Sunshine and feeling like a new person

 A couple weeks ago  I was feeling pretty low.  Low energy may be the best way to describe it.  It's officially spring and I have at least three feet of snow on the ground and no end in sight. 

Then one day I woke up,  had a leisurely cup -- or two-- of coffee, and the sun came out and the temperatures gradually started rising. 

How nice it was to feel the sun on my face when I ventured outside to see what that bright orb in the sky was. 

Something about the sun reignited something in me and I felt more energetic and I baked.  I BAKED! I can't remember the last time I made anything in the oven that wasn't protein or pizza. 

Both this past Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days, temperature and sunshine-wise. 

I think it was Sunday we were all outside and soaking in the sunlight.  It could be called taking a solar bath, I suppose.  It was nice to be outside and feeling the heat from the sun. I had Furby on my lap and her feathers were *so* warm and she was leaning on her side, trying to take it all in too. 

That weather was definitely appreciated. 

This weekend was also around nine weeks from my last anticipated frost date.  I set out to plant some seeds. 

My notes were consulted. After making some soil blocks I planted some cabbage and a variety of peppers in some two inch blocks.  I also grabbed three little round seedling cups and over sowed some onion seeds. I think I'm late to the party on those onion seeds.  I've seen online that people have been starting them since January. The back of the packet said 10 weeks, I think.  Over sowing onion seeds is a new thing to me. If they make it - great!  If not, nothing really lost.  

Then I set up two 1020 flats of micro blocks and started planting flowers (mostly) and more Alpine strawberry seeds. 

Why more alpine strawberry seeds?  I decided to purchase a second packet of seeds and toss it in the freezer for several weeks and see if that does anything for the germination rates. 

In these two 1020 flats I have 400 seeds planted.  Isn't that amazing?

Seeds planted are: 

Cilantro (Yes, more.  I'm planning for salsa-making)

Lavender  

Stock (Flower)

Cosmos

Asters (More because the ones I already sowed haven't come up. I'm not giving up on them yet)

Petunias

Impatiens 

Pansys

Violas

Cabbage

Big Red Sweet peppers

Tequila sunrise peppers

Hot lemon peppers

Sweet banana peppers

Habaneros

When I got to the impatiens seeds I decided to dump the contents into a bowl and look around.  I picked up this packet of seeds from the dollar store, and it was full of vermiculite.  The first batch of seeds I "planted" I figure the seeds were so small and that's why they added the vermiculite.  Those seeds have been sitting under the lights for two weeks and nothing has sprouted.  Then I thought maybe all the seeds were at the bottom of the package, and maybe I didn't plant anything at all. 

Looking around in the bowl I discovered the seeds are pelleted. It's pretty obvious what is the seeds, too. 

Can you see those white, rounds bits in the photo? Those are the seeds.  I think ... 

The seeds I planted two weeks ago.  No sign of life. 

This time around I decided to try a couple methods of planting the seeds.  One, in first image of the impatiens, I decided to broadcast sow. 

The second method I pulled out the seeds and dropped on on each microblock.  

One on of our trips to town this weekend I picked up a another packet of impatiens seeds from Walmart, just to see what those seeds look like, and to have as back up in case none of these seeds germinate. 

I put all the trays under the lights when I was done. 

This time I was sure to label them all. 

I have not done much in the way of craftiness this last week, or so. My hands were feeling a bit sore. I thought I'd try working on the crochet blanket and getting one row done a night. That didn't work out.  I have 10 rows to go on it.  I can't wait to be done!

I decided to play around with Youtube a bit, since I couldn't hit the crochet or cross stitch very hard.  A couple videos were put up in the last few days. 

I haven't talked about the chickens in ages.  Our little flock has made it through the winter mostly unscathed.  With the weather gradually getting more sunny I've been letting them out so they can free range a little bit.  They mostly stay around the coop.  With all this snow the don't have much to do or explore.  We are getting between six and eight eggs a day.  

This video shows how much snow we had last week.  We've lost a good amount of snow since then.  Buuuuttttttt .... we are still getting snow! 

Last night we get an inch or two.  The area is supposed to receive up to six more inches of snow between Thursday and Saturday this week.  This news messes with my plans of up potting a few things and maybe setting them out in the greenhouse for part of the day.  When the sun is out the greenhouse is going above 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  I'm toying around with the idea of filling some small containers, or cups, of starting mix and planting some more lettuce and a couple other things just to see what happens.  It's only seeds, right? 

Depending on how things are the rest of this week, one day I will make a video and show off my seedlings in a greenhouse tour, of sorts.  The thing is, I'm keenly aware of all the pauses when I speak and I don't want to go "Uh" and "Umm" to fill in the gaps.  Not to mention, it's been ages since I've made videos of myself chatting away. I'm like a deer in the headlights when I hit the record button. 

However, as I may have said before, I'm really eager to record the growing season this year.  I need to get over myself and just take the videos.  Right? Right.