March 7, 2021

The temperature will get to 30F today. Hours of daylight: 11.5. The snow is sharp and dry, the brook mostly crusted over but still showing some open water. This week will get into the 40s and 50s for four straight days, so a lot should melt. Have plans to take a walk at Mink Brook Nature Preserve in Hanover on Wednesday.

Ordered seeds from Seed Savers Exchange last month, but uncertain they arrive anytime soon, since so many seed stocks have been depleted and businesses upended since the pandemic began. Bought a few packets of High Mowing Seeds (tomatoes, pie pumpkins, parsley) just in case, and I have a lot of seeds a friend in California sent me last year. I need to buy some starter trays and it might be time to start thinking of how to build a coldframe or a hoophouse. Our office window where I’m writing this is south-facing with the most light in the house, and the desk is big enough to hold a few trays.

Neighbors are getting ready to tap trees, and a lot of sugaring supplies were depleted at a local chain store. Seems a little late this year but it’s been steady and cold, and what felt like a decent amount of snow. We don’t have a lot of sugar maple trees of size, but it might be interesting to try tapping yellow birch at some point.

Reading: Belonging by bell hooks, The Cooking Gene by Michael Twitty, Mill Town by Kerri Arsenault, Topophilia by Yi-Fu Tuan, Trace by Lauret Savoy
Re-reading: The Shame by Makenna Goodman, Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels
Listening: The Pet Parade by Fruit Bats, Time Off by Steve Gunn