My goodness! When seedlings start to germinate, some of them do it incredibly quickly!
Last night, checking on the seed starts before going to bed, I spotted a single marigold seedling that had emerged. I could also see a hollyhock elbowing its way up.
On the bottom right are the Cosmos that had already germinated. There are 11 seedlings – I think I planted only 12 seeds in there.
On the bottom left are the marigolds. I counted 7 seedlings, 6 of which there had been no sign of at all, last night.
Above the marigolds is the hollyhock roll. At first, I could see just the one seedling lifting its head (these are the seeds that the instructions said not to cover at all). When I looked closer, though, I could see three more little green elbows.
Still no tomatoes or fennel, but I’m not expecting to see any of those quite yet. Heck, I wasn’t expecting to see the flowers emerge this quickly!
Hopefully, this is a good sign for the garden this year. From the amount of snow we have on the ground right now, we should at least get a good start before the heat hits and everything dries up. I believe we are supposed to have drought conditions again this year. Which is actually the “normal” for the prairies.
Meanwhile, I watched this video from Self Sufficient Me this morning. I really find videos like this the most inspiring – the ones where things have gone all “wrong”!
Granted, an overgrown jungle like that would never happen here. We’re more likely to have everything baked and dry. Still, it comes down to the same thing: having a bad year is not being a “failure” or a “bad gardener”. It’s just a bad year. Things will never be perfect.
If we waited for perfect conditions and the “right” circumstances, we’d never accomplish anything – in the garden, or in life!
The plan for the day was to give the truck a test by heading into town this morning, then if all went well, to visit my mother in the afternoon.
Well, one out of three got done.
This morning, after taking care of the outside cats, I did a bit of shoveling around the house and the truck, which is parked in the yard until my brother can move his truck out of the garage into a spot I’m not even going to try and get it into, with all the snow. The snow in the yard wasn’t too bad, though.
Then I decided to check the end of the driveway.
It was drifted over.
The road didn’t need to be plowed, but there was enough snow drifted across between the gate and the road that it had to be cleared before I could go anywhere.
So did the rest of the driveway.
I could have gotten through, I’m sure, but 1) I didn’t want to push the truck when I’m not even convinced the replaced differential was the cause of all the problems I was having, 2) I would have been slip sliding the whole way and 3) our forecasts are no longer showing temperatures above freezing coming up in the 10 day forecast, but they are showing more snow before then.
I did the end of the driveway, first. The snow was still light and fluffy, so it was an easy job. It still took almost an hour. I stopped after that to head in, have breakfast, hydrate and take some painkillers.
Before coming in, though, I checked on little Spewie.
The auger still won’t turn. Which means it wasn’t just something frozen in the works somewhere. It’s actually broken. Nothing is visibly broken, though. I’d have to dismantle it to find the problem.
Not going to happen any time soon.
It did mean the driveway had to be done the old fashioned way.
I didn’t even do all of it. I did part of the turning radius to get into the garage when coming in from the road, but not where I would be turning in from the inner yard. I did clear around my brother’s truck, though.
Then I had to head in and take a rest brake. I really, really didn’t want to go anywhere, but I wanted to test the truck again before my dental appointment, tomorrow, and refill a couple of our water bottles in the process. I am also not counting on being able to get into the city on Saturday, and had some stuff I wanted to get, just in case, while at the grocery store. Things just keep happening and changing my plans!
I had just finished with the shoveling, gotten inside and was starting to take my coat off when the phone rang. I didn’t even try go get to it before the answering machine picked up.
It was the pharmacy delivery driver, letting us know he was almost at our place.
So I put my coat back on and headed out to meet him at the gate.
Oh, gosh. I just realized, as I write this. It’s still open.
*sigh*
After taking a break – and more painkillers – I grabbed the water jugs and headed out.
Happily, I did not get stuck getting out of the yard.
As for the drive in, the truck seemed to be working fine, but the road is in such bad shape, plus it now has the remains of drifts and ice along the way, that it was really hard to judge what I was feeling. Was that the truck shuddering, or was it the road making it shudder?
Along the way, I saw three back hoes, busily clearing the ditches of snow – two of them in our own municipality, including one right in our little hamlet. They’ve gotten a lot of progress in the past couple of days. It’s going to make a big difference, once the snow finally starts to melt.
