Four new sprouts have shown up! Georgia Southern Collards, Vates Non Heading Collards, Florida Broad Leaf Mustard, and Spinach (unknown variety). That makes a total of 11 containers showing some green! The Vikings will be five weeks old tomorrow. They've discovered how to climb out of the play pen, but not how to land gracefully after they get over the top edge. They are each more adorable than the other (how exactly that's possible I'm not sure). They're both still very tiny - what I'd expect for a 2-3 week old kitten, but Tony reminds me that perhaps other kittens look bigger because they have fur. He also reminds me that Henry and Mabel are pretty tiny cats too. Lagertha and Floki are definitely both girls. Floki is developing calico colors! And I even remembered to take the new doe's picture! She's half harlequin, half English lop. She definitely has the elongated lop head, but she's pretty all the same. I'm still considering names for her.
I haven't had a lot of time to winter sow lately, but I have managed to get some more containers sanitized, drilled, and cut. Just a matter of finding time to toss some dirt and seeds in. Hopefully I'll get a chance this week. I will also try to remember to get a photo of the new doe I picked up this past weekend.
I think I may be coming down with something. I spent most of the day sleeping, and the couple times I was awoken, I felt just absolutely exhausted. Fortunately, I have Super-Husband who took care of kids and chores all day so I could sleep.
I've put it off for far too long, so I went ahead and pulled leaves from the Green Star lettuce plants again. I got 1.65 and 1.15 ounces (two plants), and had enough salad to share with Tony. Bennett the bunny enjoyed some lettuce as well. I checked on my winter sown containers today and was delighted to find more seedlings emerging from the soil! I now have Giant Noble Spinach, Champion Collard Greens, Drama Queen Poppies, Chinese Yellow Cabbage, Tendergreen Spinach Mustard, and Red Russian Kale.
Mabel has decided that the new best place to put her kittens is in #5's Pack-N-Play. As you can see by the ball, Scout, and hat - #5 is happy to share his toys with them. The Viking kittens are 30 days (four weeks and two days) old today.
Well, I found our missing doe. She is no more. The neighbor dog got her. I found what was left under a trailer a couple houses down. :( The home owner was nice enough. We talked about breeding rabbits and she said she might have a lead on a replacement bunny. I guess her son breeds rabbits. We'll see what comes of it.
I found someone online selling a doe that looks similar to Bennett. She's an English lop and Harlequin cross. He's a New Zealand and Harlequin cross. I'm supposed to meet her this weekend to pick up the rabbit, but we haven't set a day or time yet. Again, we'll see. My apologies for missing my daily blog yesterday. I'm not sure why I missed it. I've been in a bit of a fog lately. I'm upset that we still haven't seen the missing doe. I mean, it's one thing for a rabbit to escape and you see it but can't catch it, but it's another thing entirely for the rabbit to simply vanish! I've left the cage open with full food and water, but it hasn't been touched. I'm afraid that because she looks like a wild bunny, nobody would think twice if their dog killed her or something.
I'm also upset because a while ago someone contacted me wanting to trade seeds. We worked out a trade and I shipped their seeds right away, even sent them extras! They said they shipped theirs the following day (also with a bonus surprise). They got the seeds I sent three days after I shipped them. It's been eight days now since they shipped the seeds to me, but I haven't received them. I'm beginning to worry that the seeds have been lost in the mail, or damaged by the post office to delay shipping this long. The trade before this one took longer than expected and ended up arriving with a dead plant and two packets of rotting wet ("fresh") seeds. The trade before that the person didn't send all of the seeds they said they would and then told me I should send more seeds since a couple of theirs were crushed (despite being properly packaged and sent non-machinable). Three times in a row. Maybe it's bad luck, or maybe it's time for me to stop trading with people for a while. I'm just having a rough week. Maybe some more winter sowing will make me feel better. I just got some new seeds today that I ordered online last week, so I'm updating the Seed Stash list today too. I went out to feed and water the bunnies and found the door to the doe's cage wide open, her food bin on the ground, and she's nowhere to be seen. I spent the last 45 minutes searching the yard with the kids. Now Tony and the kids are out looking. It's snowing and cold out. I'm just beside myself. I made sure the cage was latched shut before I left. I just gave her veggies yesterday. This photo was taken yesterday afternoon. If anyone in the Brainerd area sees her, she's big and brown, friendly with our kids, but hasn't been loose, so I don't know what she'll do when approached. Help!!
