Friday 20 October 2017

Pre-Winter Preparations


    Yesterday I wrote about the leaves falling and today I have this photo of the flocks of waterfowl that are gathering on Horseshoe Lake before “V-ing” their way south.  Nature seems to be on track for Autumn, with all the flora and fauna using their tried and tested methods with dealing with the approaching winter.
    Like the rest of nature, I am in my “Fall” mode, scrambling around trying to get every thing I need to do completed before winter hits.  I got one of the big things on my list done yesterday.  We have a gravity fed water system that comes off of a waterfall, and to keep our waterline from freezing up in the winter, we have to keep a continual flow of water through the pipes.  As long as it is flowing it doesn’t freeze.
    Some of this constant flowing water drains into my pond throughout the winter, and it travels through my greenhouse on its route.  Unbeknownst to me a turn-off valve in my greenhouse sprung a leak last fall so the water didn’t get to the pond. Yesterday after a lot of grubbing in the mud, I was able to replace the leaking valve, so now the water will once again will flow into the pond.  I still have to insulate it, but the hard work is done.
    Since we have plenty of carrots this year, we decided to keep a row of them in the ground over winter to eat in the spring, so I covered the row of carrots with soil to help protect them over winter.  We have never done this before with carrots, but years ago we did it with parsnips and they turned out all right.
    Little by little I am ticking off those items on my list to get done before winter.  Once I get them done, things slow down quite a bit and generally about the only big job that needs to be done is to periodically clear the driveway of snow.  Winter tends to be a fairly relaxing time if all the pre-winter jobs get done.


My paintings are on display at:  davidmarchant.ca

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