I got a few things “extra” to take advantage of some sales, along with refilling the water jugs. Blocks of cheese were on sale, so I ended up getting four different kinds. I was able to get a decent amount of meat this time, including stewing beef. Rye bread, as always, plus some Naan that was on sale. Stuff like that.
I saw some 7.5kg kibble on sale and got a bag for the outside cats, just in case. In the end, even with the sale prices, it came out to $200, but I used some of my points and got $30 off.
By the time I was done, I knew there was no way I was going to visit my mother. I was in just too much pain. Instead, I headed straight home, without even stopping for more gas ($1.729/L still) or the post office. I can do that tomorrow, when I go in for my dental appointment.
I’ll call my mother later on, instead.
Once I got home, I drove up to the house and my daughter helped me unload everything but the kibble. I took that through the sun room and added it to the bin right away, then did the evening cat feeding, so no one would have to go out again, later.
I was supposed to close the gate again before going back in. I’m thinking it should be safe to leave open for the night. Our vandal doesn’t seem to do as much stupid stuff in the winter.
*sigh*
I think today is a good day to go to bed early – after I call my mother.
And take more pain killers.
*sigh*
It’s a good thing I actually enjoy shoveling so much.
It’s supposed to continue from how to about 2am. The forecast of just a couple of inches in total over the span of three days is now 7.75cm/3in just for tonight.
I am so tired of winter.
Watch, we’ll get our April blizzard this year, too…
At least three lovely surprises, though two are pretty hard to see in the photo. Looking at the photo more closely, though, I wonder if there’s actually five sprouts.
These are the Dwarf Dazzler Cosmos. It hasn’t even been four full days yet, and there they are!
It should be interesting to see when the rest start showing up.
Aside from that, today has been another quiet day of domesticity. It’s been snowing on and off – just lightly, where we are – and that is expected to continue until about 2am. Tomorrow, I’m planning to “test” the truck again. I want to go into town and refill a couple of our big water jugs, and maybe pick up a few other things at the grocery store.
The grocery store that is across the street from the garage.
Yes, the truck ran perfectly well after we picked it up, but I still don’t trust Damocles, with how it would switch from working fine to breaking down for so long.
I plan to leave early enough that, if things go well, I’ll try visiting my mother afterwards, too.
Speaking of my mother…
I got a call from my brother yesterday evening. My mother had called him while he was at work.
We now know why our vandal told my brother he wanted to talk to my mother alone when they ran into each other at the TCU on the weekend.
He wants her to pay for his funeral.
He has no money, he says, so she should pay for it.
???
Not that long ago, he told her he had his own funeral all arranged, including the service at the church in town we all went to as children. He even told her that, for the gathering afterwards (the tradition out here is to rent a hall for a catered luncheon after the internment, sometimes with video displays and music), he said he wanted a bottle of vodka on every table.
Now, he wants Mom to pay for all that?
The thing is, Mom told my brother that she said yes, just to shut him up and get rid of him. We all know what his reaction would have been like, if she hadn’t. With his wife there, he wouldn’t have gotten too out of control, but it would not have been good.
Yeah. His wife was there.
Mom told my brother, nothing was signed or anything. She says he’s got plenty of money (he got a very generous buy out and was able to retire in his mid 50’s), his wife works, they’ve got land – he can pay for his own funeral. Seriously; I have to drive by his place regularly. I see the equipment and vehicles he’s got all over. He could easily sell just half of it and do quite well for himself for many years.
My mother had commented to my brother about how sick our vandal was looking. Which is interesting, because when my brother saw him just an hour earlier, he was looking pretty hale and hardy for a man that’s supposedly about to die. He’s still broad shouldered and agile, not wasting away. Which is what I see, too, when I see him going by on the trail cams. Or when he stopped at the end of the driveway in the fall and yelled at me from the road while waving his colostomy bag around, getting in and out of his vehicle, and looking quite energetic. He’s clearly putting on an act for my mother.
That his wife is part of this is an extra element of disturbing.
I’m just so disgusted with them. He still feels like he’s entitled to whatever he wants from my mother, because he “helped” here at the farm for so many years, and “helped” my late father after my mother moved out (though we now know he was verbally abusive and manipulative, on top of helping himself to whatever he wanted). Our vandal was one of the reasons my mother moved out. Yeah, he did do nice things for both of them, though he also caused plenty of problems, too, but when my late brother died, it clearly destroyed his mind. His terminal cancer diagnosis (if he actually has one; who knows, at this point) has only made him worse.
