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Still raining here.

Thankfully seedlings are still tucked in safe in the hoophouse.

Tomatoes are all off heat since last weekend and seem to have made the transition well. Looking stocky and strong

Peppers and eggplants are still on heat mats, and are finally starting to really make some gains

Probably won’t have any extra peps or eggplants this year, but at least some of them made it through the cold weather. I did start some extras a couple (few?) weeks ago, but they are quite a ways behind.

While I was out in the hoophouse repotting some flower starts a flash of silver drew my eye to a tray of garlic sprouts- a poppy volunteer holding a sparkly pool of water

A molten gem on a grey day.

But Grey can be gorgeous, too- as demonstrated by Dottie

Carded and spun another batch of the girl’s 2022 fleece this week- another 8.8 oz of soft and lofty singles.

If I can keep up the pace, I should have it done in another two weeks, and will have a sweater-sized project worth of yarn (probably 1.5-2 lbs total). The singles should be pretty versatile. I expect one strand will knit up quite light but strong, but could be held double for a thicker fabric. Might do some sampling this week.

Going to be a beautiful batch!

But I’m glad that at least it is not freezing.

I just repotted tomatoes yesterday, so each has it’s own 3 inch container. And they are now off heat. So, roughing it and hopefully hardening off. Was pretty mild last night, so they hopefully that eased the transition.

But today it’s rain, rain, rain. Seemed like a good time to make an attempt at processing some wool backlog, so I picked carded and spun about 8 oz of Dottie fleece.

And since it’s cold and rainy out, it’s getting the pellet stove drying treatment

Soft fluffy singles. Not sure if they will stay grey or if they might get overdyed later this spring.

And took another step in getting the locker hooking project finished

I decided that rather than sewing the fabric to the burlap panel, I would crochet it around the edge to create some depth for a cushion. Really like how it’s turning out so far. Might just fold the excess length inside and use it as padding, eliminating the need to cut the panel at all!

(I can’t be the only one who gets anxious thinking about cutting handwoven cloth, right?).

Alrighty, I guess that’s about it.

Have a good week folks!

It’s that time of year that I should be planting carrots.

Usually that would mean sowing them directly into the sandiest of our raised garden beds.

But in recent years, burrowing critters and seed-eating birds have made it impossible to get carrots going.

Last year I resorted to sowing some in pots fairly late (after 2 failed attempts outside) and while they did germinate and grow, I think they were too crowded and the soil mix wasn’t ideal. Didn’t get much carrot production out of those pots.

So I’d been shopping around for a new approach. Yesterday YouTube offered up this gentleman’s solution:

He’s germinating the carrot seed on moist papertowels, and then carefully transplanting them into pots with pre-made holes spaced evenly with templates. Says that he can get them going in 5 days this way! I’ve decided to give it a go.

I’ve got my carrot seeds nestled in moist paper towels in the seedling tray on heat

And since they should be spouting before I know it, I thought I should get the pots ready to go .

This time I want to give these little guys the best possible shot at growing to their potential, so I made up a special soil mix that hopefully they will like. Sand, compost and screened hoophouse soil.

Looks pretty carrot-friendly to me. I might just eyeball the placement instead of making copies of his planting templates, tho.

And while I was working in the hoophouse, trying to ignore the blustery weather outside, I noticed that I’ve got quite a few little volunteers popping up

chamomile

borage

and oregano

And in wool news, I think I’m finally close to finishing off that little locker hooking sample that I started so long ago.

Just going around the edge now with a chain stitch to stabilize and frame it, then I think I’m going to turn it into a pillow, probably with some of this fabric as the back

Will be really nice to have it done. I love the soft nubbly texture and that it features Chone and Edgar wools, along with Esther. Miss those sweet boys.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got.

Have a good week folks 🙂

She was one of the unnamed “orange girls”. A red sexlink from the 2021 cohort.

And she’d been looking kind of “hunchy” for a couple days, but I already had another girl in my “sick bay”, so I was just keeping an eye on her.

But yesterday morning I went out to do morning critter duties and as I approached the gate, a big bald eagle came into view, having breakfast amidst a carpet of orange feathers. I gave a yell, and he took off, carrying what little remained of the poor chicken.

Once I’d fed everyone else, I went over to clean up the crime scene, and came across an interesting, if gross, artifact which speaks to what had been ailing this chicken.

I have since discovered that this what is called a “lash egg“. First time I’d seen this sort of thing.

Clearly the eagle knew he didn’t want any part of that, and left it for me to clean up. But it means that she’d been suffering from a bacterial infection of the oviduct for some time.

So she was clearly compromised and probably an easy target for a hungry eagle. Poor girl.

It does wonder how she picked up the infection, and think that I should probably do a deep cleaning of the nesting boxes.

The other girl I have in sick bay is eating well and seems to be improving, so fingers crossed that she’ll be back up to speed and able to re-joing the genpop soon.

On a brighter note, tomato babies are looking strong and perky

as are the various dye plants

Many of the little peppers I’d started in late February were lost to the recent cold spell, so I’ve sown a few more of each type to see if I can get another batch started. I’ve still got the overwintered guys (jalepeno, blot, sheepnose pimento) that I’m counting on for a strong performance this year, but was really hoping to do a side-by side comparison of productivity between first year and second year plants.

Alrighty that’s all I’ve got. I’ll sign off this week with a few words from Yellow Chig