The Old Man

I'm not sure what my deal was yesterday, but I was so tired when I got home, I went to bed shortly after 6:00.  As you may have surmised, I didn't even blog.  

I was going to tell you that we had to do a survey at work yesterday.  No big deal.  We do it every couple of years, but this time, I think they must have had my clock number flagged or something, because the website kept kicking me out.  Nobody else was having this problem.  The rest of the department was done and back out on the floor, and the next group was coming in and I'm still sitting there having to re-log in every 30 seconds.  It was probably the fifth time I got the Your log in session has expired message, I just told the HR lady, "Forget it.  I'm not even going to do it.  It's not worth it when it's all going to end up in the garbage anyway."  And I got up and walked out.  

Still waiting to see if I'm going to get fired for it, but I'm wondering about the timing of it.  Imagine giving a survey to an employee you just chastised for saying something negative, then turned around and told that same employee that her department isn't a priority to the current management team.  Did you really think I was going to say that it's all sunshine and daisies out there?  

Not only that, I'd gotten halfway to work when I realized I'd forgotten the book on my kitchen cabinet. I'd briefly thought about going home to get it, then going in to town, but you know me.  Once I'm home, I'm home, so as soon as I got home, I put the book into my car right away, so that after work today, I could take it down to the square and put it back into the LFL.  

While there, I looked through what they had in there, but didn't see anything I just had to read.  

On my way home, I stopped by the Lee Tartt Nature Preserve and walked down to the deck overlooking the swamp and sat there for a while. 

Sometimes, my soul just needs to be in a swamp. 

I could have sat there all day, but alas all too soon, it was time to come home. 

I was sure to stop and pay my respects to the Old Man Of The Swamp before I left. 

He's looking a bit bedraggled, and appeared to have some damage from the ice storm -- including a tree that is now draped across his face.  I'm sure they'll spruce him up before too long.  

Oh, and before we get too far away from the topic of books, I found another one by Nathaniel Philbrick on my Kindle that I'd bought five years ago and completely forgotten that I had.  Apparently, I'd also read part of it, but since I didn't even remember I had the book, I surely didn't remember reading any of it, so I started over. 

Now, on to more boring garden stuff.  If I'd had more energy yesterday, I was going to tell you that my peppers have definitely perked up since I planted them. 

Funny story, I'd gotten my moisture meter out and was going to give the peppers a deep watering.  I watered, and watered, and watered, and the needle never moved.  I was thinking, "Boy this dirt must have really been dry."   I watered a bit more, and that's when it hit me.  My meter was set on light, not moisture.  Yep, I was tired. 

This afternoon, I went ahead and put the stakes into place so I won't disturb the roots when it comes time that they need to be staked. 

Now for a bit of sad news.  One of my basil seedlings has died, 

and two more are struggling.  I moved these two over to where they could get some shade from the harsh afternoon sun, but honestly, I don't think they're going to make it either. 

Maybe that's why I plant so many of them.  I'll still have enough to plant with my tomatoes  provided too many more of them don't die.  By the way, I finally gave up on that fourth seed cup, since I still haven't seen any signs of life.  I pulled the hydroponic sponge out and put three more seeds directly into the dirt in the bottom of the cup.   We'll see if they do anything.  

More bad news, something has found my lemon balm and is busy chomping away at it. I gave it a good dusting of diatomaceous earth and moved the marigolds nearer to it. 

If it looks like they're helping with pest control, I might plant one or two in that bed.  At this rate, I'm going to have to buy a few more flats of marigolds.  Good thing they're one of my favorite plants. 

Along with zinnias, which are recovering quite nicely from being pinched. 

Soon, it will be time to put them into the bed.  In fact, I may do that Friday, since I've taken a day off work.  I'll also harvest my garlic, because I'm pretty sure it's ready. 

I'm not really sure, because this is the first time I have ever tried growing garlic.  I'd bought some last year, and didn't use it all.  When it started growing on my kitchen cabinet, I took a chance and planted it.  I also need to cut my onions back again.  I'll probably put that into the compost, because I've got plenty in my freezer. 

And finally, just so this post isn't a complete waste of your time, a bit of humor to end the day.  

Nice try Grace.  I don't even have DirecTV, and even if I did, I'd update things through the website.    

I thought about calling her back just to mess with her a bit, but I'm not quick enough on my feet for that.  

And for the conspiracy theorists in your life:  

I guess that's it for today.  I'm going to go get me something to eat before heading for bed.

Goodnight. 

Feeling It

All that yard work I did yesterday, yeah, I'm feeling it today. Even so, I managed to get out early this morning and spread the fire ant treatment stuff.  I was supposed to water it in, but I decided to pray for rain instead. 

Before I get into all the boring garden stuff, let me show you this:  

It was such a lovely day outside, I sat in my chair and knit a bit before the bugs found me -- which didn't take long.  Then I came inside and watched TV for the rest of the day. 

