I've been waiting and waiting until the weather warmed up to transplant the eggplants, watermelons, strawberries and basil. Finally the wind stopped blowing and the temperature soared yesterday, reaching a high of 80.8°F. Then I heard on the news that another cold front is blowing in. I said to dh, "Another cold front?! These plants need to get into the ground. I'm going on with my plans to get them transplanted tonight. They will just have to make it on their own."
That was last night. It took about an hour, but the beds have been ready for the past couple of weeks so it was just a matter of digging holes and plopping the plants in.
I am working from my home today. Well, actually I'm driving to my boss' home, and we're working there together. She was in the hospital last week and on Thursday she asked if I'd gather everything we'd need to finish the end of the month bookkeeping and come to her house today, instead of going to work. She wants me to arrive at 10am, so that means I didn't have to leave this morning before the sun rose. In fact, I don't have to leave for about another 90 minutes. Wow, so this is what it's like being home until 8:30 in the morning on a Monday. She lives about 75 miles from me, and I should be able to avoid most of the rush hour traffic if I take the back highways.
This morning I went out to check on all the new transplants. They all look great. The wind was still blowing last night, so I did cover them all with boxes for protection. I watered this morning, and found this very pleasant surprise:
One lonesone Sweet Pea flower blossom. My edible peas produced blossoms months ago, but my peas which I planted for the beautifully scented flowers have not done well. I think it is because my watering system wasn't set up properly in that bed. Mostly the problem was I planted the flowers at the north end of the bed, which was at the end of each tube. The laser line had holes every 12 inches, and apparently there were few holes near the very end where the flowers were planted. I'm actually surprised to see a blossom, considering my edible pea plants were spent a couple of weeks ago (no longer producing and beginning to die off).
I was thinking that all the long skinny beds against the sides I've created for green beans can be used come September for peas! I wish I could just plant 30 feet of Sweet Pea flowers, but I really liked the edible peas, so I will be planting more of those.
I did a heavy watering this morning. I still don't have my watering system set up, but desperately need to figure out what to do! It's just difficult with so many beds and only one faucet. I wish I could figure out something permanent, as the soaker hose and laser line just don't seem to last long due to our hard water.
Well, I'd better get off this computer and start getting ready to leave.
Until next time.
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Transplanting
Labels: Gardening
My Garden Bucket
Labels: Gardening, Memory Lane
My dear MIL bought my dh a tool bucket one or two years ago for his birthday or Christmas. Unforunately, it wasn't a practical item for a guy with a bunch of tools. He's got a LOT of tools, and tool boxes work better for him. Equally unfortunate, the gifted tool bucket sat out in the sun and weather unused for a very long time. I must digress to visit Memory Lane for just a few moments, and share my sun damage phobia.
Whenever I see something that is sun damaged, I get a sick feeling inside. I know exactly from where it stems. My grandparents had a cement slab on the back of their property where my mother stored some of our possessions for a while while she was getting back on her feet after my father left. One of those things was her beloved dining room table. Unfortunately it wasn't covered properly and ended up with serious damage. I don't remember my mom when she discovered it, but the sick feeling I get I know is directly related to her reaction, which the sick feeling indicates was pretty bad, and I probably blocked it. I remember that she refinished her table and it took a long time. My sisters both feel the same horror at sun damaged items. I appreciate having siblings to which I can go and ask if they experience the same feelings, and sometimes they know why, when I don't. Sun damage happens a lot out here and often there is nothing I can do about it, so I just try to overlook it. It is tragic the damage one summer can do to wood. I have a chair in my bathroom, and another of similar style that I brought home at the same time had no place to call its own inside, so it lived outdoors. Over a few summers, the varnish stripped, the wood greyed and it broke to pieces. Sad.