To go after my mother like that, though? With his wife!!! Disgusting.
What he doesn’t know, though, is that even if he convinced my mother to sign something, it wouldn’t matter. The doctors have already agreed that my mother’s cognitive function has dropped low enough that if she signs anything like that, it can’t be legally binding. Only my brother can sign on her behalf now. Verbal agreement doesn’t hold much either, since she’s flat out said she only agreed to shut him up; she was coerced.
I will be honest; my mother is not a nice person. These two really are very much alike in their behaviour, and it is a mutually abusive relationship. Knowing that there is an undiagnosed mental illness behind all this doesn’t make it any better. There was a time, long ago, when the person my mother could have been would emerge briefly, and she was so amazing. She is a survivor and amazingly strong. She somehow managed to keep it together for so many years and raised us as best she knew how. She deserves better than this. Especially from someone that was once so close to all of us.
Bah.
The main thing is, she made a point of letting my brother know what happens, so my siblings and I now all know why she said yes to our vandal at the time, and that she has no intention of paying for his funeral. He must still think she has millions of dollars squirreled away somewhere – and that he is entitled to it! Just like he felt entitled to this property.
What a mess.
I’m looking forward to being able to engage in more garden therapy, because I could really use it of late!
I can’t tell if it’s gotten better, or just looks different. There is definitely some sort of cloud over the pupil, and discoloration in his iris. He won’t stay still long enough for me to get a really good look, though. This is from when he and so many other kittens got hit with the local strain of herpes virus; the one his sister didn’t recover from. The eye doesn’t seem to be slowing him down any, and if it is affecting his vision, there is no outward sign that we can see.
Taking care of the outside cats this evening was about my limit today. When I did the running around, then shoveling, yesterday, I was definitely not as recovered as I thought I was. Today, mobility was lower and pain levels hire. Not as bad as it would have been, if I’d tried to clear more of the turn around area in the yard of snow, but I’m definitely feeling it. Then there are the ongoing issues I need to get to the doctor for. Once I’m sure the Damocles isn’t going to break down on the highway again!
Being broken sucks.
I had thought to visit my mother today, but I’m just not up to an outing. We’re supposed to have more snow, starting tonight, then off and on through to the wee hours of Thursday morning. Only a couple of inches in total is expected, so not too bad. I’d let to get a visit in before my dental appointment on Friday.
For now, today is a day to focus on recovery.
I seem to be needing to do that a lot more often of late.
We have the truck back, and it’s actually working again!
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
This morning the cats had me up early, so I did the outside routine that my daughter has been doing for the last while. This time, she got to sleep in. 😊 We had fog warnings overnight, and it was still a bit foggy in the distance as I went to switch out the garage cam memory card. Heavy fog earlier meant thick frost, of course.
It was already starting to disappear by then, too.
Once the outside stuff was done, one of the first things I needed to do was call the garage to follow up on a text I sent yesterday about the truck. They open at 8am, and I was just about to call them then, when my phone rang.
It was the dental clinic. I was on their cancellation list, and they had a cancellation for 10am this morning. Would I be able to take it?
I had no choice but to turn it down. My appointment is on Friday, though, so it won’t be much longer to wait.
When I called the garage, the owner answered right away. He confirmed for me that they had the part. I asked for an idea of when it would be done, so I knew when to book a cab. He told me, 1pm, but they would call if there was any change. Thankfully, the cab was available (we have a single taxi serving several municipalities) and I messaged him to see if he was available to pick me up at one. I wanted to give the garage all the time they needed to get the job done!
With that confirmed, I wanted to finally do our Walmart stock up shop – almost a month late – after picking up the truck. My younger daughter offered to come with me, which I was happy to have the company.
It was shortly after noon when I texted the garage to let them know I was able to get the cab booked for a 1pm pick up and asked the status of things, making sure to add that they could thoroughly test drive the truck afterward. I also brought up that I wanted to talk about pre-financing and trading in the truck. I got a response that the truck was already good to go!
Such good news.
