Slushy February weather

We've had temperatures hovering just above the freezing mark for the last 3 or so days, even at night. And daytime temps have been rising above freezing for at least a couple days longer. It's been nice to be able to be outside without being seriously bundled up, and Little M has been enjoying splashing in the slush & mud puddles for the first time. However, the driveway is not so nice. Slushy, wet, mucky, that about sums it up.

Since we moved in here the driveway has been deteriorating. Once a graveled lane at one point in the past, it now is more a dirt lane, with a bit of gravel thrown in in spots. There is a section running down through the middle that gets washed out deeper with ever heavy rain, and that trench (which was on the list to fill in in late fall but must have been forgotten) is getting very mucky right now. There is water actively flowing down it. Coming from where you ask? I have no idea whether it is just snow melt, or if there is a seep area that surfaces there sometimes.

Either way, it is making the driveway a bit of a mess to drive on. Although it is just an inconvenience for us right now - since both of the vehicles we are driving right now are 4 wheel drive capable, we just switch them into four to get out - we have to make sure visitors either are aware so they don't get stuck in the muck. We need to get some gravel put down at least, and longer term I'd love to have some heavy equipment in to tear some ground out, put in some coarser gravel to let things drain, and then level it out on top with some finer stuff. However that is likely a few years down the road yet, so I may be out there fixing the trench up in a few weeks if this warmer weather sticks around.

The ashes from our woodstove have been working well at melting the formerly icy spots though, so at least we aren't slipping and sliding around while walking too and from the garage, carport, or mailbox, so at least something is working right around here! The warm weather, and advancing months, have been getting me really eager to start working in the garden, so I've finally been sitting down and deciding exactly which seeds to order, which will still be good from last years' stash, and which seed catalog to order from. Although a part of me is still yearning for a few more heavy snowfalls, another part of me is ready for green sprouts and loose soil...

Seeds Seeds Seeds

I'm having a bit of a seed dilemma.

Last year I ordered from Seed Saver International. I was overall pleased with my order - good selection, timely delivery, decent prices. But some of the plant varieties I chose didn't do as well as I hoped. Our corn, for example, just didn't produce as much or as early as other varieties I have grown in the past. I selected a variety that I thought should have done well, at least in terms of being a short growing season variety, but it just didn't all mature early enough to harvest before we got frost.

Now we did have a strange year last year, but I had neighbors who had no problem with their corn maturing well before our first frost. The year before we grew corn from a friend who has sinced moved away, but as far as I can remember it was a variety he had been growing for years. We had good luck with it, but had planted 2 varieties that year and so couldn't keep seeds. Last year I was looking to test a variety to save seeds from, but obviously I didn't bother since so few cobs were ready to harvest when we had to bring them all in.

At first this year I thought I would just ask around and see what others in my area used, but in my initial asking, people are using hybrids. Since I'm ultimately looking to be self sufficent with at least some of my seeds year to year (and corn heads the list this year to add to my collection of seeds I maintain myself), a hybrid variety is just not what I am looking for. I guess what I will try to do is match the characteristics advertised for these couple hybrid varieties with heirloom varieties and order that way. But likely that means trying a couple different types until finding the perfect one for where we are. Shucks!

Basically this post is me trying to convince myself to get down to the perhaps difficult work of picking seeds from a seed company that I think will be a better match for our region and that I think will do well. I'm positive that at this time last year I had already made my order, and likely even had my seeds in hand. Boo...

Back at home with the family

After returning home yesterday evening after my 3-day conference, Little M was glad to see me, and I her! And she was glad to meet the bright red salmon stuffy I brought home for her too :) Today I took the day off work and we went sledding, got groceries, and went for a hike. We did some of our monthly planning too, we got our monthly meal plan and our monthly goals put together during Little M's nap. Not sure what the plan is for later tonight, but I'm sure it will mostly consist of lots of family time!

Here are a couple shots of Little M I took this afternoon while she was playing on her keyboard. That's fishy hanging out behind her. Oh, and I couldn't budge her determination about her wardrobe selections today - pale pink vest with white fur trim, mustard yellow/lime green fleece pullover, bright pink tights... At least after her nap this afternoon I managed to convince her that the vest belonged over the sweater, not underneath it...

On mail - the paper stuff

Last week I had what was perhaps a once in a year occurrence. I had 2 handwritten letters appear in the mailbox on the same day! I don't get real letters all that often, so to get 2 in one day - wow! :)

One was a card from a friend from high school. We were in the same small tight group from I think  grade 9 on. She lives up in the Yukon now, and while I don't think I've seen her face-to-face since maybe second year university, we've kept in sporadic contact during the years since and more so in the past 3 years that we've both been staying in the same spot for more than a couple years or less at a time.

She had some exciting news to share, and while her note wasn't lengthy, I've been reading her hand writing since high school. I knew who the card was from without reading the return address, without reading her signature at the bottom. While I might know more details via facebook about the lives of people in high school or university that I was barely friends with even back then, compared to what details I know about her life right now, for some reason the hand written letters we send back and forth mean something more significant, more tangible and meaningful. We have made the effort to keep in touch, and while I haven't seen her in years, I can only hope that these brief notes will keep our friendship going until we manage to see each other again. Real mail is such a treat, not only because it is rare, but because of the effort it means. She made the effort to write to me specifically, and I love that.

The other letter was from one of my aunts. She updated me on the lives of my cousins, the farm, all those little gossipy life updates that I often miss out on being all the way out west. We'll hopefully see her this fall when we venture back to Ontario for a visit, and get to do some catching up in person, but in the meantime, her letter conveyed a bunch of the important goings on in her life back there. We try and send christmas photos back to my extended family, and include a brief note, but with my mom being one of eight, and having a good sprinkling of cousins (and almost a second cousin for Madison, any day now - I can't wait to meet the newest addition this fall!), all of whom live within a 6 hour or so drive from each other, the distance out here really makes us quite separated from the clan - we're our own little pea pod sailing on our own across the vastness of the continent.

Anyway, I've got one more day at a conference tomorrow, then I'll be heading back home to be reunited with that little pea pod of mine. These past several days has been the longest I've been apart from Little M ever (three whole nights away!), and while the time apart has been so great for me, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing her little cuteness when I come in the front door tomorrow evening!

I still have to decide whether she would appreciate a stuffed animal or a tshirt from the small gift store in the conference lodge. I suspect for her, seeing me will be enough reward, but as I have fond memories of my dad bringing home small gifts after being away for long trips, and later of picking things out for my mom and sister with my dad when I started accompanying him on kayak and canoe trips, I really want to have that tradition for Little M, so a stuffed salmon it may be tomorrow!