Last night we had food from the Costco Deli. The spinach salad and the stuffed bell peppers to be exact and they were pretty good. The kids disagree somewhat though. We might try both again with our own spin (buying our own ingredients). Last night I got 17 more containers planted and outside. Winter sowing is quickly becoming an addiction. This morning finds Early White Kohlrabi, Romanesco Broccoli, Di Cicco Broccoli, Calabrese broccoli, Purple Broccoli, Darki Triple Curled Parsley, Triple Moss Curled Parsley, Moss Curled Parsley, Italian Parsley, Blue Spice Basil, Siam Queen Basil, Genovese Basil, Holy Basil, Star of David Okra, Alabama Red Okra, Red Burgundy Okra, Clemson Spineless Okra, and Sage seeds added to the winter sowing collection outside. This puts me at 57 containers so far. I still have lots more that I want to plant, so I'll be adding more as I get containers. I'm going to wait until April to winter sow my tomatoes and peppers, and I plan on having a lot of those. Nothing like jumping in to new projects with both feet.
A couple years ago we had several rabbits, including two harlequin does. I bred them to our New Zealand Red buck and the resulting litters were absolutely adorable. One of the babies from one of those litters recently came back on the market, and I took the opportunity to buy him back. So welcome home again Bennett. It's great to have him back. He's so handsome! It was another rough winter, we lost our new buck and one of the does, so it's just Bennett and one doe (in separate cages) for now. In other news, the winter sown containers are coming along nicely. I checked today and now three containers are sporting green! I've got another 17 containers labeled and ready to plant today or tomorrow to add to the collection out there, but for now here are the three that are growing, Red Russian Kale, Drama Queen Poppies, and Tendergreen Spinach Mustard. We are expecting snow tomorrow, so I'm counting on Mother Nature to know best and keep these seedlings at a temperature that will keep them growing.
A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook asking for tips on how to cut a squash after breaking her knife (having used a hammer to try to slam through the vegetable). I admit, we're fairly new to the world of squash eating, but we've become big fans of spaghetti and acorn squash. We don't use a hammer to pound the knife through the squash, so I thought it might be fun to make a "how to" video on how to cut a spaghetti squash. Here's Tony, cutting a spaghetti squash with a knife without using a hammer. Please feel free to share this video if it helps you. And don't mind Mocha in the background. She made a guest appearance in this video.
I'm excited because today the first of my Winter Sown containers has green! Seven seedlings in the Tendergreen Spinach Mustard container, which happens to be a water bottle. I told #2 he'll have to find some recipes to use mustard greens. Anyone have a good recipe they'd like to share?
Floki and Lagertha have made it to three weeks old! They are both becoming more interactive, playing with us and with each other. Lagertha tries to explore and will soon figure out that she can climb out of the box. She continues to get darker and darker. She's now mostly blue with white marks! Floki remains mostly white, though s/he has some discolored marks that I'm not sure how they'll look eventually, but for now it almost looks like someone spilled a couple drops of coffee on his/her back. Obviously still not sure on Floki's gender, but I'm fairly certain Floki will either be a hairy hairless, or drop the kitten coat and become naked like Henry. I was able to get another bag of soil today so I can start winter sowing again! Yay! That warm week we had last week gave me an unexpected hiatus and I didn't realize how addicting it was to play in dirt!
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today I'm going to do a bit of shameless self promotion. I've got a RedBubble Shop where I sell my designs and photos on various items. Originally it was mostly shirts and stickers, and sometimes cards, but now I can offer phone and tablet cases, throw pillows, coffee mugs, even duvets and leggings! Please check out my designs HERE. I add more designs here and there as time allows, but usually in spurts. I should put more time into it, but gardening has kind of taken over for now.
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