We got the cab to drive me to a local bank, though, not the garage, so I could take out some cash to pay him. The drive was definitely a bit scary! We had high winds and more blowing snow the closer we got to town, with worse road conditions and poor visibility. The areas that were getting drifted over were also melting at the same time! The taxi is a lot lower to the ground than the truck is (my daughter and I were both struggling to get in and out!), so he had to drive on the wrong side of the road a few times to avoid having issues. Thankfully, there was little traffic.
My daughter and I then walked to the garage from the bank; it’s just a few blocks. The owner wasn’t there, however. There was a woman that I think might have been his wife (I’ve only seen his wife very briefly, and she was bundled up for outside). It turns out the owner had gone home sick. She was expecting me, though, and had the keys ready and waiting. I brought up that I was hoping to talk about pre-financing, so she took some notes and said she would get him to call me tomorrow. Hopefully, he will be feeling better by then.
Thankfully, the work was covered by warranty, so we only had to pick up the keys.
From there, we headed straight south to the smaller city to finally do our stock up shopping. It was straight into the wind, which wasn’t too bad – and the truck was running smooth, solid and quiet. Then we saw a thick fog up ahead, which turned out not to be fog at all.
It was heavy snowfall.
It was still warm enough that the snow melted as soon as it touched the truck or the road!
By the time we go to the Walmart, though, we’d driven through the system and it was barely snowing at all as we went in. It was past 2 by then and neither of us had had lunch, so we stopped at the McRaunchies (just over $30 for the two of us!). There was something my daughter was after in their electronics department, but the Walmart no longer carried it. After we ate, she popped across the parking lot (slowly, because she’s still caning it) to a Staples to see if they had it, then met up with me later. The store is being completely renovated and everything has been moved around, so it took a bit longer to find everything. My daughter had a few items of her own to pick up and went through the self check out, so what’s pictured below is just the general shopping.
This is what $455.52 looks like.
Yes, it looks stuffed, and there’s more on the bottom, too, but it’s mostly large cat supplies taking up space.
Here is what we got today.
For the cats, there are three bags of kibble – two for the outside cats, one for the inside cats – and a spare case of canned cat food, as well as a package of XXL pee pads.
In other non-food items, there’s a package of paper towels, a package of incontinence pads, 4 jugs of distilled water, some magnesium complex supplements and some ibuprofen for the girls (I can’t use ibuprofen with the anti-inflammatories I’m taking). For drinks, there’s a 12 pack of Coke Zero, some English Breakfast tea and Double Bergamot Early Grey tea.
In produce, they had five pound bags of potatoes at only $1.97 (usually, they’re closer to $8, locally) each, so we got two. We also got a bag of carrots. I was thinking to pick up some fruit, but nothing looked good. I was also looking to get more flour, but they were almost $20 for the larger bag we usually get! I saw that size at under $10 the last time we were at Costco, so we’ll get more flour there.
For protein, I got some pink salmon fillets for the girls, a 24 pack of hot dog wieners, some frozen chicken strips and a package of breakfast sausages.
In the “quick, heat and eat” category – because we all need a break right now – I also got a big bag of frozen tater tots.
Then there’s a flat of eggs, 2L of milk, and four pounds of butter. The butter was only $4.97 each, which is better than Costco, so I made sure to get extra.
I also saw cake mixes and icing going for only $1.87, so I got a box of chocolate cake and chocolate icing. There’s also a jar of sandwich pickles that was only $2.77, and penne pasta bags for only $1.97. Both much better prices than I’ve seen in a while. Plus there is a jar of mayo and a bag of popcorn.
For bread, we got two 12 packs of hot dog buns and three loaves of rye bread.
Then we have some treats. My husband requested some Sour Patch candies, so there are two bags of those. At $10.77 each, they are almost $2 less than local prices. We also got a total of five bags of chips; I picked for myself and my husband while my daughter picked for herself and her sister.
For the drive home, I got a package of lightly salted pistachios – the price had dropped to $6.97, while locally they are approaching $13 for the same size bag. For my daughter, we got a package of Teriyaki beef jerky.
And that’s all of it.
The cat supplies make up the biggest part of the bill.
By the time I was checked out, my daughter was already at the truck so she could put her own purchases into a bag – we never bother to bring any in with us, partly because I never know how many we would actually end up needing. It took a while to pack everything and load the back of the truck, then start heading home.