The tool bucket lived outdoors long enough that the cloth pockets ended up with sun rot. But a couple of weeks ago, I got the idea to rescue the tool bucket to use for gardening. I examined it and found that it seemed to be intact. I am a little dismayed at the sun-rotted condition of the pockets, but honestly it will work just fine. I sprayed it out with the hose for it was covered with the fine dust we live with out here in the desert, not to mention spider webs and other debris. I continued to lug my little cardboard box with me to the garden every weekend, and continued to set my gardening "tools" here and there since the cardboard box wasn't really big enough. And then last Sunday I realized with a sense of accomplishment that my work to get my garden back under control was pretty much complete. I decided then it was time to put my garden bucket to use as well. I had the tool bucket with me out in the garden, and I began to load the pockets with the items I like to have with me when I garden.
From left to right: pruners (this pair had a first life as goat hoof trimmers), box cutter (pink and yellow), dirt poker (for poking holes symmetrically for seeds), red handled tin snips (for cutting chicken wire, Juice Fruit gum for the gopher. He took it, he ate it. He continues to ravage any of the garden which is not fortified beneath with chicken wire.
Wire cutters, flat head screwdriver, box cutter, thermometer, and the seeds I'm planting for the day in the big pocket.
My garden gloves, poked into one of the pockets.
My Gardener's Journal. I think I got it at a thrift store for a couple bucks, and started using it in 2003. My entries are sporadic in the first few years, but I am trying to remember to make notes in it this year. It was fun to read through my previous entries, seeing what kinds of seeds I'd planted. I'm trying to not only list my seeds, but how well they do, etc.
I keep my Gardener's Journal within a gallon freezer ziploc bag, along with a few other things. A couple of pens and a pencil, a small notebook and the folded white paper is my list of "When to Plant What".
Finally, one of my Duane Newcomb books. He packs a lot of information into the book, including when to plant, how many seeds/plants needed per person, time of year to plant, some companion planting and other good information that I like to have with me while I'm in the garden.
One of my recent harvests: Purple Radishes, Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Egyptian Beets, Chioggia Beets, and Broccoli.
I diced the purple radishes and broccoli, along with one avocado, one clove of crushed garlic, 2 tablespoons of homemade goat milk yogurt, onion powder, pepper and salt. It was pretty good, considering I was just throwing things together to see how they would taste.
Until next time.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
A Look Into My Garden - March 2009
Labels: Gardening
One of my church sistren asked about potatoes - my planting guide says the first date for planting potatoes is January 1st through February 28th. If I remember correctly, I got my potatoes in the ground on March 1st. Almost within the window, but I do wish I'd planted them on January 1st, not March 1st! They are planted six inches below the surface. The method I am using is one I've tried before - as the plants grow upward, you fill the cage with straw or some type of loose dirt. The potatoes will continue to grow upwards and potatoes will form along the entire length of the plant. I found this website that said the potatoes had to be out of the ground by June 10th.
From Vegetable Growers News Website: "Heat presents the biggest challenge of growing potatoes in Arizona. Although they must contend with an occasional freeze, all potatoes must be out of the ground by June 10, to avoid the intensity of the Arizona heat."
That gives my potato plants 90 days to produce. According to the AZ Master Gardener Manual, 100 to 120 days to maturity. I did plant an "early" variety. We'll just have to see how it goes.
This is the bed that was planted in November. Well, actually the Green Bean beds have just been formed and planted in the last week, but the bed in front of that area is the November bed. It still has Swiss Chard, in this picture you see beets, but they were harvested on Friday to go with our dinner. Mmmmm! The Bok Choy has gone to seed and is huge. One lone kale plant. There are also carrots in this bed, and the Brussels sprouts are behind the Bok Choy.
See the baby Brussels sprouts beginning to form!
The tomato bed. I could just kick myself. I lost my spiral notebook on which I diagrammed which variety of tomato was planted where. I should be able to determine that once they start producing, but it might be hard to guess on a couple of them.
This is the third bed planted in January and March. In January, spinach, beets, carrots, Cherry Belle and purple radishes, and swiss chard was planted. In March, corn was interspersed in most of the bed, with cucumbers at the back in the cages. The corn came up kind of sporadically, and I hope this doesn't cause a problem with pollination; otherwise, there will be no ears of corn.
