Day 147 need picture of potatoes--tomorrow, too dark now

It's tomorrow now, and here are my potatoes!

When I mentioned, "Beans are up," I didn't tell the whole picture. Some of the beans struggled up through the crusted over dirt. Then, I got out and broke up the hard crust by hand with a plastic cultivating tool. I gave it a stir in both beds--the potatoes and the beans--and then the next day, the beans were really up. You could say I gave them a helping hand. Or a helping cultivator tool, if you're being picky.

So now almost all of the potatoes are up. Of the two rows of beans, most of the first row survived and I only killed one plant. The second row isn't up yet but it's not due to a hard crust.

What I can't figure out is when, exactly, do I quit "moistening" the seedlings of Swiss Chard, beets, lettuce, radishes, and spinach? Sooner or later I have to switch to an infrequent and deep watering schedule. But right now, it seems so very, very dry on the surface!

While I was out there today, I found the most exciting thing! Out of almost a whole package of cauliflower seed I planted last fall, exactly one plant came up. I didn't need the space so I left it over winter, and...guess what?

Day 145 more crowing about growing

Beans are up. Not all of them, but enough to crow over.

Day 144 crowing over spuds

Several potatoes are up!

Day 143 the weekend warrior wails

What new and unusual task shall I set her today? I have plenty of time to think about it--the gardening list in springtime grows abounds. Like the weeds.

Later.

I'm worn out with a capital W. I think it was the sun and the temperature--mid-seventies. But I got most of my list done--green beens planted, half of the purple hull peas planted (I only plant half at a time, on purpose--that way if inclemnt weather strike, I have a better chance of keeping half of the crop.) All of the tomatoes so far got planted and everything got the soil stirred up where the hard crust from last weeks' rain had the little seedlings land-locked.

Did I mention the potatoes are up? Some of them, at least! I'm thinking that next week I'll cut up that bag of potatoes in the pantry and fill in the gaps with them.

My Izzy got a little brushing today but I'll have to put her on a leash tomrorow so she'll stand up and let me finish the job.

Day 140 loss of space

Good dog today! We went for a walk and then she ate all her supper. Now she's outside and guarding the perimeter. I wish so much I had my big back yard again! We cut the back yard size roughly in half when we tried to install a pool and now my poor puppy has half the space she ought to have.

I should make it my summer project--to get the space back. Could I do it?

Tonight the owl is perched on the edge of the barn roof. I guess he/she's trying to find a good spot.

Day 137 lonely dog days

Bad human! Puppy got almost no attention today--I was working outside and then had to make a run to pick up beef (free-range) and chicken from Local Yokel. Then Callie talked me into a movie and a Half-Price Books run.

Tomorrow will be better--it better be. I did most of the jobs outdoors that had to be done today but I totally omitted the grocery shopping and plant-buying from the schedule. Instead I...replanted lettuce, radishes, spinach and beets in the spots where they'd failed to come up. Transplanted herbs and planted some herb seed. Covered up some potato pieces I'd missed the other night--I'm surprised nothing ate them. Transplanted a whole lot of strawberry plants that had started as runners the season before. And planted a row of beans.
And mowed out front--a miracle because I hadn't expected
the lawnmower to start.

But now, at the end of a long day looking forward to eating
a bunch of the lettuce that came up as a volunteer from last
year's plants--I can't get to it. There's an owl in the garden.
I just can't stand to disturb her.

Day 135 mourning the destruction

When I picked up my angels yesterday, the kennel lady informed me that right after I'd left them, Izzy had chewed up her harness. I'd told the lady that it  didn't matter if she left it on for a while because Izzy had never been reported to chew on it.   But apparently in the short time she was left outside to get accustomed to the place, she had a chewing party.

I think I can recover enough of it to make it work.  I could afford to buy a new one, but what's the point? It's not like it's Dog Bling.

I have to confess that when I picked her up, her first tail wags were for Zack (the little dog), not me. But mine came later--sigh!

Day 134 of Dog, finally

Dogs are back! Better than ever!

The grass in the garden in out of control. Beets are up (barely). Swiss Chard is up. Lettuce, radishes and spinach is up but the weather is way too hot for a good spinach crop--the best I can hope for is a little for my salads.

