall. They will take another round once the rain stops again but it’s good to get some of the green mulched in at least.
In between storms, the cover crops finally did germinate – Buckwheat and Spelt but they are not growing much at all due to the cold. The red clover also germinated but is growing very slowly in this weather. We got the hoop house mostly reconstructed – gave up finishing off one end because of a hail storm… Daisy and T-Bone have been moved to their acre of brush but Daisy is not happy! She still wants her twice a day feeding. Only a week later has she discovered the vast amount of vegetation for browsing so today only got one meal of hay. I was able to peak through the trees to see her munching enough to know the mooing was an act at this point! Hopefully that will be down to zero by the time the last bale of hay runs out. T-Bone just follows along, it’s Daisy who sucks in great amounts of air to let out loud bellows of displeasure about her situation! Both are still sleek and healthy, it’s just a cow tantrum. 
I ordered 3 weaner pigs and will pick them up Friday. So we need to get their shelter built between rain storms! It will be a simple affair of pallets with a sheet of plywood for a roof covered with a tarp. Plenty of shelter for over the summer. They will have rings in their noses to prevent too much rooting but still will get most of the blackberry roots out of the brush and churn in some rich fertilizer in the one acre area by fall. Weaner pigs are up to $90 each – a result of the rise in feed costs that are hitting hard. We are still going to give it a try hoping that the two we sell will recover some of the cost of the one that goes into the freezer for us.
I made my annual trip to Whitney’s gardens in Brinnon with a good friend on Friday – we gathered our truck load of plants and headed to Port Townsend for lunch – girls day out. Found a store with everything half price – always dangerous! I got a 5 ft diameter butcher block table top for $60 and she got a iron etagerie that was really cool. We had to unload the plants – load the new treasures and then load the plants back into the truck – it was a tight fit but everything made it home in one piece despite the snow, hail and sleet storms we encountered along the way.
Saturday 6 sex link chicks and 4 white turkey poults jumped into my truck – honestly! So they are now in a brooder in the greenhouse. The tomatoes in the greenhouse have outgrown their 4 inch pots and need to go into the hoop house this week or get moved to one gallon pots! I would really prefer they get into the ground at this point so I am crossing my fingers for warmer weather.
Hopefully spring will be here in full force by next report!
