We hold two two-hour work parties each week, 10 AM to Noon, Tuesday and Friday, after taking most of December off, except for cleaning, sharpening, and oiling tools, which we do at some point at the end of each year. And, it’s cold out, so Marita gets a fire going two hours before we start.

(One or more podmates usually have prior commitments, so they make up their hours at other times. For example, Justin’s work commitments mean that he can’t ever make our work parties, so he took charge of getting new wood chips on all the paths the past few months.) And for the entire month of January, Annie was in Ireland, having been entrusted to deliver the kitty, Schulte, to her owner, Andreas, who left us after four years in late August for his new job as a college teacher.)

Our first work party in January was devoted to completing the job of cleaning, sharpening and oiling tools. Joseph, Daniel and Marita in greenhouse.

We then started the process of cleaning and disinfecting walls, shelves, and trays. Here’s Aya, who got all the walls cleaned.

Daniel and Marita worked on the first trays we’ll need, those for cold weather seedlings, plus tomatoes.

Meanwhile, here in southcentral In-Diana (Goddess of the Woodlands), we are blessed/cursed with constant falling branches from various storms that whip fast-growing trees and bushes. We’ve already made one recent to a place which accepts them for mulching purposes, but needed to borrow a truck again for two more loads. Aya’s partner Chris came to the rescue, his old truck with a big bed that could handle the load.

This was the first pile; notice the truck bed already seems almost full.

Joseph and Aya took turns stomping it down.

Next, more cleaning inside. This time the back room, which also needed to be reorganized. Joseph, Aya, and I tackled that task.

At last, all these weird power tools in one bucket . . .

What’s this? Aya and Joseph prepare to store it elsewhere.

What’s in the back of this shelf?

Meanwhile, Daniel and Marita start the process of making the kind of soil we use for soil blocks (a recipe from Eliot Coleman’s book, The New Organic Grower).

One final photo, look up, folks!

Next post: Starting Seeds in early February.