Rain(ing Alphabets) - May 31, 2024

It's raining this evening, a slow, sporadic rain.  I hope it rains enough to water the peppers I planted yesterday.  The tomatoes and peppers need fertilizing.  If I hadn't been so lazy yesterday, I could have sprinkled some pellets around the plants yesterday, and it would be melting today.  

I was at work by a little after 7 this morning.  First on the agenda was to pick up the tomato stakes.  Either I got there earlier than the maintenance crew, or they'd already gone out to do something, for the building was locked up tight.  As I was backing way to leave, I saw the stakes propped against the front wall, so I got out and pitched them into the bed of The Husband's truck and went to my other task.

Year 2 is finished.  Year 3 is waiting for me, come Monday.  I'm told the volume will begin to decrease with Year 3.  Happy news!  

In about an hour and a half, we're heading to the Mexican joint.  I'm starving, and a margarita doesn't sound too bad.

Peppers - May 30, 2024

I got the peppers - 6 jalapeno and 6 bell - in the ground today.  It's supposed to rain tonight, so I left the watering-in to Mother Nature.

During the tilling, raking, planting process, I pitched a number of fits, publicly and privately.  I needed an empty bucket to hold the raked-up grass.  Last year, or maybe the year before, I bought three red 5-gallon buckets from the hardware store.  Do you think there were any on the property today?  Well, there weren't.

What is it with men and 5-gallon buckets?  It's like they can't walk/drive past one without nabbing it.

Before I left the garden, I did a full garden check.  Pulled worms off the broccoli and cabbages.  Some - maybe 25% - of the ancient squash seeds have sprouted.  Their little "hill" had crusted over, and Nanny had hacked into it.  Will this help or hurt?  We'll see.  She also chopped down half of the cucumber seeds that had sprouted.  Was it purposeful?  Was she thinning them?  Maybe they needed thinning.  I think I will let her take charge of the cucumber crop on the fence.  

I heard through the grapevine that the promised tomato stakes have made it to town and are ready to be picked up and hammered into the community garden plot.  I'll pick them up in the morning but will wait until Saturday, when I'm due to hang out with the giant Grandson, to put them in the ground.  He can help.  ;)

At 10:00 last night, Son #2 texted a request from The Granddaughters for a meatloaf for dinner today.  Their mother is having surgery today, and they are going to see her at 6, so the meatloaf needs to be there by 4:30. 

It is so weird to me that these girls ask for meatloaf.  

Their meatloaf is cooling as we speak.  

The loaf itself is 2 pounds of ground beef, 5 slices of white or wheat bread (soaked in water and squished into the meat), Cavender's Greek seasoning, garlic powder, and black pepper.  (I don't salt it because the Cavender's is already salty.)  I squish it all together until it's mixed well, then cook it in a 9 x 13 glass dish for 45 minutes.  Then I drain it, add the topping, and bake it for another 15 minutes until the topping is bubbly and thick.  

The topping is the trick.  1 cup of jalapeno pepper jelly and 1 cup of ketchup.  Melt the jelly, mix it with the ketchup, pour it over the meat.  That's it.  

When I'm out of jalapeno pepper jelly, I use whatever jelly I've got.  Grape.  Red plum (would make the topping a bit tart).  Blackberry.  But the jalapeno jelly is scrumptious.

* * * * * * * 

I was 2/3s of the way through project year 2 when I left the office.  Letters S - Z remain to be alphabetized.  I hoped to finish year 2 this week, but things (like today's emergency meatloaf and tomorrow's trip to the doctor with The Husband) keep popping up to delay the progress.  

  

Birthday Outing - May 27, 2023

Yesterday morning I asked The Husband if he had any plans for the day.  When he said, "Nope," I said, "Good."  I'd had a hard week.  The yard was too wet now.  The garden was too wet to work.  I had a good book to finish (Louise Penny, #18, I think) and a hand-embroidery project to work on.  Some recliner time sounded pretty good.  

A little later in the morning, as I was reading on the porch, The Husband came out and said he'd texted The Grandson to see if he would like to do something for his birthday.  The Grandson wanted a shopping trip.  They'd decided to go to the Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid in Memphis, where they'd shop, ride the elevator up to the overlook, and have dinner in the restaurant at the top.

