It's a cold day here, but actually not too bad considering the season. Hubby is working on putting in a new door, so the cold air is rushing in and my feet are freezing more than usual.
We have had very little sunshine today, but a bit has peeped out now and then. Drinking hot liquids today and trying to make myself do the dishes which are now running over the sink and counter. UGH.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Prayers up for all. Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Dishes do that.
Hi Greeneyes!
It’s C-C-C-Cold here in Boston. The waves lapping up on the beach are turning to beach ice!
I guess i won’t be planting anything for a while.
I miss my bananas, plantains, mangoes and avocados.
Lots of ripe citrus around the area.. Most going to waste..
I have a nice crop of lemons and some tangerines are ready for picking.. A single beefmaster is still growing tho all the tomaties are green .. So green fried it is on the menu soon.
Here’s hoping the waters recede and the skies clear for some..
Nice crop of weeds coming too..
Temps may hit 60 as the pineapple expresses get ready to rumble thru. Snowpacks look good so far.
FRom Overcast San Jose.. And out.
The only thing we’re growing here in NW Iowa is icicles!
Although, since it is caucus season, we seem to have a bumper crop of politicians and media types.
Gonna have to get out the Roundup....
:-)
A warm hello from Massachusetts! My potting soil arrived a few days ago. I had planned to start some seeds on Thursday, but I’ve just been too busy. I’ve got everything that I need, though and I’m definitely going to begin tomorrow.
My potting soil is organic, with worm castings. I have lots of paper cups and trays. My kitchen table is ready and waiting. :)
Mr. trisham and I went to the eye doctor today, and our RR dog Joey ripped apart the cardboard box that the bags of potting soil were in, but through some miracle didn’t disturb the plastic bags of dirt. Thank goodness.
I look out the kitchen window and see nothing but gray and brown. Kinda depressing! I need to get out there and clean up at the very least, but since I need to do that in the house as well, the garden is on the back burner for a little while more. I noticed yesterday evening that Walmart is getting all their garden supplies out so it can’t be too much longer when we are busting our rumps outside.
Still training the puppy who is now 7 months old. He is a handful at about 70 pounds. At least he is house-trained and he has the sweetest temperament. Such a good-looking mixed breed - shepherd/boxer/great pyrenees. He’s a bit dominant but funny and good-natured overall. I already know he’s a garden digger-upper. I’ll have to get more garden fencing.
Greetings from Decatur, AL. We have had a few decent days this week so I spent that time pulling henbit weeds from the garlic patch. The weather will be turning much colder next week so I have filled the propane tanks and set up the heaters in the greenhouse.
Started my first 50ct plug flats of Giant Russian and Flat Dutch cabbage last week and they are up and looking for some sun. It’s hard to believe next week I will begin planting 244ct plug flats of tomatoes.
Yesterday I ordered a 12X24 greenhouse that I will use as a grow out house for my vegetable plants and the ones that I sell to area farmers. It’s hard to believe what started three years ago as a post Army retirement hobby of growing 100 heirloom tomato plants and selling at the local farmers market has turned into a full time job, with no slowdown in sight.
Aside from picking a bushel of kale there will be no gardening for me this weekend, but I will be spending time in the shop doing some fixing on my box blade. I tore up the hitch the last time I used it, then while it was sitting out in the fencerow waiting on me to fix it a whopping big oak tree fell on it and added insult to injury. The workshop furnace has been repaired so I can stay comfy while I’m out there. Last weekend with no furnace was no bueno!
Also need to drop my trailer off at the sawmill for another load of slab wood, and make a run to the feed store to fetch provisions for Mrs. Augie’s welfare eaters.
It is in the 40’s here & raining lightly - heavier rain on the way. You can see your breath .... it’s that damp, raw kind of cold that goes to your bones (ugh!).
Monday, with some temps in the teens overnight forecast the next couple of nights, I went out and harvested my winter garden ... 3 kinds of kale & collards. I left the red cabbage - the “heads” are about the size of a walnut so not much there. I cut out the ribs and sauteed the kale/collards down & then put them in the fridge.
Today, I am making batches of soup using the kale. It’s supposed to be delicious and just taste-testing, it’s ‘good’ to me. I’ll keep out a couple of bowls and freeze the rest. Nothing like a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter’s day. :-)
I’m already dreaming & planning of spring & the garden - got some ideas, going to do a little expansion, hope to start canning ... at least making things like hot pepper jelly, herb jellies, but would also like to put up tomatoes, etc. Both of my grandmothers were excellent canners so I think I should follow in their footsteps (plus I prefer canned to frozen veggies). The spring garden seems a long way off, but time is also flying by these days.
