3/18/26  Remember, those who want to talk with you about others, will talk with others about you.   

Clear, calm. 11 degrees.  Sunshine today, a brisk WNW breeze, high 31, low 16.  Mostly cloudy tomorrow, a stiff SE breeze, high 37, low 20.  Mostly cloudy Friday, a SW breeze, high 43, low 28.  Snow/rain Saturday, a north breeze, igh 39, low 29.  Snow to rain Sunday,  a brisk NW breeze, high 39, low 24.  Partly cloudy Monday, a strong NW breeze, high 37, low 18.  Partly cloudy Tuesday, a brisk west breeze, high 40, low 23. Mostly cloudy next Wednesday, a stiff NW breeze, high 39, low 20.  Partly cloudy next Thursday, a stiff NW breeze, high 39, low 29. Snow showers the morning of Friday the 27th, 1-3 inches of snow Friday night.  A strong WSW breeze, high 43, low 21.  Morning snow showers Saturday the 28th,  afternoon fog, 1-3 inches of snow at night.  A brisk NW breeze, high 37, low 21.  1-3 inches of snow Sunday the 30th, a stiff WNW breeze, high 38, low 22.  Partly cloudy the next three days. Some snow showers possible Tuesday. WNW breezes, highs in the low to mid forties, lows in the mid to high twenties.

    The forecast low was twenty.  If the hose is let on abit at twenty it doesn't freeze.  At 11 degrees it does.  Today's high of 31 means the frozen hose needs to be dragged into the greenhouse to thaw. Bekah carried two buckets of water from the greenhouse to the barn for Mabel.  The sun is bright, I'm sure it is warming up the greenhouse but the outside temperature is only up to 12.  

   The lonely cardinal must have found a mate, we don't hear him singing for one anymore.  Yesterday a small flock of blackbirds came, they're probably the locals that raise their families here.  The red-winged blackbirds nest in the swale and by the firepond,  the grackles build nests in the pine tree.

    Bekah planted a third planting of parsely yesterday.  It will be for us.  The first two didn;t germinate very well, enough plants for customers but not us.  People like to plant their parsley with their cool crops, a spring chill won't bother it.  But neither will a fall frost so we'll have plenty to dry even though we'll be setting the plants out late.

    May your day be blessed, Sally

 3/17/26"True health grows from peace of mind, love in the heart, and joy in simple moments." 🌿

56, the high for the day.  clouds, windy this morning.  Temperature dropping to 35 this afternoon with light WNW winds. 14 tonight with a stiff WNE breeze, partly cloudy skies.  Sunshine tomorrow, a brisk west breeze, high 31, low 20.  Cloudy Thursday, a brisk SE breeze, high 38, low 26. Partly cloudy Friday, a brisk SW breeze, high 43, low 24.  Partly cloudy Saturday, a brisk SW breeze, high 42, low 30.  Rain/snow Sunday, a strong west breeze, high 42, low 23.  Partly cloudy Monday, a NW wind, high 33, low 16.  Sunshine next Tuesday, a brisk NW breeze, high 40, low 22.  Partly cloudy next Wednesday, a strong west breeze, high 41, low 25.  Rain/snow next Thursday, a stiff NW breeze, high 44, low 31.  A stiff SW breeze next Friday, rain/snow, high 44, low 22.  Partly cloudy Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 29th. A brisk NW breeze Saturday, high 35, low 21.  A west  breeze Sunday, high 39, low 24.  Rain/snow Monday the 30thh, a brisk SW breeze, high 45, low 28.  Morning snow showers Tuesday the 31st, a brisk west breeze, high 47, low 27.  We got a lot of rain yesterday but I don't know how much.  My rain gauge says 0!  No idea what's wrong with it.

   For quite a few years I had a rototiller on my tractor and Gilbert tilled both our gardens.  Then he put the tiller on his tractor and tilled both our gardens.  The last few years Jay and Bekah have been looking for a small used one to put on my tractor,  No luck.  There weren't many small ones for sale and the ones that were had seen a lot of use.  Yesterday they found one in Brownville.  Doug took Bekah to look at it.  It was in excellent shape, the tillers still had paint on them.  The price was very reasonable.  The lady even threw in some greenhouse supplies she had. A good start to the week!

   They were caught up with transplanting so they spent the last few days pruning and nipping off blossoms.  I used to tell Tiffany and Rachael, "  we grow roots.  Blossoms come in May for the customers."