I dreaded the shopping part.  

We picked the boy up at 3:30. I separated from the pack right away and made a quick zoom through the store, not looking for anything in particular.  It wasn't long until I'd parked myself in a chair in the lobby with a Moon Pie and a Coke Zero.  

At about 5:30, the menfolk showed up, empty-handed, and ready to ride the elevator to the top.  

It costs $8.00 per adult to ride the elevator, but if you eat at the restaurant, they take it off your bill.  The elevator line was long.  At 5:55, we got close enough to the front of the line to read the sign that said the restaurant would close at 7:00.  We stepped out of the elevator just after 6:00 and were told that the restaurant was accepting only people with reservations after 6.  Except for the view, we'd wasted $32.00.  We ended up eating burgers at Walburgers (however it's spelled).  

I was disappointed that The Grandson hadn't found himself a birthday present.  Later, he texted me and said what he really wanted was a PlayStation gift card.  I tried to buy him one online this morning, but I'm not sure that it worked or if I can figure out how to get it to him (digitally) if it did work!

Today, after much lollygagging, The Husband took the estate sale Grand Cherokee (which he has named "Buckey") to a shop to have its rear end examined.  It's leaking something.  The Brother-in-Law says that it's not a serious problem, shouldn't cost much to fix.  Right.

After dinner, we re-arranged the driveway parking order and put the Wrangler where I can get to it.  I've been wanting to take the top off and drive it, but it's been raining a lot, and putting the top back on is a pain in the butt.  Plus, there's this big-headed stray cat that has been sleeping on the roof (until I catch him on it), and he'll probably be sleeping IN the Jeep if I summer-ize it.  

What to do?

Tomatoes and Herbs - May 25, 2024

I went to work early yesterday, hoping to speed the records organization project along and GET IT OVER WITH.  It took a day and a half just to get the records out of the boxes and sort them by type.  It took another day and a half to sort the piles into A-B-C order.  Yesterday, I began alphabetizing the individual piles.  Alphabetizing is mind-numbing after a few hours.  Around 3:00, I'd finished the As and Bs.  The C stack was huge; it couldn't be finished without staying late and delaying my Friday night margarita.  Plus, I wanted to check on the community garden plot before the weekend, so I cleaned up my workspace and got out of there.

Earlier in the day, the garden manager had sent a group text, warning that nutgrass was springing up in the garden and should be removed before it goes to seed. Since it rained every day this week, I figured that the garden would be a swamp, but it wasn't.  The pea vines were in decline, so I picked the peas and pulled up the vines, then I got a hoe from the shed (thank-you, Home Depot!), chopped out the grass, and hauled all the debris to the compost bin.  

I didn't know what to do about the peas I'd picked.  Gardeners are encouraged to donate some of their harvest to a local food ministry, which is to pick up donations on Friday afternoons for distribution on Saturdays.  There's a cooler in the shed for this purpose.  The bottom was lined with water bottles.  I stuck my hand in; it did not feel very cool.  I wasn't even sure the food ministry people had started their pick-ups, and since I only had about a quart of peas, I decided to just take them home and eat them, myself.

I charted my harvest and headed to a garden center that was advertising half-price vegetable plants to get pepper plants for our personal garden.

On the way, I decided to buy tomatoes for the community garden plot.  My original plan was to use the tomato plants I started from seeds, but they are kind of puny, and we planted the best ones in our own garden.  While I was in the garden center, the community garden manager called and kind of insisted that I donate the peas.  He said he had put frozen bottles of water in the cooler, and that my peas would be fine.  He would call the food ministry to come get them.  Reluctantly, I drove back to the community garden. I put the peas in the cooler and planted the tomatoes and herbs I'd just bought.  While I was there, the food ministry lady came.  I pulled up some lettuce to send with her.  When I opened the bag to add the lettuce to the peas, I saw that one of the fat peas had popped open, and the peas inside were showing.  I fished the pod out and handed it to the lady.  "Here, try these raw." 