Now, on to the boring garden stuff.  As I had hoped, my plants have perked up a bit, 

especially this little marigold.  

I suspect it just needed a good drink of water.  I'd been watering them, but I must have missed its cell.  To prevent such things from happening in the future, I found an old tray and put the others into it, so I can bottom water them all. 

I had watched a video on YouTube about mistakes gardeners tend to make in April, and one of the big ones is overwatering or underwatering.  They recommend deeper, less frequent watering, so what I did  was to get my moisture meter out and measure the soil a few inches down.  It was good, so I didn't water the ones already in the beds.  

On a similar note, I noticed that some of the basils I still had in the hydroponic sponges had died, so I stuck the remaining ones into my empty planter.  

I still have 14 of them that I'll need to do something with.  Some of them will go into the tomato bed, but I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest.  Any locals want some sweet basil plants?   I don't know what I was thinking planting so many.  I guess I did it because I expected most of them to die.  Now that I know more about how to start seeds, next year, I won't plant so many.  And I'll start my tomatoes earlier.  

Right now, three of the four cups have germinated something.   

I'm not going to give up on the fourth one just yet, but if it doesn't germinate by the time the others are ready to put into the beds, I'll just buy one.  Provided there are any left in the garden center.  If there aren't, maybe I'll just roll with three plants. 

I was also pleased to see that my little zinnias don't seem to be suffering any from being pinched. 

I don't know how well you can see in this photo, but some of them are already starting new branches. 

In the midst of all of that, I finished reading In The Heart Of The Sea.  It was pretty good, which makes me think the other book was an anomaly.  I might try to read some more of his works, provided some of them end up on a daily deal or something. 

And finally, if you haven't watched Mercy on Prime Video, I highly recommend it.  It's edge-of-your-seat intense, and focused on telling a story, not on cramming as many obscenities into a two hour period as possible.  In fact, it's so intense, I need to watch an episode of Great British Sewing Bee to relax my brain.

That's just what I'm going to do.  

Laters...

 

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.

Down To Earth

As I'm sure you know, the big story of the day was the astronauts of Artemis II returning to Earth, or coming down to Earth, as it were.  Of course I was there to watch it, and I vividly remember my dad calling my older brother and I in to watch Neil Armstrong take the first step onto the moon's surface back in 1969.  

I'm so glad they timed things so that I could be home and able to see it.  I miss so much having to work so much. 

Speaking of work, today was one of those golly what a day days.  I only had two orders all day long that was bigger than a 12 piece.  I spent more time setting up, breaking down, and doing paperwork --oh, the paperwork!-- than I did actually working.  And I'm telling you what, when it takes longer to do all of the associated paper work than it does to braze an order, you are burdening your employees with too much paperwork.  And so much of it is completely unnecessary.  

I mean, if it were that important, they'd have been making us do it from the beginning instead of waiting 30 years to decide it was so urgent, right?  

Oh, and funny thing...well, I think it's funny.  Back on Wednesday, I had a rather large order that had been split among three brazers.  I had two adapter tubes that I was 20 parts short on my third.  I asked the other two brazers if they had any extras, and both said no.  So I went over to tubing and ordered them.  

I waited and waited and waited, and when I finally got my parts, they had been done wrong.  I took them back to the person who'd bent them and she said, "Well, I didn't do the first ones, so I didn't know."  Um, what?  It shouldn't matter who did the first ones, or what machine they'd been done on.  If you do your first piece inspection -- like you're supposed to, but never do-- your parts would have been right. 

So I waited and waited and waited and waited and waited... and finally got the parts right before the shift ended.  After 2 1/2 hours.  And the really funny part is, that machine operator hasn't been back since.  

What's really, really funny is that right about the time I got my rework and went back to my stand, I saw one of the other brazers bagging up a bunch of extra parts to scrap.  The exact same amount of the exact same parts I needed. 

What's really, really, really funny is that I had gotten another order to work on while I was waiting for my rework, and three of the adapters on that order were bent wrong...And they wonder why we get so frustrated.  There's a duh moment if ever there was one. 

In better news, I bought the second set of companion plants for my tomato bed -- marigolds!  

They are supposed to keep nematodes, hornworms, aphids, thrips, and a whole host of damaging insects away from your plants.  Alas, slugs love marigolds, so I'll have to keep them well dusted with diatomaceous earth for their own protection.  

I probably should have waited until the tomatoes were ready to plant, but they were so gorgeous I couldn't resist.  I was going to buy some tomato cages, too, but decided the ones at Walmart were way too short.  They barely came up to my waist, and most tomato plants can get several feet high.  Roma are supposed to grow from 4-5'.  Instead, I ordered a modular set from Amazon.  It comes in a pack of six, but you're supposed to be able to interchange the parts and customize your supports.  I should be able to put them together so that I get four taller cages instead of six shorter one.  

