Bored Silly

[jal_ut]

Here I sit playing with the computer. I have this box of seeds sitting here and I want to be out planting them. It is 30 degrees and there is a foot of snow on my garden plot.... and more storm coming.

I wanna see this:

[imafan26]

You get a lot done during your short growing season. What do you usually do when you get snowed in. Do you have any other hobbies to keep you occupied on snow days?

[jasonvanorder]

I know the feeling. We havent had hardly any snow this year. About 2 weeks ago we got a storm that dumped about a foot but that all melted already. It sucks looking out at the garden and not being able to get out there and do anything

[digitS']

I have been trying to stay fit and healthy through what has really turned into the off-season. I'm very active 6 months out of the year. Physically and for about 4 months, I've got next to nothing going on.

For several years, I had Miranda on teevee every morning and I was doing stretching exercises. Great! Last winter, she was a no show. I tried getting out for a walk every day and that worked fairly well in the 2014-15 winter. More snow and ice beginning in November, this time around. I started walking in the house. Oh, yeah!

My indoor "lap" is 88'. Times 60 ... 5,280'. I walk an "Indoor Mile." The important thing is that it takes me about 30 minutes. I'm lame but I walk faster outdoors and a little further. But, I use a cane out there and there is a more interesting environment. The minimum of 30 minutes the health care people tell us is important. That and a sustained pulse rate.

My pulse doesn't need to be racing and neither do I. At my age, the chart says anything above 104 indicates cardio exercise. Above 130, I die ...! Anyway, I have to do a little more than a stroll. I should carry pompoms! Yeah! Arm lifts every few yards on my Indoor Mile and I can hit about any pulse rate I choose! It is very consistent to the number of times I lift my arms - got one of those strap-on, pulse-reading watches.

Recently, I've added about 10 minutes of stretching exercises before starting the Indoor Mile. I know all those, they get me started off better, and I feel better for doing them.

Anyway, I've been able to get out more lately both to walk (a little further - with a little more speed - but no pompoms ) and to get a little work done. DD has me building a fence in her backyard. That's how I knew that the stretching exercises were needed. The snow in my yard, after being around from all the way back in November, finally melted last week.

Steve

[Gary350]

I know the feeling that is why I moved south 40 years ago winter was too long, I could not stand being a prisoner in the house. I am an outside person. Even now I am looking for things to do.

[Peter1142]

Start some alliums! Artichokes too.

It is definitely looking like an early Spring, I even did some gardening last weekend, I can't wait any longer and am starting my broccoli, cauliflower, and peppers this weekend. I put out some sheet plastic to warm the soil, as this has been the least snowy winter I can remember and there isn't a drop out there.

[jal_ut]

imafan26: "Do you have any other hobbies to keep you occupied on snow days?"

I am an Amateur Radio Operator. I do spend some time with the radios. I also keep bees and do spend some time nailing bee frames together.

Doesn't look like early Spring here. Its snowing again today!

[sweetiepie]

HaHa, I am like the opposite. Even though we have snow on the ground still, all I can see is spring coming to fast. I am not ready. I kind of like having some breathing space in my routine.

I still have my bars of soap I made to turn into laundry soap so it lasts the year.
Potatoes to start canning and dehydrating before they go bad. Two Quilts to finish up before this weekend when my sewing table will be taken over with 3 incubators of eggs. So in a few weeks I will have chicks to tend with. In a month I will have calves on the ground and I start milking again. Today I got carried away and planted way too many hot peppers but so many kinds to choose from, I just couldn't do it. So my house will again soon be full of plants.

I always invision sitting by the fire, with hot chocolate and a good book. But winter needs to be longer for that to happen.

[applestar]

It's true, there are some things you can only do in wintertime.

For me indoor gardening in the winter keeps the dul drums away and I'm always experimenting -- it's not always about the harvest. During winter, I can also grow sprouts and mushrooms, though I'm way too busy to grow mushrooms this year. (My outside shiitake logs are showing some signs of stirring, though.... )

[digitS']

... I always invision sitting by the fire, with hot chocolate and a good book. But winter needs to be longer for that to happen.

