There's nothing like a cold, snowy night to send me off into the garden with vigor the next day.  I know better than to plant seeds when the ground is that cold, but I figured I could get away with preparing beds for Friday's pea and Swiss chard planting, soaking some peas to give them a jump start, and even putting in broccoli, cabbage, and onion seeds in the warmer ground under a quick hoop.  (Yes, I did already start those last three crops in the house a few weeks ago, but I get better results outside most years.  Plus, the main rule of homesteading is: Backups, backups, backups.)

Next, I headed out to the vole-girdled apple trees, which I've been ignoring ever since seeing the damage.  I'd planned to try a bridge graft, using twigs from each tree to traverse the gap between trunk and the bark-covered roots.  However, after digging for at least eight inches in all directions, I only found one rooted area that wasn't all the way girdled.  I don't hold out high hopes for that little bridge graft to take, but I figured there was no reason not to try it.

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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