Notes From Zone 4

I’ve left the thermometer into the compost pile the last few days. After a few days of sitting right at 40, it finally started moving today. It was nice to see it almost get to 50. I stuck the pitch fork into the other pile, and found ice four or five inches below the surface of the bin in the middle, though. But since that’s the one that should basically be finished, it’s probably not going to heat up again. We just need it to thaw so we can spread it out when we clean out the beds.

Gingrich the newt now has a girlfriend (or a boyfriend as the case may be.) In a way, it’s good that we don’t have fish right now since goldfish think amphibian eggs are yummy. More reason to hold off on the fish for a while. If we can get the water plants established, the tadpoles will have some place to hide and maybe a fighting chance of making it to newthood themselves.

(Why did they survive when the fish and frogs didn’t though? We really wish we knew.)

There’s still snow in the woods, but it’s almost gone.