    Happy Saint Patrick's Day, Sally

 This could apply to anywhere, not just North Haven      Sally

Speaking of Bees  Becky Bartovics

it is refreshing to have some good news. Apparently there was a large upswing in the numbers of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico this year to about 1/5 the normal count and about twice as many as overwintered last year. Kudos to everyone on island who has planted butterfly magnets. Native species are especially important such as echinacea, liatris, comfrey, buckwheat for starters. There are numerous beneficial insect plants that rival hybridized and specialty plants for color the are much more productive of nectar.   While the monarchs news is good for this year, there is some other news about insects world wide— between a 60 and 80% loss in populations world wide.  


Why should we care? Well, every species on up the food chain depends upon insects to fertilize plants and to serve as nutrients for the bottom of the chain on up to the very top on land and in the ocean.


With the past four years of summer drought and until this year paltry sums of other season moisture, I have noticed a marked drop in insects on my farm. I used to have huge numbers of fireflies, moths, grasshoppers and crickets in fall, mosquitos and gnats. Paltry few where present last year. We even have fewer spiders.  The insects provide food for frogs, salamanders, birds, spiders, rodents, my chickens! While some people have a real insect aversions we ought to begin to admire them for their place in the interconnectedness of all things. Taking the time to watch a bee reach into the throat of a flower for nectar, or watch a solitary wasp dig a hole, drag a stunned caterpillar across grass or gravel impediments to the hole, draw it down out of sight, and then come out to roll a plug across the opening, those are magic moments worth every second.  Try it with a child!


Learning that pesticides are included in all wines whether or not organic from California, that their presence is in most non organic food, that they are implicated in auto immune and cancer diseases means we need to pay attention and avoid using them at all.  Find another way. Garlic sprays, Neem oil and including leguminous plants in gardens and lawns goes a long way. Or how about reducing lawn size to give over to the magic of insects all together- that would reduce carbon emissions, save money and provide added habitat for the beautiful  array of insects in our natural environment.  North Haven could become an oasis for all of the denizens of our island if we treat it as such.

3 /16/26   Resilience grows from observation, preparation, and the patience to ride out the storms that inevitably come.

Thick clouds, 33 degrees.  Rain starting at nine, a half inch forecast.    A SSE wind today, high of 51.  Another half inch of rain forecast tonight, low of 47, a high wind warning.  25 t0 30moh south winds with gusts over fifty.  Partly cloudy tomorrow, 54 degrees in the morning with a strong, gusty WSW wind.                                     a morning high of 54,  afternoon highs in the forties, overnight low of 14.  Mostly sunny Wednesday, a brisk WNW breeze, high 31, low 19.  Cloudy Thursday, a strong SE breeze, high 38, low 28.  Partly cloudy Friday, a SW breeze, high 42, low 25.  Snow showers Saturday, 1-3 inches Saturday night.  A brisk NW breeze, high 37, low 22.  Snow showers Sunday morning, a stiff NW breeze, high 37, low 22. Partly cloudy next Monday, a strong NW breeze, high 37, low 17. Mostly sunny next Tuesday, a NW breeze, high 37, low 20.  Partly cloudy next Wednesday, west breeze, a high of 40, a low of 24.  Rain/snow the next five days with stiff breezes from the NW and north. Highs from 36 to 45, lows 21 to 28.  Temperatures are forecast to be five degrees below average for the last two weeks of March.  We are in a moderate drought.

    Tomorrow is the day Jay and Bekah start the second greenhouse.  The weather forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday nights is saying that waiting until Thursday will save a lot of propane.  This week's shipment isn't scheduled until Thursday but last week's shipment came a day early.  It will mean extra work but they have decided to go with the forecast and start the furnace Thursday morning.  They will open the shipment in the first greenhouse.  If all goes well they will move to the second greenhouse Friday.  Despite a few days of record breaking warmth March will be a more expensive month than usual for greenhouses across Maine. Country Junction is staying right on schedule.  They will start transplanting peppers this weekend,  marigold seeds will go on the heat mats where the peppers are now.  All the plants in the greenhouse are thriving, it is lush and green in there and smells like spring.

     The rain today and tonight is welcome.  This storm is following the pattern of so many of our storms, the forecast rain total has dropped from an inch and a half to an inch.  Most of this winter's storm the snow totals have been under the forecast.  We went into the winter dry.  People were having problems with their wells, the hay crop was below average.  We are saving every scrap of plain cardboard that we can so that we can mulch everything with cardboard covered with  hay or straw.  No such thing as wasted hay this year!

    Our spring chick order went in.  A few green/blue egg layers for fun but mostly the hybrid egg layers.  With the cost of feed we need to buy the birds that lay the most eggs.  The chicks all cost the same.