Until next time.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Pretty Peas
Labels: Gardening
I have never grown peas, well, hold on, I've grown my favorite flower, the Sweet Pea pea, but never peas specifically for eating. I've bought the seeds before, but never got them planted.
I planted peas in November, but should have planted them in September. And I only planted a few dozen seeds. Come to find out later, I should have been planting about 90 seeds per PERSON! Hmmmm... well, I'll know better next time, that's for sure.
It was like a treasure hunt looking for the pea pods. They are nearly invisible against the leaves of the plant so you have to stare for a long time to see them. Sometimes I'd stare and stare and thought I'd found every pod and then while I was watering in a different section of the garden from the distance I'd see another one.
At first I was having trouble knowing when to pick the pods. It didn't seem like the seeds were getting any bigger, and for a while I thought maybe I'd planted sugar snap peas, which are the kind you put in Asian dishes, or eat raw in salads.
Eventually the pods started getting plumper and tougher, and then it became more apparent when to pick them. All the pea plant wants to do is procreate. It flowers, start seeds and if it thinks it has succeeded, it will stop flowering. So it's important to pick the pods when the seeds are still young and fresh. That way, the pea plant puts out more flowers, to make more seeds. Flowers are the same way. If you want your flowers to keep flowering, snip off the flowers as they age - it's called deadheading.
I already know that anything fresh from the garden is much more delicious than from the store. Two vegetables that many people dislike are spinach and beets. But fresh from the garden? Words can't describe how mouthwateringly delicious they are in comparison to frozen or canned. Knowing this, I was very curious about the peas. I wasn't even sure how to cook fresh peas! I found a blog that said to bring the water to a boil, drop the peas in and let them cook from 10-30 seconds. 
I'd harvested pea pods over about ten days and some peas were smaller than others. The picture above is one of several harvests. The smaller ones cooked faster and were done within 30 seconds, but the bigger ones hadn't changed color. As they cooked, the color changed from a pale green to bright green.
Dh and I each had a small bowl with just a touch of butter and sea salt. They were delicious! Next year I will plant plenty of peas in September. I already have the seeds purchased - I had my dates wrong in my seed planting guide and thought I could plant peas all the way up to March. I should have known, because I know that Sweet Pea flowers can only be planted from September 15 to October 15. I shouldn't forget this, especially since I updated my guide.
Until next time.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Giving Myself a Pedicure
Labels: Gardening, Memory Lane, Relaxing
I don't usually get into all the "girly" things like manicures and pedicures, hair styles, makeup, lots of jewelry, stuff like that. I guess it probably stems from my childhood and feeling strongly that it wasn't okay to be a girl. It was never verbalized by my parents, but my full blood sisters and I have discussed it and we all were aware of it. My dad left when I was five, and I heard later on in years that he always wanted a son. Apparently he got married shortly after his divorce to my mom was final and his new wife gave him the boy he so desired. Unfortunately his son turned out to be something of a disappointment, but at least he got his precious son. That sounds a bit resentful, doesn't it? Logically I have mixed feelings over my father leaving. He has mental problems. I don't know if they were brought on by a lifetime of drugs and alcohol, but I have often thought in spite of the damage done by growing up without a father, it was almost certainly for the best.
I didn't go to church today. My Pathfinder is in the shop since Thursday afternoon. We are having some work done, what is the word, I want to say preemptively, ah yes, that is the word I was looking for. We are having my PF's transmission R&R'd, and I'm not sure what that stands for. I know it's not rest and relaxation. ;-) Anyway, it is the original transmission with 283,000 miles and we're having it rebuilt so it doesn't just decide to peter out on me one day. We are also having it looked at because it rocks back and forth when I go around a curve or go over a bumpy spot on the freeway. It's quite unnerving, but usually easy to remedy. I just take my foot off the gas which slows me down enough to stop the rocking. Sometimes I actually need to put my foot on the brake to slow myself down and out of the rocking. I'm sure it's not good for the vehicle, or me if I end up rocking and rolling myself right over.
