As has probably become glaringly obvious by my recent absence, we are sixteen days into dry January. A really crappy tradition with no redeeming features what so ever. As you are all aware, I like to write with a glass of wine in my hand.. No wine = less writing. But E has hockey to watch tonight, I am too tired to finish any of the projects I should be working on and going to bed at 7PM is frowned upon by rational adults.

After an unfortunate incident with a firetruck and one of our apple trees we decided to use the opportunity to give a really brutal prune to all three trees. They had been getting too tall, providing lots of apples for the crows, not so many for us. The branches hanging over the salal were also useless. So E got out the ladder and his chain saw and channeled his inner George Washington . Theoretically, the trees will survive and look less horrid when they grow some leaves. A large apple crop this year might be optimistic but next year we should be rockin.

Cleaning up the apple branches has been a pain. Everything is just so wet and fires reluctant to burn for long. Our now functioning meter shows 88.00 mm of rain has fallen this month. Today was our second attempt at a burn pile, and most of the mess is gone. But there was very little heat thrown off. I would have stayed out but the dogs were cold. We were in by noon.

There is supposed to be a big freeze coming next week so the last of my carrots needed to be harvested. Probably fifteen pounds were still in the ground. A nice treat to be able to have fresh produce from the garden at this time of year.

On recommendation I watched Grow, Cook Eat on Amazon Prime video. Lots of good vegetable growing advice given with a gorgeous Irish accent. It got me even more excited about my spring garden plans.

E is bound and determined to finally fix the remote start wiring for our diesel generator before the cold hits next week. It hasn’t worked since we had the driveway put in six years ago. The generator is at the top of the hill behind the house and it has been miserable on all these rainy days having to go up the hill to start it manually when needed. Of course, as with all jobs, he was missing a few parts to finish it completely. They will come over next week with my sister-in-law (who also lives on the island) and he should have it done shortly after.

If you are wondering about the skeleton in the picture. That is Frank, and his dog Beans. The bin beside him is our drop box. Friends who have packages for us leave them in the bin. If we have something for a friend, we leave it in the bin to be retrieved. Strange times indeed but Frank appreciates the opportunity to be involved

in our safety.