Changed My Mind

I changed my mind. 

I'd planted some tomato seeds in my hydroponic sponges Saturday evening, but after watching several gardening videos on YouTube, I decided to take a different tack.  Almost every one of the videos I watched suggested planting tomato seeds in red Solo cups.  The reasoning is that as the plant grows, you can trim off the lower leaves and add soil.  This will make the seedling put out more roots, and result in a stronger, healthier plant.  

But the first thing I had to do was go to the dentist -- and for once, nothing was wrong.  Woo Hoo!  Heh, I told the hygienist that I was at work wondering if it was too late to cancel my appointment and just go home.  She said, "I feel you, girl!"  But I didn't.  I said to myself, "Self, if you do that, you'll just have to reschedule and you'll still have it hanging over your head.  Might as well go and get it over with."  That's just what I did. 

Since I was already in town, I'd thought about running by Walmart after my appointment, but I didn't.  I have all I need for planting this year.  I'll just pick up more bags of soil during my weekly shopping trips. 

When I got home, I found some clear Solo cups, because that's what I had, and filled them about halfway with potting soil.  I didn't want to disturb the seeds I'd already planted, so I just shoved the entire hydroponic sponge down into the soil. 

I put the cups into a plastic container and set the whole thing onto the heat mat, at least until the seeds germinate. 

And I did put the humidity dome over the cups after I took the photo -- at least until the seeds germinate.  

The next project will be to pinch my zinnias.   

I took the difficult step of thinning them last night, and now they're down to one per cell.  I won't need to up-pot these, I don't think.  That's the reason I bought the 16 cell tray instead of the 32 cell tray.  Each cell is big enough that I'm pretty sure they'll be OK going straight into the bed.  The fewer times you have to disturb them, the better it is for the plants.  

I'm going to watch a few vids on pinching before I do that to them, since I've never done it before.  Mainly because I usually buy my plants already started from the garden center.  I want to get more into starting my own seeds because it's pretty fun watching them grow.  

Now for a bit of good news.  Ever since I dug the clay out from under that garden bed, this corner has drained so much better.  At least after that one rain we had. 

I think maybe this fall, I'll empty the other bed out and dig the clay out from under it, too.  I wish I'd thought to do that before I planted stuff in the beds in the other corner.  Oh well.  Maybe once I get started on the other half of the garden, I can shift things over and do that.  

And finally, there has been knitting...and watching Easter shows. 

 When the hat gets a little bigger, I'll show you a progress photo.  But right now, I need to go grab a quick shower and start getting ready for bed.  

Yes, I know it's early, but when one gets up ridiculously early, one must also go to bed ridiculously early. 

Resurrection Sunday

Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Foll’wing our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Rainy Saturday

You know, one of the hardest things about blogging for 20 years is coming up with a new and engaging title every day.  Every single day.  Every single post.  

Sometimes, it just doesn't happen and you get something dumb like "Rainy Saturday."  I hope the post isn't just as dumb as the title...

OK, let's dive right in.  I noticed the one of the little banana peppers I bought yesterday had been pretty chewed up.  I'm sure it happened before I got it, but gave them all a good dusting of diatomaceous earth just to be on the safe side. 

Since we are supposed to get storms today -- nothing severe, but possibly heavy rains, damaging winds, and maybe even hail -- first thing I did this morning was to move all of the outside plants to the back porch

so that when the heavy rain started, I could move them into the house pretty quickly, which is exactly what I did when the first shower arrived.  Kindly ignore the state of my back porch.  Once the oak trees have finished dropping their tassels, I plan on pressure washing it and spraying it with weed killer.  

And I realize I don't really need to show you photos of the same plants sitting on my plant stand 

or my end table, 

but I took and uploaded them, so there you go.  

One thing I wanted to do before the storms got here was to up-pot some of my basil.  In order to do that, the first thing I needed to do was to clean off my potting table.  

Like any flat surface, it tends to become the gathering place for random stuff.  Yes, that really is a jawbone up in the top left corner. 

Pretty sure it's a deer, but I have no idea where it came from or how it got onto my potting table.  No matter, a few moments of organization and the table looks much better. 

Once that was accomplished, in very short order, I had 14 sweet basil seedlings nestled into slightly larger pots, which will be their new home for the next few weeks. 

Once this next cool spell passes, I'll likely leave them outside full time until I'm ready to plant them into their permanent home in the raised bed with the tomatoes and marigolds.   

I still have this many that I don't know what I'm going to do with them.  

