Blackberry Winter

 Now, thanks to my aunt and uncle, we have two garden fences that stretch the length of the upper garden. I played no part in putting this fence up, this was 100% them. Since we have an ungodly amount of tomato plant this year, we're going to exceed our one full row from last year and bump that up to two full rows that stretch the length of the upper garden. 

We've purchased well over 20 tomato plants this year, plus all of the seeds that were put out. I have to say, I don't believe we put our tomato seeds out early enough because the plants just aren't maturing fast enough. Lesson learned, we've never started tomato plants from seeds before, so now we know.

That's all I'm going to say about gardening on this post. 

I finished making all the gliders food earlier today for the weekend. LaVaughn and I leave for work in the AM and will be gone for 3 days, so I have to make 4 days of glider food, that's including todays. 

The weather has taken quite a turn this week. We had several storms late last week and earlier this week, now it's near artic levels outside. Definitely too cold for April, most folks around these parts would refer to this as 'Blackberry Winter'. I still managed some decent photos a little while ago, which was well worth facing the icy cold. There are copious amounts of weeds to photograph, but other things are starting to bloom as well, like my Purpleleaf Sand Cherry bush. It has the most marvelous blooms! 

Well, it's getting late and I need to finish packing and getting things in order for the weekend. Until next time...

These are the two fences in the upper garden.

Had to try and me artistic, lol.

A weed on rusty wire.

A fallen dandelion seedhead.

They're seriously so pretty.

Trying to get as close as possible with my 40mm Nikkor macro lens.

Tiny maple leaf sprouts.

Vibrant yellow.

Here's one of the Purpleleaf Sand Cherry blossoms.

The Purpleleaf Sand Cherry blossoms are some of the prettiest.

This blossom is in bloom.

Last one of the Purpleleaf Sand Cherries.

Dandelion Seedhead Macro (w/plant updates)

 I feel like I literally only blog about gardening anymore, which seems like it might be kind of annoying - I mean, if I'm blogging about it and getting frustrated, as a reader it has to be much worse. Even though I originally planned to share gardening updates first, I'm not. Instead, I'm going to talk about taking photos, which takes up 75% of my blog.

Since I got my macro lens for Christmas, I've been extremely limited as to what I can take photos of outdoors. I know I've mentioned this in previous posts, but it's true. Don't get me wrong, I can find literally anything to take pictures of, but I like to mix it up with some nice flowers or bugs every once in a while. This was the cast late yesterday evening when I found an abundance of dandelion seedheads strewn about the yard.

Subjects like this is where the macro lens excels. I see macro shots all the time of dandelion seedheads or similar subjects and I've always wanted to mimic those shots, but just couldn't get that 1:1 ratio that I so badly needed. I had around 10 or more pics of the fluffy little puffballs, but I cut it back considerably - you only need so many pictures of the same thing, which is my kryptonite. 

In gardening news, I separated 4 of what seems like 3000 cherry tomato sprouts. Talk about a tedious job! We don't need 70% of what we have planted, so part of me just wants to throw them all out, but there's just something in me that won't allow it. We also got more stuff planted in the garden today: spinach, onions, radishes and even saved a spot for some okra. Tonight is rock picking up night in the lower garden... yay.

You haven't had a workout until you've picked up rock for hours at a time.

In other news, we have around 20 eggs in our incubator. This past Monday was the one week mark, so if any of the eggs are fertile - I think quite a few might be - they should start hatching around the 26th or so. We did the whole candling test Tuesday, but it was really hard to tell so soon. We're gonna try again tonight and go from there.

So far we have 8 eggs from a guy in Farmington that we bought last week and 12 from our rooster that was murdered by the asshole dogs. I'm really hoping some of our eggs from him hatch.

Geez, I feel like I'm all over the place right now. My mind hasn't been in the right place since Sunday. I had a horrible anxiety attach and the ripple effect is still effecting me. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but... I. Hate. Anxiety!

That's all I have to say about that. Actually, I think that concludes this blog. Until next time.

Beautiful dandelion seedhead.

This is what I'm talking about. I love dandelion seedhead macro shots.

Seriously the prettiest weed.

Another rando weed.

More dandelion seedhead. The 40mm Nikkor is great for shots like this.

This is the inside of a dandelion seedhead. The 40mm Nikon macro lens is amazing.

Baby cherry tomatoes I separated.

So far so good (fingers crossed).

Massive zucchini.

They grow so big, so fast.

More cherry tomatoes.

Lemon cucumbers and regular tomatoes.

Sprout Update (iPhone Photo Edition)

 It's been a kinda weird couple days, so I'm not gonna drag this post out. I mainly just want to share photos of the sprouts and how big they've gotten! It was sorta late in the day when I took the pics -- even later now that I've decided to share them. 

Everything seems to be doing fairly well (knock wood) so far, but the vast majority of all the plants are outgrowing their nursery container and badly need to be transferred to either larger pots, or the ground. Since the weather is only supposed to be in the mid 60s for the next 10 days (50s a couple day), there's just no safe way to put them in the ground. 

