Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[hqueen13]

Hope that things went well today. Its rainy and cool here, which would be wet and cold on a bike, so I'm hoping that you're not in the same system!

 

[Denim Deb]

It's been cold all day, but not really wet. I did get quite chilled riding the bike today, and have basically done nothing at home. In fact, it's so cold in here, I thought about lighting a fire. But I decided since my oven is a self cleaner, and needed to be cleaned anyway, I just turned that on.

 

[Denim Deb]

Another day when I didn't really get much done. I didn't sleep very well, so I was dragging this morning. Plus, it was cloudy, cold and looked like rain! Normally, I would not take the bike w/the weather like this, but if I was going to make it to the farm, I had no choice.

I had trouble leaving. I could not find my vest, and I really needed it. I finally found it. But, I need a new zipper. I was hoping it would continue to zipper until I had the chance to replace it, but nope, today it would not zip properly. It separates. I finally gave up and zipped it up the best I could. (I need it to keep my neck warm.) Then I couldn't find my keys. I finally found them and left-15 minutes later than I'd planned to. Get out to the farm, and get everyone fed then go and talk to RU. I've been telling her for quite some time now that I would mow the boarder fields w/her mower as long as it had gas in it. I was going to do it last week, but the fields were flooded. Told her I'd do it today. So, I go to ask her about the mower, and she said she'd get it out. She never did. I did what cleaning I could where I had had my RBs, fed Stormy, put out hay, took care of the chickens and left.

I was cold by the time I got home, and didn't really warm up here. I don't think it got above 60*. The oven needed cleaning, and since the self cleaning mode takes a few hours, I figured this would be a good way to heat up the house. But I didn't feel like doing anything, so I didn't. I'm not sure what time it was when I finally got up and did some stuff-I planted some of my tomatoes! I have more tomatoes than I have room for in my garden, so I might plant the extra in the orchard area. I also have too many eggplants, peppers and hot peppers. I like a variety. I had some of my peppers come up, and had to buy others. And, I had none of my eggplant come up. So, I had to buy some. And in order to get a variety, I had to buy more than I actually wanted. I might take the extras out to the farm or to church.

It's actually past my bedtime, and I don't feel tired. I'm hoping I get more done tomorrow-especially since I'll be putting eggs in the incubator.

 

[hqueen13]

Not sure what is worse cool looking like rain or cool with rain! I have no idea how much we got here but it rained pretty good Almost all day.

 

[Denim Deb]

Didn't sleep good again last night, and have a feeling I won't sleep good tonight. I just don't feel tired at night, so I have trouble falling asleep, then I drag the next day. I had another day where I got very little done. And this isn't good. I need to get my motivation back. The biggest thing that I got done was getting eggs in my incubator! So, hopefully in 3 weeks, I'll have some more chicks!

 

[hqueen13]

How you get your sleep cycle settled back down over the weekend and can get back up to speed! The weather here is supposed to be beautiful so maybe that will help you recharge!

 

[Denim Deb]

I slept better last night, so I got out and started working in my garden. Right now, I'm in taking a lunch break. I got 20 more tomatoes planted and 9 sweet potato slips. I'm trying something w/the slips, don't know if it will work or not. But, I had these fairly good sized planting containers that the township used to use for recycling B4 they went w/big trashcans. I have 4 of them, so I filled them up w/old stuff from the goat pen. There were a TON of earthworms in it! I tried w/no luck to get my own slips this year and ended up buying a 9 pack. Since I had 4 planters, I put 2 slips in 3 of them, and 3 in the other. Then when I'm ready to harvest them, I can just tip them over. I hope this works. I also got part of my one flower garden weeded. My vegetable garden is completely in the sun right now, which is why I started on the flower garden. If it's in the sun when I'm done, I'll work on getting some dishes done.

 

[Denim Deb]

Today was a good day. I managed to plant 20 tomatoes, 9 various colors of bell peppers, 3 sweet banana peppers, 9 various types of hot peppers, 9 various types of eggplants and 9 sweet potato slips. I also planted some of my asparagus seedlings in 6" pots, killed a bunch of bugs, weeded my volunteer potatoes and part of a flower garden! And, I feel like I'm back on track.

On Monday, I'll get the rest of the poles in for my tomatoes, plant my onions, and mulch my tomatoes. And if I have time, I'll weed more of my flower garden, and pot more of my spear seedlings. Tuesday, I'm going on a motorcycle ride, so I won't get any done, then on Wednesday, I'll mulch around my peppers and eggplants, weed more of the garden, and pot more of the spears. Once I'm done that, I'll be getting the rest of the garden weeded, and plant some corn. Then, I'll finish weeding the flower gardens, and get some flowers in.

I'm going to be starting all of my vine crops indoors some time next week. Last year, I lost all of them to bugs. I'm hoping that if I start them indoors, then transplant them in the beginning of July that I won't have the same problem.

I'm hoping that by Friday, I'm done in the garden for now. Then I can hopefully start back on the firewood, and cleaning up the yard.

 

[Britesea]

How far apart to you keep your bell peppers from the hot peppers? This is the first year I'm growing both kinds and I've heard that if they grow too close together you can get bells with unexpected heat and chilies that aren't...

 

[Denim Deb]

I have my eggplants in between, and plant my plants 1 ft apart. So, I have at least 4 ft between them. If I find I'm getting heat, then next year, I'll try putting my sweet taters in between as well. The only reason I don't now is because I don't know how much shade it would make, and I think it takes up less room for me to do it this way.