So…….Dry………
We heat with wood, which means the air in the house is dry. There are houseplants and pots of water on the back of the wood stove, but even with these measures, the humidity in the house hovers between 28-30%. Finally, we decided to break down a get a cool mist humidifier.
After much research, we settled on this version, mostly because it has the capacity to add essential oils to it. This time of year we love putting balsam fir essential oil in our diffusers to add a wintery scent. Now we can just put them in our humidifier.
So far, we’re happy with the amount of water we can put in the reservoir and how much humidity it adds to the air. We probably should get another one or two since our house is so large, but for now, this one will do. We were lucky in Ohio, our home was always at a good level, we didn’t need to add any moisture to the air.
Do you have to run a humidifier in the winter?
Share this:
Houseplant Cleanup
Now that it’s winter, I’ve been looking around at the houseplants and noticing they need a bit of tidying up. The banana plant was a bit crazy, though in my defense, I was hoping it would fruit this past summer, and I’ve always heard that you don’t trim off the dried leaves if you want fruit.
I meant to get a “before” photo, but completely forgot until I had already trimmed it up. Oh well, you get the idea. The pot wasn’t even visible because there were so many dried leaves all the way from the floor up to the leaves. While I was pruning, I also cleaned up the leaves with a mild detergent as they were a bit dusty.
While I was pruning, I decided to give all the plants a bit of a haircut. The elephant ear in our bedroom got a bit of tidying, as did the spider plants in my sewing room. Most of the other houseplants don’t any tidying. All of this brown material will go into the chicken coop as litter.
What’s your favorite houseplant? How often to do clean & prune them?
Share this:
Snow Day Activities
More snow, freezing rain, and ice rolled through yesterday. After office work and house cleaning, I started processing some of the many seeds I saved this past summer.
I’ve been developing better systems of processing them. Using a fork to remove the seeds from the dried flower heads is a huge finger saver, these seed heads are super prickly.
I’m looking forward to lots of tithonia in the garden this coming summer, hopefully in many other gardens as well (you can purchase these seeds over at Seeds & Sundries). Finding gardening chores that can be done when the snow is falling outside is always a nice way to brighten up those dark winter days!
What seeds did you save from the garden this year to plant next year?
Share this:
Pounds of Pumpkins
If you remember, my ‘Musque de Provence’ pumpkins did quite well this year. In fact, from the four vines I planted, I ended up with 30 pumpkins. The average weight of these pumpkins is about 40-45 pounds. Some are smaller, some are larger. The largest one I can barely pick up, and I carry around 50 pound feed bags all the time, so I’m not weak. These pumpkins are super meaty (as you can see). The flesh is thick and sweet, it makes delicious pies and soups.
I gave some away, we will eat a few, but many of them will be fed to the chickens. One of the reason I grow so many pumpkins is for the flock. They love them in the winter and reward me with lots of beautiful eggs with yolks almost the same color as the pumpkin. It looks like I’ll have a pumpkin to feed the flock almost every week this winter, no doubt they will appreciate my efforts.
Do you like pumpkin? What’s your favorite way to eat it?
Share this:
Welcome Winter!
Winter has officially arrived here in Maine, we got our first meaningful amount of snow. On Saturday night and into Sunday, we got about 6 inches. They’re calling for another 6 tomorrow.
The garden is happy, it now has it’s protective layer of snow to keep things from drying out with the cold winter winds.
I’m excited about the snow, not only because it protects the garden, but also for the snowshoeing. In the winter, I go snowshoeing every day on my lunch break if I can. Getting out in the woods every day is such a treat. We’re lucky to have great trails on the property right from the house.
What’s your favorite winter activity?
