How do I know this? Since the temperatures warmed up last week for a couple of days and we received rain, the "temporary" driveway got a bit dodgey. And since the three foot drifts were now melted down to around a foot, I thought the mighty beast of a truck could make a path through so I could actually use the gravel driveway. Things didn't work as planned. The hard top crust of snow and ice killed the momentum. Luckily this ludicrous attempt was made on a sunny, Sunday morning, so I had many hours of daylight to dig. And dig I did!
The man with the tractor and blade is in some sunny locale, so all I had was me and a shovel. I did realize early on that as long as I broke the crust where the wheels would travel, I could make some headway. Two hours and about 100 feet later, the truck is free and I can actually accomplish something productive today. Chalk that experience up to a lesson learned!
On the agenda today is planting spinach, lettuce and carrots in the greenhouse, and begin pruning grapes. It was 17 degrees F outside but 100 degrees in the greenhouse. This makes winter more bearable! The planting went alright except for the 3 cats trying to fight with my garden tools and digging up my rows. The grape pruning was a different story.
The grape cordon is 36" from the ground. Right now, the snow is about 32" deep which means I was kneeling in the snow to prune my grapevines. I was fortunate that the snow was crusty and therefore I didn't sink with each step but could walk on top of the snowpack. Fortunate? I was only out for about an hour before my knees were frozen and I decided to call it a day. There was progress, but with temperatures dropping again the rest of the week to below normal, not sure how much time I will spend out there. I'm wishing for 20 degrees and above with sun. Is that too much to ask for the end of February?
The grape cordon is 36" from the ground. Right now, the snow is about 32" deep which means I was kneeling in the snow to prune my grapevines. I was fortunate that the snow was crusty and therefore I didn't sink with each step but could walk on top of the snowpack. Fortunate? I was only out for about an hour before my knees were frozen and I decided to call it a day. There was progress, but with temperatures dropping again the rest of the week to below normal, not sure how much time I will spend out there. I'm wishing for 20 degrees and above with sun. Is that too much to ask for the end of February?