With the weather we had, I knew the road we usually cross over to take a different highway would be in rough shape, so we took the same highway that would take us back to town before turning for home. With gas at $1.729/L, that would give me the chance to go to a Shell station, where my CAA card gets me a discount on gas.
This route is slower, because we got through a series of small towns along the lake. I’m glad we did, though, because I sure didn’t mind having to slow down. We updated the family before we started heading out, and my husband informed us that it had started to snow at home. Where we were, however, it was raining!
Then the rain turned to snow.
Yeah, we drove right back into storm conditions again.
By the time we cleared all the little towns and onto open highway again, we pretty much drove right through it. We stopped for gas and also picked up some Monster energy drinks. The Walmart had next to none and… well, my CAA card gives me a discount on those, too.
From there it was straight home. All the areas we’d driven through in the cab, where things were drifting over, wet and slushy, were all melted away! It was clear driving, for the most part.
The truck behaved.
Talking with my daughter about it, I told her how, with so many things breaking down, and how the truck had been working, then not working, then working again, seeing how well it was running didn’t actually make me feel better. Driving it was like having the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. What weird thing will go wrong next?
The truck is now named Damocles.
One thing felt really strange while driving home, and that was realizing it was past 5pm, and it was bright and sunny out! We were both feeling like it should be full dark at 4:30. Part of that is because there’s still so much snow. The municipality has the back hoe out, though. They’re starting to clear snow out of the ditches, to prevent ice dams and flooding once things really start to melt. The ditches slope to drain to the lake, and if they’re not clear the snowmelt can take out the highway in no time.
It was so nice out that, after unloading the truck and feeding the outside cats, I stayed out to try and do a bit of shoveling. I’d driven up to the house without turning the truck around first, because I hadn’t cleared the area behind the garage completely yet. With everything so soft and melting, I knew the truck would start sinking and spinning, and I really didn’t want to test the new differential that much, yet! I didn’t even need to wear a coat, it was so nice out.
My brother’s truck is still pulled as far into the garage as it can go. There is no way I can maneuver it back into the spot my brother had it parked before, so for now, our truck will stay parked in the yard.
The cats were all over it, of course. I’m going to have to be very careful when we had to take it out again!
I wasn’t able to completely clear the turn around space, but I think it should be okay now. I didn’t want to push myself too much and reinjure my right arm, which is still not really recovered.
So there we are.
We have our truck back. It’s behaving well. We finally got our Walmart stock up trip done. We would do our usual stock up shopping this coming weekend and I plan to do that as normal, with both the Costco trip and the Walmart/Canadian Tire and maybe the international grocery store run.
I’m so glad that we try to maintain a decent amount of supplies at all times. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to rely on them. Now, it’s time to replenish. Having enough for at least a month is not just “prepping”. It’s prudent planning!
As the snow melts, this area becomes a bit of a pond. Some years, it’s part of a moat that encircles the garage and floods the pit under the outhouse.
For now, though, it’s a tease. Tomorrow we’re supposed to have a high above freezing, and then the highs are going to be dipping again. We won’t get highs above freezing again for about a week. Everything that’s melting now is going to be ice.
Ah, March. You’re just nasty.
Not a lot to say about today. It has been a bad pain day, of the sort that keeps me from standing in one place for very long. I can walk around, sit, lie down, but I can’t stand for more than a few minutes.
Even so, I’m still the most able bodied person in the household.
That’s rather scary to think of.
My brother had messaged me, saying he was planning to visit our mother and asked if I wanted to meet him there. I told him I wasn’t feeling well today. Which worked out, in a way, as he spent time helping my mother figure out her phone. She hasn’t been able to make outgoing calls. She keeps trying to use the programmed numbers and just not getting that she only needs to see the name on the screen, then hit the green button. In the end, he told her to just direct dial, like she always has before. They tested it out by calling here, so I was answering the phone quite a few times.
I later found out that my brother crossed paths with our vandal and his wife. They were going to visit my mother and happened to get to the doors to the TCU (which require a code to get in) at the same time my brother did. My brother, trying to be polite, asked how our vandal was doing, all things considered. His answer? “I’m dying.” … okay. He then said he wanted to talk to our mother alone. !!! There was an uncomfortable moment before his wife said they would come back later.
