Work has come to a halt. Driving the tractor over to refill the water wagon, or to bring hay to the cows was an impossibility by Saturday (Phil had brought a differently-sourced hay over, expecting not to have to replenish until Monday; sadly, the hay lasted half the time we expected, and the cows were hungry). What to do? Dry lot again?
Then Phil had an epiphany. If he rolled hay out along the fence, near the road, the cows could walk up and down the slope, without needing Phil to drive hay down to them. He can drive along the road to bring hay, and water can be replenished, once the water wagon empties, by running a hose from the orchard spigot. (Maybe it's hard to explain: in any case, it was a brilliant solution.)
I had my first potting on experience for the year: I had about 50 plants ready for larger soil blocks. Some tomatoes, probably some ground cherries. Overall, though, I've remembered how spotty my greenhouse experience was last year. It wasn't all perfectly successful. Only about 1/6 of the peppers sprouted last year. This year, I'm not sure any will sprout.
The flat or two of greens has been singularly unsuccessful, too. Perhaps three varieties of 13 have sprouted. I was looking forward to lettuce, too. (I might need to reduce the heat of the grow mats before I try again.)
We woke this morning to snow. Perhaps three inches fell before it stopped and all melted. I was pleased I made it out to take photos before the instant thaw!
The sheep were happy to get their third bale of hay this winter. During the snow, they took shelter, but once the snow stopped, Phil managed to bring them hay (and managed to get out without the tractor getting stuck!).
That was the total of our farming efforts over the last three days. Without dry land, there will probably be little progress tomorrow either. Perhaps I should take comfort in the slow pace of life, but when one wants to be productive, the slow pace aggravates much more than relaxes.
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