We had a lovely family Christmas on the farm and very much enjoyed seeing our sixth month old granddaughter, Della Jane, who brought along her parents, Ellen and Aaron. Grayden was home for the holidays as well and helped us mulch the strawberries. It seems like strawberry mulching always makes it onto the blog because it is one of the major farm activities that takes place in the winter. It is usually the last outside farm job that is on the “list” and we like to wait until the ground is frozen before we cover the plants. The last few years that means waiting until the end of December or even early January…I’m very relieved to finally have frozen ground and snow. It makes the paddocks for the animals so much cleaner and sure beats all the muck and mud that comes this time of year when the ground is thawed.

Our days are busy even in the winter…Bill is getting ready to build wheel hoes and has been making plans for his independent farm enterprises. He and I are continuing to milk Mabel and I am still making cheese and stock piling it for the spring when our apprentices arrive. We now have a full team of apprentices lined up to come for the 2013 season.  I am gearing up to make my seed orders and plan the CSA gardens. Ken is waiting for his replacement saw blades to arrive next week so that he can start sawing lumber again. I am delighted that today he is putting the interior window trim back on windows that we replaced last winter. The job was supposed to be done last winter, but our early spring put a kibosh on that when Ken’s focus moved outdoors and it has taken until now for him to get back to it!