I may just plant them at random throughout the herb gardens.  I'm reading the strong smell keeps away those critters that would eat my herbs.  And by critters, I mean deer.  They can be so destructive to a garden.  Oh, and I did shift some of those hydroponic sponges around and planted four tomatoes.  Well, really I put three seeds into each one, so it's 12, but I intend to have four plants when it's all said and done. 

On a similar note, the water trough I'd put out by the back fence for the deer has finally rusted through.  I've ordered a new one from Amazon that's made from heavy plastic, which should get here Thursday-ish.  

I'm thinking about drilling some drainage holes in the metal one and using it as a planter until it completely rusts through.  Maybe I'll plant potatoes in it. Or move these onions into it. 

Look at how much they've grown since I last cut them just ten days ago.  At this rate, I'm going to have more onion than I can eat!  Any locals need green onion?  Come and cut you some!  Just let me know it was you, so I don't think something is getting into my garden. 

In other news, I forgot to show you this yesterday.  I'd ordered it last week, and though it had arrived in the mail, I laid it on the counter and completely forgot to even open it until after I'd blogged.  

I still haven't bought the Bible study for season 5, but now that we're getting a little overtime, I can get caught up on that, too.  

I want to re-watch the first five seasons before season 6 is released in November. 

That one is going to be difficult to watch, so it's kind of hard to say I'm looking forward to it. 

But I am.  

So That Happened

After all my ranting and raving the last two days, guess what happened at work today.  Go on, guess!  

OK, I'll tell you.  I got an order this morning that takes four adapter tubes.  When I started setting up on that order, I discovered that three of the four tubes were bent wrong.  Not just slightly out of specs, either.  They were way wrong.  As in, not even close. 

Did you catch that?  On a single order, 75% of the parts I received from tubing were wrong.  Wrong to the point that they were unusable. THAT is why it's so frustrating and stressful to work there. 

I went over to the computer to pull up a print, just to make sure I wasn't crazy before I went over to tubing and started clowning, only I couldn't get the print to pull up.  Funny thing, instead of just saying "File not found" or something along those lines, our program gives you a whole paragraph telling you what could be said in three little words.  I don't rightly know what it says.  I've never bothered to read it. 

I put the number in a few times to make sure I hadn't fat fingered something, and when it still didn't come up, I took my pick list over to Group Leader Shark, and told her what I'd done and that when I entered the number, it just said those words.  She got on to her computer and tried to pull a print, but it did the same thing.  Finally, she said, "Just give them to me, and I'll take them to tubing.  I'm going over there anyway."  

Fortunately, it was only an 8 piece order this time, so it didn't take long to get the parts re-cut, but still...every single day at the morning meeting Group Leader Shark says, "Do your first and last piece inspection," but for some reason, the ones who do the adapter tubes never seem to think she's talking to them.  I can understand making a mistake every now and again.  We are human beings, after all.  But this is every single order, every single day.  Something is always going to be wrong with something. 

On a similar note, Demi-god met me as soon as I got into the department this morning and said, "My daddy got mad as **** yesterday."    After The Warden left, some of the supervisors had stopped wearing their uniforms -- including Demi-god's dad.  Yesterday, one of the other supervisors tattled on them, so they had a big meeting with New Boss, and he told them they had to start wearing them again.  New Boss told them he wanted them to look professional.  

I'm going to say what I said the first time someone made them start wearing khakis instead of jeans.  "It's a factory.  How professional do you expect them to look?"

Oh, and I'd briefly thought about giving New Boss a blog nickname.  My cousin used to say, "So and so has all the personality of a piece of cardboard."  I was going to call New Boss "Cardboard Boss" but I didn't want anyone to think he was the new supreme leader of Iran or anything like that.  

IYKYK

In other news, I hadn't planned on going to the store today.  Friday before a major holiday and all, I figured it'd be a mad house.  I was going to wait until Monday to go, since I have a dentist appointment that afternoon and would be in town anyway, but then, I got to thinking, "Even though it's just me, I still deserve to have a nice dinner for Easter," so I went.  And I was right.  It was a madhouse.   

I'd planned on getting a ham -- briefly contemplating the irony of celebrating the resurrection of a Jewish man by eating ham, but that same man said it's not what goes in to the body that makes you unclean, it's what comes out of your heart.  By that, he meant that all foods are clean.  (Mark 7:19)

And every Cajun on the face of the earth said, "Whew!"  