The onions took a severe hit during my absence--I filled in the empty spots from the one pot I'd held back, but I don't feel comfortable about the rest.

Day 133 on vacation but missing the work

No dog news. After the rain last weekend, I expect to get home tomorrow to find the grass two feet tall all around the garden. But I'm hopeful I won't find it two feet tall in the garden.

Day 129 of Dog

But first, a word from our sponsor...

Radishes!

Wow--she's like all over the place tonight. She came over to see me before I even sat down at the computer. Then she curled up on the bed for a bit and almost immediately went back and started eating.

Is she trying to make me feel guilty for putting her in doggie boarding school tomorrow?

Day 128 of Dog - unbearable cuteness

Ahhh! She's curled up on her little bed. It did turn pretty cold and windy this afternoon. Rain that the garden badly needed, but my little Shih Tzu is a soggy, muddy mess.

Day 126 of Dog nothing special

Since I came home before dark, for once, I took them on an extra long walk today. It worked pretty well, I think. She did great and she definitely deserves a rawhide strip tomorrow--I'm getting one out right now.

But I barely got done sprinkling the seeds before dark, so I didn't plant any more potatoes. Here they are waiting.

Day 125 of Dog & I heart fruit flies not

I did bad. Since I went to work today, she was expected to eat her breakfast without the garnish of turkey.

She didn't.

Gardeners have trouble unbeknownst to normal man...imagine eating your salad, composed with fresh lettuce from the garden. Along comes a fruit fly and sits down beside her....

Hey! I've never had a fruit fly appear on store-boughten lettuce!

Day 124 of Dog & delight over dinner

I gave up waiting for them to eat their breakfast this morning at approximately 10:54 a.m. I pulled a slice of turkey out of the fridge, divided it in thirds, and cut it into very thin slivers and mixed it with their food. They're all eating now.

The to-do list for the day is growing absurdly long. Among other impossible expectations, I've planned to make two dinners tonight--one to eat now and one to refrigerate for later in the week. I'm trying to improve the kids' diets--it seems like for the last month or more they've been alternating between the same two nutrionionally devoid meals all week long. An occasional meal of barbeque on white bread with potato chips and pickles isn't so bad, but not three times a week!

Later--8pm. I just created something and it was awesome. I made this sphaghetti sauce I found on line, sauteed some veggies to go in it, made meatballs and penne pasta and put it all together. It'll be supper tomorrow. And I must say it--it was the best spaghetti sauce I ever tasted. The smell was tomatoes on steroids. The meat was from grass-fed cows and pigs from Local Yokel--a little over one pound ground beef and one-half pound ground pork. It has a whole different color and texture from CAFO beef.

Sorry I didn't get a picture of it but I will tomorrow.

For supper tonight they had tacos made with the grass-fed beef. I tasted a bit--good, real good. The ground beef didn't have half of the grease that grocery store beef does.

Day 123 of Dog & planting time

What is this deal that she won't eat breakfast on weekends? We have a schedule--on weekdays they get put outside at five. When I get up at six-thirty I bring them in and feed them. Werewolf and Zack eat immediately but she usually waits until I leave. So that's the problem? My intrusive presence?

She's out the cage now and sitting beside me...so maybe it's not so simple as a change in routine. Maybe she's waiting for something better than dog food.

She's more patient than me. I'm putting her out with a bone so I can get to work (play) in the garden. Planting season!

Later.  I gave up on breakfast and just put them outside with a nice beef bone apiece. Then I got to work planting--finished the Swiss Chard, onions, lettuce and radishes; planted half of the beets; transplanted the rest of the broccolli (not looking good); and planted the parsley I'd been growing in a pot since winter. I would have planted the potatoes but (a) all the books said I needed to let them dry for a day or two after cutting them up, and (b) there were so few eyes on the four potatoes that came in my two-pound order, I thought I'd let them sit out for a few days and see if any more eyes appeared.

Then I tried to buy some more at Calloway's, but the table under the sign saying Kennebac potatoes held no potatoes. Just table.

I'll get some pics tomorrow--the lettuce and radishes I planted two weeks ago is up now.