I worked in the garden from 8am to 11am. I dug up an area that is 8 feet long and between 18" and 24" wide. It is the new bed for the eggplants, which I will transplant later this evening, around 6pm.
What this area looked like a few weeks ago:
The hole/trench I dug today:
The new bed lined with chicken wire, fortified with composted manure and bonemeal:
It is hard work to dig solidly packed dry dirt, but thankfully it was possible for me to dig this area. For future reference, it is a lot easier to dig an area 2 feet wide with plenty of room on both sides. Because the dirt can be put on both sides easily and then can be moved back into the bed easily enough. Most of the gardening area has been dug up at one time or another, so that makes for a lot easier digging for me since I obviously don't have as much strength as my guys do. But I did notice that I was able to continue on and complete the task. In spite of my back aching nearly the entire time I was working in the garden (I have to take frequent sitting down breaks), it did not completely put me out of action. This means my body is getting stronger, in spite of not having worked out in weeks. I am getting some workout from all the gardening work every weekend. Now seriously if I could just lose some weight. Really. I'm sick of gaining weight and gaining weight. But enough of that.
I asked dh before he left for church this morning if he wouldn't mind getting me a wheelbarrow of composted manure. He had time so that was one less thing I had to do. He also found me some scalloped bricks to line another new bed. This one is going to be a flower bed!
I switched out my shoes before I went out there as my feet were already starting to hurt. Especially the right heel, there is a spot that really messes with me. Actually I was curious to see if just changing out the insert would be enough, so I wore my old left shoe with a new insert and replaced the right shoe altogether. I'm still wearing the Nevados Madison Men's Action Casual shoes. I just got a few more pair on sale from Big 5 Sporting Goods. I think that is why I was able to spend as long as I did out in the garden.
In addition to the bed for the eggplants, I also finished a bed that is 7' long and against the chicken wire, to plant more green beans. I realized today, I am finally getting to a point where I won't need to spend so much time and energy on the garden. It was really a mess when I started back in September. Wow. Back in September. Six months have passed by, and it is finally under control. I just kept at it, one weekend at a time, one little section at a time. I decided today that I want to put up my wedding arch on the outside of the garden and hopefully I can grow something up it. I also am thinking about planting a flower garden on the outside of the garden, on the front end. I would have to fortify under the bed with chicken wire, and would need to have a fence put up to keep the dogs out. Finally, I'd have to line the top with chicken wire while the babies were growing. I think once they were bigger the birds won't find them so tasty. I want to plant sunflowers! I love them. They are so beautiful, and the goats LOVE sunflower seeds. The neatest thing about sunflowers is the way the flower follows the sun. It faces the east in the morning, and as the day goes by it follows the sun until it is facing the west in the evening.
My first successful garden was in 1994. Here is my tallest sunflower from that year. It's nearly twice my sister's height, she's 5'4" so it had to be at least 10 feet tall. You can see it's also taller than the edge of the house.
My neighbor had a garden, too. Most of his backyard was a vegetable garden and part of the front yard, too. He was from Cambodia and brought all his seeds with him when he migrated to the United States. He gave me my sunflower seeds that year and I'd fortified my dirt with composted cow manure and blood meal and bone meal and wood ash, like Duane Newcomb says to do in his books for square foot gardening. I remember Chak coming over and just staring at my giant sunflower, for his had ever barely grown to five or six feet. The stalk on this sunflower was bigger around than my wrist, it was a monster sunflower. He was just amazed that I'd used one of his seeds, and grown that huge sunflower.
Here's Kev when he was just five years old, holding a measuring stick against the head of the flower. Not only was the plant massive, but the head was massive, too. I can't read the measuring stick, but it is a yard stick, and the flower head looks to be more than one-third the length. I think the flower measured about 16" across.
Wow. So I'm finally almost through with the hardest part of gardening this year - getting the garden back into condition. That's a good feeling. I will have to take some pictures of how everything looks currently and post them.