I apologize: I've asked this question before and I'm not trying to be repetitive. I'm just posting it hoping that random passers by might see it when they haven't before!
Otherwise, cold and rainy here. I've marked up the Baker Creek catalog and I'm almost ready to order.
Anyone got any recommendations on pumpkins that are good for eating cooked-up like squash (not pie)?
Preferably “heirloom”/non-hybrid.
Hi, g! My dishes are doing the very same thing. Could this be the beginning of an outbreak? Something which cannot be contained? Are we dooooooomed? And would you happen to know a good source for iceberg lettuce seed?
I’ve got nothing going on right now, other than blooming (forced indoors) Paperwhites and Amaryllis that are ready to pop!
I’ll start some salad greens under lights in a bit. I’ll be spending this upcoming season selling my little farm and moving to our ‘real’ farm. Not sure how much time I’ll have for gardening, but I’ll do what I can.
I can’t NOT! :)
I am determined to have an herb garden next year - used to have a good one, but the space was co-opted for something else & I went to raised beds. With limited raised bed space, I tried a few herbs in pots the last two years, but I miss the better, bigger plants I got with a larger space & if I missed one watering, the plants were wilting. I’ve been looking for some larger-than-pots but still moveable metal tubs in the sheds - found one, but really hated to poke holes in the bottom.
Yesterday, I was out on a farm helping a relative with a project. The former farm owner had a nice garden (now grown up) and I spotted something against the fence ..... looked like exactly what I had in mind (although I had not envisiond the stand) for an herb garden. When I asked “what is that?”, I was told the tubs and stand were mine if I wanted them because they were “in the way” during mowing! This morning, I tried to find a picture online & here’s a link to exactly what I now have:
http://www.amazon.com/Twin-wash-tub-stand-drain/dp/B00HDQTUOG
I’d say I scored a great deal (actually more of a steal)! The stand is rusty and needs to be cleaned and painted with something to stop the rust & protect it. The tubs are in great shape. Now I REALLY can’t wait for spring!
We went to see Johnny, Sunday. He is extremely ill. He was lying on a small couch in the living room with a window behind the couch so he could see someone coming to his front door. He cannot walk. He was able to move on his own, swing his legs to the floor so he was sitting upright. He is attached to oxygen 24 hours a day.
I could understand most of what he said. He can get himself in a wheelchair from his bed so someone can move him from the couch to his bed, about 10 steps from the couch. His communication is down to his phone which he can still punch and the print on the phone is magnified so he can see the words. He can still smile and laugh.
Earlier, I had a terrible cold and could not go there until I knew I was not going to infect him with a cold. I had seven Christmas cards and two small gifts from Freepers to give him that came after my last visit there. He knows Freepers have not forgotten him.
According to him, the docs say he could live a few weeks more. Hospice has been there, put in a hospital bed, and someone comes every other day to give him a sponge bath and a whole bath once a week. Hospice is looking for someone to be there 8 hrs. a day. Pray they find someone soon.
He has a niece, whom I met, and she is a God send, and comes there before and after her work. She keeps up with the medicines, washes clothes and bedding, cleans the house like a pro., and brings food or she cooks it. Her name is Patience, what better name for an angel. His brother comes during the time Patience is not there, so they can have someone there most of the time.
Patience, with Johnny's directions, the day before, put a computer on a standing tray and that is now over his bed so maybe he can operate that.
He can use text on his phone and that is how we communicate. I knew he had to be a bit better when I got a text from him that said, “Don't have the memorial service yet.” Before that text, he was sending text that said, “I am dying.”
As a funny: when I took all the Christmas gifts and cards the time before this, I had a present to him from me. I bought him a throw blanket to keep him warm when he was out of bed. It is a garish blend of bright colors, supposed to be Cheetah colors - it is gross blanket throw and I thought it was perfect for him - no way he could lose that. Bob's opinion of the throw was, “I would never buy that.”
Wellll, when Johnny sat up on the couch, the quilt over him slid back and that garish, very soft throw was over his body under that quilt. He said he loves his blanket and, in his mind, makes pictures of various objects out of the colors and black spaces. He showed me a cat's face he saw in those colors. It was true, that arrangement of the colors and black spaces, did look like a cat's face.
Patience told me, he has that blanket on him all the time and she got it one day and he complained, but she told him, “You will get it back, I need to wash it.”
Here is that highly colored blanket:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/your-zone-50-x-60-microplush-throw-tie-dye-cheetah/29131613
Please continue to pray for Johnny that we can keep him as long as possible. We did pray with Johnny when we were there.
Free Republic is more than people posting their opinions on this and that - it is a place where people meet and form friendships that go beyond internet space. Without Free Republic, I would not have met Johnny and be able to help him at this desperate time. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for Free Republic.