Archive for the ‘maine spring’ Tag
It appears that the weather will finally permit me to get back into the garden. I’ve been monitoring the long-range weather forecast for a week and it looks as if the chances of a hard frost are behind us. Most of the night time temperatures for the next two weeks are in the high forties and low to mid-fifties. Today is the day that the majority of the garden will be planted.
I’ve had a lot of plants in my cold frames for more than a week letting them get accustomed to the weather and cooler temperatures. I collected my three dozen hard boiled eggs, a bag of fertilizer, and headed to the garden.
Dig a five inch deep hole, drop in an egg, crush the top, drop in a little fertilizer, and set the plant in place. Do it about ten more times and you have a nice patch of jalapenos peppers to harvest later in the Summer.
Next came the cherry tomato plants. I decided to double the number of plants from last year because we eat so much salad during the Summer months. We came up a little short last year and I don’t want that happening again. What good is a salad without tomatoes.
I planted the zucchini, yellow squash, and kohlrabi’s next but ran out of eggs. I plan on picking up more eggs tonight and tomorrow I can plant all of the remaining cucumber plants. Twenty minutes of sprinkling completes the planting for today. Hopefully we’ll get some rain in the next few days or I’ll be running the sprinklers again.
I was a little surprised to find that I had two areas in the frames where I could add some miscellaneous plants. The better-half and I will decide what else we need and have them planted over the weekend. My goal was to have everything planted before the end of the Memorial Day weekend and we’re right on schedule for a change.
Today should be added the list of things we should be celebrating on a annual basis. I can’t think of a proper name for this observance so I’ll keep it simple since everyone has always told me to K.I.S.S. Today and on this day forever in this house it will be known as Better-Half Actually Cooking Breakfast Day. For some unknown reason she’s decided to honor me today with my favorite breakfast. Crispy bacon, sunny-side up eggs, rye toast, home made jam, and a cup of hot steaming hazelnut coffee. I’m not exactly sure what I did to deserve this but it’s such an unusual occurrence that it makes me a little nervous.
Relationships are difficult on the good days but after being together for an extended period of time it becomes possible to understand and anticipate your partner’s way of thinking. Being the cynical and pragmatic person that I am I’m forced to think that something is up. I know in my heart that a huge Quid Quo Pro is looming in my future. What could it be?
It can only mean something that I’ll probably find distasteful or annoying. Something she knows I’ll not want to do unless she applies her own personal brand of leverage. She cooks me a favorite meal and then I’ll get to wash and detail her car. That’s always been a good one but has she finally decided to expand her repertoire with something a little more original. Maybe having me cook food for the people at the Lowe’s store to help in some kind of lame promotion or possibly something related to the grand children. Many things involving them can be more than a little nasty and disgusting and I always try to avoid them at all costs. The more I think about this the crazier the possibilities become. I’ll eat this meal then sit down and wait for the other shoe to drop.
Breakfast has come and gone and I found it uneventful. I do have to say that the eggs were overcooked and not runny as I’d like them to be. She made a point of telling me before we sat down to take a specific plate because the eggs were more gooey on that one. The eggs on that plate were seriously overcooked and weren’t the least bit runny which translates to no dunking of toast into the yolk. I think her little bit of misinformation was intentional and telling. My best guess is that by cooking the eggs too long she was attempting in an obvious way to insure all future breakfasts will be cooked by me. I suppose you could call that a weird passive-aggressive ploy which unfortunately will probably work. I wouldn’t want to get stuck eating over- cooked eggs and under-cooked bacon for the rest of my life so I’ll be forced to cook them myself. She wins again.
I need to spend a little time thinking about this whole situation and to develop my own plan of attack to assist me in getting my own way once in a while. It’s always been an uphill battle for us men in dealing with our women and I don’t see it getting any easier anytime soon.
There’s no way for us men to ever completely win because while we have the stick the women have the carrot. Life can be so unfair.
The weather has finally begun to change for the better here in God’s country. Over the last week the snow has disappeared and I’ve been able to get outside and breath some fresh air without a parka, hat, and gloves. But as well you know everything in nature is a balance. You get some good and right along with that you get some bad. Now begins the actual work of cleaning up after Mother Nature once again.
The snow cover this past winter lasted much longer than normal which has it’s good points. Most of my perennials in the herb garden survived the winter unscathed. I normally replace twenty-five percent of my plants each year but it appears this year to be much better than that. The downside is that any plant tall enough to stick up through the snow was damaged severely by the long term cold during February. I’ve cleaned most of the debris out of the raised beds and discovered other issues that weren’t easily seen before.
Yesterday my better-half was frolicking in the yard with the grandson and made the mistake of sitting on the edge of one of the raised beds. There was a loud crack and the board she was sitting on snapped in half requiring an immediate repair job and a trip to Lowe’s for me.
We also were able to remove a downed tree we lost during the first snow storm last Fall. It was a struggle but we finally cleaned up the area and removed the branches and trunk to a nearby woods. I may cut it up later for use in our occasional bon-fires since it’s been sitting for a while and dry as a bone. It should burn nicely.
We have a set of steps at the rear of the house that were badly damaged when at least five tons of ice slid off the roof and crushed all of the railings and a few of the steps. Fortunately the main structural beams were unharmed. Another trip to Lowe’s for more pressure treated lumber to make those repairs. Along with the mailbox replacement this has become an annual event and one I’m very tired of dealing with. I’m in the process now of redesigning and reinforcing the steps and hopefully that will resolve the issue for new year.
I took a walk through my garden yesterday and discovered that the deer have found us already and appear to be eating my chives as soon as they sprout. It’s been a tough winter on the wildlife here in Maine due to the heavy snow cover. I’ve been told that the further north you go the worse it gets. The moose and deer have had a rough winter and I ‘m sure many of them didn’t survive. The good news is the small herd that hangs around our house looks pretty damn healthy. As I walked through my back yard I found piles of deer turds everywhere. This just tells me that I’m going to be battling the deer for control of my garden all summer. They’ve been spending a lot of time close to the house which in itself is unusual.
A few weeks ago I was in my man-cave doing my exercises on the treadmill when I looked out the window to see four or five deer casually walking by. They stopped near the house and were standing in the yard as calm as you please. That’s very unusual for ten o’clock in the morning on any day. I’m afraid they’ve become comfortable near the house which will eventually make for a real battle this summer. It’s not only the deer but also rabbits and freaking groundhogs as well. I’m going to be busy, busy, busy.
I was able to run for my camera and snap a few quick pics of those deer before they scampered into the woods. Here they are.
Who needs dogs and cats for house pets when you can have a herd of deer?
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