So, back to the title of this post... for a few days, I've been thinking about giving myself a pedicure because my toenails are getting awfully long. Like 1/2 inch long and they are starting to curl. NO WAY. I'm so kidding. That's disgusting! But they are probably 1/8th of an inch long, and they push up against my shoes and cause my toes to ache from the toenail being pushed against. And it's hard to cut my toenails because it's hard to reach them for the fatness of me. I learned about a year ago, if I sit outside on the porch, with my feet on the next step, I can easily reach my toenails to clip them!
The pedicure part came in because dh bought me the foot soaking machine thing for Christmas and I wanted to use it. Besides, big ugly curled nails are easier to cut when they have been soaked a while. LOL. Sorry, they are not big and ugly. Here, let me show you a picture:
See and my toenails aren't even that long, are they? Regardless, soaked nails are easier to trim than dry ones. I won't be painting my toenails or anything like that. Hate the smell of fingernail polish, I don't think it's too good for my asthma and I don't think it's good for our nails to be smothered like that.
I have only had one official pedicure, that was for the wedding. Usually I just trim my nails, I don't go through the luxury of soaking my feet first.
My thought in the last few days is it might be something relaxing that I could do for myself, since I seem to have myself stressed out constantly lately. It's very taxing to be stressed out so much. I have been hitting the Kava-Kava almost daily.
So I got quite a lot done in the garden. While I was out there, by myself, with the quiet, well, the chickens are pretty darned loud, all that squawking and clucking about "Look at my egg, it's bigger than yours," "HAWK, HAWK, HAWK, run, there's a hawk!" and "Scram quickly away from the lady, she's MINE, oh ye rapscallion!" The dogs are busy looking for lizards, really busy. And busy guarding gopher holes. Look at how serious LJ is. He stood here for 10 minutes straight, just starting down at this hole:
So now my toes have soaked long enough. I thought I'd relax for a while, soak my footsies since they were hurting seriously bad from being on them for three hours straight, and digging and everything.
Until next time.
P.S. My nail clippers weren't in my purse where I always keep a pair. I also couldn't find dh's pair, which he keeps by the couch near his radio. I looked and looked, and finally I started looking on the floor in front of where dh keeps his and found them. AGH.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Working In The Garden
I've been hoping to post an update with photos, but I can't seem to get a break from the taxes for dh's two businesses - it's a long story, I'll spare you. Needless to say, I think I'm on the slide down from the learning curve. And then I decided to upgrade from Quickbooks Simple Start 2008 (free downloadable program) to Quickbooks Pro and am I ever glad I did! I swear you end up needing to know algebra (which I did pass with flying colors in college, but who remembers that stuff?) in order to figure out the transaction privilege taxes.
Anyhoo... I'm just making a quick post about what I'm planning today in the garden. Kev isn't here to help me, he and dh are at a men's meeting at our fellowship. It's 7:15am. I've just come in from milking, and I'm going to have some Zucchini Soup for breakfast before I head out.
I am definitely making progress in the garden, thanks to all the help from Kev. He can dig like no tomorrow, that boy of mine. I had hoped to have his help yesterday, but ended up spending the entire day trying to figure out January and February's transaction privilege taxes (forgot one invoice in January so had to do an amendment and in the process determined I'd made mistakes on the other lines, ack! and then I had to have February's in by 5pm.) He has helped dig, he has helped me lay chicken wire under the beds, and the biggest help of all is airing up the wheelbarrow tire (it's flat within days of airing it up) and making the trek several hundred feet away to bring back the composted manure. Thanks, Kev! Our garden would not be this far along without your help!!
I planted last on March 1st. Of the twenty or so squash seeds I planted, only one germinated. A few days ago another had sprouted, but sadly it has disappeared. I can only conclude that something is getting in the garden, and not gophers this time (they are effectively blocked by the chicken wire under this particular bed). It could be a bird slipping through some little crack. But they usually can't find their way back out. So I don't know what it is this time. Whatever it is has to be able to jump or climb chicken wire that is one foot tall in order to get into the bed.