    May your day be blessed, Sally

 3/15/26  Fourth Sunday in Lent          For I the Lord do not change.  Malachi 3:6

 Clear, calm, 24 degrees. Clouds and sun today. WNW breeze, high 39.  Cloudy tonight, a SSE breeze, low 30.   An inch of rain tomorrow, a SSE wind, high 51.  A half inch of rain tomorrow night, a strong south wind, gusts 40mph, low of 47.  Sun and clouds Tuesday, a Sw wind, morning high 50, afternoon high 32, night time low 14.  Sunshine Wednesday, a brisk NW breeze, high 31, low 20.  Cloudy Thursday and Friday, rain/ snow Saturday.

   Darel and Bekah are early risers.  He came over this morning to have coffee with her and keep her company why she milked Mabel.  He still  has the headache but it is not as bad as it was.  Screen time makes it worse.  Seeing him here started my morning on a high note.

    Mike will pick Annnabelle and I up for church, this afternoon Annabelle and I will go to youth group in Bangor.

     During Lent I seek to align my life more with God's ways,  As I read the Bible and pray I realize how quickly I get comfortable with my own counsel.  Life is better when I pray that God will enable me to carry on, following his will.

     May your day be blessed, Sally

 3/14/26  Sping always comes.  Always!

 2 inches of snow, snowing,28 degrees.  Snow stopping around ten, cloudy, high 41, a north breeze.  snow showers this evening, a brisk NW breeze, low 22.  Partly cloudy tomorrow, a west breeze, high 40, low 30. Rain Monday, Monday night, showers Tuesday morning,  An ESE wind monday,  high 50, low 47.  A WSW wind Tuesday, high 51, low 13.  Partly cloudy Wednesday, a west breeze, high 30, low 21.  Cloudy Thursday, a SE breeze, high 39, low 28. Most;y cloudy next Friday, a stiff west breeze, high 41, low 25.  Friday, the first day of spring will end with rain/snow, snow showers overnight and next Saturday. A brisk NW breeze Saturday with a high of 37, low of 21.  Partly cloudy next Sunday, a NW wind, high 33, low 17.  Partly cloudy next Monday, a strong NW breeze, high 34, low 18.  Partly cloudy the rest of the week, brisk NW breezes, highs 38-41, lowes 20 to 26.  A few snow showers Thursday night and early Friday morning.

    Three inches of snow out there now, no hint of spring.  The greenhouse stove must be full of coals, no smoke coming out of the chimney. Not only is everything spring green in the greenhouse but there are blossoms on some of the plants.  Maegin just came in, she says the birds are all protesting, not singing.

    One of our two beehives made it through the winter.  Monday, when it is fifty degrees, Jay is going to open the hive and slide a pollen patty in, just in case they are running low on honey.  I signed up for a beekeeping class yesterday.  We need bees for pollination.  In the late summer of 24 our bees disappeared.  By the next week we had fewer cucumbers and several of the ones we had were misshapen.  Lack of pollinators.  Plus we use lots of honey, we'd like our own.  We don't want to invest in more hives until we have better survival.

     May your day be blessed, Sally

 3/13/26  Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?

Some clouds, 21 degrees.  Sun and clouds this morning, clouds this afternoon, a strong west breeze, high 38.  1-3 inches of snow tonight, a SSE breeze. low 30.  1-3 inches of snow tomorrow morning, a brisk west breeze, high 39,  Tomorrow night's low 23.  Partly cloudy Sunday, a WNW breeze, high 40, low 30. Rain/snow early Monday, rain in the afternoon and overnight.  A south wind, a high of 50, low 48.   Occasional rain Tuesday, a SSW wind.  Morning high 52,  32 by late afternoon under clearing skies, low 13.  Sunshine Wednesday, a stiff west breeze, high 30, low 20. Mostly cloudy Thursday, a strong south breeze, high 39, low 26.  Mostly cloudy next Friday, stiff WNW breeze, high 41, low 22.  Partly cloudy next Saturday, 1-3 inches of snow Saturday night.  a stiff NW breeze, high 37, low 22.  Snow showers next Sunday morning, a strong NW breeze, high 33, low 16.  Partly cloudy the week of the 23rd, Brisk NW breezes, highs in the mid thirties, lows 16 to 22.

    The sun is shining with puffy white clouds in the sky. The sun is heating up the greenhouse, shortly the big fan will come on.  The stiff NW breeze will keep it cool outside.  Maegin had the girls last night so the house was quiet.  Quiet enough so Darel and Heather came for supper.  Darel has some aches and pains, his head hit the frozen deck first but the rest of his body hit too.  His headache comes and goes, sometimes terrible, sometimes insignificant. The doctor says to expect the headache for a while.

    The flock of red winged blackbirds has moved on.I'm just as glad, there aren't usually that many in our local flock that nests in the swale and by the firepond.  They were a reminder that it is time to clean out the birdhouses.

     May your day be blessed, Sally