A Warm Spell - Wild Things

One of my favorite things about Texas is the unexpected warm spells that break up the cold spells. Actually, the cold spells are the most uncommon but this year it feels like we’ve had more cool/cold and rainy weather than usual. I could go back to my years of gardening calendars where I’ve written the daily weather down but it’s not worth that effort. I noticed the rainy days this fall and thought to myself how like Ohio weather it was. (OK, I LIKE overcast rainy days sometimes! It’s not always a negative.) I’ve come to conclusion that’s why things have not grown the way they normally have in the past. The same cold frame, sitting in the same place (with enriched soil) and planted with the same variety and brand of seed did not produce any where near the same amount of lettuce and greens as prior years. The seedlings I set out at the same time as last year (again, same situation and seeds) are growing so slowly I’ve wondered if  they’re growing at all. I find this comforting as we sure didn’t go all out planting this year - at least we didn’t waste the effort and time.

Today is suppose to almost hit 70 but it will have to turn up the toaster to make it today. The cloud cover and winds blowing over wet, cold ground have kept my laundry wet for hours on the line. It’s 3:30 and the sun is just now peeking out. Still, it’s not hard to pretend spring is just around the corner! A huge flock of  robins visited our side yard last week and John and I thought the same thing, “Wow, that’s early” before we realized we were thinking Ohioan again. Robins equal spring time up there! I guess they were just passing through down here and enjoyed the corn the guinea missed.

All the animal and fowl have spring on their minds, too.  I see guinea pairs running through the yard, the male chasing the female who is running as fast as she can, either teasing or seriously running away, I’m not sure.  I had to move Chase (herd sire) from the does’ fence as he WILL push it down to ‘visit’ with them. Even the two baby bucklings are feeling their oats and driving the 4 doelings crazy. As I milk I hear the doelings holler and jump up on the play toys to get away from the bucklings nibbles. They can be together for another month and then it’s separation time - just in case. I remembered to get a picture of Mercy’s udder before I milked her today. She gave 1# 14 1/4 oz. this morning. I forgot the picture with SugaBaby but she gave 2# 1/8 oz.

The babies are weaned now that they’re 2 months old - it gets crowded gathering around the feed bowl .

As I mentioned in my last post, it was only the mercy of God that our cold frame veggies survived. You would laugh if you could see how we covered it - that’s why I cropped the pictures! Recognize the chicken tractor here???

Inside more seedlings await outside planting. The two tomatoes are a Siberian variety as I planned on putting them in the covered grow house …. improvision is the art of homesteading. One of the tomatoes will go in the Tops Turvey planter FaithFull Friend gave me.

I told my FaithFul Friend I’m starting to do some ‘wild’ things. I bought some grow bags from Gardener’s Supply - that’s wild for me.  Today I planted them with arugula, Black seeded Simpson Lettuce and a lettuce mix. I put them on an old retired dolly that I’d converted to a plant mover. I’m going to pull it in and out of the garage/house as needed during cold spells so I don’t have to mess with opening or closing an other cold frame. Behind the grow bags you can see the seedling tray where I started some spring/summer Brandywine tomatoes and cabbages. I also bought two potato grow bags but I’m waiting on seed potatoes to plant those.

Here’s the finished ‘cat protected’ grow bags.

Another glimpse of my wild side - I’m going to plant that Siberian tomato in the Topsy Turvey planter and hang it in the living room. John’s going to set the hook for it tonight. Maybe I’ll get pictures as we plant the seedling and post those later.

You may ask why are these such ‘wild’ things for me? Cause they’re very out of the ordinary - out of my normal living box - for me. I don’t usually buy things to plant in when I could plant in the ground here. I mean, 55 acres and using a grow bag instead of planting in the ground??? I also bought the soil to go in the planters - ouch! That was wild for me. I did use our own chicken made compost for the bottom of the grow bags but the Topsy Turvey planter needed super light soil so I splurged and bought it. It wasn’t even on sale. But I did get free shipping for it.

I guess you could say the warm spell just went to my head.

This entry was posted on January 18, 2010 at 03:51 pm and is filed under Homestead living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.