They're supposed to get here Tuesday, and I'll be able to assemble them and put them where the tomatoes will actually be planted when it's time, and then I'll be able to gauge where the marigolds and basil plants need to be.  

OK, enough about that.  

When I went out to check my garden this evening, I noticed two more of my little seedlings had sprouted, but I also figured out I had a problem.  Every video I've watched on growing plants from seed has suggested watering from the bottom.  This has many benefits, but mostly because it encourages the plants roots to grow deep.  

Alas, since I moved the cups to the raised bed, there really wasn't a way to bottom water my little tomatoes.  Then I had an idea.  I've got several of these little macaroni salad containers that I keep around in case Cody and Brennan want to take leftovers home after Thanksgiving or Christmas. 

They were just the right size and fit under the protective cloches just fine. 

I set the seed cups to one side, just to make it easier to fill the containers with the garden hose.  And yes, I'd poked drainage holes in the cups before I put the seeds into them.  

Speaking of seeds, look at this!  I'm finally getting some action in the bed where I planted the bachelor's button seeds. 

I hope these are actually the seeds I planted, and not just some random stuff that's growing.  I think it is, because there are too many of them to just be random.  Even the beds that have been out there since last fall don't have this many plants growing in them. 

The last thing I did garden wise was to buy two bags of topsoil and spread them into the bed I'd put all the sticks and stuff into. 

My reasoning was that it would help the beds retain heat and the stuff underneath would compost faster.  As it breaks down, I'll add more dirt to them, but for now, that's all I'm going to do. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, the astronauts are about to come out of the capsule, and I need to go watch, so I'll just leave you with this bit of humor, which is even funnier because it's true. 

 Laters.  

In The Deep End

I decided to go ahead and jump into the deep end...or off the deep end, one.  I guess we'll find out here in a few days. 

And what exactly did I do?  I moved all four of my tomato cups out into the outdoor bed, even though some of them haven't shown any signs of life yet. 

I figure it will be better for them in the long run not to have to move them around so much, and since we're pretty much past the danger of frost, I figured it would be the right thing to do.  By the way, those aren't going to be their permanent locations.  I just kind of stuck them approximately where they'll go to see how well spaced they would be.  It looks like they'll have plenty of room, plus room for the companion plants.  So, that's good. 

I did notice two more seedlings have come up -- in a different cup.  

They sprouted while I was at work today, so I hope I didn't mess them up by putting them out into the sun right away.  Since one of them hasn't even uncurled yet, I think at least that one will be OK.  

You know what else I think will be OK?  My bluebonnets! 

Just look at all of the seed pods they're producing!  

I'm going to go ahead and let these fall and re-seed the bed naturally, because I've got five packets of seeds in the freezer that I bought this year.   I'll scatter them in September, but I hope some of these seeds also take and I can get a stand going.  I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but I'm pretty hyped for this.  

You know what else I'm hyped for?  My new water bowl! 

It arrived today, and when I took it out to the fence, I noticed the old one was suddenly holding water again, after leaking for a week.  Go figure.  

No matter, I emptied it and put it somewhere out of the way and filled the new one up.  It's pretty good size -- holds 6.5 gallons, and is lower to the ground so it will be easier for rabbits and squirrels to access.   That'll be good for them because we are already in drought conditions, the entire state. 

My county is in severe to extreme drought, with no rain in sight.  Well, not much rain at least.  

Well, I guess I'd better get off of here.  I still need to practice my piano and read a couple of chapters in my book before I go to bed.  By the way, I've been reading In The Heart Of The Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.  It's much more readable than In The Hurricane's Eye. 

So, the whale rammed the ship and it sank, and the men have been in lifeboats for...umpteen days now.  They're floating along, starving and I'm wondering why they're not even trying to fish.  I sure would be.  

And that reminded me that I probably ought to get some fishing gear to put into my bug out bag.  Then I said to myself, "You're too old to be bugging out anyway."  But I think I'll still get some fishing gear. 

Just in case...

WIP Wednesday

Back in the day, when knit blogging was much more of a thing, we had something called WIP Wednesday.  WIP, of course, meaning works in progress.  We'd all take photos of our knitting projects and show them to you.  I did it myself for quite a while.  

So, today, I thought...I'm not going to do that.  I am going to show you one single work in progress.  The latest sock yarn hat. 

Yarn:  Euphoria Knits

Colorway:  I don't know.  It's illegible. 

Pattern:  Sockhead

Needles:  US 2.5 / 3mm

I've made a little progress since I last showed you, but my knitting mojo has been on spring break, apparently.  I even cast on 20 stitches for a new sailor hat, but that's as far as I've gotten.  

