Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[jvls1942]

Hi fans,
58F , no sun and windy. makes it a bit uncomfortable to be outside. but I bit the bullet and hooked up the battery charger to the rider lawn mower. the grass is greening up.
the rhubarb is coming up, the plum and pear tree are budding out. Houdini is still laughing at me.
this morning I put the ragged saw blade onto the miter saw. surprisingly it cut OK.. I will keep it aside as a back up blade. I have a really good blade for the miter saw.

 

[Callender Girl]

Yesterday was all about the weather! We were under watches and/or warnings for severe thunderstorms and tornados, as well as wind advisories for almost the entire day. There were three distinct rounds of crappy weather, but the closest tornado was in the next county. The power stayed on, but both DISH TV and my internet took a little break during one of the horizontal-rain downpours.

It looked like Wisconsin got quite a bit of bad stuff, too. Everybody okay?

I'm glad I hadn't gotten my Honeycrisp planted; it stayed in the garage with its blooms intact.

All the outdoor cars showed up for breakfast today, and Calypso is still very pregnant. So, all is good. Hope that's true for everybody.

 

[jvls1942]

wind advisory all day and then thunder and rain after it got dark.
It was OK as long as we didn't have to go outside.
going to Menards today to pick up four super white receptacles and two face plates and two deep receptacle boxes. going to mount them onto the support post in the center of the shop.
no more tripping on extension cords on the floor.

 

[Callender Girl]

What would we do without Menards? I don't think I can recall not being there at least once a week! I certainly spent plenty at Menards yesterday, all necessary stuff and none of it exciting or interesting in the least.

I also have dreams of not tripping over extension cords in the garage. ALL I have to do is move out everything in there and reorganize so that table and miter saws are on the wall near the outlets. Based on the amount of stuff in the garage, I MAY achieve that goal this year. It's not a given.

The two male cats have already braved the rain for some breakfast. Pregnant Calypso hasn't shown up yet. Maybe there are kittens?

 

[jvls1942]

cats don't give any warning when the kittens are due.
they suddenly are there.
I did a sample prewire of the eight receptacles. I used
14Ga wire. when I do it for real, I will use 12Ga .
this wiring job will be picture worthy.
We are becoming weary of the dampness.
a glimmer of sunshine would be nice.
I looked on youtube , there are recipes for cooked radishes. I wonder if the skins soften up ?
after all the saw sharpening etc. you won't believe what I bought at Menards yesterday..
A 10" 60 tooth, combination titanium saw blade.
I couldn't resist it at just $13.oo. I already have one like it. Has been on the miter saw for several years and is still like new. It can also be used on the table saw for ripping.. My scout, Annie found it..

 

[Callender Girl]

I won't need any radish recipes for a while. More rain yesterday and my radish seeds washed out again. Also, I covered as much of the emerging perennials as I could because we had a freeze warning issued last night.

Congrats on the titanium saw blade -- it's always good to have a back-up handy.

I didn't see pregnant kitty until midday yesterday, still fully loaded. She was here at 4:30 a.m. today and still pregnant.

 

[jvls1942]

Barb, Maybe you are just feeding her too much ??
the sun came up nice and bright at 6;35 today.
I hope it stays out. I feel more like doing things if the sun is shining. for instance, cloudy yesterday, I did nothing ..
Barb, try covering the seeds with straw. that's how we plant grass seed to keep it in place..
I never had good luck with radishes. if they did grow, some kind of worm would bore through them, I had similar experience with red potatoes. earthworms bore through them.
today I am going to wire the two quad receptacle boxes with 12ga wire. I bought 20 amp receptacles. a bit of overkill but better than to be under powered.

 

[jvls1942]

I got a good solid 5 hours of sleep.
that is good , for me.
we have tracking snow here this morning.31F
Annie is going to make her first attempt at
Bourbon Chicken.. the recipe looks easy enough.
I think I will get involved. may be sample some of the ingredients ?
our two Tom turkeys are hanging around.
the farmer dragged the field around us. must be lots of corn left over..

 

[Callender Girl]

How did the wiring and the cooking go? I find that the crappier the weather (yes, under ANOTHER freeze warning today), the less I'm motivated to stop watching baseball on TV and actually DO something.

Still no kittens. But, the goats provided some entertainment last night. As I was walking to the kitchen, I glanced out and saw my two does standing in the driveway. I dashed out, lured them back into their pasture and began looking for weak spots in the fencing.

Certain that I'd found the place, I took diagonal cutters and a roll of wire out to reattach two cattle panels to heavy metal posts. By the time I got back to the garage, both goats were in Sullivan's field AGAIN.

Fortunately, they LOVE goat chow and when I shook the bag, they ran along the fence line, across the west end of the property, leaped over the puny 3-foot fence that keeps the poultry in the yard and willingly ran into their pasture for more yummy stuff.

Turns out they had worked loose the bottom of a cattle panel that butted up against a now-dead tree. I added another metal post and rewired everything. I believe I have won -- at least temporarily -- as they checked out my repair, then went into their sheltered area to eat hay.

I had been looking at a Craigslist post from someone downsizing their Nigerian Dwarf herd, and I was toying with the idea of adding a goat or two. I have now come back to my senses.

 

[jvls1942]

whew ,, that was a close call, Barb. No, not the goats getting out, i mean you coming back to your senses about getting more goats..
when you can build a fence that will hold water, you will have a goat proof fence..
way back when, when we had a huge variety of "pets", people would come by and just give us goats. I also got free chickens, turkeys and geese. we once caught a peacock. found the owner a couple of miles away. he didn't want it, so, we had our first peacock..
the first quad receptacle box went kind of slow. after learning the sequence of how the wires had to be connected, the second box took about only fifteen minutes.. I am waiting for warm weather to do outside work.. I might break down and light a fire in the wood burner
I should do that anyway to get the humidity down in the shop.
these cold rainy days are not good for that problem.
we did not make the bourbon chicken. we (I) decided that there were left overs to use up before making more.. Fish from a fff, a half of a patty melt sandwich, chili, and seafood salad.. Annie thinks she is still cooking for all the kids, yet.