Spring can’t come fast enough!
OK, March is around the corner and the temperatures here are going to be above freezing, which means MELTING!!!!!!!!!!!
YEA!!!!!!!
So what can I plant as early crops? What’s cold hardy enough to go in as soon as the ground warms?
I also have old under the bed boxes, mostly scavenged, that I intend to put in upside down to help warm the ground faster and act as a cold frame.
In spite of that, I know it’s still going to be a couple months before I can put out anything that’s not cold sensitive.
I see the SUNSHINE today!
XD
Good morning Diana. I have a question about last years garden. We tried hay bale gardening for the first time. It worked pretty well, but on one of the bales I had something that looked and acted like a puffball growing on the plants.
A) What is it?
B) How do I combat it?
C) Are the veggies (in this case, thyme) safe to eat?
Thanks. I am the worlds worst gardener, but I keep trying!
Made it through our 2nd ice storm in a week. We lost power last weekend & were on a generator for almost 24 hours. This latest storm, wee hours of Thursday morning into Friday morning, was supposed to be worse with 1/2 to 1” of ice in the forecast for our area. That would have caused severe damage to power lines, trees, etc. Happily for all, the forecast was a BUST!!!! I’ve never seen so many happy people over a busted forecast. The interesting thing is that all the models busted in the last 12 hours - usually, that is when they are most accurate.
So today, most of the ice is out of the trees. We still have some areas where sleet accumulated (we got more sleet, less freezing rain - roads were worse, but power stayed on!). Most of the stuff left on the ground will be gone by tonight. Everything is sloppy - we’ve got standing water puddles in places where I’ve never seen puddles before - slow melt doesn’t result in runoff like rain. I did some dog-sitting yesterday evening & there were some major muddy paws to contend with after our evening walk around the fields.
Stuck inside pretty much, but the sun is out - yay! Also, today is the final day of the Iron Dog Race. Since last Saturday, I’ve been on GPS & watching live-streaming or video from the villagers at checkpoints - it’s been a different race with COVID precautions, but some of those changes also made for additional excitement in various ways. I’m already looking forward to next year’s race .... I really love Iron Dog. It definitely helps make February & the winter doldrums more tolerable.
Just a quick update from the Humboldt Bay region of Calif.
Lady Bender and I have reached the stage in our lives that we had to hire a gardening service to clean up our yard and garden and not sure we will plant anything this spring...
I found one of the fist sized ornamental gourds while beachcombing the lake bed last month. I can’t wait to plant it’s seeds in the “tree” container. It is light orange/ dark orange striped. It was as if it just came off the plant, still heavy and colorful. What a sweet find for January and a total surprise.
YES!!!!
In meteorological terms, though, it is only 8 more days until Spring, since meteorological spring starts on March 1.
(Sorry. Thought I had more images of natural wonder this week, but I guess not. I've been slackin')
During our nasty cold snap, we needed more humidity in the house, and were barely getting by heat-wise, so, I resorted to the old pot full of water on "low" on our electric (old fashioned exposed coil type) range. The water never got over 140 degrees, and the pot was never under 1/2 full. (Most of the time it was between 2/3 and 3/4 full, as I refilled it often.) I emptied it and cleaned it & refilled every 12 hours or so, to prevent minerals' buildup. Total time = approx. 3 days.
The pot is roughly 3 quarts if very full, made of medium thickness aluminum with a teflon type coating, and is several years old. The coating shows no sign of flaking. We use this pot only for low-to-medium temp cooking on the electric range.)
Yesterday temps warmed up a bit & we discontinued the above. But, after washing the pot, my wife tried to put the cover back on (it had been in the cabinet w/ other pots the whole time) and the cover no longer fits. Until last week, it fit! Careful checking shows that the problem is not due to a bend or dent: the inside diameter of the top of the pot is now simply slightly, but very evenly, too small for the lid. Both are at room temperature, so, this is not a problem of expansion / contraction with the current temperature of the pot and lid.
This seems impossible!
Heck, I've worked with Aluminum parts in all sorts of applications, including high physical and temperature stress uses, and never saw anything like this. Granted the alloys might be different, but, still. Almost any ordinary cooking would, I think be more stressful.
Has anyone ever run into anything like this with an Aluminum part?