It's Snowing, its Dumping, the old man is...

I'm not sure how to finish that rhyme in the title. I was trying to be cute and use, "It's Raining, It's Pouring, the old man is snoring..." But the old man has to be doing something that rhymes with dumping, and well, humping is not appropriate. Thoughts?

So, I know... I keep posting about plants and snow.

But that's what I've got going on right now, and you know, I'm not at all bored by it! (You'd think after three years of college in Michigan, that I wouldn't get so excited about snow!)

Indy isn't bored of it either. He loves the snow! Check out this short video of him from this morning before several more inches fell.



Speaking of inches of snow, we're in a winter storm. We've had about 4 inches of accumulation since this morning, and are expecting another ten or so between tonight and tomorrow. WOW!

Heidi and her two kids (ages 3 and 1 1/2) bundled up and sledded down to see Indy and I (and to help me answer the question of what color flowers had been planted in what hanging basket). Her son and daughter are too precious, and were totally bundled up in snow outfits as only young kids can be. They looked like the Michelin man!

Indy thought they were pretty cute too. :)

And Indy was pretty cute... We've had so much snow that some has even accumulated on the ceiling of the greenhouse (usually it just melts right off of the glass). It started to drop off the ceiling in great big clumps, making a booming kind of a sound which scared the crap (not literally) out of Indy. He spent the last hour or two of the day huddled under the planting table where I was working. Poor little guy.

Still missing Jason while staying warm and dry (mostly) in Wyoming!

Sheep and more snow!

It kept snowing last night and finally stuck a little - at least until this afternoon. Here's what Hawkeye looked like when I got up this morning.







Then, later, as I was headed back to the ranch from the airport and more ranch errands - the H3 filled with plants, groceries and laundry detergent - I finally came upon the Bighorn Sheep that winter in the South Fork Valley. They were in one of the Hawkeye pastures - their horns aren't too big yet, but isn't the little one just too cute?

Jason left on his photo trip with Mitch this morning. Right now they're somewhere in Nebraska I think. I'll confirm when I Skype with him later. I miss him like crazy, especially now that it's dinner time and I'm going to go and rustle up something for myself. :(

Hope you had a happy hump day!

Blog Post 100!

For my ONE HUNDREDTH BLOG POST I decided to do things a little bit differently, so for tonight I made a video tour of the greenhouse... It's long, and probably only my family will watch this video all the way through. But it's there for you if you want to see it or skip around and get an idea of the space where I spend so many hours every day. :)



Today I worked my tushie off in the greenhouse. I had to replant ten of the planter boxes. They were waterlogged and not draining, so I temporarily replanted all of the flowers in them, dug out half of the soil and mixed it with some drier soil, finally replanting the geraniums, petunias, verbena and bacopa. A lot of work. And you know? I enjoyed every minute of it. Who knew?!

Jason leaves for a week early tomorrow morning. I'm going to miss him so much! I've decided that on my day off this Sunday that I'm going to town to check out the Buffalo Bill Historic Center, see a movie and have a massage if I can swing it.

And in case you were interested, it's dumping snow outside right now - big, fluffy flakes. Gorgeous!

Now for our favorite Tuesday night activity - episodes of "Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy" and "Top Shot" on the History Channel.

Goodnight!

Headed to town

Today was, as they say in THE WIZARD OF OZ, a horse of a different color.

I needed to pick up a prescription that I had transferred from California, so it made sense that I would take Chef #2 (Mark) to the airport and run all of the ranch errands at the same time. So this morning, I spent an hour checking and watering all of the plants and starting a tray of seeds ("Irish Eyes" they're called - very pretty), and then with JW's list in hand of where to go to pick up what, headed off to Cody in the H3.

I dropped him at the very small airport and headed to Albertson's for a grocery run. You know, every time you walk into a new grocery store it takes you twice as long since you have to figure out where everything is!

