Pinging the List.
Got my tobacco seeds from Johnny, which were much appreciated! At present, I've got eggplants, mini-mexican watermelon (cool little cukes for canning), purple cherry tomatoes, german johnson tomatoes, Italian tomatoes and Black tomatoes all sprouting, and I FINALLY got some sprouts from my ghost chile and devil's tongue peppers. Of course, I've got trays of Virginia Gold, Commercial Burley and some nicotiana rustica tobacco sprouting everywhere!
The worst part? Winter is returning, if only for a short time, this weekend/first part of the new week!
Iron Dog started today with the Trail Class out on the trail for about two hours - teams just starting to come into the first checkpoint at Skwentna. Pro Class (including Todd Palin) will be starting tomorrow & that’s when I start following the race closely. As cold and snowy as conditions have been around the NE, Iron Dog could have been run in the lower 48!
If you’re interested, here’s the Iron Dog website: http://www.irondograce.org/ On the red navigation bar, just click on “Race Tracking” & from the pull down menu, click “GPS Tracking”. You can also choose to look at the teams in the Trail & Pro Class. From the GPS Map, up at the top you can select “Main Map”, “Leaderboard”,” Race Flow” & a “Mobile App”. You can set the map to refresh every 3 minutes.
No gardening going on, but we have been feeding sunflower seeds from last year’s crop to the very hungry, cold birds that are hanging around the bird feeders (in addition to store-bought seed). We finally got up into double digits late morning and are now around 19 degrees. This should be the last very frigid night - some “warmup” coming tomorrow, i.e. above freezing by late afternoon although snow & sleet might get to about ½ “here before going to freezing rain and then rain. I am not a fan of snow so I won’t be sorry to see it melt away as fast as possible!
In an effort to stay positive, saw this quote today and liked it:
“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” ~John Burroughs, “Winter Sunshine”
things still busy in my garden. planting early spring crops, beans, etc. looking to try a potatoe tower (for the third time). got a pear, apple and cumquat to get planted this weekend. Peach, apricot and necarine tree starting to bud. busy busy busy
Turns out I have brain cancer that moved there from my lungs. Prognosis is poor. I had brain surgery a couple of weeks ago.
Of course, being me, I intend to fight hard to the very end, and beat the odds. I may well be around for harvest season this year. That is my intent. Normal prognosis is in weeks.
I've held off on bringing this up on FR for several reasons. But the time to bring it up is now.
Consider this my opus. It's as close as I'm going to get to giving one.
I really want to thank Jim for giving us a forum. Jim, you do good work. Thanks.
/johnny
Part two of the seed starting article from Eric’s local newspaper:
http://www.thelaketoday.com/news/2015/feb/18/how-start-seeds-part-2-ready-start-seeds/
It’s been a busy week here in Central Missouri. We got a good bit of snow a few days ago. Nanner and I plowed out four of the neighbor’s driveways and the county road out to where it hits pavement. Had Dr. appt in St. Louis yesterday and today is Mrs. Augie’s birthday. We went to town this morning and picked up a few things from the garden center at Lowe’s.
After we got home I loaded up a bunch of jiffy pots with Miracle Grow potting mix. Sowed seven varieties of basil and bunch of green salad.
I’m hoping tomorrow will be dry and warm so I can paint the south side of the potting shed. That has to be done before I can set up the new cold frame.
I’ll have time to rest when I’m dead...