She popped them into her mouth.  "OH MY GOD," she said.

I wonder if that little batch of peas made it to the food distribution site.  ;)

  

Strawberry Jam - May 23, 2024

Last night The Husband came home from work with about half a gallon of fresh strawberries.  "I saw the sign at the orchard," he said, "and my mouth watered, so I stopped and got some."  

I was standing at the stove, with supper about half done.  I peeked in the bag.  The strawberries were VERY ripe.  We'd never eat that many strawberries before they ruined, and we had no room in the freezer for them.  "Well, come in here and wash them, and I will make some jam. And take some to your mama.

It has been years since I made strawberry jam.  I had all the stuff to do it - jars, lids, fruit pectin.  The agricultural extension service book on canning and preserving had a recipe for strawberry jam that included only two ingredients, strawberries and sugar.  The recipe was supposed to make 4-5 half pints.  I hated to drag out the canning equipment for that small amount of jam, but I gave it a try.  

The recipe said, "Cook until thickened."  I'd never made jam without adding fruit pectin, like Certo or Sure-Jell, and I'm not a candy-maker, so I don't know the nuances of cooking with sugar.  As it started to thicken, I knew to put a little bit on a saucer to cool to check the consistency.  When the jam on the saucer looked about, I took it off the stove and canned it.  It turned out 3 half pints, plus one jar that wasn't full enough to seal.  I put that "sample jar" in the refrigerator.  

This morning, I wanted jam on buttered toast with my coffee.  I had to microwave it to get it out of the jar - it was stretchy-thick - but it tasted really good.

* * * * * * * 

I went to work a little early this morning to start on the Year 2 records.  The officer in charge of maintaining the records warned me that this year was less organized than Year 1. It wasn't much worse.  Oddly, Year 2's filing system was different from Year 1's system.  Things were categorized differently.  I can see why the office can't find anything without digging through box after box.

At the end of the day today, Year 2 paper is stacked into A-B-C piles, ready to be sorted alphabetically by last name.  This is the tedious part.  There sometimes are multiple spelling of the same person's last name, and I'm not always sure which one is correct.  

It's going to take MONTHS to do this project.

Sopping Wet - May 22, 2022

Today, in my records organization assignment, I hit a milestone: I finished the first year.  It took me almost three weeks to do it.  

Working with important records with which I am unfamiliar is scary.  

When I go in tomorrow, the previous year's records will have been delivered to my workspace.  I'm told that they are even less organized/sorted than the year I just did.  Pray for me.

I high-tailed it home as soon as the first year's records left my sight.  It was raining cats and dogs.  I got soaked walking to my car.  On the way home, the ditches were all full, and water was pooling on the roads.  About halfway home, the rain slacked up.  The first thing I did when I got here was put on some dry clothes.

In the next day or two, I need to go to the greenhouse for some pepper plants.  I also need to pick the remaining sweet peas in the community garden plot, pull up the vines, chop the weeds, and plant the tomatoes.  Now that we've had this whopping big rain, it'll be a few days before I can do the chopping and planting.  In the next few days, The Boss is supposed to hook me up with tomato stakes from his barn.  I hope he brings them while the ground is still wet.

I need my watering can.  It's on Nanny's back porch.  When I go down there to get it, a 30-minute conversation will ensue.  

I should go read my work email first.

And, before I go to get the watering can, I will put something in the oven that needs to come out in 10 minutes.  On Nanny's back porch, I will pretend to be surprised when my phone alarms - "Oh!  The meatloaf's done!  I gotta run!"   ;)

Progress - Finally! - May 21, 2024

Whew, lordy, I'm tired.

But, with the help of Nanny and The Husband, there was progress in the garden today.

Last night, I made The Husband agree to help me put up a fence for the tomatoes today.  After work, I hurried home and went straight to the garden, intending to plant okra, squash, and cucumbers.  All the rain has made the garden GRASSY, so I got out the tiller.  The ground was a tad too wet for tilling, but I did it, anyway.  Tilled up three rows, thinking it would help dry the soil enough that, if it doesn't rain before I get home tomorrow, I'd run the plow one more time and get those seeds in the ground.  I left a wide grassy spot where I intended to plant tomatoes, thinking the tractor tiller was still attached to the tractor and The Husband could easily till it before we set the fence posts.  

