Bogieblog

Thrilled

I was thrilled this afternoon to find a note from Cpl. Blondie in my mailbox. I had sent her a book that was on her wish list last month and didn't really think much past that. I never expected to hear from Cpl. Blondie, because she has much more important things on her mind at this time, It just made my day when I read her note and was impressed with Sgt. Mom because she had obviously instilled thoughtfullness and manners into Cpl. Blondie.

The line that got me the most was, "Thank you for supporting me and the other military out here."

No, thank you for being there to defend my family, my country, and my freedoms. It is awe inspiring that you would put your life on the line for me and those that I love. I can't say it enough: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Bike Ride - Not

Weekend Pundit tells of his friends riding their bike this weekend. We can't even think about getting the bike out yet because what isn't still covered by snow pack, is way too muddy to try to navigate through. Jim came up Friday on his bike, but didn't stay long because it is a lot cooler on our ridge than the surrounding areas (you can tell because we still have plenty of snowpack left). Although he had leathers on, and was dressed warmly underneath, it was a bit cool to stay for long - not to mention that the sun would go down in about an hour. We figure the bike won't make it past the ramp to the shed before mid or late April. That is fine, insurance doesn't kick in until the 15th anyway.

Through Snow, Sleet and Freezing Rain

Yesterday it changed between the 3 "bads" of winter; freezing rain to sleet; sleet to snow; snow to sleet; sleet to snow etc., etc. I kept my happy dreams of spring by planting some seeds to start inside (in my dreams, spring does not bring black flies). My hot-pepper plants are always mass producers, so I still have an over-abundance in my freezer. As such, I am breaking with tradition and not growing peppers this year.

I started 7 kinds of tomatoes and 6 types of onions (to go with the frozen peppers to can salsa of course). I also started some chives and lots of leeks. Leeks are great for drying in the dehydrator and using in stews and soups in the winter. In addition I started parsnips, melons, squash and turnips.

Breaking with tradition, this year I decided to start some flowers to in order to populate my containers on the deck railing. I don't really remember all the types of flowers I started except Marigolds were in there. The rest of the plants sport flowers that attract hummingbirds, of which I had one hanging around my deck planters last year.

Even with the greenhouse, I start my seeds inside, put them under grow lights and then after the first transplant, I move them out to the greenhouse. When they go out to the greenhouse, I put down heat mats (thanks mom) beneath the trays and also use a space heater to keep the temperature above 40 degrees. This is a sad year as it will be the last for the greenhouse. It will be torn down because it is so torn up that we are surprised that it hasn't fallen down on its own. It has served us well as a protector for the oil tank, as a catch-all storage unit for the deck furniture, and giving a good start to my garden vegetables. As the greenhouse is attached to the house, we will replace it with a 3 (or 4) season room of sorts. Of course the Wonderful Spouse wants to put in a hot tub, which is not a bad thing - just very expensive.

When we went and picked out the new woodstove, we found that they also dealt in hot tubs. While I was paying for the stove, he wandered out to look at the hot tubs, and managed to fall in love with one of the more expensive models (we have a curse, we both can unerringly pick out the most expensive piece in any store). I told him that he could have it if he built a room for it, so big plans are in the works - in this case, "in the works" means that we have a vague idea that we are going to tear down the greenhouse and build something in its place. Ah well, I wonder if Harry is busy in August.

Eject!Eject!Eject!

Bill Whittle has produced another one of his Excellent Essays. His good stuff is usually long, but well worth the read!

An Early April Fools Day Joke?

With the wonderful weather we have been having, in the 50's for a while, we have had a lot of snow melt. The paths, that we had kept clear, are about 10 feet wide now. The snow that is left is still about 1 1/2 feet deep. So where is the joke?

We are supposed to get snow today, tonight and tomorrow. All told between 5 and 8 inches. We should feel lucky because yesterday's forcast called for snow today through Tuesday. But as of this morning, the weather guessers are saying Tuesday will just be partly cloudy. Guess winter isn't quite ready to give way to spring yet!

Shelves

I got my new shelves packed with books yesterday. Unfortunately, I had one more box of books than I remembered having (a big box too), so I didn't make any headway on emptying out any of my free-standing bookshelves (I have 3). I was hoping to get rid of one of the free-standers because it is pretty rickety. Even with 5 of the shelves double-stacked (the books on the rest of the shelves are too big to double-stack), that isn't going to happen. I did get the stack of boxes in the storage area down to about 1/2 the original size, so that's a good thing!

Harry is going to just freak when he sees the shelves full. Originally his plan was to put in 1 support in the middle of the 10 foot span of shelves. The Wonderful Spouse, knowing me as well as he does, told Harry that there definitely needed to be 2 supports. Harry didn't believe him and asked me; I gave him the same answer as the Wonderful Spouse. He kept telling me the shelves would be plenty strong, with just one support, but I was adament. I think he thought the shelves would be holding books and knick-knacks. I'm sure when he sees what is actually on the shelves, he will agree that 2 supports was the way to go.

Next project that will take 2 years - putting in wood storage cabinets in, where else, the storage area (which is actually in the laundry room). Most of the stuff we have stacked there now is camping equipment, so will never move (except when in use). We don't want to put that stuff in any of the sheds because the mice and chipmunks would have themselves a great time nesting and storing seeds in the camping stuff. At least if we put in storage cabinets, the stack of stuff will be behind doors and not look so messy!

Expanding Star

Greeblie has a cool graphic of an expanding star caught by the Hubble Telescope. He also links to the report from Space.com. Go check it out, it's neat!

Congrats

Congratulations to Jim for finally being admitted to the Emperor's blogroll in the Department of Domestica Affairs. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Friday Five

You may have noticed (or not) that I haven't posted any Friday Five answers in a couple of weeks. That would be because the questions were not my style. However, Venomous Kate did an excellent job of answering this weeks questions. I just wish I were as witty at she!

Am I Chinese?

Don't over analyse this question - just answer it as quickly as possibl.: Which 2 items got together: a panda, a monkey, a banana.

Got your answer, Ok, you can read the rest now.

According to today's print WSJ, Westerners say the panda and monkey go together and Easterners say the monkey and banana go together. Supposedly Westerners group the mammals (or animals) together, and Easterners say the monkey eats the banana so of course they go together. This was supposed to illustrate how the different cultures think differently.

Me, I chose banana and monkey (I got an immediate picture in my head of a monkey peeling a banana - ok, actually it was a gorilla, but let's not quibble). My bet is a lot of my readers chose the same combo that I did. However, maybe not. So leave me a comment to let me know what you picked. Maybe I can get a huge grant to conduct my own study - ha!