Using 1/2" dia. electrical conduit for hoops, set every 4', an under layer of remay and an over layer of heavy plastic, the spinach which was planted in mid-September is tuck away for the winter. Once the snow and cold weather settle in every thing will be frozen into place. The next time the spinach will be seen is in the spring, which will give the Gram's a very early crop of fresh spinach.
The beds here on Flying Pond Farm are 30" wide and 60' long. The spinach is planted 6 lines to one bed. Leaf lettuce on the other hand is 12 lines per bed, making the distance between lines 2 1/2". It looks like a luxurious carpet of lettuce stretched out before you.
Helping out with the morning chores, i assisted in milking Aster, the cow, feed the chickens and this years 3 piglets (I think they each weigh as much as i do.), and gave Charolette, the sow, the left over table scraps. (Laura made chedar cheese today, so tomorrow Charolette will get the left over whey; Charolette's favorite!)
After breakfast, we attempted to cut and split wood for the wood furnace but the belt was slipping on the splitter and the chainsaw was not doing so well either. The wood splitter is a Jeep engine set up to run a hydrolic wood splitter. It is so funny to see a car ignition starting a splitter. What a great idea! We moved on to removing old remay and unsticking sand bags to prepare the spinach for their winterized covers. The spinach is delicious this time of year. It is extra sweet.
As always, time seems to all too quickly disappear, especially as you get farther north. Dawn is at about 6:30 and sunset is at 4:30. Day light is precious.
