Port Potager

If you're not from around here, a quick reminder on the state of the winter here in eastern Massachusetts: 1. It has snowed at least a foot every weekend for the last four weekends in a row. It is supposed to snow again this coming weekend but could mix with sleet and rain. 2. Though it fluctuates daily, this February is the coldest or second-coldest on record.  3. We're up to about 96 inches of snow in Boston and 111 inches in Lowell on the year. We got another couple inches here last night, so those stats are already out of date. Even casual readers of this blog know that Newburyport is a terribly windy place , but this week the Arctic blasts have done us a favor (for a change) and uncovered some of our greenhouse tunnels: We haven't yet dug them out, but plan to before this weekend's storm. If we do end up with rain on top of the snow, they'll be frozen shut until May. Since I'm hungry for some leek soup, I'm hoping there's ...

According to whatever local news program I watched this morning while the kids schlepped off to school (after a two-hour delay), Boston has a total of at least 73 inches of snow that has fallen over the last 18-day stretch. Or some such nonsense. I had yet another day off from work, and took photos as I shoveled. The path to the workshop and chicken coop was easy, since Kirk went over it last night so Fletch could go to his own bed (atop a cozy and expensive heater in the workshop). We're not worried about the snowpack on the chicken coop , since that thing is built better than many houses. I also shoveled out a portion of their run and cleared the ramp, but I don't think the chickens have ventured outside in days. I also cleared the path along the back door of the coop and to the compost pile. (Yes, that is what passes for "clear" these days.) As you can see, the snow back there is piled higher than the compost bins , which are made of standard co...

Do not adjust your screen. Those pictures aren't blank, though they do have a lot of snow in them. If you look closely, you can see bits of buildings and other small signs of life peeking up out of the snow banks. Take, for example, the view out our back door toward the workshop: I took this in the morning. It snowed all night, so there's a good 6 to 10 inches of fresh powder. It has been snowing steadily all day, so it's up to about 18 inches, I think. (On top of the previous 40+ inches, that is.) It's hard to tell, since it's still blowing and drifting quite a bit. This shows the expanse of the garden from the kitchen door. You can see that there's probably a good 2  1/2 feet of snow on the roof of the chicken coop. Those little humps in front of the workshop are our greenhouse tunnels, from which we have harvested nothing for the last two weeks. It's nearly impossible to get to them, much less dig down to the ground to lift up the pl...

As I write this, Fletch is curled up on my lap, as is his wont whenever I try to fill that space with a laptop. This can be irritating when I'm trying to get work done, but today I'm going to let it slide. Let's back up a couple days.  On Monday afternoon I left work early to get home ahead of the snow. You know, the BIG snow that was scheduled to bury New England with several feet of snow over a 36-hour period. I picked up some firewood and gathered up flashlights in case we lost power (we didn't), and I made sure the chickens had food and water to last a few days. I also checked the heat in the workshop and put some food and water out there for Fletch, figuring he'd be stuck out there for a day or so until we could shovel the path to the workshop. He followed me into the house and spent the afternoon curled up until we put him back outside after dinner Monday night. And that was the last we saw of him. Meanwhile, the blizzard was well underway wh...

Here's hoping that this is the last of the snow posts. The blizzard has been fun and all, but now we need some slow-but-steady melting to stay on track with our spring planting plan . Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny, and warm (for February) day, so it was the perfect opportunity for the kids to play in the snow and help Kirk tunnel into some of the greenhouse tunnels to get at our carrots and leeks: The carrot section closest to the house had the worst of the drifting, and was completely covered. Four-foot-tall Jonas gives a sense of what we were up against in getting them uncovered. Carrot access complete! Of course the ground is frozen solid and we have no real leverage for digging, but at least it's a start. Kirk also managed to get to the leeks. This greenhouse tunnel wasn't completely covered, but it took some work to dig back the snow and roll away the partially buried plastic. Kirk dug up all but the last half dozen leeks and brought them ins...

A full day after the snow stopped falling, and we are all dug out. Here's the aerial view of the garden under 2-3 feet of snow. Click here to compare to what it looked like a week ago, before the snow fell. The swingset quadrant. The patio quadrant. The driveway quadrant. The workshop quadrant.

It's hard to tell how much snow we got here in Newburyport. I heard 19 inches on the news, but in most spots on our property it was between 24-30 inches. There was a lot of drifting — up to 5 feet in some parts of the garden. We live on a snow emergency route, and our road was plowed early this afternoon. We were able to get out and do the bulk of our snow blowing and shoveling today, though we'll have to tackle raking a few roofs tomorrow. Here are some photographic highlights: The garden at 11 a.m. on Friday, February 8.  The garden at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 9. It's still snowing and blowing in this photo, and if you look carefully, you can see Fletch in front of the chicken coop. As soon as he heard Kirk heading out to shovel a path to the workshop, he came bounding through two feet of snow for his breakfast. By the time I snapped this photo, he had given up and was skirting the chicken coop, where the snow wasn't up to his ears. Kirk grabbed ...