New Year of 2018

Hello and welcome to my 2018 blog posts!
We've had an interesting few months so let me catch you up.
1. First and foremost we had to say goodbye to The WOF. She developed a rare type of skin cancer. We tried several treatments but weren't going to do anything too extreme due to her age. It eventually caught up with us so we made the call and stayed with her for the last moments. She was with us a long, long time and I have to admit it was one of the hardest things to do. But she's better off now.
2. Christmas: My sister, niece and her husband spent the holidays with us. We had a good time although interesting for the cat as two new dogs were traveling with them. They left on Christmas Day back for WV. December 26th I got the same virus I had the previous year. On the couch for three days before I was able to move again. I didn't wait this time and sought our treatment from the emergency room. A long wait later and I had a few meds but not anything over the top. I made it to work that Friday, the same day my boss made it back in from his illness. As of today I'm still on the mend with a bit of a cough and congestion. Trying a few new OTC meds now and they seem to be helping. Hopefully get through this soon.
3. First snow of 2018. I drove into it in South Carolina. I was coming up from Alabama at the time. Took me 12 hours total for a 9 hour drive. People in the south can't drive in snow.
4. New WOF. Much to Amy's hesitation I had to have another WOF in the house. Her name is Bailey. She's a 6 year old lab mix we rescued from the SPCA. She and the cat are having their rounds but I think they'll slowly work it out. I saw her on our local county animal control website early Thursday morning, called 3 times before I got through to someone. We went over her history and I told them my son would be around after lunch to check her out. He calls me and says that the dog was moved. We found her at the neighboring county SPCA so I spent Friday afternoon tracking her down and finally got her. She looks like she has part greyhound or whippet in her. She has seemed to taken over the WOF torch for the farm.

Well that's the Cliff notes version. As far as the garden this year I still have to repair/replace the garden beds and plan everything out for this year. Tomorrow I plan on testing some seeds I saved from last year. More on that Monday. Also have a list of things we need to get updated around the house. We've lived here since 2012 and haven't done any updating so now it's time.

Quick post so I'll see you soon.

Miss Bailey.

Im memory of The WOF.

Sick Day 2

Well it's day two of my home vacation for the flu. Actually starting to feel better this evening so it looks like work tomorrow. Wah....

I did spend some time today dragging down the light stand from the attic and setting it up. I need to make the legs a little longer because last year the plants grew higher than I expected. Anyway I started some celery seeds today, 18 cells of them. So I got those and the onions under the lights now.

I worked more on the building this past Sunday getting the top cap on and a few trusses. It goes slow due to having to build the trusses as I go. Making progress though and hope to have a roof on it real soon. After it got dark I finished trimming out the last window in the garage.

We are all about sauces at the homestead. There's one shelf of the refrigerator dedicated to various bbq sauces; standard, vinegar- based, wing sauces, etc. Well we stumbled onto a new wing sauce in the store and found it to have the best taste without being too hot. Who knew they made sauces now?

Ebay find. Thought it was cool and was dirt cheap to get. I put these items on the garage wall since I don't like the term "man cave" and I refuse to have one. I cringe every time I hear that on TV. 

Another thing I did yesterday was get all of the seed packets out and make a chart of dates as to when to start them as transplants or sow outside, plus anticipated harvest dates. Didn't realize I had so many seeds. Dumb Excel sheet but worked well enough for me and it now hangs on the fridge for EVERYONE in the house to look at and help.

These are thanks to our new printer, one that isn't Ukrainian, Russian, whatever. The old one is here. Printed these out then scanned them as a jpeg. Blogger is picky. 

Well, of to do a few other things then bed early as sleep has sucked these past few days. 

WOF of the Week. Pretty much how The Wife and I have felt.

Sick Day

Well it seems that the flu bug going around has finally caught up with me. Not too bad this morning but driving to work didn't seem possible and from my understanding it gets worse before it gets better. So here I sit on the couch waiting for The Wife to bring me some medicine and blogging to you.
Building on my last post I wonder what 2014 will hold for out half acre? A few things have already been put into motion since that last post. A) Since the oldest boy will be going on deployment sometime soon my daughter in law will be staying with us during that duration. Love to have her around. B) My Wife's brother and his wife are looking for work down our way so they can get out of Dayton, OH. This means that they will be visiting sometime very soon too. He has an interview, then my mother in law and his wife will be staying and looking through the area to see if they like it. And if they do move to The Sandhills I believe my father and mother in law will move this way as well. All of this is fine as we've been in NC since 2005 with literally no family near us; be nice to have a helping hand :)
And with that knowledge let me look ahead into the crystal ball.......
1. By the previous post my "To Do" list is somewhat large so I know that will keep me busy.
2. With the completion of the outbuilding in the near future I am going to install a large water storage tank and hope to do the watering for a lot of the garden that way. Get rainfall from the building's roof.
3. I am also going to get a couple of compost bins going as I am probably the only gardener within 100 miles that doesn't have one. Hey give me a break; you did my list from last year right?
4. Seriously considering getting rid of the Directv in June when our contract is up. I am to the point of watching only a few shows and I think you can view those online now with one of those cheap services.
5. I am also thinking of getting rid of my smart phone and going back to an old flip phone. I need to keep one but it is burdensome with all of the emails and such.
6. I was going to say that I needed to get off line more but I'm not really on it much now. I have a Facebook account and a Twitter account but I usually use them just to see what others are doing. Still I need to limit these activities.
7. Stay home more. I need to make a concentrated effort to stay in town instead of traveling so much.
8. Blog more. I am not sure how some people can do 200 or more posts in a year. I did 85 last year and I thought that was good. Guess I had better step it up.
9. Read a few books. I used to love reading but it seems I have given that up. Being the geek that I am I read a lot of the Star Trek pocket books. Actually the last book I read was one of those books. Maybe I'll get back into them again.

That's my quick list. Now I'm going to peruse all of the seed packets that have come in a make a final plan today of what needs to go where.

Sick Days

We all have them from time to time. Everyone has taken a day off because the 'give-a-shit' meter was running really low. I'm actually ill today. Woke up dead tired with chills and a headache. The wife had similar thing last week and it has made it's way through part of my office too. I'm not taking chances with this although I don't like missing work as I get behind so fast. I do have a work laptop and will get to using it in a minute, but in the mean time I'll bore you with another post.

Found out today the Home, Hot Tub, and Landscape show is this coming weekend in Raleigh. May cruise up to it and see the newest wares.

Got a lot of the cups washed and ready for transplants.

And the seedlings are ready to be transplanted. The top one is The Boy's and he is excited about their growth. I am somewhat amazed myself. 

Here's a shot of the sweet basil I've got going, in two pots.

The peppers are going slowly, except for one California Wonder pepper. It's the only one out of the 12 that I started that seems to have any ambition to grow. The Yolo in back and the Hot Salsa Mix in front are doing pretty good. 

So if I can stand it, we will be doing transplanting tonight plus I need to start some more seeds for other folks and get the parsley going too. Maybe if I'm up to it I may post later. Or I might be able to con The Wife in to it. She's better at this stuff than I am anyway. Pictures and writing is what I meant. Anything plant she touches seems to wither away and die. Maybe out of fright. :)