As my brother was leaving, about an hour later, he found them still hanging out not far from the TCU doors.
I really wish there were some way we could keep them away from my mother; he obviously is after something. The staff have been warned, but there’s really little they can do, since we don’t have any sort of court order.
What we do know is that he’s been telling my mother about things like his funeral already being planned out and paid for. It makes us wonder if he applied for and was accepted for MAiD, which is currently the 5th highest cause of death in Canada. My mother would not approve, of course, since it goes against our religious beliefs. It’s one thing to allow death to happen as peacefully and painlessly as possible, and deliberately killing someone. It’s not our business, except we worry about what he is say to Mom. She should not be burdened with his health problems. Lord knows, if my current issues turn out to be cervical cancer or something, I would NOT be telling my mother anything other than “I’m not feeling well”, unless I absolutely have to – and even then, I’d be telling her as little as possible. She does not need that burden, and she can’t handle that sort of thing at the best of times. Which leads me back to wondering, what is it he’s trying to guilt her into doing for/giving him, and why is his wife helping him do it? With all the threats of some sort of retribution he’s made against me and my brother, and claiming we caused his cancer, it frustrates me that he’s working his way into my mother’s good graces again so easily.
That’s one of the frustrating things about him. We’ve learned that when things are quiet from him, it has generally meant that he’s been doing things in the background that he springs on us, later on. I would have hoped that, when facing his own mortality like this, he would have tried to give up all that toxic stuff, but he has instead doubled down and gotten worse.
Well, if he is, I guess we’ll find out eventually.
It does make me glad I wasn’t up to going over there today. He’s been trying to wheedle himself into my brother’s … trust? … to turn him against me. If I were there at the same time, who knows how he would have reacted, or how he would end up treating my mother, after we left.
I did a lot of prep in advance. I had enough bubble warp to make the eight snail rolls that I needed, so I went with that, this time. The bubble wrap has perforations to make 12″ square sheets. I made strips 3 sheets long, then cut them in half, giving me strips that were 3′ long and 6″ wide, using clear packing tape for where I needed to join pieces together. I saved the masking tape for holding the rolls together, labelling half the strips I needed in advance.
Then I used hot water to moisten the seed starting mix. I had a bit left over from last time, plus added the new bag I got. No sifting needed! It took almost a gallon of water to get it sufficiently damp! I also set up a heat mat and a plastic tray under the shelf the seedlings are on, to hold the rolls.
Once everything was set up, it was time to make the seed snails and plant some seeds.
I had a bit of a surprise with the tomato seeds. Specifically the seed counts. I always empty the packet of what I’m working on into a bowl to make it easier to grab the seeds, one at a time – usually with the tip of a damp bamboo chopstick for small seeds. The Orange Currant packet said 25 seeds, but there were only 18. I normally would have planted about a dozen seeds and saved the rest; I chose varieties with growing seasons short enough that I could try again if germination or survival rates were low. I ended up using the entire packet.
The Blue Berries tomato had a seed count of 10, but there was only 9. I even double checked the packet to make sure nothing was stuck inside. Not a bit deal.
The other two varieties, meanwhile, had more than what the packet’s seed count said. I planted a dozen seeds each of those and have some left over if I need to try again.
I’m not complaining about the seed count. MI Gardener even did a video on Instagram, I think, talking about why they do see counts instead of weights, and that they always try to have over counts, but mistakes sometimes happen. Their seed packets are only $2 each, so I’m really not worried about it.
The strips I made for the seed rolls were all quite a bit longer than needed. This is deliberate. It gives me enough slack that I can “pot up” the tomatoes more than once, as the seedlings get bigger.
With the Florence Fennel, I made that roll bigger because I wanted to plant quite a bit more. Those can also be succession sown. We don’t normally buy bulb fennel, even though we enjoy it, because it’s one of those “treat” vegetables, rather than a staple. Hopefully, we will have lots to enjoy. I’ve tried growing them once before in the old kitchen garden and they were mostly a fail (the leaves could be used, but we never got bulbs). We didn’t realize, at the time, just how much the ornamental crab apple trees shaded everything. That’s been largely dealt with but, this year, I’ll be sure to set them where they will get more light!
With the flowers, I plan to direct sow some of the left over seeds later on, to extend the blooming season. They are going to be scattered all over the garden areas, rather than into dedicated flower beds.
