A beautiful day

It has been so cold this winter that we've hardly been outside unless necessary, and I got more than my fill in January with 3 weeks of field work in the coldest weeks in Charlotte in 4 years. When I stepped out of church this afternoon it was at least 20 degrees warmer out than when I went in (or so it seemed). So Paul and I spent the afternoon outside washing the salt off the cars(from the snow a few weeks ago), we hosed down bird cages and cleaned the garage a little. I still had a pile of vines in the backyard that I had cut down out of the trees in December that still needed to be put in the trash. It was such a nice day that the chores didn't feel like chores. Even the birds enjoyed being outside without complaint.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but we started a compost pile about a month ago and it seems to not be doing much since all our kitchen vegetable scraps are still as good as new when I go to turn the pile. Nothing is decomposing and I guess it's because the weather has essentially been a freezer, preserving everything till the spring! I am excited to see some progress and so looking forward to more warm days like today.

The funny thing about the compost pile is that Mrs. Neighbor across the way has spotted it hiding inconspicuously in the "back 40" as I call it. She asked me, "What is that big thing back there?" I explained our new composting mission and she wasn't too impressed. Her husband calls us "the environmental neighbors." I had anticipated that the compost pile might not be a favorite, so I planned ahead and used the tidiest materials to build it so that it doesn't stand out too much and I kept with the homeowner's association code which states that structures under 3' high do not need prior approval by the association. So I opted to keep it to 2'11" so as to escape hassel.