After they caught the bus, Tony realized he had accidentally scheduled two bills to come out of this paycheck, which meant we were going to be a little short. I gave him my last $20 which was just enough to make sure the car payment got in on time. Phew! Nothing like being broke on payday. It's all good though. We have food in the cupboards, and the gas tank is mostly full. We've been invited to dinner at my parents' house on Sunday, so we can bring home some leftovers to help fill meal gaps. I'm sure they'll have some spare onions, potatoes, and carrots so we can make a stew that will last a day or two too. As strange as it may seem, I'm actually completely OK with this situation. We've struggled a lot harder and for a lot longer than a week in the not-so-distant past. It feels good to know we were able to pay all of our bills without asking anyone for help, even if that means no money for extra expenses for a week.
Winter sowing is off to a fantastic start. Today I was able to get 11 containers out to the backyard! Joining the Bosc Pear seeds already out there, tonight we also have:
- Plums - I planted seven shelled and four whole seeds to see which ones germinate better. I used all 11 seeds from our collection.
- Opal Apple - I planted all 12 seeds from our collection.
- Black Elderberry - I planted 18 seeds.
- Wild Black Cherry - I planted 11 seeds.
- Sweet Mazzard Cherry - I planted 12 seeds.
- Apple (unknown variety) - I planted all 13 seeds from our collection.
- Bartlett Pear - I planted all four seeds from our collection.
- Hops - I planted about 40 seeds, but we're not even sure if these are actually hops seeds or not. They came from a shady seller overseas that also had listings for things like blue watermelon and black strawberries (they don't exist, they use photo edited pictures). Right now I'm just considering it a surprise lot.
- American Highbush Cranberry - I planted 6 seeds.
- Chokecherry - I planted 6 seeds.
- Grapes - I planted 12 seeds.
That said, this is my first attempt to grow a tree from seed, so I'm on the fast track to learning about permaculture. I tried really hard to select varieties that would survive and thrive in our extreme cold and short growing season. I'm hoping that I get good germination and that I don't end up with my own orchard and no place to plant them if too many come up and we can't move for one reason or another. I'm in the process of collecting buckets now to transplant \tree seedlings for additional time before having to put them in the ground. Hopefully that will be enough. I have no idea how fast apple and pear and plum trees grow from seed. I will be sure to be posting updates in the blog along the way, so if you're wondering too - please check back!
And in other news, as we cleaned the living room recently after getting rid of the couches, we found the missing cat collars. All five of the cats are now sporting collars again (two kept their collars on and three managed to lose them). Perhaps they'll keep them on this time. If not, that's alright too. It's not like they go outside or anything. It's purely decorative at this point. I did notice that Henry has managed to keep his collar but lose his ID tag. And I never replaced Zombie's tag after the dog ate it. Again, not like they go outside. That does remind me though that a few of them need to be microchipped. I'll add that to the ever-growing list of stuff I need to get done this year.