If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Excuse me sir, what aisle is the warmth in?

Saturday April 26th
Dear Diary,
Today I am using you to start a fire.  It is still cold.  Where is warm spring?  What ever happened to Global Warming?  I just don't feel it.  Hindsight is 20/20 they say and I bet, just maybe that the name should have been changed to Global Cooling.  It seems as if we are living on the edge of a glacier.
I may just grow my garden indoors this year.
There are two kinds of temperatures I don't like.  Cold and Hot.  I know, I know, "don't want much do I?"
I mean if the folks at Moen (buy it for looks, buy it for life) can master the art of the mixing valve and maintain absolute perfect water temps then maybe we should look at hiring them to create a giant atmospheric controlling machine that would maintain a 80 degree day during the summer, 50 degrees in the fall, and 31 degrees in the winter and 70 in the spring..  It would put out the perfect amount of rainfall, sweet cooling breezes, fresh snowfall once the current stuff got ugly and with perfect weather we wouldn't have to worry about anything else.  Alright back to reality.  PS I don't have a diary.  More like diah...oh nevermind.

I have been working on the list.  It is getting shorter.  Down to one page now.
I will spend this morning painting the bathroom trim and hanging the towel rods back up.  I didn't get much time during the week to do anything other than set the nails on the trim and caulk it all.  Kaitlin had three soccer games and I worked all 5 days this week so not much was accomplished on the homefront.  No problem though as I enjoyed watching the soccer games even though the weather was terrible.

Once the bathroom is done I will move outside.  I really need to get the dead trees cut down on the property line.  My friend has set up three bee hives on the back corner of my property and the new bees are due in a week or so.  I don't want to be out cutting trees right next to the bees.  They might take offense to it!
You know that old saying,"Don't cut trees and tease the bees unless you say please".
You never heard that one?  Yeah cuz I just made it up that's why!

He will add a few more stacks to the top of these as the bees build it up and fill it with honey.  It will be great for the garden.  My own giant pollination machine!

Last weekend I also re-potted all my tomato seedlings.  They were getting pretty big.  I start them in the little 6 pack cells that you normally see them in and when they get about 4" tall I re-pot them into solo cups.  
I put a little potting soil in the bottom of the cup (after punching holes in it) and plant the tomato in the soil all the way up to its first set of true leaves.  The first two little leaves that emerge when the seed sprouts are feeder leaves.  They contain just enough food to keep the seedling going until the real leaves emerge and the process of photosynthesis can begin.  Once the real leaves are out you can pinch off the baby leaves and bury the stem right up to the leaves.  All those tiny little hairs on the stem will develop into roots and you will have a lot larger root system for your plant.
This year I have 7 different varieties of tomatoes for a total of 44 plants.

The first pic shows how tall they are and the second shows how short they are planted in the cup.  The cups are great because they are cheap and you can reuse them almost forever!


I also finished the wood splitting and stacking.  Here is the before.
It was taken this winter after I burned the entire firewood garden fence.


Here is the pile from the front yard.


In process, one of two loads


End result


Everyone needs a helper!



Don't forget to always make time for play!





and to finish a quote which inspired me this morning,

“No matter the journey, one will always face opposition, whether in the form of competitors, enemies, meddlers, saboteurs, incompetents, and the like. The simplest way to defeat them all is to accomplish what you set out to accomplish. Don’t let them divert your efforts into undesirable directions. Don’t let them convince you that compromises are advantageous or necessary.”
Excerpt From: Patrick, Sean. “Alexander the Great.” Sean Patrick. 

-Bushman



5 comments:

  1. know what you mean about the cold. I try not to bitch about it much because I remember what February was like. Then I realize how ungodly hot July will be and I'll miss these days.

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  2. Global warming is alive and well in Colorado, then, where it's been 80 for the past 2 weeks...

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  3. You are quite the busy guy! I need a nap just from reading this post!!

    Hugs!

    Valerie

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  4. pretty nice blog, following :)

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  5. As always - uplifting and full of great energy. I'm happy to see the snow is finally going. Your log pile looks amazing… a never ending cycle though… and lots of work.
    And, fun with our pets is the best - Miss Lu and I love playing catch and if it's raining we do so in the living room. Given that she's a small dog it's doable - yours might cause havoc if let loose in the living room, eh!! :) :)
    I'm looking forward to the post about moving those tomato plants out in to the garden - then the fun really begins!
    Happy thoughts coming your way, Jenny

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