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

In the end, I didn't get a ham.  The cheapest one I found was $15, and I just didn't want to pay that, so I got a rotisserie chicken instead, and some macaroni salad to go with it.  I also splurged and got some candy, since my blood sugar has been pretty good here lately.   

Naturally, while I was there, I had to go into the garden center.  I'd intended to pick up some Roma tomato plants, but bought seeds instead.  

I'm not sure why.  I might go back Monday and get some plants already started.  Or I might not.  I might go ahead and start these seeds.  I'll decide later.  

I also bought six sweet banana pepper plants.  

I've decided to go ahead and harden them slowly, as if I'd had them inside all along, because I don't know how much direct sunlight they were getting on that shelf in Walmart.  

Speaking of, I noticed a few of my basil leaves have what appears to be sunburned spots, but the new leaves will probably be fine since they'll be used to full sun from the very beginning. 

I'm probably going to up-pot some of the bigger ones this weekend before the storms get here.   By the way, chance of tornadoes is low with this one, but we can still have damaging winds and hopefully some rain.  Rain which we desperately need...

Despite the lack of rain, my newest baby bluebonnet is getting bigger by the day. 

And look what I found on the others! 

Do you know what those are?  Seed pods!  I might just get me a stand going after all.  

In the meantime,  the ones I've got are looking pretty good. 

I think this will be the last of the daffodils, though. 

They kind of surprised me.  I had thought the daffs were done for the year. 

And finally, while I was in the Garden Center, three big Chinooks flew over.  I was able to get a shot of two of them. 

The really cool thing is, after I got home, they flew over the house, too!  I used to see this kind of thing all the time when I lived closer to the airport, but not so much since I moved into this house.  I can often hear them, but usually can't see them due to the trees and such like. 

Maybe next time, it'll be Apaches.

Hey, a girl can dream.  Right?

I Don't Know

 I don't know what's going on out at the plant, but Group Leader Shark was really hot this morning.  At our meeting, she said, "I know you all know we had a meeting yesterday."  

And we were all saying, "Meeting?  There was a meeting?"

"And you all know what was said..."

And we were saying, "We do?"  

"I know none of you are doing any of that!"

And we were saying, "Any of what?"

And I really have no idea what all of that was about, or what was said at that meeting, or that they even had a meeting...

And apparently, if you post negative things about your place of employment, someone from the front office will come out and tell you, "Don't post negative things about your place of employment." 

You know, one day, I'm going to get my self fired because I won't be able to catch my mouth in time.  Fortunately, today was not that day.  

The rest of the day passed largely without incident and I spent it thinking today was Friday.  I hope I remember to get up and go to work tomorrow.   If I don't, I got up at 2:30 all week for nothing. 

⏰⏰⏰

In A Nutshell

There I was at work, just a working away.  It was almost 6:00 and I saw Cuz come over and start talking to Group Leader Shark. 

"Uh oh,"  I said.  "What have we done now?"  

Actually, I said, "What we done did now?" because in real life, I do speak in local vernacular from time to time.  But that's not relevant to this story. 

Then the morning meeting started and she chewed us up one side and down the other.  Apparently, someone got caught carrying—oh the horror— a Coca~Cola into the plant this morning.

"Do not be carrying Cokes into this plant!  And it has to be in a clear cup!  I don't care what these other departments do!  You will have a clear cup!"

And I'm thinking, "That right there is exactly what is wrong with this plant in a nutshell.  I wish she'd get this bent out of shape of this jacked up garbage we get from tubing as she does over what kind of cup I'm drinking my water out of."  

So, I go back to my stand and finish the order I’d been working on-- which is the one I'd started yesterday when the line was already down waiting on it, and I had to wait on the adapter tubes before I could even start brazing it. 

I found out this morning that they'd sent that line home early because they didn't have header assemblies.  And yet...they still didn't have the adapter tube line coming in early.  Go figure...

So, I finish that order, then go get line 3’s next order, and the parts stager tells me, “It only has two legs, but it’s next.”  I spend the next two hours waiting on adapter tubes, and the line is down waiting on me, and ... the adapter tube line is working on parts for line 4– which we are 11 hours ahead of that line, instead of line 3, which is down waiting on us. 

Make. It. Make. Sense.

Please!  

I honestly believe that if our parent company weren't propping this company up, they'd have gone out of business years ago.  The place is so poorly managed, it's a wonder it can function at all. 

Anyway, I finally got the parts I needed and brazed the order with the line's parts stager taking them out  of my hands as fast as I can braze them, and after a day like that, I said to myself, "Self, I really need to play in some dirt!" 

