Garden Cleanup Day

The husband and I worked outside yesterday. I raked up dead vegetation in the garden and made piles to burn. He stacked firewood—courtesy of two trees that blew down—and burned three slash piles in the pig pasture. He also mucked out the pig palace; all that lovely pig manure will go over to the garden. He’ll make sure the fencing is secure and we’ll be ready for piglets.

I pruned raspberries and grapes and cut back the lavender hedges. He got out the rototiller and tilled the section where we’re going to plant potatoes this afternoon. I grow using no-till methods everywhere else, but tilling does make planting potatoes easier, and this year’s spot has had a lot of soil amendments added over the past couple of years. The dirt is looking really nice.

The rhubarb is up, as well as a clump of Egyptian walking onions I got from Sarah. I forgot to take pictures. You’ll have to take my word for it.

I am feeling it some this morning, but happy to be getting out and moving around again.

Unfortunately, I also found a couple of fresh ground squirrel holes. 🤬 It’s time to make sure we have enough ammo on hand.

I am not sure what is going on with my seeds this year. The germination rate has been surprisingly poor. I planted eighteen pots of a pumpkin variety last week—at the same time I planted melons and cucumbers, which popped right up—and of those eighteen pots, only six germinated. No rodents dug up the seeds in the other pots. They just didn’t germinate. The same thing happened with a couple of tomato varieties. And what does come up is growing slowly.

I’ve been getting seeds from the same company for over 10 years now. A couple of years ago, they moved from Oregon to Texas and ever since, I’ve had issues. I may have to find a new seed supplier.

The husband and I were supposed to have dinner last night with some friends of ours who live up the road, but they had a llama emergency and had to cancel. (They have about two dozen llamas and several of them are pregnant.) We ended up having dinner on our own and then checked out the new Barnes and Noble store in Kalispell. It’s not a large store—it went into the former Pier One building—and it’s heavy on hardbacks, gifts, and kids’ books, but it was fun to look around for a bit. When the girls were little, we used to go out to dinner and then to Borders for our family outings.

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Obviously, there has not been any sewing. I look longingly at my cutting table as I pass by. I’m also trying to decide what to do about the podcast. It’s doing very well—almost too well, lol. I passed five thousand downloads about a week ago. Clearly, there seems to be an audience for people wanting to hear about sewing and not cats.

[I have nothing against cats—we love the feral one who manages the mouse population around our chicken coop—but the cat thing has almost become a cliché. I was talking to someone last week who made the comment (unsolicited by me) that she likes to listen to podcasts until people start talking about their cats instead of the podcast topic.]

In hindsight, I wonder if I should have started with a podcast every other week rather than weekly, although finding and creating content hasn’t been too onerous. I have episodes scheduled through mid-May. I still need to get the social media end of things under control, though, if I can find time.

I have thoughts about all of this. I just need to organize them.

And I have a favor to ask. I found this piece of sweater knit on the Walmart remnant rack in Missoula.

Unfortunately, it is only a two-yard cut. (They seem to be leaning toward selling two-yard cuts, which is annoying to me as sometimes I need more.) Our Walmart has several pieces in this same pattern/fabric, but not in green. If you see it at your local store, would you let me know? I’d love to have another two-yard chunk. Two yards probably is enough for a Toaster sweater, especially if I use solid black for the collar and cuffs, but with four yards, I’d consider making a sweater dress. Thank you!