Last weekend: new steps (thanks Dale and Darcy!)and fresh gravel on the walk. Emily finishes the graveling of the walkway.

This weekend: ankle reconstruction surgery is complete and we're all taking a break.

But then she tripped on the front steps and broke her ankle.

This weekend: rebuild the front steps.
Next Monday: reconstructive surgery.

Kudos to Carol who was a very busy farmerette this week.

On Monday she turned 65 - a milestone she nearly missed after a close call two weeks ago when she fell through the ice and into the creek while trying to rescue the puppies. A harrowing solo battle against thick ice, waist-deep water and steep banks ensued, followed by a frigid trudge back to the house with a heavy heart, having seen one puppy drowned and the other lost under the ice. A scale-model Jack London epic, this episode.

Carol rescued herself in time to make her movie date with her daughter. (The movie? Atonement. Yes, nothing calms the nerves after a near-tragedy like more tragedy. If only we'd chosen Into the Wild - we could have had tragedy AND irony.) On her return, a miraculous discovery: Daisy the puppy was shivering on her doorstep and waiting to be let in.

So Carol lived to see 65 and Daisy her oral stage, and both agreed to stay out of the creek until spring.

This week Carol also attended an all-day food safety seminar as well as visits to her attorney and the local ag offices where she learned some very good things to advance the farm plan.

More snow. This time of year the lichens are blazing oranges and neon yellows. Almost as if you could warm your hands at this old fencepost.

Quail run every which way over the garden to frequent the feeders. Last week we had robins and goldfinches. This week mainly the usual suspects: juncos, crowned sparrows, chickadees, housefinches and doves.

Thanks to La Nina, it's looking like a good year to start a farm operation. Seven inches of snow in the valley today and more to come this week. Mountains of snow up above and a good water year ahead. Hooray!

This week we signed up for the Rural Roots food safety course and applied for stall space at the Nampa Farmers Market. Looking forward to bringing the farm to market.

Still to do before spring: finish out the chicken house and yard, build chicken tractors, form the LLC, get the financial plan on paper, work out the Idaho, Oregon and USDA regs for interstate transport of processed meat and work on marketing materials and displays. Spring is only 51 days away!

Addendum: Morganne also points out that we're in for a great morel season. Though as every modern farm girl knows, secret family mushroom hunting grounds are Not To Be Blogged About. So that's all about that.