'Sugaring' has begun! Even with the early warm up, then cool down, Beau was able to tap enough trees to get about 30 gallons of sap for his syrup making. That will make about a quart, but we have quite the stockpile of syrup from better years.
Over the winter he made himself a new evaporator with a kit from a 55 gallon metal barrel. It fired right up and he's starting the cook-down process today.
Earlier today we took a trip to Menard's for mulch as they had it on sale for $1.69 a bag! Score! We bought 14 bags. I also got two large bags of potting mix, so I treated Beau to lunch for all of that lugging of bags at Fiesta Cancun for Fish Tacos. He had Shrimp Fajitas - he doesn't share my lust for Fish Tacos for some reason. Nobody really does, LOL!
Rainy day, a little cooler than it's been, but it ain't SNOW! I've also decided to get my tomato cages placed in the beds so I can see 'who' is going 'where' and I am going to TAG MY CAGES this season so there are no mistakes when I have help with the planting. This will also show me where I'll be able to tuck in onions, kale, lettuces, broccoli and this and that.
Yesterday I had some time to go outside and check to see how things were doing. It was a very pretty day, sunny and breezy, high near 80, so I wore a sleeveless top and shorts. First I refilled all the bird feeders that were almost emptied from my week away. Next I checked each of the garden areas.
Anything that had come up just before St. Patrick’s Day bit the dust. Blossoms froze and fell away. The tarragon that had already sprouted up a few inches all froze and withered. I do hope it will regrow once real Spring is here. Tulip are starting to form their blossoms. The blue flag iris that I planted in the water feature are beginning to poke through, as are the hostas. The peonies are pushing up through the ground, hurray! Some daffodils bloomed after the hard freeze, so we still have some perky yellow and white blossoms to smile at. All in all, I think most things survived the sudden freeze from a week ago.
Tonight will bring another hard freeze. We had rain overnight. We’ve already reached our high for the day, 45 degrees. Tonight will get to mid 20’s again. We may even get a dusting of snow. So shorts and short sleeves quickly gave way to a comfy sweatshirt and jeans again. After being out in California where it was in the 80’s during the day, and then Oregon, where there were highs in the low 60’s, then yesterday so warm, I am not particularly thrilled about wearing winter gear again. Please come soon, real Spring!
I finally got to our Menards today. The mulch was $1.97 AFTER the 11% rebate, both in the flyer and on the floor, so, you got quite a deal! :-)
Two Menards flyers were active and like usual I bought too much, right after having done so @ Wal Mart & Aldi. Most of the latter though was food items we needed.
Wally World did have, though, some pretty nice “Herman Survivors” shoes - I would call them “outdoor work shoes” - for $25, from an original price of $60 (or so the tag showed.) I got a pair “a size large” to accommodate heavy socks, and it looks like my timing was good! Hopefully the adhesive joints will hold up: That’s been the weak point in Herman Survivors shoes or boots I’ve purchased in the last 15 years or so, but it’s spotty, as some hold up.
These are nice, though. They LOOK well made, but are moderately light. If it was in a locale where I didn’t worry about snakes, they’d be fine for smooth trails and so on. (For rough trails I’d want more ankle support: Ie., real hiking shoes or boots.) Comfort is excellent. I actually switched to them when I got to Menards, did a lot of walking, still have them on, and am pleased. They really didn’t even seem to need any break-in.
Wal Mart also had a few 3-packs of pairs of very nice Dickies mens’ crew socks on clearance. Better yet, unlike some “6-12” size socks, these are not too tight to my lower legs. Hopefully they will stay that way. Made in India - ok, that’s better than China or Pakistan, in my book. I got 2 packs so I can retire a couple pairs of well worn socks. :-)
Menards had an unadvertised clearance of some 4 oz. pump spray repellent with some ingredients the same as the “TREK” repellent I’ve found to be good at repelling gnats. This one has 6 essentials oils and such, instead of TREK’s 4. It seemed “perfect” to go in a backpack, so I got one to try out this summer.
Menards also had 3 types of smallish 5000K LED folding panel lights on sale. These usually don’t hold up, but they all looked fairly easily dis-assemble-able. So, I got one of each and will see if they can be better heat sunk. I’m also curious as to just what voltage the individual panels run at. If it is stepped down to 12 volts or so, I may be able to use the LED panels themselves in more “bug traps”.
Then I got home and was scrambling to bring the rest of my vulnerable plants back in. NWS has issued a freeze warning for us, tonight. Hopefully it will be our last for a good while, though it’s a bit early to be wishing for such.
In addition to everything else, a whole new huge problem cropped up with my desktop computer a couple hours ago. (I’m on my wounded laptop, at present.) The next 24 hours or so may be a “try to fix the computer day”. :-(