After I finished my tilling, I chopped grass in the purple hull pea rows.  (Those peas look pitiful.  They came up sparsely and have been too wet.)  Nanny came out to help.  We both chopped until we gave out, 3/4s of the way down our respective rows.  I hunted up a chair under a shade tree, drank some water, cooled off, rested a minute.   About that time, The Husband showed up in his gardening clothes.

The tractor tiller wasn't attached to the tractor; the bushhog was still on it.  Taking the bushhog off and putting the tiller on (or plowing with the garden tiller) would have eaten up the better part of our work time.  Yet, it didn't make sense to put up the fence in all that grass and then try to till around it with the garden tiller.  I BY GOLLY WANTED THAT FENCE UP TODAY, so I made an on-the-spot decision to put the fence up in the rows I'd prepared for the squash, okra, and cucumbers.  

By the time we finished with the tomato fencing, I got a second wind.  I had not intended to plant the tomatoes today, but it may rain tonight, which will screw up my plans.  When I said, "Let's plant the tomatoes," surprisingly The Husband said, "Okay" without any lip.  And we planted them.    

We also put up a short fence for the cucumbers, as Nanny has been having a fit to grow some on a fence.  I had seeds in my apron pocket, so I planted cucumber seeds beside it.  

While I was digging, I planted a few hills of squash at the end of one tomato row.  Those seeds are so old they might not come up.  I'll plant more when I get more seeds.

If it does rain tonight or tomorrow, the okra will just have to wait. 

Pea-pickin' - May 20, 2024

When I was assigned responsibility for the county's plot in the community garden, one of my co-workers volunteered to help.   That was last fall.

The sugar snap pea seeds and lettuce seeds went in the ground sometime in March.  The plants were up, 6" tall or so, in mid-April, when The Husband and I went on his work trip.  Before I left on that trip, I asked my helper to check on the sweet peas while I was gone.  She forgot.

It was no big deal, really.  The peas were blooming and needed staking.  I rigged up some sticks and strings to stake the peas.  The Monday before we left on our trip to Panama City, I picked a cereal bowl full of fat peas and some lettuce.  The peas would need picking again in a few days, as there were lots of not-quite-ready peas.  I asked my co-worker to pick them while I was gone.  It rained.  She didn't pick them.

I picked them today - TWO cereal bowls full this time, and a LOT of lettuce.  2.5# worth of stuff.  (They'll need one more picking before I pull them up and plant tomatoes.)  Charted it.  Took it to the office.  Washed it all, put it in the refrigerator, told everybody to have at it.

And then I went to work sorting records.  

Managed some face time with The Boss.  He's negotiating on an archive space.  <Fingers crossed.>

Beach Trip - May 19, 2024

The Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law invited us to go with them to a Jeep rally in Panama City this weekend.  

Now, you know I'm not much of a beach person.  I can't swim.  I sunburn.  I don't like sand stuck all over me.  The Husband loves the beach, though, and so we went.  Drove down Thursday, drove home today.  It turned out to be a good trip.  

It rained every day, except Thursday and today.  

We walked down to the beach in the dark Thursday night.  That was the only time I set foot on the sand.

It was raining Friday morning for the "turtle crawl."  The sibs got up at 5:00 to make it there on time, but The Husband and I sat that one out.  Later that day, the rain let up for long enough for us to go back to the rally and watch some Jeeps do an obstacle course, make a sweep through the vendor section (found a good deal on an easy on/off cover for my Wrangler), and ogle the tricked-out Jeeps.  

The whole time we were there, when we weren't eating, we were thinking about eating.  And did a good bit of it.

Saturday morning, I went out on the balcony with my portable watercolor paints and sketchbook and tried to draw the ocean.  It was cloudy and windy.  Both the water and the sky were gray all day.  We caught a break in the rain mid-morning and went junkin' around Panama City.  Found a couple of little treasures.  Ate.  Went back to the hotel and sat on the balcony some more.