Then, it was off to the Ace Hardware for spray paint, the lumber yard for finish nails and staples (where I spilled the whole box of staples on my way out the door. Awesome.) and Wal-Mart for my prescription and paper towels.

With the hour drive in, the errands in town, and the hour drive back to the ranch, I didn't get back until 3pm! Then I spent two more hours in the greenhouse.

As I was trying to hurry, California-style, through all of my errands in town, I found myself getting frustrated with how long everything took. I had to constantly remind myself that I wasn't in California anymore, and everyone was not in a rush. That in fact, I wasn't in a rush either. There was no hurry, as long as I wasn't deliberately dawdling, and I should embrace and enjoy the fact that every checkstand employee wanted to talk with me - more than the usual "How are you today?", "Fine" exchange. And that the people in line behind me were NOT frustrated because the checker and I were having a conversation!

So, as I said, a horse of a different color!

Oh... and I got glutened last night, but it was my own fault. Reminder - if you can't read the labels or you didn't make it yourself - ALWAYS ASK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE PLANNING TO EAT BEFORE YOU EAT IT! All told, though, considering that I ate a whole chip worth of gluten, and that I haven't been more than contaminated for a year, my response was not even CLOSE to as violent as I expected. After I realized I had just willingly consumed gluten, I tried in a panic to make myself throw up. I couldn't. So I sat and dreaded the rest of "cocktail and appetizer hour" and the three course meal that was to come. Surprisingly, I ate the whole meal (mmm again!) and only had a minor stomach-ache and not the digestive fireworks that usually follow. Instead of losing my vision, it all just fuzzed out around the edges - at least I could still see. I had a low-grade headache and woke this morning with stiff and puffy finger joints (something I haven't experienced since I gave up gluten-full foods). That's not bad, actually. And I'm not being facetious!

In other news, Jason's still hard at work, too. Indy's asleep next to me. And we woke to temperatures of about 4 degrees this morning. It has been darn cold all day - the wind chill is the killer. We're expecting snow every day for the next week! What a contrast to the sunny, warm weather they've been experiencing in Southern California!

And I am the airport girl again tomorrow, as Alice will be headed home to California as well.

Happy Monday!

Worms and Snow

I love it when I'm digging in the soil and I keep finding worms. I love worms! They're an indication that something is going right in your soil. If your soil is also loamy (not sandy or muddy) it's also a very good sign that your soil is a welcome home for plant roots and worms. :) I found a lot of worms today when I was turning and preparing two more raised boxes. When I had turned and watered, turned and watered and finally got the loamy, wormy soil I was waiting for, I planted rows of 3 kinds of lettuce, dill, fennel, marjoram, chervil, oregano and mint - all from seeds. I transplanted a few hundred small flower seedlings today, too.

And while I worked in the greenhouse? First I had some beautiful morning sun, only appreciable from inside the greenhouse since it was so darn cold out this morning. We woke up to ice! Then, after lunch, the snow started - and is still going.

By the way... lunch today? So good. Mark (Chef #2) is pretty awesome, too.

And can I also mention that I married a very special man? He thinks I'm prettiest when I'm wearing work clothes, boots (not the sexy kind) and no makeup every day.

Enjoy some pictures of snow from the greenhouse!

Indy loves the snow and really wanted to go out and check it out!

Life in the Greenhouse

Before I get started - Jason and I have been married for SIX MONTHS today!

Indy and I spent the day in the greenhouse again today, and we (or I really) were super productive. We got the music going to keep me dancing and singing through my day, and we had less interruptions. While I welcome the company and like having people come by, there's a lot to do in there right now, and I'm trying to get everything figured out.

With everything I had to do (from the list I made yesterday), I was busy all day. Thanks to the NCAA Final Four, we even wrapped up about an hour early today.

Another day full of seedlings and planting. I prepped three of the nine raised beds inside of the greenhouse and planted one of them. It's an herb bed and the cilantro, parsley and basil were already going. Tomorrow I'll prep and plant a lettuce bed and another herb bed.