I planted red potatoes which are coming up like crazy. My guide that I like to call "When to Plant What" says potatoes should be planted February 15th to February 28th. So I planted them one day late. The weather seemed to stay cooler than normal, at least for the first time in years I was hoping it would warm up, instead of stay cold! I babied the tomato plants for two weeks because it kept getting down to 45°F and colder during the night. The first night it was forecasted to go no lower than 50°F they were on their own. Since that evening, they have been on their own, no night time covering and they are doing good. I am finally beginning to see some steady growth. And doggone it, I lost the notebook I'd carefully written down which variety was planted!! Hopefully I'll find it as it would be nice to know without having to guess which tomato is doing well. I know the Anna Russian's are not doing very well at all.
I planted cucumber seeds on March 1st and those are coming up pretty good. Six in each cage, and at least 18 have germinated. The corn has been a disappointment. I planted about 80 seeds, and only see about 20 plants sporadically spaced. That won't do for corn. I need to plant more. I suspect the corn and squash had trouble germinating because the ground was still too cold. A small percentage wasn't phased.
I haven't gotten my watering system set up. I don't know if it is going to work out since I have so many beds to water this year.
I planted some green bean seeds (Rattlesnake Bean) from 2004 probably on the 16th. I didn't write it down.
So I've been hearing about people wanting to get back to growing their own food, due to the state of our economy. Check out the notice on my favorite seed company's front page today:
I got an email a few days ago for Survival Seeds. Enough seeds to plant an acre, only $143.00. If you've never gardened, you had better bury a few books on how to do it, because momma, there's a learning curve. Here's an interesting link about a doomsday seed vault. Bill Gates seems to think the world is going to be destroyed, and these seeds will help the survivors start again. Let me just interject one little thing. Some of us believe we'll be raptured out of here before the worst comes. Most people think you have to do all sorts of things to be saved, but Jesus did the work on the cross at Calvary. Now don't leave yet, just hear me out. All you have to do is believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead. He won our salvation with that selfless act. No works are necessary. You don't have to go to a certain church, you don't have to pay tithes, you don't have to ask forgiveness for every little sin you commit, you don't have to be baptized. If you think you can get to heaven on your own merits, think about it. In effect you are saying, "Jesus, the work you did at Calvary wasn't good enough. I'm going to do all these works on my own and earn my place in heaven because I'm a 'good person'". See how wrong that is? We don't have to worry so much about all the things that are happening today in the world. Because our real home is in heaven. If you truly believe that, then daily troubles tend to not look so difficult (even though I struggle with this daily).
Okay, back to the gardening post.
So here is my list of what needs to be done in the garden. Heaven knows I probably won't get around to all of it, but I will get some of it done or at least started:
- Begin preparing the new bed for the 11 eggplant babies waiting to be transplanted. I'm still well within the transplant date. Cool.
- Transplant the watermelon plants. They are going in a long thin bed which is along the side of the garden, they will be trained to grow up.
- Clear and re-manure the bed where the strawberries are going to be transplanted.
- Transplant the strawberry plants.
- Plant more summer squash seeds, plus one winter squash, butternut.
- Clear the "triangle bed" area, where I'm planning to put in flowers.
- Plant sunflower seeds.
- Plant green bean seeds.
It has been a long haul. When I first started out, the entire garden was filled with weeds and desert grasses. Not any longer! After I finally get the inside done, I will have to spend some time on the outer perimeters as there are weeds growing all around. They will be very happy to drop their seeds into the garden for next year! I want to prevent that.
Which reminds me, it's also time for bullhead sticker patrol. I know we are going to have some new plants coming up because there's no way we got every single bullhead sticker (which holds several seeds in each one) during last year's inspection.
I think that's it.
Until next time.
Monday, March 09, 2009
How My Garden Grows
Labels: Gardening
I haven't found time to blog due to dh's business picking up, which is great, but means more bookkeeping work for me. Not to mention income taxes are due in just 5 short weeks. The way time is flying by, it will be April 16th before I know it.
