We planted some lettuce and swiss chard seeds in the greenhouse on February 10th. The baby plants are just now starting to get a little bigger but no real leaves yet, so I’m not sure how ahead of the game we got planting them so early. But still, we planted seeds in February!! That must be worth something.
Today we put the shade on the greenhouse. It was a little tricky getting the first corner where it belonged but then the rest was actually pretty easy. And it makes a difference in the overall heat in the greenhouse, combined with opening a couple of side windows, it knocked the temperature down from in the 90’s to the mid 70’s, which all the plants will like a lot better.
![greenhouse-shade](http://redmeadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/greenhouse-shade.jpg)
It makes the light inside the greenhouse a lot softer. We had been waiting for a day when it wasn't windy, or raining, or snowing. Today was it!
The squirrel proofing Dan did last year to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeders works a treat. I want to put up another post and put a bluebird house on top of it. Maybe we can keep the House Wrens out of it.
![squirre-proofing](http://redmeadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/squirre-proofing.jpg)
A piece of metal flashing is tacked down on the post using roofing nails. The collar is for a stove pipe for a gas water heater. It's enough of a lip out from the board that the squirrels cannot reach around it.
The first time the squirrels tried to get past it, you could just see them say, “damn!” 🙂
![gf-almondflour-donuts](http://redmeadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/gf-almondflour-donuts.jpg)
These are addictive, gluten free almond flour donuts which are baked, not fried, and then covered with cinnamon sugar.
I might just have to make some of these tomorrow. I’ve been good and haven’t made them for a while. Being good can only last so long.
![daphney](http://redmeadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/daphney.jpg)
The earliest blooming plant we have is this Daphne. It has easily tripled in size since we planted it.
We also have some blooming Buttercups in the yard. This seems really early! And we saw both a very large Black Bear down by the garden a couple of weeks ago, and a tick the same day. Both were a surprise.
Spring is very definitely here.