So I went to the store after work and bought a few more bags of garden soil.  Then I came home, filled all of the bird feeders, put the soil into my beds, came inside and took a shower -- and still made it to the TV in time for the Atremis II launch.

Because I'm multi talented like that. 

All right then... I think these two are ready to be planted. 

I'll have to see how much the soil settles after the next rain, but there's likely enough to go ahead and plant my tomatoes and banana peppers.  I'm still going to buy up a bag or two of soil at a time while they have them in stock, so I'll have some ready when I get around to getting the rest of my raised beds. Or for when my current beds need a top-up.  

While I was outside, I took photos of my herbs for your viewing pleasure.  Here is my lemon balm:

Broadleaf Sage: 

Greek Oregano: 

French Tarragon: 

And I just realized I didn't take a photo of my rosemary or mint.  Oh well...I'll get them next time. 

The last thing I did was to drag the hose around and water everything, and I also put out the bee pond, since it's so very dry. 

Yeah, we got a lot of thunder last night, but very little actual rain.  We're supposed to get some storms Saturday, so maybe we will finally get some rain.   They're saying 100% chance, so we'll see. 

And finally, this meme showed up in my socials today, and now I have to add Dracula to my reading list. 

Can you believe I've never read it?  I must rectify that as soon as I've finished the books I'm currently reading. 

One Of Those Days

It was one of those days at work.  We -- meaning the brazers -- stood around all day waiting on orders from tubing.  They came trickling in at a snail's pace.  I hate days like that to begin with because it makes the time pass so slowly.  

I've never understood workplace logic.  The sub brazers come in at 4:00.  The header line comes in at 4:00.  The adapter tube line comes in at.........6:00.  Guess which parts we've been waiting on all week.  It just doesn't make any sense.  

To make matters worse, after standing around piddling all day because we didn't have work, thirty minutes before quitting time, the line comes rushing up to the brazing area looking for headers because they were down waiting on parts.  The only problem is, tubing didn't even have the adapter tubes ready.  

I just wish I could get it through their thick heads that you can yell and scream and blame the brazers all you want, but until you fix the actual problem -- TUBING -- nothing is going to change.  But this is what the plant does to its employees.  They set you up to fail, then blame you for doing exactly what they intended for you to do.  

It's much easier than being organized and efficient, you know. 

I'd thought about running in and getting some more garden soil after work, since they're predicting storms this evening.  I wanted to get it into the beds before the rain gets here, so it can settle in a bit.  After the day I had, that plan went out the window, and I just came on home.  

I do hope we get some rain; it's so very dry.  Even my poor little purple deadnettle isn't growing this year.  Last year it was thick and tall and I could sit outside and hear the bees buzzing all over my yard.  This year, it's short and stumpy and really struggling.  

In a bit of better news, the cat seems to be on the mend.  She's still gimping, but there is no sign of infection and she's eating well.  I don't think a vet visit will be necessary this time.  

More good news, the wild fire in Carroll County is 90% contained, and hopefully they'll get some rain to thoroughly drench it.  It ended up burning 4246 acres, which is the second largest wildfire in Mississippi history.  

And finally, just so this post isn't a complete waste of your time, here is a photo of my zinnias.  

 I'm going to have to thin them soon.  Maybe I'll do that this weekend. 

But for now, I'm going to watch an episode of The Repair Shop, then go to bed. 

Good night. 

Good News!

Good news!  The county is finally getting the debris from the ice storm cleaned up on my road!  Woo Hoo!  It's only been two months, but to be fair, there was a lot of debris from that storm.  

It's going to feel kind of weird to be able to drive straight down the road, instead of weaving my way around fallen branches and stuff.  Well, it is a narrow road -- barely over one lane wide.  But we like it that way.

Except when it's blocked by storm debris...or the garbage truck. 

In other news, I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know that I made it into town and put the book I just finished back into the Little Free Library, and look what I found to replace it!

Funny thing is, I almost bought this one for my Kindle over the weekend, but backed out at the last minute.  Good thing, because now I don't need to.  This one ought to read up a lot quicker than the last one did, then I'll take it back for someone else to enjoy. 

By the way, Edna, I finally made it to The Nest Egg, but the yarn was already gone.  Oh well, it's my own fault.  I should have gone that very first day.  

Since I was in town, I briefly thought about running to Walmart and picking up a few more bags of garden soil, but I didn't.  I came home and watched the next two episodes of The Faithful: Women Of The Bible, and knit on a sock yarn hat instead. 

