February is always full of surprises!

February started off beautifully.  Mild days and little rain.  The fruit trees were trimmed and sprayed.  All of the leaves were raked and removed to a burn pile.  The dead foliage of the native irises beneath the trees were cut and removed.  Chives were trimmed and transplanted.  A new fig tree planted in the garden.  It is a replacement that supposedly has a much shorter growing season, so its fruit should actually mature at this elevation.  This will be fig tree number 3!  As they say, the third time is the charm.  We certainly hope so.   

We've got another building project scheduled for the garden this spring.  For a long while we have wanted a place in the garden where we could sit in the shade and admire our labors.  And for years we have talked about building an arbor for the grapevines to climb.  They create a massive volume of foliage that would easily cover a structure creating a shady alcove.   That patio is what started us looking at pavers last year. But then creating a plan had too many issues which we didn't have time to resolve, so we ended up with just the two walkways.

One of the problems we struggled with was how to configure the area.  During the summer, with sprawling grapevines covering everything, we couldn't get a good feel for the space.  Since winter is time to prune the grapes, we did a savage pruning to let us see.  So savage in fact, that we actually chopped one down.  We knew it had to go to make room for the new structure.  The professionals we consulted said that grape roots are deep and widespread and they would be nearly impossible to transplant. Actually, more than one will go, but we're not 100% sure who else is doomed. We wacked back the lateral vines in an attempt to force the plant to grow UP.  They had been only shoulder height, and they need to reach 8' high and sprawl over the top.  We admit that the grapes look strange now.

It was the year for pruning back the rose arbor too. The easiest approach is to cut all of the canes just below the curve, then yank the crown of thorns off.  And that is exactly what we did -  tie a rope to the top and let the tractor pull it off and drag it away to a burn pile.  Don't worry, we've done this before and those roses rebound with renewed vigor.  This is an antique rose brought from Louisiana and it is VERY happy here.

There are no photos available that tell the story of the burn pile, but we spent one entire day burning slash and garden debris.  Suffice it to say, we did an excellent job of getting rid of a lot of debris.

Then the weather changed!  The day after we did the burn it started raining.  Then before you know it, it started snowing.  We got about 6 or 7 inches of snow, along with a 12-hour power outage.  Then the sun and blue skies returned and the snow began to melt.  It vanished from all the sunny places but lingered where the shade protected it.  Then the next wave of weather arrived.  Cold and snowy.

Hard to imagine summertime pots filled with flowers right now.

But you know we've adapted to Oregon weather when we are willing to grill salmon when it's 31 degrees and snowing.  Why let a little snow dampen our spirits?

We have discovered that we were somewhat shortsighted when we designed Thibodeaux's snowsuit.  It should have a hood.  While we were outside shoveling snow the boy had a mishap.  Seems he was walking under a tree when a limb decided to drop a portion of its snow load.  PLOP!  right onto the back of him - head, neck, and snowsuit were covered in snow.  That was the proverbial straw as far as Mr. T was concerned.  He spent the next 20 minutes sitting at the back door to the garage waiting to go inside.  He and Chicken Little both agreed on the status of the sky.

Later that night, when we dressed the boy for his nightly walk, we added a headscarf.  Please do not let everybody know the BOY is wearing a headscarf.  But it did work to keep the falling snow from building up in his exposed hair.  We may have to do a suit redesign and add a hood.

Now everybody's clothes are drying in the laundry room.  They need to be ready for the next outing into the snow.  But for now, all three of us are hunkered down in the warm, dry house.  Some of us working on projects, and others snoozing away.  Use your imagination to figure out who's doing what.

As always, the weather changed.  It went from snowy to down-right cold.  Two nights in a row of temps in the teens meant the snow was no longer wet and sticky.  The sky was beautiful and sunny.  Though the daytime temperature hovered around freezing, the sun started things to melting.  Then at night, they would refreeze.  The snow on the roof of the barn has begun to slide off.  It hangs over until the weight gets too much and it crashes down on anything or anyone below.  It shows no mercy.  But as it melts, icicles begin to form, turning it into a thing of beauty.  And it looks like it will be a while before we have to worry about working on those logs in the meadow.

But the snow doesn't seem to bother the lettuce in the garden or  crocus popping up.  How's that for a lettuce crisper?

And even Mr. T is enjoying the snow.  He seems to have forgotten about the sky falling on his head.  Now he dashes around in the frozen, dry snow naked without fear of collecting snowballs.