LIFE GOES ON

Jeff decided today was the perfect day to keep busy so after we picked up my paycheck (and noticed that the DO NOT ENTER--ASBESTOS signs and the plywood and paper barricades had been removed from the library), a quick trip across the river to Aldi's and cheaper gas (even tho it still cost $50.04 to fill it up!), a longer stop at Lowe's to get supplies (the guy who really knows it all in the plumbing department nods at us and asks how's it going), and a late late lunch, he put together the 2nd gutter garden in the greenhouse and put more seedling/transplants in pails in place. A minor mishap...the overflow hole in the water tank worked...too well...and the leg of the base sank in the mud it created causing the tank to topple over and crack... resulting in the tank being replaced while I try to melt a patch over the cracks. (I think it will take several layers of melted plastic to completely mend the crack..at least that's the story I stuck to so I didn't have to stay outside in the garage trying to fix it...it was just too cold and damp for me today.) I found an outside thermometer that we were able to hang-up in the greenhouse that showed it was warmer by a few degrees inside. We now have a 20 gal tub of potatoes on a gutter as well as some pole beans. Jeff ran out of the soil mix he's been using so the tomatoes will have to wait until the weekend to be transplanted. We got the pvc pipes and joints for the blackberry cages today, too, and hopefully they will be done this weekend...the blackberries have started to blossom...in the living room! I've been watering them...and all the seedlings waiting to be put in one form of the garden or another... with a diluted form of the hydroponic solution after Jeff changes the solutions in the system under the grow lights every week. With the price of the nutrients he feels they should be recycled and not just flushed away! And it seems to work! Besides the blackberries blossoming, a 3-yr germanium has already flowered and looks as big/full as it was last fall, and an old mother-in-law's tongue has new growth from the bottom. The only thing I couldn't get to respond to the nutrient solution was an old amaryllis that produces leaves every year but no bloom.

And today I started, worked to the sleeves and ripped out a size 9mo baby sweater in a self-patterning yarn (not a baby jacquard...called mini tulips. I couldn't see a pattern...it just looked like colorful blobs to me and I didn't like it so I ripped it out. I'll try something again tomorrow. Nothing of mine has sold in the shop so I'm not pressed to produce. I've got 2 pairs of baby socks finished and a light lavender size 4 shrug almost done. There's a cute sun hat pattern I'd like to try, too. And I may be forced to take a side-trip to JoAnn's for yarn (baby jacquard or cottontots or both!) when we go to Utica to the hydroponics store for supplies next week. I've been good not buying yarn lately and I think after this week I deserve a treat.