I have had much too much time, sitting and looking out the window.

After a couple of days off, I will be back in DD's yard, building the fence. I'm happy about that. Maybe I can finish this week. Not to be finished but to have accomplished something ...

Steve

[jal_ut]

so...... I went out and took a pic of the moon. 2/22/2016

[applestar]

Nice! I saw that moon high up through an overcrowded window of overwintering plants (seed-grown Mango tree). Condensation made it hard to see but I was wondering if it was a full moon.

[Gary350]

I can hardly wait to plant the garden but I find lots of things to do when I am a prisoner in the house during bad weather. I love to cook and try new recipes. I often make home made lye soap I actually like this soap much better than factory soap. I use to make lots of red wine but now I buy wine at the store. I use to fly model airplanes summer and winter no matter how cold it was. I use to race go karts that was a summer thing. We are signed up at the senior center to learn oil painting next week. I use to help Grandmother make quilts and Alice likes quilts so we are signed up at the senior center to learn quilt making in a few weeks. The senior center has lots of fun things to do. Alice wants to sign us up for Ball Room Dancing, I bet that will make a funny video for YouTube, LOL. We love to go camping year round but not so much in 100 degree weather. I like to build electronic projects. I use to build computers 10 years ago. I have been cutting trees and trimming bushes for 2 weeks I work all day and get about 1 hours work done, I am slow these days. I painted almost the whole house during the past 6 months and repaired 11 windows and 4 doors. We had new carpet put in the living room after the new paint. I need to put laminate floor in the hallway but that might need to be next winter project. I replaced 2 light fixtures and put up a ceiling fan. I bought a vintage 1964 camper trailer and restored it. I talk to people on several other forums. I use to do amateur radio about 45 years ago. I build bicycles and ride bicycles, I often ride 20 to 30 miles a day. I often ride my bike to the mail box because I have trouble walking that far these days. I stay busy and have FUN I refuse to give in to old age. When garden season is hear all projects go on hold, garden and camping are top priority. Nice photo of the moon, I have not seen the moon in a while too many clouds and rain here. Yes it looks like an early spring all the birds returned 2 weeks ago.

[imafan26]

A bad day here is when it rains too hard to even think about going out. I would be really hard for me to be stuck in the house for longer than that. Even worse to have to close the windows and doors.

Winter clothing is an extra blanket, a few long sleeved shirts, sweats, socks, a jacket, and an umbrella.

[Allyn]

In 2007 I was living in Boston and I decided I was tired of playing "Which mound of snow is my car?" Up north, you know the game -- when you go out to where you parked your car and all you see are rows of giant white lumps. One of them is your car. Do you remember where you parked? And while you're digging out said car, the snowplow comes by and negates about an hour's worth of hard work.

So I moved south in 2008 and never looked back. (Okay, I do look back; I still have family up north.) So no freezing weather anymore (people here panic if the temperature drops down to freezing and even the hint of snow automatically closes all the schools in the tri-country area) but the summers are oppressively hot and humid.

Over the weekend, I set out tomatoes, leaf and head lettuce, pole beans, spinach, parsley, par-cel, bell peppers and honeydew. Yesterday, I picked ripe tomatoes off the plants that muddled through the winter. Right now, I have the front door open with a fan blowing and I'm contemplating what seeds to start next. I'm thinking more lettuce, cucumbers, corn and okra.

Can you enjoy my gardening vicariously through me or am I just rubbing your nose in it?

[imafan26]

While I don't think I would want to live anywhere that is black and white for several months of the year and not be able to go outside and garden, I do have to admit James home is beautiful in its own way and I can enjoy it and still stay warm. He's got all that land and the mountains and when he does get to garden, he gets so much out of it.

[digitS']

No, it's Imafan doing the rubbing. NO! I'm kidding .

What we are doing for her is making her happy she lives in Hawaii. I'd probably like to live in Hawaii. I've never been there. Been to Biloxi, that coast is lovely or was before Katrina. Would probably like to live in Tahiti or Fiji ... no, no. Not Fiji today ...

