Class, planting plans, heating

Yesterday’s class was a great class – at least from my perspective. I had nine participants in the class and all but one commented or interjected a thought or question into the class as we paced through the seven hours of material. It is not unusual for a disparate group of participants to get along with each other as the group did yesterday, but it is does not happen in every class. It is certainly fun when the classmates (typically total strangers) banter and joke with each other through our time together. Yesterday was such a class. I need one of those fun groups interspersed through the mix to keep me encouraged as I present the same material twice per week through the year. The one commonality fir the classes is the industry we all work in and the understanding that we are all in this together. The participants seem to always be able to rally around that common interest – especially when I keep it foremost in our minds.

Since we are currently warm and dry here, Mama and I are going to plant potatoes in the garden this evening and tomorrow afternoon. It may actually be the first time we have gotten potatoes plants on schedule. Today will be far warmer than tomorrow so I will try to get the bulk of the planting done before dark today. That should be doable since Mama got only five pounds of seed potatoes. It is possible I will have time to till a row or two during my lunch hour but my priority during the heat of the early afternoon is to open the hives and see if the bees need more feed. We will cool rapidly through the night and start back with the overnight freezes again.

Fortunately, most the days are now well above freezing which allows us to move forward with some of our Spring planting. I am anxious to see how differently the potatoes in the garden grow and produce (hopefully) from the ones I have started in small pots currently placed in the sunroom. That planting idea came from an online video of gardening hacks. It cost us very little to try it out, so I am tracking the experiment to determine whether or not to repeat it. The biggest challenge will be finding a place for the pots to sit through the entire growing season.

Tomorrow is Trade Days. Mama is definitely going but I am still undecided. I do not get much pleasure from seeing the same vendors hawking the same wares every time I go, but Mama likes the outing. At least we get to visit with friends who are there every month. Tomorrow we need to deliver some boxes from our garage to a friend from BBTI who sells at Trade Days every month. We have stored dishes, kitchen utensils, specialty kitchen appliances we no longer use and several other mostly forgotten items that I want to eliminate from our storage and give to someone who may be able to use such things in the many houses they outfit for students at BBTI. I believe we have at least four or five boxes full of such items. It will be nice to move those along since we have had no use for the items in the past four of five years.

Also, this weekend I will begin to transplant the seedlings that have sprouted in the tea bags I used to germinate the seeds.  I have two cherry tomato plants to repot and one strawberry. The flower seeds I planted have not sprouted yet, but I need to give them a bit more time. If I do not see any growth by the end of next week, I will discard the plate and tea bags and start a new set. It is far too early for the tomatoes to be outside so they will be replanted into small paper pots that will allow them to mature to the point that we can plant them in the containers that will house them through the growing season. It is fun to see things grow knowing that Summer and Winter and Springtime and harvest will not fail because of the process that is continuously maintained by our Heavenly Father. Until this earth ends, it will always be so. Every seed that sprouts is a little reminder of that grace and providence.

Our electric bill for the past month reflects the extra heaters we have been using in the sunroom, the wellhouses, and the garage. We have also had heat tracing on three yard hydrants and a stock tan heater in the water trough for the female goats. All of that adds up to about $150 more on this month’s bill. Not horrible but with the furnace working overtime to warm the house, we have quite the bill to pay this month. It is worth it since we have managed to keep all the waterlines from freezing and keep the temperature in the sunroom warm enough to enable out tropical plants to thrive.

Hopefully, this bill will be the highest for the Winter, but that is not a certainty.