Building Unity Farm - Planning for Spring

In the past 18 days, we've had 9 snow days.   The small silver nub in the center of this picture is a yardstick placed in the snow on the patio. The squirrels can walk up to the bird feeder.    It's time to have a heart to heart with the groundhog who suggested 6 more weeks of this. For the first time, this week, I cannot split wood because the logs are buried too deep.    Mulch and manure are similarly inaccessible.    The snow banks are as high as the roof of the hoop house, so watering vegetables took an hour of concerted shoveling to find the door.    I carved a moat around the beehives to give them ventilation space amidst the snow drifts.  The Cooper's Hawks are sitting in the trees hoping some rodent finds a path to the surface of the snow.The snow drifts around the paddocks are now 7 feet high and I've used the Terex front loader to keep the barnyard clear.   However, the trails into the forest and mushroom growing areas are just too deep to access.With outdoor tasks limited, it's time to plan for Spring.   Here are a few of the action plans1.  Woodlot managementLast year I split 10 cords of wood by hand.   Although it's great exercise, the wear and tear on joints is high while swinging a 10 pound maul against a 50 pound chunk of solid oak.    It's time for a wood splitter.    As soon as the snow melts, I'll revise the wood processing area to include a storage area for unsplit lo...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Technology Consultants Source Type: blogs