Christmas Eve 2018

This was as close as it gets to a perfect day!  Sunshine without frost to start, and time to work on a garden project.  I could have cleaned my house, but as a native Washingtonian, when the sun shines, I can't stay inside.

So it seemed a perfect day to tackle my grape arbor/garden fence. Nothing puts out more vines than grapes and when they are covered with leaves and grapes, and even the netting I put over them to keep birds out, they are impossible to contain.  Even now, they are  a bit daunting.....but since I only use them to have leaves for my pickles, I figured I couldn't go too far wrong.  My main goal was to keep them from covering the driveway and the garden.  So when I prune them, I am pretty ruthless.

So after the first step of cutting back all the vines to the fence line, I used the tractor to pick up all the downed vines.

So my burn pile is maxed out and the next step is to burn it.

I have winter rye planted in all the tilled garden areas except for my little garlic patch.  You can see the garlic is coming up nicely.

The swans are back on the lake.

We've collected a pile of rocks for the children to toss in the lake this summer, the grass is coming up, 

We have a new carport with a view,

a few trees came down in the wind storm, but missed all the buildings,

and my two week old Christmas bouquet is still bringing me joy!
We made it past the shortest day of the year, so every day gets lighter and brighter.  New Year's resolutions are in place, and we're looking forward to 2019!