Recovery Progress: New year update

This winter has been something else! Thanksgiving day brought the biggest snowstorm I've seen since I moved here (15" in 24 hours). Then it was quiet with a bit of snow here and there but not bad. Then this last week and a half brought lots of snow and wind back over several days. Even got to see light pillars for the first time ever right out my back door. That was super cool!!! (picture below) It was right around 0 that night. The next night we got down to around -8. Now it's thawing once again and you talk about a sloppy mess!! My road and the farm road are the worst. Luckily I am able to borrow a pickup with 4 wheel drive from the farm to get too and from work. Mornings are fine since it freezes but by the afternoon....!!! For a bit now we'll be around 40* for the high and mid to high 20's for the lows. Winter weather can stick around here through mid April some years. Hoping this isn't one of those years! I want to get some spring garden planting done in those boxes!!!

The garden did pretty well thanks to another long fall. Our first freeze didn't come until mid October so the peppers did awesome! The peppers for chili powder finally finished drying out and I put them through the blender last week and used it in my taco seasoning! So, so good!!!! I'm still eating on the carrots and potatoes. This was the best potato and carrot year I've ever had. The potatoes actually got their canopy and that's the first year I've managed to get a solid canopy on them. The one thing that I won't grow much of this year is tomatoes! There were soooo many last year!! Lots of them were given away at work, lots of marinara sauce and diced tomatoes were canned. A couple of cherry tomato plants this year.... that's it! (Unless some volunteer, then might keep a couple of those as well! LOL!) I'll focus a bit more on squash this year. Use some of the beans seeds I saved and see how they grow. I got walking onions planted this past summer. We'll see if they survive through the winter. I heavily mulched them and during the worst cold there's been snow cover so far so fingers crossed!! We'll see how many carrots and onions volunteer. Onions did okay last year but not great. That's one awesome thing about working at a farm if there's a bad crop year. Potatoes, onions and corn are still available! I want to grow enough peas to freeze this year. I did that a few years ago and they are so, so yummy! I'm planning on using the cattle panels for those. I did find out I really like rutabagas so want to grow some of those this next year as well! There's no major trips planned this year so maybe I can stay semi on top of things this year! Never did get caught up last year!

Dave's been in my thoughts a lot lately. Hope you're doing okay!! You're certainly in my prayers each day. Starting our 14th year. Got to say this past Christmas was a bit of a struggle. Having my dad's death and Dave's disappearance within a day of each other makes the struggle a bit more intense! And both ended up being on the Monday after Christmas. Time has it's way of healing but that doesn't mean their forgotten!!

Erika and her family are doing well. Teagan is just about as tall as me now. 11, 10, 4, 2 1/2 are my grandkids ages. Where does time go???? I got over to see them this fall! Christina is doing well in England. I believe she has about another year and 3 months or so left before the next assignment. She's officially off base and in her own place and I do believe she's enjoying it!