stubbed toes and mud pies

[flowerbug]

it started off with foggy weather this morning but it cleared up and was fairly warm and not too windy which means i got out for a walk. it has probably been 6 months or longer since i managed to do that. a quick 1 mile walk to the corner and back.

there was plenty of water running off the fields and into the ditches with the snow mostly being gone now (rather fast with the rains and warmth of the past several days).

 

[flowerbug]

a bit of snow shovelling today. mainly because i didn't want the packed down snow from where Mom had driven on it to get turned into ice so i wanted to get that scraped off the top part of the driveway before it gets colder again.

the wind and cold wasn't too bad and the exercise and fresh air was good for me.

we're due for more of the same this coming week but we don't have to go anywhere for a few days so it doesn't matter that much.

the sun is sort of trying to come out now but it won't get above freezing today.

 

[flowerbug]

@Marie2020 don't be sad, i really don't mind winter that much, sure being cold isn't great but we do have heat and i know how to deal with being outside in the cold weather and all that. i lived much further north in much worse weather than what we get here and it is pretty mild in comparison.

 

[flowerbug]

made good progress on bean sorting this evening.

 

[Dahlia]

a bit of snow shovelling today. mainly because i didn't want the packed down snow from where Mom had driven on it to get turned into ice so i wanted to get that scraped off the top part of the driveway before it gets colder again.

the wind and cold wasn't too bad and the exercise and fresh air was good for me.

we're due for more of the same this coming week but we don't have to go anywhere for a few days so it doesn't matter that much.

the sun is sort of trying to come out now but it won't get above freezing today.

It has been just lovely weather here. Just like spring! Sunny and warm which is really crazy for January.

 

[Marie2020]

made good progress on bean sorting this evening.

I'm getting into runner and broad beans this year. Fingers

 

[flowerbug]

first sort is done. that means all the clunkers are picked out and in the bags with the pods that will get buried in the spring.

it also means that any odd beans or interesting beans that i'm interested in possibly growing again are picked out and in containers that are marked for replanting. some of these containers will need further sorting and combining with other similar beans.

i have not sorted further than that but tomorrow i will be someplace with a nice big table and plenty of light for a few hours...

the few lbs of Purple Dove beans (i may eventually eat some of them) need some work yet to get a little bit of chaff removed, but i may not do any of that until after i plant as many of them as i can this coming spring (as whatever gets planted it doesn't matter if there is a bit of chaff still on them). the general idea is to plant as many of these beans as possible so i can find yet more crosses. they are emergency food if needed, but i have some other Purple Dove beans from other gardens that i've already shelled, sorted and cleaned up enough that they can be eaten.

 

[flowerbug]

now that we are a few months past when i didn't replace the worm buckets in my room and we're starting to get some food scraps again Mom finally asked me what i was doing with them. she was worried about there being bugs in them or if they would rot.

um, no, not too many (and in fact a huge number less than what i had in this room before ) and they are all dried by the forced air furnace vent so they are crispy - they won't be rotting in here.

what will happen (this i told her) is that this coming warm weather when i can get outside and work on getting gardens ready i can put this stuff in gardens to give the worms something to munch on.

they would, in the past, have most of these scraps pre-digested and ready to go by the time planting comes around. now they'll have several months out in the gardens to munch which will be better for the garden soil because any amounts of energy and chemicals that may have gotten away via the air from the buckets will be used by the wider soil community.

i'm not sure how this compares to what might be lost via rains or other things like birds eating the worms and then pooing someplace other than a garden. it may in the end be a wash or a loss. would be hard to get any realistic experiment set up to measure this kind of thing too... what you would have to do is watch and take good notes and remember how things used to look and then also how things go after you've made the change.

it should be interesting no matter what.

 

[Marie2020]

first sort is done. that means all the clunkers are picked out and in the bags with the pods that will get buried in the spring.

it also means that any odd beans or interesting beans that i'm interested in possibly growing again are picked out and in containers that are marked for replanting. some of these containers will need further sorting and combining with other similar beans.

i have not sorted further than that but tomorrow i will be someplace with a nice big table and plenty of light for a few hours...

the few lbs of Purple Dove beans (i may eventually eat some of them) need some work yet to get a little bit of chaff removed, but i may not do any of that until after i plant as many of them as i can this coming spring (as whatever gets planted it doesn't matter if there is a bit of chaff still on them). the general idea is to plant as many of these beans as possible so i can find yet more crosses. they are emergency food if needed, but i have some other Purple Dove beans from other gardens that i've already shelled, sorted and cleaned up enough that they can be eaten.

Are these the purple long beans, like green beans? I grew those once.

I don't know what they are called here

 

[flowerbug]

Are these the purple long beans, like green beans? I grew those once.

I don't know what they are called here

they are purple, but they're not really long.