Ice

Being fed up with not making progress of late on the homestead I went to the site, pick in hand to try to see if the latest idea for securing the posts to the ground would work.. well what I discovered put a damper on my mood and on any progress. 

Ice.. 

The excavation was still holding water, but now in solid state. Though the temps have been climbing into the mid 40's or higher lately, the excavation, which is on the north side of the ridge, never gets sun in the bottom of it currently. So the ice just stays.. and each night gets thicker.. So I fear that I may be shut down for the season. 

I may still be able to salvage something, though not real progress as much as perceived progress in that I may decide to write up my own instruction manual so that when the weather once again permits me to work on the site, I can just look to my instructions without having to think about what step to take next. A very hollow victory at best, but something to keep me going..

That said, I have been working on developing my garden plot, the primary one anyway. I have hauled a couple of hundred pounds of manure to the site so that it can decompose, feed the soil, and the worms. Since it looks like I will spend another half year or where I have parked my caravan on Rancher Bob's property, he and I are going to work closely this year on a garden. With luck, unlike last year, I will be able to grow many of the foods that I enjoy, and want to live off of, so as to save on the ever increasing grocery bill.  With the seed catelogues coming in it is time for dreaming of the wonderful harvests..