Days 151 - 171 Dead of Winter...what to do?

The weather has turned grey, rainy and you do not feel like being outside. Our forecast is now calling for 10 days of rain without a sunny day. Surprisingly the mandarins are just getting better and better as they ripen to perfection. Over the past three weeks we harvested over 200 mandarins!! I did miss a post last weekend...kind of a time crunch with giving final exams last week.

Well, what feels like the dead of winter does not last very long around here. The Daffodils are already popping their heads up and will be in bloom within a couple of weeks. January often has a warm spell and the bees will be out in force on sunny days. I have been keeping a record of the blooming of my fruit trees over the years and it is a pretty regular occurance for the first peach blossoms to be out on February 20th. Will it be summertime...no way. But there are things to do in the garden for sure!!

I take the opportunity to do a little pruning around Christmas if there is a dry spell and try to get all of my pruning done by the middle of January. I have quite a few trees to prune. You can look back at my second post to see the job that I have ahead of me. I do have a good time with it though and it makes for a sense of renewal...cleaning out the old and preparing for the re-birth of spring. You say, "how do you prune?" I have a wonderful book that I found from The American Horticultural Society called quite simply "Pruning and Training". Here is a link on Amazon but you can probably find it at your local bookstore (I did). Take the time to read about your trees, fruiting or non-fruiting, and you will learn a bunch!!

Harvested over the past 3 weeks:

Day 151
1) 9 mandarins ($2.25)

Day 152
1) 7 mandarins ($1.75)

Day 153
1) 8 mandarins ($2.00)

Day 154
1) 5 mandarins ($1.25)

Day 155
1) 5 mandarins ($1.25)

Day 156
1) 4 mandarins ($1.00)

Day 157
1) 13 mandarins ($3.25)

Day 158
1) 9 mandarins ($2.25)

Day 159
1) 7 mandarins ($1.75)

Day 160
1) 8 mandarins ($2.00)

Day 161
1) 6 mandarins ($1.50)
2) 4 lemons ($2.00)

Day 162
1) 8 mandarins ($2.00)

Day 163
1) 8 mandarins ($2.00)

Day 164
1) 19 mandarins ($4.75)

Day 165
1) 15 mandarins ($3.75)

Day 166
1) 12 mandarins ($3.00)
2) 2 lemons ($1.00)

Day 167
1) 7 mandarins ($1.75)

Day 168
1) 9 mandarins ($2.25)

Day 169
1) 9 mandarins ($2.25)

Day 170
1) 12 mandarins ($3.00)

Day 171
1) 25 mandarins ($1.25)

Two-Week harvest: $44.00

Total Produce Harvested (Year-to-Date): $904.00
Total Honey Harvested (Year-to-Date): $360.00
Expenses (Year-to-Date): $105.00