At sunset, the clouds cleared.  There would've been my picture to paint.  But I'd already packed my stuff away.

Monday - May 13, 2024

I may have to switch to all-PM Editions if this records-organizing project keeps up.  I'm going in too early to spend time regurgitating the events of the prior day, and coming home bone tired.  May even have to switch to a weekly edition.  ;)

We had an enjoyable Mother's Day dinner with the family, even though I spent most of the day pissed off for one reason or another.  Mostly it was because I wanted to put the tomato stakes in the ground and couldn't get The Husband to cooperate.  

Anyway . . . . 

The kids, big and small, roamed the field in front of Nanny's house that Son #1 bush-hogged Saturday.  One of them caught a baby garter snake and brought it to the yard.  I tried to get them to kill it with a hoe, but they wouldn't do it.  I don't know where it went.  

After dinner, I doctored three fire ant hills for Nanny, one of which was waaaay the hell down the driveway; she doesn't need to be carrying the necessary gallon of water that far.  One of the big kids said that there are ant mounds all over the field they'd just explored.  We may be fighting a losing battle.  

I stopped by the community garden this morning to check on the sugar snap peas, and they needed picking!  Surprise!  My gardening hat was in the car, and I filled it up with peas and buttercrunch lettuce.  Before going to my work site, I dropped the harvest by the office, rinsed it, and put it in the refrigerator.  I hope someone took it home.

The guy who oversees the community garden encourages gardeners to post pictures of their plots in a group text throughout the season.  I sent a picture of my hat-full of peas and lettuce.  He soon called and asked if I'd weighed and logged the harvest.  I hadn't known to weigh/log it.  He's trying to keep track of how much food we're growing, and how much we're donating to a local food bank.  Good idea.  If the gardening goes well, keeping this record will be useful in justifying future grants.

 The peas will need picking again before the week is over.  I need to get some tomatoes in the ground amongst the peas, and I need to fertilize them, I think.  Maybe I'll do that Thursday or Friday, weather permitting.

 

Yards and Yards - May 12, 2024

The phone woke me up at 9:30 yesterday morning.  I hadn't slept that late in - I don't know when.  The air smelled like bacon.  The Husband and Granddaughter #3 had cooked.  

Granddaughter #2 was still asleep at 10:30 when her dad called and asked us to have the girls home by noon.  They were on their way home with Granddaughter #1 (and two sugar gliders) and would be home around 2.  Granddaughter #3 had taken over #1's room and was given instructions to evacuate by the time #1 arrived.  

I loaded up all their stuff and took them home.  While the girls worked on their rooms, I cleaned up the kitchen and high-tailed it out of there so as not to intrude on the homecoming.  On my way home, I discovered two bags in the back seat that had not made it into the house. Turned around, went back, dropped off the stuff, headed home.  

There was a lot to do at home.  We'd invited everyone for Mother's Day dinner Sunday night.  The yard needed mowing (so did Nanny's).  The house needed picking up.  Vegetable seeds needed planting in the garden while the weather was nice.

The Husband was mowing our yard when I got here, and Son #1 had brought his mower over and was mowing Nanny's yard.  I put on my gardening duds and did the weed-eating.  The Husband headed for Nanny's yard when he finished.  After a little rest on the back porch, I decided to go to the garden and plant the okra, squash, and cucumber seeds. I put on my gardening apron and went to Nanny's.  

The plan was also to get The Husband to help me set the tomato stakes with the tractor, but Son #1 was on the tractor, bush-hogging Nanny's front field.  I figured The Son would do it when he finished mowing, so I went to the shed to get the tiller, intending to till up rows for my seeds.  Gassed it up, cranked it up, and started down the first row.  And the tire started to come off before I'd gone five feet.  SHIT!  I had forgotten about the tire.  The bolt that holds it on had come off last year.  