I had a bit of a surprise when I got home this afternoon.  I doubt you can see it, and I'm not even sure if I'm imagining it or not, but I think, right there in the center of this cup I see a tiny green tomato seedling. 

I don't know if I've made a mistake or not, but I took a chance and moved the entire cup out into the bed where the tomato will live the rest of its life -- provided it lives in the first place.  I hope I didn't mess up, but most of the videos I've watched have said that by the time it gets to April (in my growing zone-- 8a) you might as well direct sow them.  I figure this is the next best thing.  

Plus, it will be in full sunlight from day one, so I won't have to harden it off when I get ready to plant it.  

I covered it with one of my little garden cloches for protection, then moved the sweet basil tray out there, too, since that's where it will be living.  

We shall see.  And as promised, here is a photo of the rosemary.  

This is the little one I tried to root from a cutting.  

It's been sitting here for a few weeks now, so when I pull up the plastic stuff to harvest my garlic, I'll go ahead and pull it out of the pot to see if it's developed roots.  If it has, I'll plant it.  If not, I'll buy one from the garden center, as soon as they get some in.  Or maybe I'll take a new cutting and just stick it into the soil right there and see if it takes.  It's kind of fun experimenting like this. 

On a more positive note, I'd thought this cactus was dead.  It was all wilted and had turned dark red -- which is a sign of distress.  I didn't know what was going on, because I wasn't treating it any different.  Finally, I'd decided it had kicked the bucket, so I put it out on the back porch to deal with later.  I'd intended to put it into the compost, but look at it now!  

It's perked right back up!  

The temps have warmed up enough now that I can move them all back outside, so probably this weekend I'll move the little bit of firewood that is still by the house into the back and put their plant shelf back into its summer spot. 

But right now, I need to grab a shower and get ready for bed.  Because when one gets up ridiculously early...well, you know they drill by now. 

Good night.  

Short Post Today

Because I'm really tired and want to go to bed early.  But I did want to tell you that I finished watching the playlist of instructional videos by Mr. Let's Play Piano Methods for my Alfred's All-In-One level 2 book.  I still have to learn to play the songs, but once I'm done with those, I'm done with the book.  Woo hoo!

I think I might go back and go through my Faber's level 1 book before starting Alfred's level 3, but after that, who knows?    

In other news, Demi-God met me this morning and said, "My daddy is mad as ****!"  I thought, but didn't say out loud, "Your daddy is always mad as ****."   Out loud, I just chuckled and asked, "What's he mad about this time?"

As it happens, he'd gone turkey hunting and had killed a big old tom turkey.  He had the fan all laid out drying so he could get it mounted, and his daughter-in-law's cats decided to turn his fan into a cat toy.  Not Demi-God's wife, but one of his other sons'."  

I couldn't help but laugh and say, "That's cats for you!"  

It reminded me of a time when my cousin was cutting up a deer, turned his back for one moment, and Rylea swiped a big chunk of the meat.  Boy, he was furious.  But she was just doing what dogs do.  I told him next time to let me know and I'll keep her shut up until he was done.  That was a long time ago...

In other news, I bought this little weather radio, flashlight, power bank, SOS signal, reading light gadget back in 2019.  

It's been really handy to have around, especially during the recent ice storm after my Harvey lantern's batteries ran down and I didn't have enough of the right size to replace them.  You could almost say it saved my sanity.  

Well, I was poking around on Amazon, and discovered they had a newer, updated model.  I wasn't going to get it at first, because I already had one and didn't really need another one.  But the thing kept haunting me, and eventually I gave in and bought it -- reasoning that I could give it to Cody for Christmas.  

It arrived today, and let's just say, Cody's going to have to get something else for Christmas, because I'm keeping this puppy.  As you can see, it's slightly larger than the old one, and the SOS button is in a much more accessible location. 

The radio sounds so much better, the flashlight has three different brightness levels, and it's got battery percentage indicator lights on the front. 

And look at this!  Built in charger cables for you phone or tablet.  

No more having to keep up with a separate cable!  That is handy if you want to take it camping or hiking or whatever.  Other than that, it's pretty much the same as the old one -- which I will keep.  We've been through too much together for me to cast it aside like a piece of trash.   I'll probably keep one in my bug out bag, and one in my tornado safe space.  

And finally, I'd planned on pinching my zinnias today, but after doing some research, I decided to wait.  Most sites and videos say to pinch them when they're between 8 and 10 inches tall, and mine aren't quite that big yet.  I'll give them another week or so, then maybe I can pinch them.  

But look at this.  It appears my garlic is about ready to harvest. 

In the next day or two, I'll pull one up and see.  If it's ready, I'll have a garlic harvest this week!  Of course, I'll have to cure it before it's ready to eat, but still....I've grown my own garlic!  

If I keep growing so much food, I'm going to have to start cooking eventually.  

But not today.  Today, I'm going to bed.  

Good night.