FF (calling from fire station before shift change this morning): "Hey, they need me to go work on the ambulance until they can find someone else to come in."
Me: "Ok, see you later."
I mentally erase today's (tentative, because I learned long ago never to count on anything) plans and think about other things I can do instead.
Today, this happened:
FF (calling back fifty minutes later): "Nevermind, (the guy that called out) decided he was coming in. I'm on the way home."
Me: "Ok, see you soon."
He comes home and we discuss the things we had originally planned to do today, which included changing the oil in the car, seeding some veggie plants to sprout for the garden, and yard work since it was supposed to be such a nice day, up in the high 60's.
He gets ready to go to town to buy the oil/filter when his phone rings.
FF: "Gotta go to work, (the guy that had called out that decided to come in) called out again."
So ok, no biggie. I can still work out in the yard by myself. There's a million sticks and limbs and other yard debris after the storms and winds we've had recently that needs picking up and putting in the burn pile, I can handle that.
Until I go outside and it's freakin' cold. Temps in the 60's might feel like Springtime compared to the temps we've been having, but not without the Sun. It's cloudy and breezy today, and feels colder than 60's.
Oh well. I decided to get some of my own seeds started.
We've discussed the garden we want this year and decided on a "Salsa Garden".
Even after several years of trying and practice we're not very good gardeners. Maybe it hasn't helped that we've been gardening during a drought for the past few years, but I'm sure a lot of it is probably just us, too. For most of my life I couldn't even keep a houseplant alive, so this still a fairly new venture for us.
We've learned we don't do so well when try to grow a garden with a lot of variety of veggies, and we do better when concentrating on raising fewer things.
We still have corn on the cob and okra in the freezer, and plenty of jars of dill pickles. I'm running low on canned tomatoes, and I want to can some Salsa. So, tomatoes and peppers (maybe onions?) are going to be our main focus this year.
J has his own heirloom tomato seeds he raises, and of course those peppers that set me on fire and made me nearly burn dinner the other night.
I decided to try to grow some Beefsteak tomatoes for fresh salads and sandwiches this summer, and I can use any we don't eat for canning or Salsa. I also planted a few Sweet Banana peppers, just for no real reason. I thought they went in Salsa, but the recipes I was able to find online, they didn't.
And then there's Pumpkins. Again. Nearly every year I try to grow Pumpkins. I only ever succeeded once, and those didn't even get as big as a basketball. I don't know what it is with me and Pumpkins, but I'm not giving up.
When I started learning to garden, I bought a mini-greenhouse kind of thing for a buck or two that came with little Peat Pod Pellets. You just add water and seeds. Last year I attempted to use what I had, compost soil, and the newspaper seed pots I'd made, and one or both turned out to be a disaster.
So this year I went back to the Peat Pods, and hopefully things will turn out better this year.
I poke holes in the Pod with a bamboo skewer (kabob stick) and poke in three seeds per Pod. Hopefully at least one of the three sprouts.
To be able to remember which seeds I planted in what Pods, I wrote the names on paper and "laminated" them with packaging tape.
Covered the trays with plastic wrap and sat them on my kitchen windowsill, where the morning sun shines in bright and warm. Most days. Not today. Probably not tomorrow, either. And there's rain in the forecast for Monday.
#ReadyforSpring
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