Small preparations for winter

 For the first time this fall, the weather forecast contained the words. "wind chill." Snow is not yet forecast for Ottawa, but it is not too far away. So today was the time to do some small preparations for winter. As you can see, the rain barrel has been emptied and turned upside down. The step ladder has been placed in position on the deck so I can climb it and use the snow rake to clean snow off the solar panels.

 The snow rake is in position. I visited three hardware stores this morning to find "extensions" for the snow rake. Of course, these were found at the third location. The 16 feet length of the snow rake was not enough to reach the full width of the solar panels. I added two five foot extensions to the rake handle. The 26 feet length should be plenty now. There will be no need for me to climb on the roof this season to reach areas previously not accessible from the deck

My eldest son, Julian, stopped by to help me remove the canvas covering of the deck's sun canopy. The frame remains in place ready for the re-installation of the canopy in the spring time.

Other winter preparations will include removing dead flowers from the deck and gardens, and replacing the car's summer tires with winter tires. Winter holidays are already booked, so that part is well in hand.

Preparing the garden for winter

Its now time to begin the long but enjoyable task of preparing the garden for winter. This photo shows where I have extracted two full barrow loads of compost from one of five composters. I fill these with kitchen waste, leaves and other garden debris, and "voila" compost is created within the spring, summer and fall months.



Here is the result of that season of compost making, good, rich, black compost. Two of the composters are adjacent to the barrow here, while in the background is the large open-to-the-air composter.





Here the freshly transported compost is spread over the section of the vegetable garden in which I grew potatoes. I will dig this in when the ground can be worked in the spring before planting for another season.





The large fronds of asparagus hide the wheel barrow. This load is part of the garden debris that will become next year's compost.