Earth To Eats

Lots of water

4/16/11

It rained.  A lot.  We got over 3 inches of rain and our yard flooded again for the second time in a month.  This time though it is taking a long time to dry out.  I spent the day at Hersheypark writing a trip report for my other website and then ran errands in pouring rain and storms.  Winds were high and there were tornado watches and warnings out too.

4/17/11

Made our favorite crock pot chili for lunch today.  You can get the recipe here.  I don’t use the tomato juice, I just use a large can of crushed tomatoes instead.

Got the last of the tomato seeds into the sprouting tray and onto the heat mat tonight.  I saved seeds from all the heirloom tomatoes we got from Spiral Path CSA last year so if things go well we’ll have a lot of variety.  Also got the first seedlings in trays ready to go out to harden off.

Spinach seeds I planted in a pot on our back deck have sprouted.  Some sun would really help them grow but it isn’t in the forecast.

4/18/11

Wee little radishes

Taking a long time for the field to drain this time.  Put the lettuce and cabbage seedlings out to harden off on the porch.  Windy today but not much rain.  Radish seeds I planted a week ago are up as are some carrots.  Time to plant a second batch.  Jack found a sustainable solution to clean her drum cymbals today – lemon juice.  Worked really well.

4/19/11

More rain.  We just don’t need it at this point.  I was hoping to hang laundry but that didn’t happen so had to hang it to dry indoors.  Lots of finches in their yellow feathers at the feeders today.  We won’t be feeding birds much longer – draws bears and we don’t need THEM on the deck!

Moonflowers with seed casings attached

I planted Moonflowers this year and they are up and big.  Probably planted them too early.  One thing about them is their seed hulls get stuck on the leaves.  I wonder why that happens.  I’ve tried to pry a few off but I ripped the leaves in a few cases so I know that isn’t the answer.

Scott picked up a bunch of clean cardboard last night to continue sheet mulching part of our yard.  We’re still waiting for soil test results to come back from the lab.  We’re testing for lead due to our location.  Hopefully we’ll get good results.

I made a phone call to Kimberly Clark today to ask about their Pull-Ups brand training pants. Our youngest daughter wears them when she goes to pre-school since they don’t allow cloth (no, we don’t beat ourselves up about this; it is just a fact of how things are.)  She loves Toy Story so we get her the boy kind with Woody and Buzz on them.  Well, the last pack I bought had Woody and Buzz on the package but inside it was characters from Cars.  I thought this was mis-packaging but upon calling I was told that they are phasing out the Toy Story characters and are just using up the outside packaging until it is gone.  While I commend them for not being wasteful since this packaging is Recycle code 7 and in most places it must be thrown away, I did say they could put a sticker or something on it to note it is not as shown to avoid disappointed kids.  Since we bought this brand specifically because of the characters on them I didn’t accept the free coupons they offered and I told them we’d be switching to the store brand which are much cheaper and just as effective.  Oh well.  Luckily we’re potty training her now and the use of Pull Up type diapers will be short lived anyway.

4/20/11

Lab tests came back A-OK for lead.  Whew.  That’s a relief.

It was supposed to be 75F and sunny today but it didn’t get there until 4pm.  The kids and I made a trip to ZOOAMERICA today. You can read about our trip here.  I went outside in the late afternoon to get our strawberry plants in the ground.  We plant everbearing varieties because we like to have strawberries on our salads and cereal and we don’t want to have to deal with a glut of strawberries in June.  Usually I buy strawberries for jelly and things from the Farmer’s Market.  I planted Seascape and another one I can’t remember in our raised boxes.

I also planted out my cabbage and lettuce sprouts.  It’s supposed to be in the low 40s tonight, I hope they are going to be OK.  Also planted my largest shallots saved from last year.  They were lost temporarily in the basement but I found them under two paper bags full of sweet potatoes we want to try to grow.

Quiet Creek Columbine

Last year I visited Quiet Creek Herb Farm for a farm day and they were nice enough to send me some columbine seeds from the red and yellow plant they had in their high tunnel.  I finally got around to sending them some of my Matt’s Wild Cherry Tomato seeds today.  They are a bit colder than we are here since they are upstate and west, so they should still be able to plant them for this year if they want to.  I just planted mine yesterday.

Also planted radish and spinach seeds and some more marigold seeds.  You can never have too many marigolds.  Did a walk around the yard and saw violets growing and lots of dandelions.  I always like that color combination together.

I did some trimming to my perennials and to the butterfly bushes too.

Gee, was their anything else?  I don’t think so.