Orchard House Farm: March 2015

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Sweet Peas

Happy Spring, everyone! Here come the sweet peas for the season. We may have... MAY have gone a bit overboard.

How many do we have here, six different varieties? I lost count after Jess dumped them all out of her shoe box full of seeds.

Okay, step one was to soak the seeds - a sopping wet paper napkin on a plate does nicely. (Although it takes up your entire kitchen counter space.)

After a couple of days (it probably says 24 hours on the packet but we left them longer,) they start to look like this:

Jess pulled the weeds and added compost. We made two rows and added the seeds.

Added water:

And if they are anything like this freakish moonflower that we started by seed, these sweet peas will be popping up any day now!!

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Sometimes if the day promises to not be I-Want-To-Cry-Busy, I take the boy to work with me. We get a nice walk/fetch/play session in before I have to work for a few hours, and then another break an hour or so before lunch. (At lunch, I usually take him home.)

Frosty morning fetch.

Practicing directionals :)

For extra fun, we go to Sky Nursery at break time.

Everyone, I believe it's springtime.

Ohhhhh, the sea of ranunculus!

Jack posing with his Easter Bunny friends.

At lunch. "Hey, you going to eat that?"

And So It Begins...

We have 50 tomato starts. We are crazy people.

Our dining room table, which, let's be honest, was a giant shelf in our living room before tomato season, has been pushed against the window and is now covered in plants.

We start the season with Jess pulling out box after box of seed packets. Some are Ziploc bags with the name of some beloved plant printed across the plastic in sharpie. Some are brand new packets of favorites. Some are old, open bags of seeds we've used before (fingers crossed that they germinate.)

We prep the seed trays by mixing the seed starting soil with water in one of our big baking bowls (I already said we're weird.) Once it's an appropriate consistency, in go the teeny tiny seeds!

Here's our finished tray.

After a few days on the heat mat and under the grow light.

And, after a few more days. I feel like Gollum in Lord of the Rings. MY PRECIOUS.

We started begonias too.

Jess did all of the weeding and prepping out here. I was busy getting rained on at SAR training. Isn't it magnificent?

Ready to go!!!

Nora is helping. Really.

These peas don't have a home yet. Or do they? You know who you are. :)

Ranunculus.

Hyacinth.

Strawberries. We are also growing by seed but the starts are so tiny I couldn't get a photo.

Arizona Trip

I took a very brief trip to Arizona to wish my mom a happy birthday. My brother, his girlfriend, and their dog, Romeo, made the trip via car (bless them) and I flew down early in the morning.

Sometimes I feel a bit like a single mom - deprived of "grown up time" and the vacations a lot of friends my age seem to be taking every five minutes. While part of me does feel sad that I don't actually travel a ton anymore, I wouldn't change a thing.

Still, thanks to Jess for watching Jack for me for a night so I could reawaken my plane riding skills.

Fun fact: my hatred of flying didn't go away. Take off still feels like certain death. Especially in the dead of pre-dawn morning. The sunrise couldn't be prettier though (well, maybe from the ground.)

I got into Phoenix right around 0900, and had a great glimpse of the baseball park just before we landed. That's what retirement is for, by the way, season passes to Mariners Spring Training.

Once my brother and his girlfriend finally met up with me, we drove to Mom and Dad's house and rang the doorbell. We had devised a plan to have Romeo sitting by the door but suffice it to say, his obedience level compounded by the 23 hour car ride made things difficult. He was happy to see Grandma and Grandpa though.