[5TR-Apiary]

I am so tired of winter...... I have the blahs! Cabin-fever. I want to be working in my garden, orchard and honeybees... I know that everyone is saying "you live in NC --what winter" but it's been so wet and cold that it's impossible to get any thing done! How do you people who live in really cold, wet regions do it??? Thanks for any tips. Debbie

 

[wr]

I find that if I moan, howl, complain, whine and cry enough winter eventually fades or a chinook shows up to break the tedium of winter. February is the most vile month, thankfully someone was wise enough to make it shorter than the rest. It's the month that reminds you that there is still more winter to come and spring is still off in the distance. I feel your pain, right now my garden is under a 5' snowbank and if I have to buy one more crappy head of lettuce that has no flavor, I think I might be forced to throw a major fit

 

[deberosa]

Oh, I remember how much I hated February when I lived in CO. Now on the Olympic Peninsula, spring is starting this month! ***** willows are out, the rain is warmer. :haha: And this is the time of the year the days get longer really fast after the very dark nights of winter. February is actually tolerable now.

 

[Laura]

Last week was our week of sunshine that I should've gone out anddo the winter yard chores, pruning, spraying fruit trees, weeding the asperagus, planting blueberries and dividing raspberries. Instead, I had to run to town, 70 miles away, 3 days in a row and take care of sick kids.

Now I'll have to pull on the dairy boots and slog through the mud to get the chores done before spring.

 

[PonderosaQ]

WR ,
Grow some sprouts to add some flavor and nutrients to that anemic stuff they call lettuce winter. It'll perk you right up to see those little seeds sprouting and turning green and then you get to eat them. Start a few seeds or treat yourself to a plant, some bulbs for summer flowers, anything you can enjoy now that lets you know spring is really on the way. Those of us still in winter's grips will make it.....with a little help from our friends right here!

Liz exNJ now in VA

 

[Guest]

Oh the weather outside is frightful
And the fire is so delightful.

By the time its warm enough to work outside
The blackflies will eat you alive.

Let it snow, let it snow let it snow!

Then its mosquito time and second black fly hatching and West Nile worries.

The flu in winter has nothing on the black fly plague!

 

[Terri]

I visit the local greenhouse, which is always pretty cheerfull. They usually have a scratch ' dent table set up with sale plants. A $2.50 flowering plant once a week helps me make it through February, and in March I can at least BEGIN the outside stuff, gloomy or no.

I sort through my seeds, set spuds on the counter to sprout, and generally get things together. I can start with the cold-hardy things as soon as the soil is dry enough.

 

[Hoop]

Winter in North Carolina? I guess a person learns something every day! I never knew there was a winter in NC.

Around here, the winter blahs usually take place in late March, early April. It is easily the worst time of the year. Too warm for the winter stuff (snowmobiling, skiing, ice fishing, etc) but still too cold for the summer stuff. Usually, the ice disappears from the lakes around mid/late April and winter is over.

 

[MelissaW]

We're getting to that point here in Ohio, when everyone is getting a little insane from it. My skin is no longer just pale, it's now taken on a bit of a grayish blue tinge. We've gone about two months without enough of a melt to see the ground. Here at the house, the snow has melted in only one place, over the septic tank! I've been staring at that darn septic tank for two days now. It's currently my favorite spot in the whole yard. Yep, that's how bad it is!

 

[prhamell]

Here here to getting sick of winter. I have been paging through my seed catalogs longing to feel the dirt or at anything outside that's not frozen. We get very excited when the temps are above zero and there's no wind. My kids are going crazy, bouncing off the walls. If it's 10 degrees or better, I bundle them up and send them outside. "Don't come back for at least twenty minutes!!" If it's inching up towards 20 degrees I open up the chicken houses for a few hours, but about the only souls brave enough to come out are the ducks. I started an herb garden inside this year, and also added a few more house plants just to try and make things a little more cheerful. Only two more months of winter to go! Becky

 

[goatchops]

I quit smoking this year using Zyban, otherwise known as Wellbutrin (an antidepressant.) The doc said he wanted to leave me on Zyban until the gloomy days of winter are past and although I don't care to take any more pills than absolutely necessary I must admit that this is the coziest winter I've spent in Alaska. Even when it rained for 12 days solid in January I enjoyed reading inspirational texts from the Dalai Lama which kept me mellow (normally I would have been the living example of wr's post.)

Anyhow, I'm not sure I want to take antidepressants on a regular basis but I know that if things get really freaky, they do take the edge off.

It also helps to live in a tight knit community (think Northern Exposure) where everyone lives to pull each other out of those blahs. Hang in there Debbie think about the dead of summer when you are wishing for some relief from the sweltering heat and the bugs!

My $.02
Jeff

 

[Irish Pixie]

This has been the winter from hell in Upstate NY. It's been record breaking cold, and we've had more than normal snow. The temperature didn't get above 28 degrees from early January to early February-and was frequently below zero during the dayand 10-15 below at night. There is much more snow on the way March is usually our snow storm producing month. The water buckets freeze solid in the stalls, something that hasn't happened in the 5 years we've lived here.

I just read the weather forecast for this weekend and it's suppose to rain...then freeze again on Monday. My driveway and the area leading to the pasture gate is going to be a skating rink. I've got an 8+ month pregnant mare that I have to get outside for her sanity as well as her health. The old gelding had to be put on steriods again for his breathing problems-it's been so cold that I can't wet his hay-it freezes before he can eat it.

Even the pasture and hayfields look desolate. The snow is so deep that the horses, deer, and other critters can't go out into it. There aren't even any tracks to break up the never ending white of it.

We've went through 6+ cord of wood and have about a 2 cord left. We usually use between 5-6 for the entire heating season. I hope the remaining wood holds out until May. I loathe the thought of buying wood.

Well, thank you for listening to me vent. I have to take a full 5 minutes to dress to go do chores now.

Stacy in NY

 

[Guest]

I'm wishing winter would last a little longer!

I haven't gotten all the fruit trees planted, my spraying is not done, and I had to do my pruning in a doggone wind storm as I noticed the pear trees were already blossoming!

Winter may be the slow months up north but come January and February it has me hopping.

Naturally there always seems to be eleventyone things on the weekends to keep me from getting the necessary seasonal work done. The wife's family is all from New England and the Midwest so naturally they want to come down and visit in the winter just when I most want to be at home getting work done. Let 'em come down in August when it's too doggone hot to want to work outside.

.....Alan.