Close on the heels of the end of the market season, we welcomed Elletta Auralee into our family. She was born December 13th, at a healthy 9 pounds, 1 ounce. We have spent the past three weeks learning about her newborn self and falling madly in love.

Dan has taken breaks from adoring his new, dear daughter to repair damage done to the deer fence (by the deer – they even chewed on it in places) and shore it up a bit…there were some weak spots – primarily the two gates. The deer learned to slip underneath the netting that we stretched across the two access points. So now there are rigid gates:

Before the fence work could be completed, the deer completely took out all of our remaining produce. They even ate the parsley. It was depressing, frustrating, and a testament to how intense the deer pressure is here. Dan also added an electric wire to the base of the fence in case the deer were tempted to test the bottom of the netting, which is also staked down. Hopefully these will work and next winter we’ll be able to harvest from our fields.

The walk-in cooler has seen progress, also. Here’s the metal roof, almost complete:

This cooler is right beside our house, which will eventually get new roofing and siding to match. The roof is ivory color in order to reflect as much of the hot summer sun as possible. The painted slabs shown are the two color samples we were choosing between – green and grey. (We’ve decided to go with the green.)

Still on the list for these slower months is a new greenhouse, final crop planning for the 2012 season, and a slew of projects on our house. Hopefully the winter will get started for real soon – the dandelions and fruit trees think it’s spring already!