So yeah, here are a few random pics of all the sprouts in the garage. They're not the best, since they're from my phone and in the semi-dimly lit garage.

These are mainly all cucumbers.

This is more cucumbers, plus okra and zucchini.

Those super tall, floppy ones are zucchini.

Tomatoes and lemon cucumbers.

Cherry tomatoes.

Long sweet peppers, cucumbers and one watermelon.

Operation Sprout Separation

 That title is all kinds of wonky and a bit of a tongue twister, it's just what popped in my mind, so I'm going with it. So the vast majority of the cucumber sprouts are outgrowing their nursery and as the title says, it's time to separate. 

When we plant basically anything, we always put at least two seeds in one slot so that we're (hopefully) guaranteed a sprout. Well apparently all of the seeds decided to sprout and do well, so pretty much every planter has two fully developed cucumber sprouts. Same goes for the lemon cucumbers and my precious peppers. 

I know it's recommended to cut back the unhealthy looking sprouts, but I'm telling you, these guys all look amazing. So I spent the better part of two hours carefully and gently separating each comb pack of sprouts. I think upon my original calculation of cucumbers, we were at 30 plants, not including the lemon cucumbers. Well by the time we were done, we ended up with 34 individual cucumber plants and that's NOT including the ones that are still in the nursery because we ran out of paper planters! And out of the 18+ lemon cucumbers, we only have 4 separated. 

I'm telling you, we way overshot the cucumbers. Like we always say, not all of them will sprout. Well, we were wrong again this year and all but like 2 didn't sprout. That's okay, though, we still have to see how well they do outside of the nursery before we know for sure just how many cucumber plants we actually have. 

Since I've been a bit rushed today, here's a picture of the separated cucumber sprouts from my phone. I know it's taboo for me to share iPhone photos, but it's all I have.

Here's most of the separated cucumbers. And no, there's no tag because I really don't have time.

Weekly Update From Your Local Botanist

 Calling myself a botanist is a longshot, but since I'm constantly stuck in the vortex of blog titles, I sometimes have to embellish my titles just a smidge. I mean, not having a botany degree aside, I do have a wide array knowledge pertaining to plants and gardening in general, so it's not too farfetched.

Well anyways, what a day yesterday was! I feel like I got hit by a bus, then had to walk home 15 miles in the rain. Gardening season is in full swing, so as soon as I got up yesterday it was time to start planting. We did a row of potatoes and a row of green beans. If you don't garden, then you don't know how difficult it is to constantly bend and squat and walk back and forth with water buckets, plus picking up and discarding any straw rocks that might be in the way. 

I was outside close to two hours watering, digging and planting, then ventured down to the chicken coop to awkwardly stare at our new rooster for a few minutes - collecting eggs for the incubator was also on the menu. After that, I had to go water (and check on) all the sprouts. We have two UV lights set up, so the trays have to constantly be rotated, which I did. Then after feeding the gliders and other critters, it was time to cook dinner. 

Not long after dinner, my sister and I decided to go over to the graveyard to walk. Mind you, this is the first time this year that we've gone, so saying I'm out of walking shape is a given. PA work is so much different than standing and walking around for 8 hours a day, so I'm really not used to being on my feet whole lot anymore, which is why I'm in so much pain today, lol.

I always brisk walk, so after a few minutes I'm really huffing and puffing. I looked down at my watch after about 15 minutes and my heart rate was 167! I was like omg, I don't think I've ever got my HR up that high before. By the 20 minute mark I slowed things down and quit just after 30 minutes. I racked up 18 minutes of cardio and burned 515 calories in just 30 minutes, so I definitely accomplished something there. 

Walking, in combination with gardening, really hit me hard. Definitely a downside to not standing and walking all day at work, but it's just the beginning of spring, I'll get back into it eventually. Not today, of course. It's nasty out and supposed to storm here before too long, so I don't think walking is on the menu today.

Well here are the pics from the past few days. I tried to cut them down as much as possible, but there's still more than 20. Enjoy!

All. The. Seeds.

Onion bulbs.

Tomato plants.

More tomato and some pepper plants. There's watermelon hidden in there too.

Potatoes to plant.

It's hard to see because it's so washed out, but the two spaces to the left are the planted rows.

Our new Dark Brahma rooster!

He really is a pretty boy.

And apparently pretty young, I think the people said he wasn't even 6 months old yet, which is great.

He's a very radiant Dark Bramha.

Cucumber plants for days.

They're all doing very nicely, though.

My pepper sprouts that I'm OH so proud of!

I dried these seeds myself, which is why I'm so excited, lol.

I love their curly little leaves.

These are my Alyssums that I planted in the old Moscow Mule mugs.

They're coming along quite nicely.

A little sparse in places, but overall not bad.

I can't wait until they start to flower!

Very much a country kitchen window.

Nothing to be ashamed of, I love it.