It’s late January, which means it’s time for thinking about several things: pulling together papers for filing our taxes, Chris’ birthday, Valentine’s Day, and this year’s garden. Since nobody likes to think about taxes, I’m skipping right over that one for today and both the birthday and holiday are things that I can’t reach a decision on, so I’m leaping right to the last item: the garden.
I pulled out my jar of seeds from the fridge today and went through them, determining which I need to get started indoors. I’ve got two kinds of tomatoes, cucumber, basil, sweet peppers, and torpedo onions that need an early start. Yesterday I bought a grow-light for them; we don’t have a good place to put seedlings in the house to get enough light. The rest of my seeds will be sown directly outside come March or April, depending on how this winter & spring shakes out. It’s mighty warm right now which is spurring some things to put out blooms already – that will prove disastrous, I’m afraid, because the bees (what’s left of them, anyway) are still sleeping so there won’t be any pollinators around.
Speaking of bees, I’m seriously considering setting up a hive of my own – more research & education needed first, though. I don’t want to be playing with hundreds or thousands of little lives before I feel confident that I know what to do.
Speaking of little lives, my worm bin is doing quite well! We had a cold snap a few weeks ago so I brought the bin into the carport to protect it from freezing winds, but now that it’s warmed back up the bin is back in its spot behind my soap room. I feed them a little less right now because they are less active, but they are making a gorgeous pile of nutritious compost for my garden.
And, since this post has veered towards the fauna side, it looks like J will be gaining a Chinese Water Dragon sometime very soon. He’s in the process of making space for a terrarium in his room and researching how to take care of one. I’m going to do similar research so that I’m prepared to nag him. Actually, I’m reasonably happy with the choice of a reptile as a pet – his first pick was a tarantula and that was a little more difficult to accept with grace. Not that I’m afraid of spiders, because I’m not, but there’s something creepy about having a large spider as a “pet”. It’s just a bit too unconventional for me, I suppose.
The Erratic Ramblings of an Extraordinarily Ordinary Person 