106.5 inches (of snow) and counting

"106.5 INCHES and counting".  That was this morning's headline in our county newspaper The Star Beacon.  The article talked about how much snow has fallen so far this season in Pierpont Township which is about 6 miles east of us as the crow flies.  Pierpont has the highest land elevation in the county so it has the honor of having the most lake effect snow dumped on it each winter.  The article states that the last 10 winters, Pierpont has averaged 159 inches of snow for the season.  The article also mentions Dorset Township as having 120 inches of snow or more in 4 of the last 5 years.  Our farm is located in between Pierpont and Dorset Townships so I would guess we are somewhere in between in snowfall.  The nice thing about late winter is that when the water of Lake Erie freezes, the lake effect snow machine shuts off.  Well mostly.  We always seem to get a little push from Lake Huron, but less of the big snowfalls that we get in early winter.  Of course then the lake melts in the spring and we've had a few 20+ inch snowfalls in March and April.

Not too much outside farming is going on right now as you can imagine.  I did manage to get all three dogs out for a 90 minute walk in the woods yesterday and then took the beagles for a 4 hour walk in the woods today.  The snow does slow them down some, but they seem quite happy burying their heads in the snow to try and sniff out a bunny.  On the other hand, while the snow is very VERY pretty to look at, I could use a little less of it on the ground.  My legs are toast from walking in the deep snow especially since at the midway point today I had to chase down the beagles that decided a deer was more fun to chase then a bunny.  1/2 mile later I caught up with them.  They really need to stop the deer chasing, but I have never been in a good position to correct them when it first happens.  I guess the upside is that we all got some good exercise.

And so as our woods sits under a blanket of white, Mike and Mick are busy getting ready for their week.  The Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association Congress runs tomorrow through Wednesday in Sandusky, Ohio.  Mike and Mick have been asked to speak about their Community Supported Agriculture program.  So today they are busy putting the final touches on their presentation.  They gave me quite a laugh though today.  The outline for the presentation is on our computer and the guys are over at Mick's house working.  I get this phone call asking me to increase the font size of the outline and email it over to Mick's so Mick can read the outline without his glasses.  The request?  Can you increase the font to 30 or 32?  REALLY?  I increased it to 18.  The word was it could have been a little bigger, but it was workable.  Good fodder for teasing Mick about his old eyes though.  As someone who is the brunt of many of the guys' jokes, a gal can use all the ammunition she can get.  *grin*

Winter is also a good time to heat up the kitchen.  After my escapade to the woods with the beagles, I fired up the oven and made a loaf of whole wheat banana nut bread to eat for breakfast this week.  I substituted some of the oil with ground flax seed this time around.  Will see how that turns out.  I also made a loaf of multi-grain sandwich bread.  I so wish I had the time to make homemade bread more often because there is nothing that beats a fresh loaf of homemade bread.  I use the four grain bread recipe on allrecipe.com as a base, but I do cut back on the sugar, leave out the corn meal and add 7 grain cereal.  But it is a great base recipe that you can customize very easily.