Here's a fun fact for you.  My mother wanted to spell my name Rebekah, like in the Bible, but talked herself out of it at the last minute.  She spelled it that way anyway, up until I started first grade, then figured she ought to spell it like it was on my birth certificate.  After I was grown, I had considered a few times going down and getting it legally changed to that spelling, but never got around to it.  I suppose I still could, but there just doesn't seem to be any point at this age. 

More bad news, that stray tom cat came into the yard and attacked the Incarnation of Evil again yesterday.  He mauled that same leg joint that she was still slightly limping on from the last time he got her.  This time, I was able to make it out into the yard in time to give him a good, hard kick, so maybe he'll think twice before coming back.  

There is no animal control out in the county, just in case you were wondering.  We have to take care of these things on our own.... 

And finally, I get the strangest earworms sometimes.  For instance, this was today's:

Don't ask.  Even I don't know. 

I've long since given up trying to find an explanation for such things. 

I Cheated

For weeks, I've been trying to get these hats tagged and ready to send off to the Seaman's Church Institute, but have been dragging my feet.  The thought of signing all of those tags with my chicken scratch handwriting -- which is only getting worse the older I get -- was very offputting.  

Well, today, I got a brilliant idea.  I'd just print labels with my signature and stick those to the tags.  In other words, I'd cheat.   So, after church, I got my address blanks out, got online and found a template, then made up signature stickers that I think will work right nicely. 

I printed them out and got them stuck to the back of the tags in a jiffy, and now they're ready to tie on to the hats.  I was going to dig out my Christmas ribbon, but that might not happen since all of the Christmas paper is stuffed into the back of the closet once again.  

Eh, I ought to get it out, because I've already bought one of Brennan's gifts.  Might as well wrap it before she accidentally finds it.  Not that that will happen, because I probably won't see them again until Thanksgiving anyway.  

The only other noteworthy things I did today was to finish another sailor hat, 

Yarn:  Mainstays 

Colorway:  Blue Blend

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8 / 5 mm

and I planted a few of my bachelor's button seeds.  Then I finally got my act together enough to fix my garden hose and dragged it around there and watered everything.  

For those of you with memories like mine, the hose had busted sometime last summer.  I'd gotten one of those hose mender things, but no matter how much I tightened the hose clamps, it still leaked.  Well, last December when the plumber came to fix my sink, he left his little bottle of pipe thread sealant goop.  I messaged him and let him know it was here, but he never came and got it. I figured after all this time, he didn't intend to, so it wouldn't hurt any if I borrowed a little bit. 

I got it out, took the whole hose mending apart, then slathered a good bit of the pipe goo onto the fitting -- and my hands and my screwdriver, and made a right proper mess of things while I was at it.   But no matter, that's what soap and water is for.  

A few minutes later, and I tried it out.  It worked a charm.  No more leaks!  While I was at it, I washed out and filled both the bird bath and deer trough.  It's so nice to have a working hose again.  I mean, it worked before, but if I forgot to turn the water off, it dripped all over the place and likely ran up my water bill.  

That was my day, other than catching up on the most recent season of Call The Midwife on PBS.  I'm kind of getting the idea that this will be the last season.  If so, it's had a good run, and better to end before people get tired of the show, but I sure hope it's not.  

On the bright side, if this is the last season, it won't be long before I can buy the entire series on DVD and will have it forever. 

And finally, the latest on the Carroll County fire is that it's burned 4200 acres, and is only 40% contained.   They're saying the debris from the ice storm and the 2023 tornado -- the same one that hit Rolling Fork -- has made things so much worse.  They're saying it could be days before it's contained. 

What we need is a good rain, but it'll be Thursday before there is any in the forecast.  In the meantime, the Cajun Navy is on the way to help out. 

Accomplishment!

Yes, you read that right.  I actually accomplished something today.  And just what was it that I accomplished?  Well, I'll tell you. 

I finally, at long last, finished this book!

Yay me!  Next time I go into town, I'll put it back into the Little Free Library and see if they have something else I want to read, though I still haven't read the book my brother gave me for Christmas.  I might even take it in tomorrow, if I can get myself dressed and moving.  Then, once I've dropped the book off, I can run by Walmart and pick up some more bags of garden soil.

Which segues nicely into my next accomplishment.   Ever since I've lived in this house, I've collected up twigs and small limbs that fall, and over the years, I've built up quite the collection of them.  Even using them to start fires in my wood stove, I still had a lot.  So, what better use for them than to fill my new garden beds?  

