frozen

Well, it has gotten quite cold. 13F outside now. I plugged in the ceramic bulb heater in the chicken coop. I added some extra insulation to my bee hives. We have a bit of snow predicted tomorrow. My husband brought the snow blower up to the garage and put the lawn mower in its spot in the garden shed.

I had some time to rake today and used the leaves to tuck in the roses by my vegetable garden arbor and the flower border along the fence. Charley and Suzie did a lot of running and playing. They seem to love the chilly air. I've let Suzie's fur grow long. Charley has a very nice new red jacket that covers him well. What fun they had.

My winter tunnel looks good, though I didn't open it. There was nice condensation on the inside of the plastic in the sunshine this afternoon, dim as the sun is here now.

My vegetable garden soil is frozen to about 2 inches in most places. I know that because I dug lots of root vegetables today. Not the timing I had planned. I was under the weather as they say the past couple days and also misplaced my "to do" list. So I didn't harvest before the chill. Today I pulled a big pile of carrots, some small celeriac, a few beets, also a bunch of leeks and green onions. I broke through the frozen top soil with my shovel and cracked the icy soil off the vegetables. I hope they are still good. Most of the carrots were in areas that weren't frozen yet. They're all still in a bag now and I'll clean them up and check their condition tomorrow. A good indoor activity where it's warm.

Unfortunately, it sounds like this cold is nothing compared to what's predicted next week. Sounds like much of the country is dealing with very cold weather now that's headed to us here in NE.