I get so caught up in the flow of seasons, always joyously anticipating the next one along the chain.  Yesterday, I noticed that the darkness was already coming later --- 6 pm and Mark and I were still out preparing firewood for the night.  Walking Lucy, I found mole salamander tadpoles drifting under the ice in floodplain puddles, their feathery gills sucking oxygen out of the frigid water.  Signs of spring on the last day of the year!

Inside, we harvested the first tomato off the plant Daddy gave us at Thanksgiving.  I've had zero luck with growing tomatoes indoors in winter until this plant came along.  But this is a hybrid variety carefully bred for indoors life.  Daddy paid fifty cents per seed for his start, but quickly learned that he could keep the plants going indefinitely by taking cuttings (one of which he gave me.)  Our house is really too cold even for this little guy, and about 70% of the flowers don't manage to set fruit, but I'm curious to see how long I can keep it going.

Happy New Year, everybody!  I have a feeling that this year will be the best one yet!

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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