by Chappell on our previous farm

it's officially spring. has been for almost two weeks. an immenent freeze is on the way and temps are dropping for the next few days. the pear tree, the chestnut and the heritage apple trees have been smart enough to not come out in fool's bloom... they must know by now, that at least a freeze and probably a snow is sure to come. the fiji apple, and the nectarine however, have been in full bloom for a week to ten days. we hope the fruit is set on the trees and that we get to harvest some fiji apples and nectarines this year.

we built a small hoop house inside the greenhouse today hoping not to have to fire up the mass heater. when winds are high it's difficult to manage burning any wood fueled heat sources, as back draft can cause a lot of smoke. it's good that we built the the little hoop house in the green house because the high winds blew out both our greenhouse doors this evening with a 55 mph gust, and without the mass heater being fired up, it's all that's protecting all of our seedlings right now. 

nature, it's always a throw of the dice! 

update: all of our seedlings made it throught the night because gianni ended fired up the mass heater at about 2 a.m., feeding it wood fuel for about three hours to keep the bench temperature at about 50F.