Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Back to work

And still raining. Woke up this morning to anoter drenching downpour. I guess I'm going to have to risk damping off in order to make sure the seedlings get upright growth rather than getting sideways and weedy. But that means I also have got to get some more beds finished up FAST, and move the ones that are up into them, so they don't get too weedy, either. This year is not good for gardens round here, sadly. It happens, but it's never fun. Just means harvests are later than normal.

My one-day vacation is over so it's back to work for me today. From what I understand, there's going to be a lot of long nights, and while the extra money is nice, some days I wonder why I transferred to second shift, lol. It's worth it every week when I get the paycheck, but that good feeling lasts about five minutes. Though I did get a lot done yesterday.

The house looks a lot nicer, with the cleaning I was able to get done. My seedling flats got replanted, and the labels redone. Some stuff I was out of, lke the Kabocha squash and Yellow Pear tomatoes ... of which I got one squash and none of the tomatoes to come up. So the rest of the squash pack got replanted with a diffrent squash, and the tomato packs got replanted with other things. I got some Mortgage Lifter tomato seeds a while back so I did a pack of those and Shooting Stars eggplant. Did a couple packs of hot pepper mix seeds, so I have no idea what will come up from those. This will be the last seed-starting I do this year ... it's halfway through June already, and I really don't want to have to mess with more. Hubby is trying to convine me to get two more of the mini-greenhouses anyhow and finish starting off all the seeds in mix packs, like the hot peppers, mini sweet bells, large bell mix and the gourds, so I get a good mix of all the stuff that is in the packets. I may do that ... I'm dithering.

I also found the information for the virtual accounting jobs and put in my resume for all of those. If even one picks me up with enough part-time work that pays at least half what I'm making at the plant, I'm done with the plant. Even part-time, there are other things I can do to make money that I'd have more time for, like Amazon's Mechanical Turk. That's a crowdsourcing thing I've done a lot of over time, and it pays fairly well, just not a living wage. I've made as much as $70 a week off that one, so working from home can be lucrative, but you have to be able to have the time for it. So I'm hoping like crazy. I've got the background and experience, just not really recently. Hopefully, they can overlook that and realize I've worked at the plant to do what had to be done - put food on the table, clothes on my back, and a roof over my head.

So here's hoping things will start to turn around to where I can get a better garden going (I am SO jealous of everybody that had a better spring and are already getting early harvests!), and that I can get some work going from here a lot better. Though if all this drenching rain doesn't quit, my poor Arkansas Travelers are going to drown. Just looked and after this morning's downpour, with all we've had coming through lately, and what's supposed to continue, they are in standing water .... they just can't drain fast enough. Well, if I want to leave the seed trays out, I'm either going to have to find a way they can get light and be protected from the worst of the rain, or get a small greenhouse. This is not a good year for gardens ... even in raised beds ... around here. Oh well, hugs all - I'll try to find some books for us!

Quick addendum: Ok, just looked outside at things, and the only tomato drowning was the one still in the original pot. Dumped out the excess water, of which there was at least a half gallon, and moved that pot away from the house. I think it's been sitting right under a good spot for runoff for water catchment, and I don't want to drown it. The seedling flats are back out, no cover though. I think if I keep dumping off the excess water every time it rains hard, they might be okay. We'll see, because some of the seedlings are getting a bit big but their beds arent' ready yet - hoping  by this weekend that I can get that done, ha!!!

Had to come back in for the camera real quick so I could take a few photos. I got a crappy shot of my flowers by the front steps coming up - you can see where I have put up string for the sweet peas. Now to just get them training upwards! You can see the starts of the snapdragons and marigolds as well. No photo, but my carrots are starting to come up. I saw three little seedlings popping up today.


Next up - my first tomato! Not on the plant I had to move, this plant is in one of the tire beds. The thing's about quarter-sized, but I has a mater!!!!


And THIS one ... well, I spotted the fellow by sheet happenstance. I don't mind snails but they do not belong three feet from my garden. The quarter is for size reference. He is a HUGE bugger. So after photographing him, I picked him up and tossed him into the trees as far as I could. I know, not nice to him, but he would not be nice to my garden, either! It's not the first snail I've found around here since I put in the garden and I doubt it will be the last.


KINDLE FREEBIES OF INTEREST


Backyard Vegetable Gardening in Winter: A Beginner's Guide to a Successful Vegetable Gardening in Winter
Container Gardening Made Easy: Beginners Guide to Growing Organic Herbs and Vegetables in Your Indoor Garden
Backyard Chickens Book Package: Beginner's Guide to Raising Backyard Chickens & The Backyard Chickens Breed Guide (Modern Homesteading)
Raised Bed Gardening - Ten Good Reasons For Growing Vegetables In A Raised Bed Garden (Gardening Techniques)
Organic Gardening: Your Guide to Growing Healthy Organic Produce
50 Popular Types of Herb (The Herb Books)
How To Care For Your Newborn Goat Kids A Simple Guide (Goat Knowledge)
50 Best Homemade Soap Recipes
Vegetable Gardening Basics: A Beginners Guide To Growing Organic Vegetables - Including Top Ten Easy Veg To Grow
Compost 101: The Vegetable Gardeners Guide To Composting - Including Hot and Cold Composting, Layer Mulching, Vermicomposting And Bokashi Composting
Homesteading Handbook vol. 1: The Beginner's Guide to Becoming Self-Sustainable (Homesteading Handbooks)

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