By this time, ALLLL of the menfolk on the hill were involved in other chores.  The Son was still on the tractor.  The Husband and The Brother-in-Law were working on the Cherokee (The Husband intends for us to driving it to Florida soon).  I dug around in the big shop and found a screw and a nut that would fit the hole on the tire and managed to tilt the tiller over by myself and put the tire on and get screw in it.  The screw lasted for 2.5 rows, during which time I decided that ground was a tad too wet in the middle for tilling.  As I headed up the last row, the head broke off of the screw.  I limped the tiller to the shop and went to the hardware store to get a sturdy bolt and nut.  By the time I got back, The Husband was around to help me get the tire on.  I finished off the 1/2 row, put the tiller back in the shed, and waited for The Son to finish with the tractor so that we could set tomato stakes.  But after he mowed, he pushed up a pile of brush that had accumulated in the field and set it on fire, which meant he and the tractor had to stay with the fire.  

While waiting around, I saw a big pile of brush in Nanny's yard that needed to be on the fire. The Son came up with the tractor and pushed it to the field.  The dry sticks left a trail of debris in the yard.  I went to the shed and brought rakes for everyone who wasn't busy.  We raked the sticks and added them to the fire.  

When I took the rakes back to the shed, I tackled a pile of what I thought was wet dogfood in one corner of the shed.  I'd been pissed at The Nephew all spring for leaving it there.  It turned out to be alfalfa pellets.  I'm pretty sure The Nephew didn't put the alfalfa pellets there.  I must have done it years ago, thinking I'd sow a cover crop, or something.  It was wet and stinky, and there was an open bag of cow manure under it.  I raked and shoved it all out the door, onto an unfolded cardboard box, which The Husband dragged away.

It was too late to set the tomato stakes by the time Son #1 came back with the tractor.

We were all too pooped to work anymore, anyway.

What a week! - May 11, 2024

It feels like I met myself in the road this week.

Monday brought the start of a new project, organizing the Sheriff's Department's old records.  What a job!  It might take the rest of my life to finish it.  

Son #2, his wife, and the LRB went to east Tennessee to bring Granddaughter #1 home from college for the summer.  Granddaughters #2 and #3 stayed with their other grandparents for the first half of the week.  The Husband transported one of them to school every morning, as it was almost on his way to work.  Come Thursday, the girls moved to our house.  Girls need a phenomenal amount of STUFF to make it through a day.  This morning, we packed it all up and took it and the girls home, as their parents are due home any minute.

Last night about 9:00, Granddaughter #2 came running into the living room to show us a picture of the Northern Lights that one of her friends had sent to her telephone.  We all went outside and oooohd and ahhhhd over the sight.  For some reason, the colors showed up far better on our phones than they did with the naked eye.

Today we are working in the yard.  The folks on the hill are coming to dinner tomorrow night for Mother's Day dinner.  

I put myself in charge of getting my own Mother's Day gift this year.  At Christmas, I lost a peridot earring among all the wrapping paper at Son #2's house.  We never found it.  I loved those earrings, had asked for them especially to leave to Granddaughter #2, whose birthstone is peridot.  So one day this week I went to a local jeweler and asked him to make me another one.  Crossing my fingers that he can find a matching stone.

P.M. Edition - They're heeeerre . . . . - May 6, 2024

Today has been a blah day.  I didn't want to do anything I did but didn't have any better ideas.  I wound up being busy all day doing stuff that needed doing, like emails and phone calls.  Yuck.

Anyway . . . . 

I repotted most of my baby tomato plants, hoping to give them room to beef their scrawny asses up.  This is ridiculous.  They took for-EVER to sprout, and then they just sat there.  They were beginning to grow a little when we went on our trip and they spent a week on Nanny's dining room table, where they didn't get enough light.  I brought them home and set them on the patio table, which gets mid-day sun and is probably too hot for them.  They'd be better off on the ground but the freakin' animals would probably dig them up, and that would piss me off something fierce.

After dinner, we walked down to Nanny's to empty the mole trap and check on the purple hull peas.  If there's a bagging limit on moles, we may be close to reaching it.  I've trapped 3 in this yard, and 3 in Nanny's.  It takes two people (or one dexterous person) to get a mole out of the scissor trap.  Just getting the scissors to open is a chore, then you gotta rake the mole off the blades.  It's disgusting.  We've been throwing them out in the field when we get them un-stuck.  The hawks, owls, and buzzards probably love us.

