The first big snow of the winter; weather station struggles with the snow; caneberry pruning; sheltering equipment; photos of the chef; winter is time for farming classes

We finally got some snow this winter, about a couple of inches at the farm. It took me 45 minutes to take the 6-minute drive home last night. A number of drivers had gotten themselves tangled up on the long slope up to my neighborhood. Most of the local schools are closed today. My dentist appointment was cancelled, and the Agriculture Commission meeting was postponed for a week, so I took some time to walk around the farm and take some photos for entry in this blog.

This is the first time I’ve observed the response of the weather station to snow.

Here’s our farm weather station the morning after a snowstorm. When I looked at the records in the morning, I noticed the station had reported no precipitation for much of the storm, starting at about 5:30. The first response finally showed up a bit past 11 o’clock, after the sun had been out for a while to warm up the weather station and melt the snow in the gathering cup. I also noticed that the wind speed and directional signals stopped reporting at about 5:30 and didn’t start up again until 11. The temperature did dip down to 22 degrees by early morning, as predicted. The temperature is now hovering just below freezing.

The crew came by this morning when the temperature was still in the low 20’s. They and Rob decided not to work today. We expect the cold and snow to linger into the weekend, so they will probably not work tomorrow either.

It looks like they did finish all the raspberry and blackberry pruning and cleanup yesterday. I posted a few caneberry pruning photos last year, but I thought I’d post a couple today, since the canes and trellises show up well in the snow.

The raspberries have been pruned for the winter. This is our block of Tulameens. You can see the two sides of the trellis forming a V shape. Each year we tie the newly pruned canes to the alternate side of the V.

We prune the Marionberries and the trailing blackberries differently than the raspberries and the upright blackberries. We cut the canes long enough to bend back to the ground. The tips are pushed into the soft mulch-covered ground where they will sprout roots. We use a single post trellis system for these berries. You can see the drip line for irrigation that we have attached to the lower of the two trellis wires. The blueberries and their tall trellises are behind and to the right of the Marionberries. The apples are in the back and to the right.

We have several hoophouses devoted to equipment shelter.

The John Deere tractor sheltered under a hoophouse roof. On the left end you can see where the plastic is separated from the end arch. This is damage from the big windstorm that we haven’t yet been able to repair. Rather than replacing the entire roof plastic, Rob & I think we can get a functional repair with a patch and some special hoophouse plastic tape, but we have to wait for better conditions before using the tape. The snow is starting to melt and slide off. Rob’s workshop hoophouse is also covered with shade cloth to keep the interior temperature from spiking up, a problem on sunny days even in the winter. I’m afraid we will have to take the shade cloth off, since it holds the snow in place. The accumulation of enough heavy wet snow can collapse the metal arches, destroying the hoophouse.

Chef Brian lost all his photos from the farm when someone stole his computer from his home. I’m collecting up some of mine for him to use in marketing his new restaurant. I’m also thinking about burning a bunch more CD’s of photos to store away from the office.

I’ve been thinking more on new ventures for 2007. I signed Rob, Ruth, and myself up for some classes given by the Snohomish County Extension. I’ll write more about them as they occur.

 What's playing in the Jeep CD player today? Yoshida Brothers – Yoshida Brothers III