Here's the bed I planted today. You can barely see the last row on the left. From Left to Right you have Arugula, Basil, Chives, Parsley and Cilantro (new seeds), Parsley and two rows of Cilantro.

As far as starting seeds, I set about 240 more flowers to growing today. It's not very exciting yet, but I'll be able to show you as they start to germinate. You can see the trays below. There are 4 under the black plastic - 2 trays of Verbena (which has been persnickity so far this year, maybe I'll have better luck) and 2 trays of Lobelia. Both are cranky, slow-to-germinate seeds, so the black plastic encourages them along.

Seedling trays. Very exciting, I know.

There are lots of other little things I do in there all day - hanging flower baskets, checking and watering (which takes me about an hour at the beginning of the day and 1/2 hour at the end), plus cleaning and organizing... With all of that to do, today flew!

I had bags of potting soil delivered to me at the end of the work day today (I was out), so I'll be doing a LOT of transplanting of some root bound seedlings that really need to get moved tomorrow.

Indy had a great day today, too! He spotted a mouse in the greenhouse, and while he hasn't caught it yet, he spent the whole day hunting it. He's sound asleep at my feet right now. And before you get crazy on me about murdering a mouse... I think they're cute, too, and I certainly don't like killing ANYTHING. But let's get real. We're growing FOOD in the greenhouse. Mouse + Food = Bad News. So either way, the mouse has to go. At least Indy's getting some entertainment about it.

Chef #1, Anthony, left today and Chef #2 (who I'm told is named Mark - I haven't met him yet) arrived this afternoon and will be cooking for us tonight and tomorrow. Anthony wowed me some more with amazing meals that I could eat. Mark has some serious GF cooking to do to raise himself up to Anthony's level in my estimation.

In other news, Jason is going on a road trip with Mitch for a week, starting Wednesday. I'm pretty bummed but I'll deal. Also, because of the chef and since we've only been working two days, Jason and I are going to work tomorrow (Sunday) on our day off in exchange for a comp day that we can use later and have a WEEKEND off. :)

Hope you had a great Saturday!

Hardworking Girl

Today was my first day in the greenhouse. Started at 8am, took a lunch break, and worked until 5pm.

Here's a list of all the things I accomplished today:
-Morning and evening watering (checking moisture in soil and watering if needed)
-cleaning and sterilizing seedling trays, foam starter trays and covers (this took a few hours)
-Transplanting 60 too-big seedlings to individual, four inch trays
-Starting new seedlings, once the trays were dry. I think I started 420 seeds, each individually placed today. Maybe more. Tomorrow I will do about the same amount.

In the middle of all this, the power went out in the greenhouse during lunch, meaning when I got BACK to the greenhouse just before 1 it was close to 100 degrees in there. The whole system is automated based on temperature, so if it's hotter than 65 degrees, the windows automatically open. If it's colder than 60 degrees, the heater kicks in. Very cool. Except when the power goes out.

I also had visits from just about everyone on the ranch today, including Mitch and Alice, and all had their own requests and priorities. I'm trying to make all those "priorities" work well together and make sense, making my OWN priority list.

Indy got to spend the day with me in the Greenhouse - it was a perfect sun-bathing day for him in there. This afternoon the sun finally came out and about 2pm it was really comfortable for me to walk around outside of the greenhouse in just my long sleeved shirt! Then the wind kicked up and it was jacket time again.

We had an INCREDIBLE dinner last night and lunch today, all cooked for us by the awesome, awesome guest chef Anthony. Dinner last night was a four course meal - I could eat EVERYTHING from each of the three courses, and THEN, he prepared me my own special Erin-friendly dessert. :) Lunch today was delicious again. And I think we're having some kind of pork for dinner tonight. MMMMMMMM!!!!!!

I am so exhausted, I hope I don't fall asleep in my food tonight!

Sorry for the lack of photos today. I seem to have misplaced my camera. Will find it soon. :)