We've had a few sunny days and used that time to catch up on yard work. We've cleared the land where we hope to plant our garden, gathered up lots of branches we trimmed off trees and created burn piles and chipper piles. Brian has made trips to the dump with all sorts of random "farm junk" we've discovered in our cleaning. Once we get everything cleaned up it's going to be amazing, but I am really sick of clearing land. The last major cleaning project is cleaning the brush out of the irrigation canal before the water starts flowing again.
Brian has been busy playing with his new pottery wheel and planning where we hope to put our new (used) gas fired kiln. We've created a studio out in the shop and spend quite a bit of time playing out there. There has to be a fire running for a good 2 hours before I'm willing to go out there and work, but Brian seems a bit heartier than I and he goes out there almost daily.
The winter here has been incredibly strange. One day we'll have inches of snow, the next it will be sunny and 45 degrees out. We keep alternating between winter boots and rain boots. Bomber has been thoroughly enjoying his time outside, often wandering around by himself, and he seems to be thoroughly entertained by eating snow.
I have been enjoying some alone time on the farm this January and have a stack of books about farming that I'm trying to get through. Every few weeks I have a new theme. Currently it's chickens. But I can't help but look up from my reading and being in awe of what is going on around me. The neighbors cows are calving, babies are running around everywhere, the sunsets and sunrises have been spectacular, and the birds continue to visit the feeders. Domino the owl appears to have a girlfriend (whom we've named Pepper) as we have a new owl that is very spooky and rarely leaves her nest. All night long the two of them call to each other. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to fall asleep without the hooting of owls if the ever leave.
