Snow. Light Powdery snow. We had another snowy day yesterday. But it is still too dark outside for me to see what happened in the night. We have no street lights in the country so there is no way of knowing without going out. Some farms have enormous lights that light the whole yard all night but I see no earthly use for one. It feels like you are in Stalig 13. (Did i spell that right?) (No it is Stalag c.. thank you viv) I have no curtains on my windows because I like to see the stars and I love the moonlight in the house. Outside lights cut all that beauty off.
Anyway last night there was just enough snow to deceptively cover the ice that is building up under there. I have begun the plonky winter trudge, stepping firmly onto the ground to avoid landing with a surprised squeak on my poor wee bottom. 
The root cellar is down the back. In the olden days this is where they stored the produce for winter. Or kept it cool in the summer. I should be brave enough to start using it again, or at least put a basket of potatoes in there and see if they freeze or indeed are just stored. Maybe next year. A door might be a good start! Because the naughty sheep use it as a summer hang out. It is in the Rat-house Paddock (yes every field has a name) so very close by would have been the old house that was on this property. We have unearthed garden paths that go nowhere. It was evidently burnt down, then pushed with a bulldozer into its own basement. The garden and trees ripped out and burned. An ignominious end. In fact there are so many levels to such a dreadful burial it makes me shudder. The house we live in, which replaced it, is about seventy years old. So it would have been a while ago. The perpetrators long gone.
Mama and Hairy MacLairy have been slowly loafing about. They love the cold. Mama is not giving me any more signs that would help me guess when she is due to lamb. So the waiting game continues.
Daisy is having one of her days.
The chickens are waiting out the snow in their chookhouse.
Yesterday I sowed Sage and Holy Thistle. Both herbs for The Bees and I. I sow into trays, they will take three to four weeks to germinate, then I will prick the seedlings out into pots so they can grow for about 6 – 8 weeks, then I should be close to planting. I also sowed a big pot of winter lettuce that will be grown indoors for the kitchen. The days are getting longer.
Dawn is just breaking and gently lighting quite a bit of snow. Hmm. Playtime! 19F. Not too bad. Good morning.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
81 responses to “Sweet cold farmy day.. we love the farmy days.”
Your root cellar looks like an air raid shelter from WW2. I would imagine it’ll work well for the veggies, even in snow. It’s still Spring here, but they are predicting snow in February – how confusing!
really? Snow in feb in london? sounds a bit dramatic!
The latest I’ve ever seen it snow is April, though it didn’t amount to much.
I think it is spelled stalag ..I love seeing all the critters…they feel like family!!
Thank you, i have fixed it! You guys are better than google!! c
My great-grandma’s root cellar was beneath the house and doubled as a basement. Living in Tornado Alley, it was practical and necessary (no TV weather personalities to warn them back then). I remember her telling me how to watch for signs of bad weather and when the crisis had passed. We don’t seem to know how to do that now that we have 24-hour weather to keep us ‘informed.’
The hilarious thing about that is that I do not watch TV or have a radio, so I actually depend on the sky, the distant sirens and The Matriarch. She called me once from California (about 2000 miles away) and said there is a tornado coming your way get into the basement.. Naturally I went and Stood on top of the root cellar down the back with the camera to try and see the tornado. It dropped about 6 miles west and knocked over a few trees.. we were lucky. They do not come through here often..c
Lovely stuff, as usual. I really appreciate your cheerful temperament under much worse conditions than we’re having here. I will make an effort to stop grumbling about the weather.
Stalag!
Thank you viv, i shall whip back and fix the spelling! c
Hard to believe it’s already time to start, or at least consider, planting again! In a week, or so, it will be light at 5:00 pm and we’ll be well on our way to Spring. Never tire of your pics of the Farm, Celi. I always leave here smiling.
I am SO grateful that we are on the downward slide back into gardening again.. c
i can’t believe spring is on the way when we haven’t had much winter yet. we did get a few inches of snow last night and lots of ice. i guess that counts! i would love to have that root cellar!
