Thursday, April 7, 2011

Feeling Better, but not good

This has been a rough week.  Dealing with medical issues, pain that kept me up all night, finally left me late yesterday.  After 39 hours awake, and with pain meds firmly in place, I finally got a solid night sleep last night (13 hours) and woke up to a Sunny Day :) Things were looking up!

I was able to get the Cauliflower and Broccoli into the ground, though I lost a few due to being root bound in the small containers they were in (thank goodness I am an accidental gardener (meaning I plant twice as many seeds as I hope to plant)) so 8 Cauliflower and 4 broccoli made it into good soil, and soaked up a full day of sun before the cold night came on.

I took a hint from the root bound plants, and decided to up-pot the Tomatoes:


Love Dollar Store flower pots...Showing are 4 Sungold; 3 Isis Candy; 3 Gils All-Purpose; 3 Brandywine; and 4 Yellow Pear Tomato plants, all started on Jan 25th 2011.

My lovely wife, has taken a greater interest in gardening, and specifically vegetable gardening.  She has always loved flowers, and gardening for the flowers, and one of our favorite events of the year is the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  Well if you haven't heard, the Daffodils have made a strong showing, but we have yet to see the Tulips for which the festival is named.  Seems that our Winter like weather has pushed the blooming of the Tulips back on the calendar.  Noting that, my wife uttered what I took to be sage advice: "Plant tomatoes after the Tulips have bloomed."  

I know that there are all sorts of sayings from conventional folk wisdom like this, but I have never heard this before, and it makes sense to me.  The Tulips in our yard are trying to bloom, but have not as of yet. So now I am watching them closely, as closely as I am watching the weather reports, as the tomatoes, are really ready to go into the ground.

And believe me, I am nowhere near ready for that, as I have the garden beds ready, but no dirt in them.  I had planned to visit Craigslist and find free dirt that I could amend, but got sick and the whole week blew by.  Now I am contemplating buying soil and having it delivered, as I have 4 beds to fill, and have lots to still plant out.

Add to that the chicken coop that still needs to be built...and the bathroom remodel that needs finishing touches, and boy am I behind in just about everything that needs to be done!  Getting sick on a homestead sucks!  

As for my chickens, I finally had to put wire on top of the brooder, as I found Hayden our Golden Laced Wyandotte sitting atop the waterer, and looking over the edge of the brooder!

Well, this post will be really short, as I am still really tired, and not fully well.  And tomorrow is supposed to be nice again.  I'd like to get Spinach and Peas into the ground, and call around on dirt to be delivered.

I may also get together with my brother and go pick up the material for the Chicken Coops we will build.  I have leaned back to my original plan for the coop, my own arguments with my brother (mainly, that coop height doesn't count to square footage for the chickens) convinced me I was right the first time.  

I also have to plant some Begonia's my wife bought tonight, and some time will need to hang a towel rack, and touch up paint the bathroom.

Well, I better catch some sleep, as my day looks like it will begin tomorrow at O dark 30, or a time I normally wake up to go fishing just to fit half my work in :(

Night all, and pray for your health.  Remember that the food you grow, you control, and will be the medicine to keep you healthy.

4 comments:

  1. I was thinking those were fancy pots for potting up tomatoes...Dollar Store, huh? I hope you are feeling better.

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  2. That crud is really going around. So far (knock on wood) I have managed to avoid getting it - but all of my staff have been out sick with it and it really takes em down for the count. I hope you get to feeling better soon.

    Your potted up tomatoes look great!

    Laura
    www.modernvictorygarden.com/apps/blog/

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  3. Only my brother can be in constant pain, or looped up on strong pain meds and STILL manage to get needed gardening done. I even talked to him today and despite feeling a bit pained and sore, he was out in this beautiful weather gardening. What a trooper!

    And yest, our argument was over a smaller coop he was building. I still stand by more floor square footage per bird than he is building. So many times I've read, "that's a great coop but only good for 2 or 3 chickens. Time will tell I guess.

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  4. Thanks for all the wonderful words. And yes, I am better, and now good. As for the disagreement, really bro, that wasn't an argument :) I have backpedeled and am going back to my original plan with the coop.

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