Four days of truly miserable weather this week. Lots of time for socializing puppies. We installed a dog door into the balcony slider, and Lisa has been chucking the puppies though it as appropriate for the last week. In the last couple days they have started going out voluntarily to do their business. Not perfectly of course, but a noticeable improvement in the amount of cleaning up and chucking out that we have to do. We took the puppies outside in front for the first time Friday. Maggie thought they were great, and a good time was had by all for about ten minutes before they started to get cold. They lasted much longer Saturday. Purple started herding turkeys, until they objected and she ended up hiding under the truck.
The fence in the back paddock remains effective. Only Maggie can still get out, and she simply jumps it even with the extra wire. I was not as successful with the pigs. They continue to walk right through their fence and seem to enjoy exploring the swamp. I need to get it live, but with the incremental way it is built that will be very hard in the snow.
Today I started the annual refurbishment of the seed starting setup. So far I’ve had to replace one shoplight fixture and one tube. I can expect another couple of each by the time I get everything running. As of now it’s really only the celery and celeriac that should be started, but there will be others soon.
This week’s business has to be getting the tubing out for sugaring. People out here aren’t tapped yet, but we saw one guy down in Keene who is. If the weather was clear, the temperatures we’ve been having would be high enough to start the run. Even without sun it will start soon, it just won’t be very good.