This coming weekend the Christian calender recognises Epiphany and with it, the end of the Christmas celebrations. Our decorations have been taken down, the boxes carefully stored until next year. Of course, if we are to believe some interpretations of the Mayan calender, we may not be celebrating Christmas next year! One thing is certain, this has been a most unusual holiday period for us.

Last New Year's Eve we had blizzard conditions with 6" (15cms) of snow falling in one afternoon. We had wind, snow and below freezing temps. Two years ago we spent Christmas alone as we were snowed in on Christmas Eve and nobody could reach us except the neighbour in his tractor! We have had our first snows in late October other years but, as we enter January 2012, we have no snow on the ground. This year there are warnings to remove fishing shacks from the lakes as the ice is too thin, even people we know have fallen through the ice as they tried to go ice fishing. Parts of the sloughs and lakes are even open water. We are waking up to temperatures above freezing and chores are much simpler as we are not having to crawl across snow drifts on our way to the barn. 

I will admit that not having to fight life-threatening weather is very pleasant but there is a down side; if the weather continues like this, we will have drought conditions later in the year, as much of our moisture comes from the snow melt. True, the last 2 years the snow melt has been disastrous for many in the state but none could be equally disastrous for the farmers round here. On a lighter note there is still much of winter left and often, our heaviest snowfalls are after my birthday at the end of this month.

Just before Christmas, Anita's sewing machine ground to a halt, actually it was more like hitting a brick wall and it looked as though I was going to have to vacate my space in the sewing room so she could finish the last of her Christmas projects. You have to realise that Anita is one of Santa's alpha elves in the sewing department and any delays can be disastrous, as she likes to test herself with close deadlines! Her youngest son and his family came to the rescue! They decided that she deserved a new sewing machine and not just a hand-me-down or a quick solution from the local Walmart. Jon went sewing machine shopping with Anita on the phone and me on the internet, all three of us looking at the same machine discussing the pros and cons. Decision made, the store agreed to ship and thanks to Jon and UPS the machine arrived in time! It has been a great success, not least of which is the self threading feature, wonderful for the more mature set of eyes. The words 'kid' and 'candy store' come to mind!

Neither of us have made any New Year's resolutions, not new ones anyway. We have some goals for the year, I want to make at least one more quilt top, preferably two and finish the one I am working on. We want to enter a few things in the Watertown Farm show. We want to continue losing weight.  The usual mixture of 'must do', 'to do' and 'wish lists' we make each year and prioritise as the weather improves. 

We have been toying with the idea of a kitchen garden for several years. A garden close to the house, outside of the vegetable garden that is home to herbs, salads and strawberries, productive yet aesthetically pleasing. We just never came up with an idea that would work with location, format, hours of sunshine, not be in the way in winter but still have proximity to the kitchen in summer. Some of the solutions were just to expensive, some were just not attractive and raised beds leave sensitive roots too exposed in our South Dakota winters. We have finally decided on cement blocks, not the boring old grey ones but the newer coloured and textured ones. We will buy a few each time we go to town, then fill them with a mixture of seasoned manure, topsoil and sand. The photo shows the 4 corner blocks. We will make a bed 4ft wide and 10-12 feet long for strawberries and salads but the holes in the blocks will also be filled with potting soil and will house the herbs. Not only are they cheaper than landscaping blocks for retainer walls but they are more functional with the holes allowing a diversity of planting options.

It may be January but plans for gardening and food are still very much in our mind and at the end of the month we will order our seeds as some will need to be started indoors some time in February or March.