Feeling rebelious...

Today was today.  Not typical, but not non-typical either.
But after school, while walking out to the vehicle, I allowed myself to be irked by the weather.  
It was cold.  Ugh.  Yuck!  
I didn't feel like bundling up for a run tonight.  So, I didn't.
Instead...

I grabbed some starter, a small handful of Amish Paste heirloom tomato seeds...

... and planted 'em in the soil!

In February.
In northwest Wisconsin.

Carry on...

((although I was SUPER thankful that Paul had a warm HOT fire going in the house once I got home)) #ItsTheLittleThings

Customer quilt -- change of plans...

The current customer king-size quilt on the frame is a bit slower-going than normal due to this cute creative orange border addition.

Typically, I'm an edge-to-edge pantograph quilter, however this little lip will create havoc in that plan.  Therefore, time is being taken to tie-off threads at the start and end of each pass in the center portion of the quilt in order to keep her border treatment to remain unique.  Once the center is quilted, the quilt will then be reinstalled length-wise in order to quilt her outer borders.


Pantograph of choice:  this edge-to-edge 7" pantograph from Cheryl Barnes.

In other news...

A few moments were taken this morning to transplant a few early Cherry Tomato seedlings that are destined to be potted plants, producing (hopefully) by mid April.  I'm waiting somewhat patiently for the end of March in order to plant all the rest of the Garden 2017 tomatoes; a couple new varieties being tested out this year.


Caitlyn has been joining me downstairs during my recent quilting endeavors in order to bring her quilt to completion.  Last weekend, she finished up piecing the blocks.  Today, she hopes to get all (most?) of the top's center pieced together.

 
And last weekend, after hours of standing behind the quilting machine, my back was given a rest when I pulled out the ongoing (FOREVER!) WIP monster king-size Manghan for the hubster.  The good news is it's over half completed ;)

Happy Sunday everyone!

Chicks, tomatoes and yarn

Remind me again why we placed the eggs in the incubator so they were scheduled to hatch during the last week of school??

Mama Rock has been doing a great lil' job of protecting and mothering her six hatchlings from a week ago.  When our incubator started hatching out a couple of days early, I got caught in a moment of unpreparedness.  Originally, our hatchlings were going to be housed in the brooder box, but when Mama Rock started worrying me about her (lack of) level of protection for her babies due to the concern of owls, fox and other predators, we moved HER into the brooder box.

In the past, we've set up a simple cardboard box with a heat lamp for new chicks until they were big enough to be housed elsewhere.

We have NO boxes big enough to house much more than a couple of chicks.  PLUS, the heat lamp is rigged up in the brooder box, and with Paul working, I wasn't about to try to unrig it.  Besides, extra time was nonexistent this past week between final school days and athletics.

SO..., Wednesday morning, after waking at 2AM worried about what I was going to do with the couple handfuls of chicks that had hatched Monday evening and Tuesday already... the decision was made!  I was going to see if Mama Rock would simply adopt new additions.

Like. A. Boss!  (LOL)

Fourteen were given to her Wednesday morning, bringing the total to 20 babies.  

Thursday morning, ummm....I THINK we added another 7.  (27 total)

Thursday evening, we handed her another 7 that were hatched out in Caitlyn's class incubator from our donated eggs. (34 total)

And then after that.... I lost track.

Sadly, somewhere along the way, a few perished for one reason or another....

But finally, last night (Friday), a final late hatchling was added to the, now stable, posse of two-legged lil' fluff balls.

Cassie and I did a quick count, and we THINK there are 33 chicks fighting for tuck-time under (or around) Mama.   I wish I had had some light last night to capture a picture of Mama tucked into the safety of the corner with chicks under and surrounding her.  It truly was an 'awwwwwwe' moment.

The 'insurance' tomatoes have grown considerably this past week after being transplanted into 3-4" paper pots last Sunday.  Today marks week #3 since having been planted as seeds.  They were fed with some fertilizer directly after transplanting, which in addition to being pampered in a warm, humid greenhouse under grow-lights, has helped their growth tremendously!  I am thinking one more week of pampering is needed before starting the hardening-off process.  I predict in about 10 days, these 52 plants (we lost one) will find themselves in the garden.  

School is over for the 2014-15 year.  Candace brought home an art project that I truly can't WAIT to try out!  It's a yarn bowl!  Clearly a third-grader creation, but FUNCTIONAL!  I love it!  I predict this will be used and used and used for many years in the future.

The anxiety of the school year hasn't quite 'left the building' yet.  In fact, I spent about 45 minutes this morning just perusing through all my students' final grades, curious to see how they finished the school year in other classes/subjects.  I have plans to spend time in school on Tuesday, doing final organization of the classroom, but to also look ahead to the first couple of weeks of AP-Statistics for the next school year.  

However, decompressing WILL commence today as 'all-hands-on-deck' take over in the garden!  The last of the seed planting is on the agenda, in addition to getting all-n-everything out and organized into the garden plots.  Peppers, cabbage, broccoli (grrr!  Yup, we ended up buying plants after Ruby chicken decided to indulge herself on mine grown from seed), peas and pea-fencing, rigging more tomato fencing, hose organization and layout.....  

