The pandemic continues, dry January continues, life as we have come to know it continues. E and I continue to try to remain Covid free. Word is coming now from transplant patients we know who ended up in the hospital. One guy was in the hospital for five weeks, lost 25 pounds and is still sick. It is not “mild” for everyone. His vaccines saved him. Will the days of entertaining and barbeques on our deck ever return?

Finally the weather has warmed this week and the winds have calmed, which encouraged us to leave the warmth of the house and finish some of the winter chores on the property.

E continues to buck up the trees that are down off the cliff at our entrance. Working with the chain saw is hard on his back so he is happy to work just a few hours a day on that particular project. His primary focus these days is to get enough trees down, bucked, split and stacked to fill all of our wood sheds. It will be a welcome bonus if he is able to fill the sheds and still stand up straight. The bathtub and free hot water come in very handy on these days.

It is January, which for me is fruit tree pruning time. I try to get our three apple and one plum trimmed before the end of January. Roses and Hydrangeas are pruned when the Forsythia blooms, which can be as early as February, but, for the moment, it’s the fruit trees I am working on. The apples are done, tomorrow I will get to the plum.

You remember last year we were quite daring and did a major George Washington on the trees. They were out of control and something needed to be done. We lost most of our crop this year because of the hard prune we did. The theory is that this year the trees will produce better than ever.

I have accepted the fact that my island garden is not going to ever be bigger than it is, so plants which I do not absolutely love have to find a home outside the fence. Primary qualification to stay in the garden is quality of flower and scent. Secondary qualification is that they must be drought hardy. Roses, Dahlias and Gladiola can stay protected along with other favorites like Peony and Mock orange. Other than the Japanese Maple, if it doesn’t flower it will be moved. Ornamental grasses and shrubs which advertise their deer resistance will have a chance to face and perhaps survive the deer, but will no longer be able to take up valuable protected real estate. I need to be brutal.

We still haven’t really been in a grocery store since this pandemic began. Ordering on line at Save on Foods has worked really well. Every week there is a big sale on one item, usually meat. We are still eating the roast chickens I bought last summer for $2.00 a pound. It was worth buying 26 when a chicken which does us two nights plus a lunch only costs $6.00.

E had to go to town today to pick up the solar panels for the community project at the Firehall. As he was going anyways, I thought it would be prudent to see what was on sale this week at Save on Foods. Pork leg, whole bone in, is on sale for 99 cents a pound, so I ordered one. I had nooooo idea that what I would get would be so huge. It is 21 pounds and can apparently feed 30 people for a pulled pork barbeque dinner. This pandemic better be over soon so we can have a party. The menu

is already set