The best part, after getting the majority of the twigs up, I found a nice, thick layer of compost underneath them!  Once I added that to my beds, it filled them up quite nicely.  

And there was enough to fill both beds about halfway up. 

I'm going to let it all settle a bit, and hopefully get rained on a few times, then start adding soil later on in the year.  I'm well aware that these probably won't be ready to be planted this spring, but they weren't really intended to be part of this year's planting anyway.  

Speaking of rain, we are nearly 5" below normal for this time of year.  It's so bad, we're under a burn ban and red flag warning.  In fact, there is a massive wildfire in the county just to the South of us, covering some 3000 acres.  I sat outside by my fire pit a bit, but didn't light a fire -- not even in my wood stove this morning.   It got down into the mid 40s last night, which would have made a fire feel good, but I didn't feel like fooling with one. 

But as I was saying,  I got this entire section of the old chicken coops cleaned out, ready to start re-filling with whatever I want to put into it. 

I don't yet know what that will be.  I do know it won't be chickens, though.  I might move my potting table here.  With this one being on the end, it will get more light than where I have the table now.  At least, I'll be able to see when I'm potting stuff.  

Moving right along, I'd brought all of my plants inside last night even though it wasn't supposed to frost, just in case.  As soon as the sun came up, I put everything back outside, including the zinnias.  

They do need thinning again, but I'm debating on whether to try to separate the seedlings instead of just snipping one off.  I've got some pots I can up pot them into, so I may try to do that.  Then again, in just two more weeks, I'll feel safe enough to plant them into their permanent homes, since it'll be past the danger of frost.  According to Grok, it's probably safe to plant now, but I think I'll wait anyway. 

I recently watched a YouTube video on pinching zinnias, which I'd never done in the past -- probably because I'd never started them from seeds before.  I think I'll pinch these when they get big enough.  The video says to wait until they have at least two, and preferably three, sets of true leaves before doing it.  As you can see, these have just started getting their second set, so it's too early to pinch these.  We have such a long growing season this far South, so I have plenty of time.  

I might go ahead and plant some of my bachelor's button seeds, and save some back, just in case.  Oh, and look at this!  As I was taking photos of my bluebonnets to force you to look at, 

look what I found!  It's a baby bluebonnet!  

It looks like some of the other seeds I'd planted might germinate after all.   I know it can take a few years and several freezing and thawing cycles sometimes.  

Now, if you'll excuse me, House Of David season 2 is up on Prime Video, and I think I'll go watch an episode or two.  

Laters...

Next Project Up!

After thinking about it for several days, I suddenly realized I actually did have a couple of those long beds that didn't have any dirt in them.  By golly, I'm going to get out there and dig out the red clay before I start filling them!  First I had to pull the liner out, and at this point, I'm kind of wondering why I put it in in the first place. 

I didn't know what I was doing.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Now that I know some plants need a deeper root structure, I won't be putting that liner into the rest of my beds.  And I will be digging the red clay out before adding compost and dirt.  

Anyway, I had to shift the bed a bit to get the liner out, and once I got it back into place, it didn't take long at all to get the clay dug out, even with the copious amounts of breaks I took.  

I don't know what it is with this corner of the yard, but it simply will not drain.  We haven't had any rain in 10 days, and all that red clay was still soaking wet.  I'm going to put down a lot of compost before I start adding dirt to these.  I'm not in any big hurry, because I only bought these so I could better gauge where my 4 x 4 beds need to go.

I mean, that's not the only reason I bought them, but it is the reason I bought them now.  I don't even know what I'm going to put into them yet.  I'm considering moving the dirt from the other two beds on that side -- which are currently empty of plants -- into these two beds, then removing the liner and clay from under those.  Then I can re-fill them and they'll also be ready for whatever I want to do with them. 

OK, I'm rambling now.  Let's move on.  

Today was also the day I took on the somewhat unpleasant task of thinning my basil.    

 They're all down to one plant per cell, except for a couple of the smallest seedlings.  I've notice some of the larger plants have flopped over.  I'm hoping it's just because they were leaning on their cellmates and will perk up in a day or two.  But, even if I did accidentally kill them, I've still got plenty more.   So many more, I'm wondering where I'm going to put them all.  

Eh, I'll find a place for them.  

You know, someday something that is blogworthy will happen and I'll write an interesting and fascinating post once again, and stop boring you with my garden news. Today is not that day.  

Thus, you get boring garden drivel.  And I'm going to go knit a bit. 

Laters.