Speaking of critters, I'm hearing cicadas for the first  time.   At least I think I am. The frogs are croaking, and the usual night bugs are humming, but there's a high-pitched hum that's not usually part of the mix.  I'm told that snakes enjoy cicadas.  Hopefully, they will enjoy them in the woods, where I can't see them.

The LRB - May 5, 2024

Granddaughter #4 (aka "the Little Rotten Baby") spent the day with us yesterday while her mom took her older sisters shopping.  I had quite forgotten how busy a 3-year-old can be.

We swung.  We swid on the swide.  We rode the tricycle (after a dose of WD-40 to loosen up its 18-year-old wheels).  We played musical instruments, sang songs, read books.  We poured water on the sidewalk just because.  We played doctor with a stethoscope and a fwashwight.  We ate everything in sight, all day long (prompting The Husband to wonder if she has a tapeworm).  

Her vocabulary is amazing.  Should a 3-year-old use words like "ac-tu-al-ly" and "forehead?"

When her mom came to get her and asked us if she was good, we said, "She was an angel.  We did everything she wanted."  :)

Rain - May 3, 2024

Early yesterday morning, I transplanted a few tomato seedlings from their small "cells" into 2" pots.  Since they've had a small dose of fertilizer and week outdoors in the sun, they are looking better.  I need to transplant more, but I'm out of dirt. 

I spent the rest of the morning making phone calls and writing a report.

Around noon, when I needed a stretch break, I decided to walk down to the garden and plant the okra and squash seeds.  I went inside to gather supplies and put on some shoes, and at the very minute I stuck my feet in my crocs, it started raining.  <sigh>  I put everything away and went back to work.

Nanny called mid-afternoon and said she had a pork loin that needed to be cooked and invited us to eat supper with her.  I said I'd make a side dish to go with it.  In our refrigerator were a bowl of cooked, naked spaghetti and a partially de-boned roasted chicken, which I turned into a version of macaroni and cheese.  I baked a couple of big sweet potatoes, and when The Husband got home, we took it all to Nanny's.

After we'd cleaned up the supper dishes, Nanny and The Husband sat back down at the kitchen table, and I went out to the garden to see if the purple hull peas had sprouted.  (They had not.)  On the way, I was thrilled to discover that the mole trap I'd set in her yard had been sprung!  I pulled it up and, sure 'nuff, there was a mole in it!  I took the trap to the back porch and tapped on the storm door.  When The Husband looked around, I showed him the trap and said, "Present for YOU-oooooooo!"  He had not dealt with the last mole we'd caught, the one that was still alive when we pulled the trap out of the ground, the one that was a stinky bag of guts by the time I wanted to set the trap again.  It was his turn.  At least this one wasn't alive and squirming.

We re-set the trap in the front yard.

I need to remember to tell The Brother-in-Law where it is so that he doesn't run over it with his lawnmower, if he gets to Nanny's yard before I do.

It's raining again this morning and is supposed to rain, off and on, all weekend.

I might plant some stuff, anyway.   

Garden Check-Ups - May 1, 2024

I checked on the sweet peas and lettuce in the office's community garden plot Tuesday morning.  The peas are 6" tall or better, blooming, and putting out runners.  I hammered 3 stakes into each of the 3 rows (the plot is only 10' x10') and ran jute garden string between them.  The jute will likely stretch and sag, but it will have to do.  I also planted two of the purple grape tomato plants I sprouted from seeds.  I'd hope to have all the tomatoes in the ground by now, but the rest of the tomato plants that I sprouted look pitiful.  In the next few days, I'll be buying tomato plants, both for the community garden and for our vegetable garden.  

We walked down to Nanny's last evening to see if the peas we planted on Sunday had sprouted after the rain.  They had not.  The broccoli and cabbage plants are growing well.

We haven't planted our squash, okra, and cucumber seeds yet, but I hope to get them in ground this week.  

My work on the archive has kind of stalled.  I am ready to get to archivin', but we do not yet have space.  The wheels of government turn slowly.  Committees have to meet, and discussions must be had.  You know how that goes.