A few matters to update for the sake of record keeping.

We were awake all night, last night, with a strong wind coming straight at us. Winds here can be loud and it is hard to sleep ‘cause in the back of your head you are wondering if a tree is going to come down on your head. It can be disconcerting. It seems to me that we always have wind issues in March.

The rain catchment system is now closed due to the arrival of pollen season. The storage tanks are at 7600 out of a possible 8200 gallons. We can continue to pump every day from the well for our day to day needs and hope there will be some rainy days in the late spring to fill the tanks when we open the system again.

The trees which we took down over the winter are now all bucked, split and stacked in the wood shed. We had a burn pile today to clean up the mess left behind by the splitter so the property is looking nice and tidy. Unfortunately the sheds aren’t full and we will still need to murder a couple more trees. E’s back is on a temporary work stoppage so it will be April before we do any more work on the firewood project. We have enough wood, I should think, for next winter, and the winter after that, but it is always preferable to have a few years worth in the wood bank.

This is my first planting season with an actual functioning greenhouse and I was thrilled to discover that it was eight degrees when I went up at 9 am and warmed quickly to 30 degrees C by 11am.

I planted a lot of my seeds. 16 Red Peppers (two types), 8 Green Peppers, 20 San Marzano tomatoes, 8 Lemon Boy tomatoes, 27 Bobcat tomatoes, 16 Plum Regal tomatoes, 15 Big Beef tomatoes, 10 Granadaro tomatoes, 16 Celebrity tomatoes, 6 Orange Pear cherry tomatoes, and 8 Heinz tomatoes.

I also planted 8 red cabbage seeds. The lettuce and spinach are started in a big planter, I have carrots growing and the peas are in the ground.

My experiment with growing roses is looking very optimistic, which will be absolutely amazing. I spent a fortune last year on a few gorgeous rose varieties and if I can grow a whole bunch of them successfully, I will be a happy woman.

I am thinking of charging $2 per one gallon pot for the tomatoes. Just enough to pay for the seeds and potting soil, but I have no idea if anyone wants them. It will be another experiment. If the roses work I might be able to sell them too. I imagine it likely I will be sitting here surrounded by tons of pots of tomatoes that no one wants, looking for more canning jars and recipes for tomato jam. If no one wants them, its fine. I just will plant what I need next year..

Last year, I swore I would plant no more than 10 tomatoes but with all the varieties on hand I just can’t help myself. I am thinking of using 31 of the 126 tomato plants myself. E can see us using the harvest from 31 tomatoes. Who doesn’t like Salsa?

I mentioned to E that I am going to keep four of the eight red cabbage planted and maybe four of the eight planned Brussel sprouts. I lost his support at that point. He considers four of anything cabbage related,

four too many