Ending and Beginning

The geese have been flying around in pairs and small Vs honking for the last couple of weeks. We’re down to 80-90% snow cover. The compost was up to 81°F a couple of days ago. I heard a sandhill crane. I’m calling it Spring.

So today I planted a 7′ row of kale in the bed just outside the back door. I just dropped the seeds on top of the mud and sprinkled some potting soil on top. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I also pounded in a couple of stakes at either end of the row and screwed a piece of scrap 1×2 between them, about 18″ off the ground, so I can drape plastic when we get hard freezes after they come up.

March can be such a wonderful and horrible month. I’m desperately longing for sun and warmth, and when the March sun shines on the snow and the wind dies for a moment, it’s almost there. But you know it won’t last and one more big snow is almost inevitable.

Also spread about 10 gallons of wood ashes and charcoal on the gardens. I’m using a 10-gallon metal trash can for getting the ashes out of the wood stove, which lets me do it while there are still coals in there. Those coals become charcoal. That then goes in the garden, slowly building up my terra preta. I’m only slightly concerned that it seems like an awful lot of ash this year — I hope I don’t make the soil too alkaline. On the other hand, this leaves me free to use more acidic organic matter in the garden, such as pine needles.

Got up on the roof today and swept the chimney. The screen at the top was completely blocked with dried creosote — the only way for the smoke to get out was a half-inch gap on top of the screen. There didn’t seem to be that much creosote in the chimney itself, except for the top inch or so (there were 2-3 cups of the stuff down in the stove after I got done).

That screen was quite disgusting — I had to knock the stuff out with the handle of my screwdriver, that’s how thick and hard it was. It’s difficult to believe we have been using the stove right along without major problems, although we certainly noticed that the draft was not what it should have been.

Anyway, if we’re burning a lot of wood, the mid-winter cleaning is not optional, and more frequently would be better. Pretty much whenever it’s warm and dry enough, I should get up there and do it. Maybe I should just take out that screen in the winter and put it back in in the Spring.

And yes, it takes all three extension rods to get the full length of the chimney.