I’m a little perplexed, though. I had wanted to start some of the aster seeds I saved from a packet of memorial seeds. I distinctly remember labelling a paper seed envelop (from some of the free ones we got with our seed orders) for them, as well as one for the asparagus seeds I’d collected. Now, I can’t find either. The other seeds I’d collected were larger so they went into little spice jars. I have those. They all should have been together in my seed storage bin, and I just can’t find them anymore!
I really want to plant those memorial asters again.
But I digress…
Once I got all the seed rolls done – which used up all the seed starting mix I had! – I topped them with a bit of vermiculite. Even the hollyhock, which the packet said not to cover. I just dusted a bit for the benefit of the seed starting mix surface; not enough to actually cover the seeds. After that, they all got a thorough misting.
The first was the tray they were in. All those rolls were heavy enough I had to be very careful not to break the tray when moving it.
Then there was the problem of light.
Once they were under the shelf and on the heat mat, I tried to set up one of the full spectrum lights I have. Unfortunately, the only place I can clamp the fixture onto is the edge of the table, and the lights didn’t quite reach under the shelf. I had to pull everything out and set things up closer to the edge, which I had hoped to avoid doing. It leaves me very little work space on my table.
I was just finishing up when my daughter came down to see how I was doing (she’s been taking over the outside cat feeding of late, letting me sleep in in the mornings, and get jobs like this done). I took advantage of her and got her to help me transfer the seed rolls out of the plastic tray and onto one of the metal baking sheets I had been using to hold seedlings in the Red Solo Cups. They are too wide to go under shelf were I’d originally intended the tray to be, which is why I hadn’t used one in the first place. In the second picture, you can see how it’s now set up, on a strong and sturdy metal tray over the heat mat and with the lights.
I had not intended to do so many seed snails but, for this year, they are the most practical way to do it, and they really do save a lot of space.
The next group of seeds that will need to be started are in the 4-6 weeks before last frost category. I’ll do those around the middle of April or a bit later. More than enough time to get more seed starting mix.
Hopefully, we’ll have a good germination rate – and the mouse or whatever that ate my pepper seedlings won’t like anything growing here!
Today being the first day of spring, I just had to do a garden tour video.
😂🤣😂🤣
Well… it was warm, sunny and things were melting all over, at least. The snow is getting super soft, which made it actually harder to walk through, even where paths were shovels, as it would sometimes give way under my feet and I’d sink when I wasn’t expecting to.
With conditions like that, it made for a pretty short video. I hope you enjoy the tour!
Misty using Ghosty as a pillow, who is using Cheddar as a pillow.
There were actually 6 cats mashed together in this particular cuddle puddle.
So… update on the truck.
I got a call back from the garage. He had called the parts supplier and was assured the replacement differential will arrive at their city location today (Friday).
Which means it will get to the local location and the truck will be repaired on Monday.
There’s nothing they can do until they have the part. It is what it is. However, it means no vehicle for another weekend.
I asked about the possibility of a courtesy vehicle and he was very apologetic. They simply don’t have anything available.
Fair enough.
We do have my brother’s truck, but I really don’t dare drive it any further than I already have. Particularly right now. We’re under a fog advisory at the moment – visibility down to zero in places. Temperatures are supposed to stay above freezing all through to tomorrow and, with it, we’ll be getting a mix of rain and snow. Road conditions are going to be very dangerous. I simply don’t trust myself to drive a much larger, strange vehicle in the conditions we are expecting. I don’t want to risk wrecking my brother’s truck, just because I’m not used to driving a beast. If it were summer, it would be a different story. I still wouldn’t want to do it, but at least the chances of my ending up in the ditch or something would be far lower!
The only problem is, I wasn’t able to get a lot of kibble at the general store, yesterday. We’ll have to make what we have, stretch through the weekend. We might be able to do our outside cat version of cat soup, which would help and they love. It might be warm enough that it won’t freeze before they eat it.
These issues with the truck are getting ridiculous. It’s getting closer to two months now, where the truck has been in the garage with only a few days here and there when we were able to bring it home before something else went wrong!
We’ll figure it out.
Oh, and…
Happy first day of Spring.
Imaged created by WordPress AI – but that’s pretty much what it feels like outside right now.
The Re-Farmer 