respublica

This is not the friendliest March

I am getting frustrated with this weather. We had a mild winter for the most part, but now that it's getting time to get out into the garden, it gets bone chilling. My habit has been to plant potatoes on St. Patrick's Day which is sort of an old tradition. Ireland loves their potatoes so I've tried to go along with this technique. I bought two varieties of seed potatoes on Saturday at the Collinsville Farmers Market. I have the two large flower pots almost ready to put them in and had planned to work up part of the back yard garden today. But I think not.

Planting potatoes in big pots is an amazing way to do it. In the end we just tip over the posts and there come the potatoes. No digging and the best tasting spuds you'll ever eat. I am so ready. I do put extra potatoes in the back garden but that ground is just not ready to be worked.

I am going to clean the pots today and go get potting soil.

 

Garden Hacks

I'm getting itchy to get out in the yard and begin planting. I know it's too soon, but the time has come to consider what we will do this year. So I found  this article interesting. I won't do most of the ideas they give, but I will do some.

I already picked up some seed tape. This is a great way to plant things like radishes and other salad type vegetables. I used the radish and green onion tapes a couple of years ago while at the seminary and it worked really well. Those seeds are so mall this makes it easier to get a balanced crop. Home Depot had them yesterday, not as many choices as I would have liked but did get radishes and a small salad green mix. Just unroll the tape and lay it flat in the ground. Cover it up with soil and walk away. Nice even spacing when they grow.

A Fish Story

The Belleville paper has a list of many Friday Fish Fries going on in the Metro East during this Lenten season. Fish fries are well liked by many people, I may be one of the few people in the world who does not like fish at all. Dale loves fish and I feel sorry for him now and then as I don't fix fish for dinner very often. You can season fish every which way but I still feel like I have a mouth full of spare change. However at this time of year almost every restaurant offers Friday fish. So we are going out to eat tonight so he can get fish and I'll get a burger and fries.

What is eye-opening is the huge number of American Legions and VFW's which have Friday fish. I know from watching our American Legion parking lot across the street is how many people come. You can get fish about any place on Lenten Fridays and Good Friday will be huge for this.

To all here

Wishing you a blessed Christmas. Be safe.

The Hardest Time of the Year

At this moment in time, I get over-wrought trying to get Christmas presents bought, wrapped and delivered. I never seem to feel anything has gone right and it's exhausting. I long for a time when we could just celebrate Christmas with church services and beautiful surroundings. Not the mad dash to get present after present. It's so hard, especially when looking for things to give to friends and relatives with no idea what would be great or thoughtful.

Just let me see the beautiful lights and carols and candles in church. All this rushing and worrying and buying and wrapping is just too much.

Toys to remember

Now this was a fun article. "What was the top holiday toy the year you were born?" I have to point out that the constant use of the word "holiday" for Christmas gets on my nerves and back in most years it was called Christmas toys. But in any event it was fun to scroll through the years to see when toys were popular at Christmas.

My year was Tonka Trucks. What is surprising is how long many of the still popular toys have been around.

Be aware this website is very annoying with moving ads, but really fun to check out.

Tiny Town Time

All of a sudden it's time to get our Christmas Tiny Town out into the yard. But first it is a matter of getting all the parts to the town out of the storage place and checking to see if any repairs are needed. But we did get all the lighted animals home and they are on the front porch waiting to go.

Bird feeding time

All of a sudden it has gotten really cold, kind of unusual for this area. It's not normally in the 20's or low 30's with a bracing wind in November. Too many high winds this fall around here as well. So I've been back to feeding the birds and they seem really appreciative. We began using only hot pepper bird seed last winter and continuing right now. This type of seed is not liked by squirrels but the birds are fine with it. I doubt I'll ever use any other kind.

I've already filled one feeder 3 times in the last ten days so we know it's pretty cold.

Cleaning up

A breaking news story from People Magazine lets us know about an exciting early Amazon Black Friday sale. Of course I looked at this really really early Black Friday thing. Amazon is getting seriously early with this sort of thing which is normally the day after Thanksgiving. And what is the headliner?

Vacuums. They are the focus of this big sale. I mean, seriously, is everyone looking for a new vacuum? Are so many floors in our homes begging to be cleaned? And, who doesn't have a vacuum? We actually have at least 3, one for each floor and a shop vac for the basement and garage.

Here is a vacuum listed as one of the best. The Inse Cordless Cleaner on sale for 99.99 regularly 569.99! What?! That is quite the sale which tells me this may not be the best after all.

Ceiling fans turn two ways

I guess I'm really uninformed on some things and ceiling fans is one of those. I read this morning we should flip a switch on our ceiling fans to counter clockwise in the summer. As I was reading this I looked up to see which way ours was running and it was clockwise.

"In the hottest months of the year you want your fan to cool you. For that to happen, you need your fan to push air down. This downward airflow causes a cooling, wind-chill effect that's perfect for summer."

I bet even Dale did not know this and he is usually pretty up to date on odd stuff like this. we've never flipped our ceiling fan switches ever that I know of. Maybe this is because we didn't know the science or, flipping would mean dragging a ladder into the rooms with ceiling fans. We have one in the family room off the kitchen and another in our bedroom. Both require a ladder to get to the switch.

When he comes up from the basement office I'll spring this new information on him. I have to confess, I do not like sitting in a room with wind blowing on me so I'd be just as happy without a fan going at all.