Ice is the worst isn’t it?. We all need to put our heads together and work out how to use this root cellar properly. Given that it is in the middle of a field down the back.. c
This is why I love snow days. Everything looks so peaceful and quiet even after the day starts to bustle. I’m up early this morning like you!
Morning yummy! I am always at my best in the morning.. c
I’m so jealous of your root cellar…can’t believe you’re not using it! My basement stays too warm for keeping apples and potatoes and other stuff…
There’s a cellar hole on the lot adjacent to ours, but it looks like it just fell in over time…since the folks that built it were buried in the mid-1800’s (they’re over there, too) we think it just decayed.
But Hanna’s daffodils come up every spring!
they are not buried IN it are they? the root cellar is so far away and my OTHER big problem is growing enough potatoes to store. We only heat with a fire so our basement is quite cold. Hopefully the cave storeroom will be even colder.. how wonderful that you have daffodils from that time.. do you divide them every now and then? c
Not on my land, so I leave them be…
I *do* pick blackberries over there – no sense in letting them all go to waste!
And, no, the Almy’s are buried in a tidy little family plot near our border wall, not in the cellar hole…
Good Morning Celi,
Since work has zapped my browsing time, I just wanted to stop by to say hello. And this was a great post on my morning after an icy Friday night.
morning frank, good to see you. Make hay while the sun shines!! c
Does a nice dusting of snow makes the garden planning you did earlier this week even more fun?
It certainly makes me dream about adding the colour!! Morning bella.. c
We too are getting some snow…just a bit, but ah well. I love snow, and we haven’t had much this year. Your root cellar is intriguing. We have one built into our cellar wall; the house was built in 1840; it seems to hold a fairly constant temperature, I assume because it is below the frost line (?)
Happy garden planning.
Jess
Do you use your root cellar? That sounds like what i am trying to build in our basement. c
Celi, I thought my favourite Attitude on your farm was Hairy McLairy’s, until I met Daisy. That’s a stare to reckon with.
Looking at your cold store reminded me of Tintagel Castle in Cornwall – a ruin, but with a store dug into the cantankerous slate to store things in just the same way. Man is really, truly amazing.
Your pictures and words are just a tonic. Thank you.
Daisy is quite a character. The closer it gets to me milking her the more terrified i get. One day i will get John to take a shot of me beside to her. She is very very tall.. c
You should see Daisy and her Cat,,,I’m trying to get Celi to make it into an Award Photo…No More Loyal a Pair have I Seen!!!
pretty please?
I loved my grandma’s root cellar! I don’t know why, but it was always very intriguing to me. All the neat jars filled with “stuff” apples, potatoes and vegetables all winter…now I have to go to three stores to find all of the organic vegetables I like. Just not the same!
Spring won’t even begin here until mid May. There have been many years when I haven’t been able to plant my vegetable garden until early June. Then it frosts in late September or early October, making for a very short growing season! Last year I planted perennials in all three of my vegetable gardens because we’ve had such short growing seasons over the past few years. This year, I’m planning to do tomatoes, herbs, and a few other things in pots on the deck instead. Hopefully it will go well!
Have a wonderful day, Cecilia and stay warm! 🙂
MM, i think pots are a good idea too, then you can bring them in and out if there is a late of early frost. that is indeed a short season. I grow lettuce and spinach in pots too. Was your mothers root cellar free standing like this one? or in the basement. I would like to know how to use mine. c
Fab pics and I love the truck. Is there a large German community in your area ( I’m not referring to the Stalag!) but the field name of Rat house has a Germanic sound like Rathaus – or are there just a lot of rats in the field?
Actually John is from german stock, so some of this family recipes are a trifle on the stodgy side!! The rat house paddock is behind the Rat House and YES the rat house did indeed have rats when I first got here. So I got rid of the corn bin that lived beside the rat house(actually I sold it and the little men came and took it away) and then got cats. Now we do not have rats. Only the name remains. c
A beautiful morning with your beautiful friends! That really takes the icy edge off with its marvelous warmth. 🙂
Morning kathryn! hope you have a great weekend planned.. c