Pinching Day

At long last, it has arrived.  Yes, Gentle Reader, today was pinching day!   For my zinnias, I mean.  I decided they were tall enough, and all of them were growing their fourth set of true leaves, so I figured they were ready.  Here is the before photo:  

And here is the after:  

I left this one little one unpinched, because it was so small, even though it does have three sets of true leaves.  

I'll give them about a week to recover, since pinching sends them into a little plant panic, then I'll move them to their permanent home in the raised bed. 

Speaking of homes, I moved the last little bit of firewood that was right by the back door, and put the plant stand with my Whatever Cacti into it's summer home.  

I think this little stack beside the shed will have to stay here for the summer. 

The rack I bought is full, and it doesn't feel safe to stack wood any higher than this.  

If you look carefully, you can see the side of the rack, and I've got wood all the way to the top.  Of course, if we weren't in drought conditions, some of that wood might have gotten burned in the fire pit.  Today would have been a beautiful day for it...if we weren't under a burn ban. 

As it was, I spent most of the day working in the yard, mowing and weedeating when I wasn't piddling in the garden spot. I even mowed behind the back fence.  And I managed to avoid the largest patches of clover.  

Clover is one of the best weeds you can have in your yard.  It's good for the bees, chokes out other weeds, and fixes nitrogen in the soil.   Plus, it's edible.  I don't much like the leaves as they have a bitter taste, but the blossoms have a very nice, kind of nutty taste.  It wouldn't hurt my feelings if my entire back yard became covered in clover.  

I was going to spread my fire ant granules after I got done mowing, but I think that will have to wait until tomorrow.  I'm so tired right now, I can barely lift my arms, even to knit. 

The last thing I did before coming in and taking a nice, hot shower was to plant my sweet banana peppers. 

I even put a couple of marigolds in there for companion plants.  I waited until the sun was mostly down and it was almost the time between times to do it, because they say planting them in the evening gives the plants a whole night to recover from transplant shock before dealing with sunlight.  I see a couple of them look a bit droopy, but I'm hoping they pick up in a bit. 

I've got room for three more plants in the bed, so I'm thinking maybe planting some cayenne or chili peppers -- something that I can string and dry the peppers.  Probably cayennes, because Cody said he can always find something to do with them. 

In other news, I finished Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH this morning, then watched the movie based on the book.  As is typical, it didn't really follow the book all that closely.  Tomorrow, or more likely Monday, I'll take it back to the Little Free Library and see if they have anything else I want to read.  If not, I'll read something on the Kindle.  I've got lots of books on there. 

But for now, I think I'll go watch House Of David on Prime. 

Laters.