Improvements in January

 Did I tell you that one of us stepped right through a thin spot in the dining room floor over Christmas? Yep! Kinda scary, and I'm thankful nobody was hurt. Adam quickly did a patch job.

 But we realized then that the patching work he'd done on the various weak spots on that floor would simply not be adequate; the floor was too thin, too weak.

 We would have to put something on top of it, and we must do it before somebody else puts a heel through it and makes a bigger hole! So we picked out a flooring. Today Adam is starting to lay the pad and the new flooring on top of the old.

Okay, that was two days ago. This has been a challenging project. Adam used the trial-and-error method, putting it down and pulling it up. But he's got the hang of it today:

 Meanwhile, our house generally looks like this:

 That photo is just in case some of you have a false impression of the wonder of farm life.
Guess what? I have cilantro germinating!!

I was so excited, I planted some more cilantro seeds. I want LOTS of cilantro!
Elsewhere on the farm, Adam's compost continues to do its quiet, magical work. BIG compost. He constantly turns it with a pitchfork to keep it moist, and it steams and gets hot as it breaks down into dirt.

 He has a small separate pile of chicken poop/compost especially for the asparagus bed. However, the puppies are always sticking their noses in there. This is why I do not kiss dogs on the face.

 Our five beehives are fine. See those funny stands? Adam used them in a telescope-making class he taught. The poles are in concrete, which is in 5-gallon buckets. He'll bury the buckets out there and build a new, taller bee table on the stands.

 He's marked out the perimeter of the new greenhouse, twice as long as last year's greenhouse. That front black PVC won't be there; it's just marking the front two corners.

 And he bought metal pipes that he'll bend into curves for the dome of the greenhouse. They will be sturdier than the white PVC he used last year. This will be a permanent greenhouse.

Soon Adam will expand my chickens' yard. See the barren landscape in which they must live? Not a green thing. I pick greens and grass and toss it over the fence to them. 

 He will expand the yard to include that overgrown area next to it (the back of the orchard). That will make them happy. He'll simply extend the fence below straight across to the property line fence.

Today is 70 degrees. I put my basil plants on the front steps to drink in the sunshine. What crazy weather we have in the South! Its primary characteristic is unpredictability. I'm sure we'll have some more chilly temps, but I'm betting we have had our one harsh cold snap last weekend. Now we will drift happily into spring. Yes?

All these photos are to encourage you that the wonder of spring and warmth and growing things is just around the corner!