Happy Saturday. 

"Insurance policy" tomatoes; chicks soon!

Well folks, the tomato transplants from last weekend were looking a bit sheepish all week long (SADLY!), although a few were hanging on and showing new growth on the tops.  However, it would appear that last night's frost finally did all of them in :(  

Forty-five plants, three months of pampering, bags of soil, and hours of transplanting seem to have gone down the drain!  

Lesson learned!  Next year:  April 1st!  That's it!  April 1st!   No earlier!

THANKFULLY, two weeks ago, I finally got around to planting some 'insurance policy' tomatoes in the event that my 'crazy-early-planting' tomatoes ended up dead in their transplanting tracks.  We have a little bit of a head start on fifty-three more plants.  

In all actuality, we aren't any further behind than what we normally are at this time of the year.  It's cold up here!  This simply mean that the tomato harvest will, once again, need to happen once we're back at school in September.  **Shrug**   Truly truly, 'better late than never.'

On the flip-side, a conversation with Paul today may lead to a transportable hoop house or small green house being built this summer.  ;)

Hm.  Looks like my lil' planting helper wanted to see if the tomato roots would grow into a pony tail???

Today marks day #18 for our incubator eggs, so they were removed from the automatic turner and placed into their final hatching position.

Take a closer look at the egg in he lower left corner...

One lil' guy seems to be in a hurry to be the first born.

In the next couple of days, I expect a couple of dozen lil' chickies :D

Eggs and seedlings

Cass and I spent a bit of the morning outside tidying up the chicken coop, putting some nesting materials in the nesting boxes, and also carrying some hay down to the goats.

Two days ago, Cass shared the amazing news that there were eggs in the coop again!  Yay!!!!!  I'm always happy and excited at the time of year when the chickens start laying again.  It means that the daylight is getting longer, and the fried eggs will be tasting better! :D

The sunshine today was a very, very welcome sight!  The temps continue to be cold, cold, cold!  And anyone watching national weather lately knows that much of the nation is battling snow and cold, so... there's no point lingering on this topic.

Although, I'd LOVE to be one of my plants in the greenhouse right now!  

We're three weeks into our seeds/seedlings, and they have never done better. Between the toasty warm greenhouse, and the new grow-lights purchased this year, everything is doing superbly well.

I've been transplanting seedlings from germination plugs into small containers on-and-off since last week.  But I'm running out of containers due to the over-planting it appears I've done.  Ha! ;)

FIL left a stack of papers after his visit two weekends ago, so I pulled up a bookmarked YouTube video on DIY seed pots, and I spent the morning doing some origami.  I watched a variety of DIY options, and tried a couple of the others, but this one simply seemed sturdier.

When I started the basil two weeks ago, it was an after-thought.  It actually only became a thought when I was tossing out the bathroom garbage and saw two toilet-paper rolls.  I cut them in half, tossed in some starting-soil and sprinkled some seeds on top.

Now.... time to give them more room!

This tray now holds some basil, parsley, marigolds and convolvulus (Morning Glory).  A lot of the literature I've read about Parsley mentions how difficult it is to germinate.  ??  It didn't seem all that tough (or long) to me.  My Rosemary seeds haven't germinated yet;  but I'm remaining patient.  There's enough other green goin' on in there that's keepin' me happy happy happy.

These marigolds and convolvulus were from my first planting three weeks ago and are doing excellent with 14-15 hours of grow-light everyday.  Unfortunately, they've been moved out from under the grow lights to make room for some tomato transplants.  I guess I can only wait to see how they do in only 10-11 hours of natural light now, on the top shelf of our new mini-greenhouse.

Yuppers.  TWINS !! :D  Our older one (right) was a gift from my parents..... five (?) years ago.  After some hemming-n-hawing, and a little bit of online searching, it's twin was purchased and arrived on Wednesday.  

And oh boy!  The lettuce that was planted last Sunday is ready for transplanting too.  **shrug**  I've never done lettuce inside, so I don't know if this 'germination box' is deep enough to simply keep them in the tray rather than go through the process of replanting them. (??)  

And just to the right of the lettuce box -- GARLIC!  While shopping last Sunday morning, in addition to some 'good' garlic bulbs, I brought home one bulb that (most likely) no one else was going to pick;  it seemed that every clove was starting to sprout.  So..... why not?!?  I've never done garlic.  I don't know if this garlic is "safe" for Wisconsin.  But....holy cow!  It's jumping out of the lil' containers I threw them in.  They TOO are ready for larger containers!

And even with two mini-greenhouses, I'm starting to run out of shelving space :D  

Reason to smile #368:  My three week old tomato seedlings!!!  I definitely chalk up their progress to the grow lights.  And now, the younger tomato seedlings are joining them under the lights (paper pots pictured front).

No quilting today, but tomorrow I'll have to spend some time on my quilting frame.  MIL handed three baby quilts to me when they visited two weeks ago, but I never found the ambition last weekend.  Time will quickly run out, so I really just need to buckle down tomorrow.