Nearly forgot it was January

The past two weeks it has been hovering around 50 degrees.  Not warm, but not cold. This morning I awoke to a brisk 34 degrees and a heavy fog hanging around the lake. With the warmer weather I found myself getting into that dangerous precedent already, 'can I plant early this year?'.  Yes, I know, it is way to early this year. Especially with this year on average being colder than last year.  The most likely first day that I will be able to plant in the garden is near the end of April. Sometime around the beginning of April I will start some seeds in the house, or on the windowsill at work in an attempt to get a head start on the better and hardier varieties.

This little rash of cold weather reminds me that we have roughly a cord of wood at the house left to burn to keep us heated through the winter.  Since sadly the home we live in, while beautiful and overlooking an amazing landscape, was built as really only a summer home, it means that the heating bill can be upwards of $300 a month during the coldest months.  As you can imagine this is a horrible strain on the pocket book, when the summer months only cost us $30.  (and that is WITH a green energy purchase) There is nothing we can realistically do about it, other than burn wood instead of burn electricity via the base boards. As a house warming gift when we moved in over a year ago, mom and J gave us a set of finely sharpened axes.  A welcome addition to when you need to do a bit of splitting for kindling.  Tonight I will be working up a sweat when I get home by splitting a weeks worth of kindling, before heading out for Roller Derby practice.