Cindy’s Blog

Here’s another view of the daffodils, this time taken with better lighting.

The tiny little green things in the foreground are calla lillies that are just starting to come up again after having been killed off in the last frost. Between the calla lillies and daffodils is an area where sugar pumpkins will grow in a few months. I plan to fill in all the bare areas with pumpkins.

Here’s a shot of our house, showing how we tight-pack our cars to fit into the small length of street in front.

Does it ever look tiny. But, like Dr. Who’s space capsule, it looks much bigger inside.

Brandywine tomatoes, onions and marigolds have all been started and have popped their little heads out of their dixie cups. Photos of that later. I’ve learned that if you’re going to use dixie cups and keep them close together in their trays, you need to take steps to prevent the growth of mold on the outside of the cups. I had just read that fungi dislike alkali conditions so I rubbed baking soda on the outsides of every cup. It’s been 4 or 5 days now and the mold hasn’t returned.

It was warm for a few days last week and I captured daffodils in bloom.

On the needles…
I’m working on sweater #22 from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2000. It has holes made by picking up a stitch, then increasing on one side and decreasing on the other as you knit. Here’s a swatch:

I needed to make a large swatch to be sure I had the technique for those holes down before starting the front. It took multiple tries.

I was so happy to see on a local garden store website that it’s time to start plants from seed. I’ve wasted no time buying them.

Watermelon, chocolate cherry sunflowers, marigolds, brandywine tomatoes, cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, torpedo onions, sugar pumpkins (for the front yard) and atlantic giant pumpkins. This year I hope to be more organized and have my own starts ready so I don’t have to buy any.

I found a copy of Rodale’s “Feed Your Soil” booklet, which gives wonderful discussions of how to improve your soil. One technique I’m trying now is crimson clover cover crop.

Now that it’s getting warmer, the clover is growing much faster. I’m hoping it will be as good as adding compost. The bricks are to block the hole the rabbits dug to get into the restricted clover feasting area. I pulled weeds out of it today and gave those to them - such good little weed eaters.

When it’s either a hematoma or a muscle tear. When I heard that the doctor said this I thought he had to be wrong. But after realizing that he must do a hundred hernia operations/year, I’ve concluded that he must know what he’s talking about.

The doctor’s suggestion was to not lift such heavy weights but that’s not an option. But now that my son of iron breathes while he works out it’s not a problem anymore.

Fred’s attacks on Ed have been relentless. In their last battle, he ripped a piece of Ed’s ear off. That was the last straw. He earned himself a place in the hutch for that. I hate to do it, but I can’t have them killing each other one body part at a time.

One of my coworkers suggested that we rename Fred, Mike. Actually she suggested I name him George after George Foreman. Neither of us knows much about boxers. Garrison provided enlightenment about who bit off his opponent’s ear.

The odd thing about this is that ever since Fred took up residence in the hutch, Ed has been climbing up onto the box that’s next to it and looking in. What is he thinking? That he’s glad it’s Fred and not him in there? Is he wondering how his brother is doing? Does he miss him? He does this quite frequently.

A few days ago we decided to get on it about arranging Garrison’s housing at Chico. Everyone says to sign up for dorms now to have an early selection. Chico’s guidelines say that the first step is to give them a $1000 housing down payment. We paid online. Then I went on to step two - signing the housing agreement. You’d think that payment - contract - choose-a-dorm would be the exact opposite order of events, but not so. As I looked the agreement over I wondered why it said Spring 2007 so I looked at the receipt I printed. Sure enough, I made an initial payment for the Spring 2007 semester when obviously he’s not there.

I called them the next day to tell them that he starts in the fall and I made an online payment already.

“Oh, you can’t do that yet. We’re not set up yet.”

But I did. They said they would hold it for me. I’m quite sure we’re the first parents of a Fall 2007 freshman to make our initial payment.

I suggested that they update their application to catch people trying to make payments for semesters when they’re not there. She insisted that that wasn’t possible. I know she’s saying that only because she works in finance and doesn’t know. I doubt my suggestion went anywhere. As a Dilbert cartoon said, applications should be easy enough that hamsters can use them.