I'm still working at my garden. Last weekend on Sunday evening, the first of March, I finally got my eighteen tomato plants into the ground. The weather has been weird though, really cold at night, and hot during the day. I'm supposed to "harden off" the baby plants over a week to ten days, well, I am only home three days in a row, and so I have to do the best I can with my limits. I took the baby tomato plants out over the three days, then planted them on the third night. It is the time of year here that the wind blows a lot (March through May) so I took some boxes that I had and formed them into a circle and glued the flaps on top. There is a small hole in the top for the plants to get some sun during the day. Ideally, I'd be able to take the protective box off and then around noon put it back on. The next day, put the box back on around 1pm, the next day 2pm. But again, that's not an option. So I'm a little worried about my tomato plants making it. It's too cold at night for them to be uncovered, it was down to 45°F on Sunday morning, which is much too cold for them to be unprotected. I love that it is staying cool, but not for the garden's sake!
On that weekend, I also planted seeds. Squash, corn, cucumbers and some flower seeds. I also planted potato eyes.
Today, while watering after I got home from work, I spotted this one lone seedling. I am pretty sure it's corn!! I only saw the one, so I hope by tomorrow and the next day, I'll be seeing more.
I harvested peas again today. Every few days a few more pods are ready to pick. I didn't plant enough pea plants, but I will know better next time.
I also have 10 eggplant plants indoors that need to go outside. The target transplanting date is March 1st, but they are still manageable indoors, so I am going to wait until the weather is warmer. I also have watermelon plants indoors, that need to be transplanted. And I had hoped to plant some seeds for Butternut squash, a winter squash. My chart indicated I should plant between March 1st and 15th, but I don't think it's consistently warm enough yet. I'm concerned that when it finally warms up, it will be hot right away, instead of slowly getting warmer and warmer. Well, I can only do my best. I have not determined exactly where I'm putting the eggplant babies. I am contemplating putting them in the squash bed, that would be easiest. But the eggplant might shade the squash too much. I am also planning to plant green beans. I have tried them before, but have not had a lot of success. It is really hard gardening this year, because my back is really bothering me a lot, spasms from standing and bending and stooping too much. Plus there are a lot of weeds. In the past years, dh was able to help me a lot more with the garden, but he has to take the jobs that come as they do, in order to stay busy. Kev has been helping me a LOT. He helped me dig out one bed, then I laid the chicken wire bottom and sides, and then Kev filled it back in with dirt, and five wheelbarrows of composted hay and goat manure. It is a nice big bed, and I am so grateful that Kev helped me. I never could have gotten it done on my own. It took him half an hour to do what would have taken me six hours!
This past weekend was stressful. Ds1 had a doctor's appointment, with a new doctor. Thank God, the visit was positive, and the new doctor seems to be someone I can work with. Regarding Ds1's fear of needles, she said, "I'm going to need you to help me be creative, because it is inevitable that he will need to have his blood drawn to test his thyroid, for diabetes and (can't remember if she said liver or kidneys)." I was very encouraged by this. She also knows the doctor that "fired" ds1, and said, "That's just Stephen being Stephen." As if to say he's a jerk, she knows it, and has heard it a lot. One of her office staff also told me she has had her children see "Stephen" for eight years and she doesn't know what he's doing there, and that she has had numerous fights with him and is going to have her children seen by the doctor she is working for. Regarding the blood test - I have heard that many of these tests can be done with saliva, and are actually more accurate!! So I hope to learn more about this and hopefully can get his tests done with saliva.
Like I mentioned earlier, tax season is upon us. I am only about halfway to being ready to file our taxes. A lot of the work that remains to be done is dh's businesses. I was using Quickbooks Simple Start 2008, but came to the conclusion I am going to have to upgrade to Quickbooks Pro. I bought it yesterday for $99.99 from Staples Office Products. I am actually kind of excited to start using the real program, but I won't get a chance to get started with it until the weekend.
Until next time.
