Spring Chores et al

Just came in from helping DH lop some bushes and trees back and had to empty the carcasses of last year's flowers out of my sneakers and brush them out of my hair. Did the butterfly bushes, which are in front of the heat pump to shade it during the really hot weather, but which had started growing horizontally into the fins, not to mention there were a couple of branches sticking out over the grass, making it hard to mow around it. So it's a shadow of its former self. It'll be back in plenty of time for the height of a/c season. Then there's the Bradford (Cleveland?) pear out front, which had suckers almost the size of my wrist and a few low hanging branches that made more mowing hazards. The redbud, still just a baby, needed a little clean up to nip off little branches growing too low, and a couple apple trees had big suckers because until a few weeks ago, they had been growing at a 45 degree angle and felt the need to grow new trunks. We'll give the apple branches to a friend for her rabbit to gnaw on. ALL of this cutting should have been done back in January. Oh well.

I also finally got the Napa, Pak Choi, and broccolis sprayed with the BT. The Napa has the most holey leaves and the broccoli's barely been touched (by bugs, that is). The Pak Chois in the raised bed are going gangbusters and will be ready to pick soon. I'd like their centers to fill in a little more first.

DGD is off from school this week and is visiting her dad, so we can sleep late in the a.m. and not worry about picking her up from school in the p.m.

NASCAR News: Yay, Tony Stewart got another win yesterday, though he was just lucky to be in the lead when the race was called on account of rain. It was past the halfway point, so whoever is leading when it's called is the winner.

Gardening

The first spring plants are in the ground. We got 18 Napa cabbages, 8 red Pak Chois, 7 green Pak Chois, and 17 broccolis planted today. The full moon's not until Thursday, but today the sun is in Leo, a death knell for the plants. I expect to see a bunch of plant carcasses out there soon. I also got some carrot seed in the ground. There are 75 cruciferous (that's whatcha call the cabbage family) plants left to plant, but I don't know if all the Napa will make it to the garden. Some of the seedlings are already starting to bolt and they're only 3 in. high. Don't know what's going on with them.

The onion bed needs another tilling before we can plant them, so they (the onion plants) are hanging out in the shop. I hope to plant them this coming Sunday or Monday (Scorpio), then beets and more carrots on the 20th/21st (Pisces). But since things rarely go the way I plan. . .

There's no way I can follow the moon and zodiac for planting tomatoes, etc., this year, so I'll do what I usually do and ignore them both. I've never had really BAD luck with growing, unless you count that year that I got a bunch of seeds from Fedco. Don't know what it was about them, but most varieties had low germination rates. We ended up having to buy plants locally to replace them. It kinda put a sour taste in my mouth about Fedco.

Signs of Spring and How to Be An Enabler

Well, I told you the newness would wear off of this blog thing. lol Last post was on 1-3 and here it is 1-21. We're now a full month into winter and I can see it's staying light longer in the evening already. Instead of closing the chickie girls in at around 5:15 pm, I can wait until about 5:40 or so and still see to walk down there without falling on my face.

Back in October I had dropped a couple of fleeces off with Ozark Carding while I was at SAFF. I got a ship notice last Wednesday, the 11th. The post office finally delivered the box with the roving yesterday, the 20th. NINE DAYS! They must have been sent from MO to TN via Anchorage. One fleece is just carded roving, which I'll use for spinning students (if I ever have any more ) or other demo type stuff. The other, heavier, fleece I had pin drafted after it was carded, which aligns the fibers much more than plain carding does. It looks like it turned out really nice and should be easy to spin, although there is a bit of VM in it, as all the fleeces from "that" place do. I should mention that the box is about 12x14x14, and AFTER I took the fleeces out of the box and opened their bags, they took up 4 or 5 times that space. I've already rolled all the roving into balls so they'll be easier to use.

The first of this year's planting has been started. There are 25 each of small Chinese cabbage, broccoli, and red and green pak choi seeded in trays out in the little homemade greenhouse. They were all planted on Monday, the 16th - first day of the 4th quarter moon, in Virgo. Yuck! We also have seeds for full size Chinese cabbage; they'll be started in a week or so.

Now, about that enabler title - A new woman at the Limestone Creek Fiber Guild wants to learn to spin and weave, so I said I'd bring my small looms, the Dorothy table loom and the Harp rigid heddle. (She already tried her hand at spinning last Saturday) I have to warp the Dorothy with something small to play with and I'll just measure the Harp warp, maybe enough for a scarf, and will warp it when I get there, to show Betsy how to do it. I'll have to read up on it to remember. Plus I'll haul all the various accoutrements with me. I might even take that enormous fly shuttle. Now I just have to get my butt in gear and start measuring. And I have to get everything ready by Feb. 18th. I hate measuring warp. Gee, I can't even add a picture of the Dorothy because I'm on the wrong computer. Have to get that DSL line switched back.

The grocery store has hyacinths in bloom already. I ALWAYS stop and smell them. Spring is coming!