Need to open a vent on the greenhouse, soon. Yesterday was a good example of a day I could have gotten into trouble if it was March instead of February. It was in the 30's, cloudy and windy right up until 2pm. Then, the clouds disappeared - blue sky and sunshine!

I was 20 miles away by 11 but it was really, unpleasantly cold when we left! By the time I was back home at about 4:30, the greenhouse was very warm! Still, everything is right down on the ground and I knew that the plants were not suffering.

It's still winter but about a month from now and with seedlings of all sorts by then, I will hardly feel that I can leave the yard !

Steve

[imafan26]

You're right. I unhappily pay the paradise tax to live here.

[jasonvanorder]

Well by morning my bare exposed garden plot will no longer be taunting me as we have another 6-10 inches of snow coming today. I try to stay busy and the kids certainly help with that. The last couple years I have been a Cadet leader at church so that takes up a bit of time. Maybe once the kids are older and out of school we will make the move south and will be able to work outside all year long.

[erins327]

OH my, I always enjoy Jal_ut pics of his garden. Sigh, I wanna be jal_ut when I grow up.

[jal_ut]

Pickin ripe tomatoes? I love it!

Here 27 degrees, clear blue skies and sunshine, a foot of snow on the ground. No bees flying! The forecast is for 5 more days of the same.

[sweetiepie]

We are expected to have the same. It is nice that the days are getting longer and the sun is getting more intense. My son everyday after school is busy scrappy off more ice and snow around his basketball hoop, in hopes he will get a big enough space cleared off to play soon. So even he is getting impatient. Even in the 20's the snow is melting a little if the sun comes out.

[ButterflyLady29]

We're almost at 60 today, but it's supposed to snow tomorrow.

I had set my orchids outside so they could get a shower. The clouds parted and we had beautiful blue sky and sunshine. So I moved the orchids into the shade and uncovered the woodpile. Then it clouded up and started to rain again. Sigh. So now I guess I'll clean off my shelf and get some pepper seeds started inside.

[applestar]

Hang in there, all you folks in the north and higher elevations! It will be time to start *something* soon! I've been at it since late January, but I guess this is still couch gardening/planning/dreaming time for you.

At this point, I have all my peppers started -- or so I'm telling myself -- "no more peppers!"

Now I get to to start the slower growing dwarf and very late maturing indeterminate tomatoes

This winter is very hard to read. Today, with lingering effects of those big storm systems that came up from the south and passed over us last night, we are warmer as of this morning (53°F) than most of the rest of the U.S.... Even parts of Florida and Texas! All that cold will probably wash over us in the next few days if the typical weather pattern still holds.

[Gary350]

[erins327]

Here in Texas I am having the opposite problem! It finally 'dipped' down to a night of 40s and a high of 60s this week, but for awhile there we were 80s during the day. My arugula bolted, by broccoli and brussel sprouts are doing fine, but are not sweet at all. Not as appetizing as they have been in previous years.

My beginner gardening friends keep thinking now is the time to put in tomatoes with this weather. However I keep telling them to hold out! Still too soon! Our frost date isnt over for another couple of weeks! However, I might be wrong this El Nino Winter.....

My local nursery already has tomatoes and peppers for sale. People are snatching them up. I don't have room in the garden quite yet anyways. The next couple of weeks will be very interesting.....

[jal_ut]

We have had beautiful blue skies all day, a foot of snow on the ground and 37 degrees. Ol' Man Winter doesn't want to let go.

[ButterflyLady29]

Been snowing all day here. No accumulation because the temps are still barely above freezing but that will change after sunset.

Oh well, I got a nice container from Cheryl's cookies that should be perfect for starting a few seeds. And I have cuttings to take and root and bulbs to plant.

[Gary350]

After 5 days of dark gray cloudy skies and 30 degrees the sun is up today and it looks nice. I have a test seed flower pot with 8 yr old blue lake bush bean plants 8" tall and skinny, they need sun light and probably fertilizer too, they wont do well in this pot I just wanted to see if the seeds would grow. We have 3 days of 67 degree temps and SUN on the way. It snowed here a little yesterday. Potatoes are in a bucket of potting soil in the house I want the eyes to sprout before they go to the garden.

I wish all my yard grass would die, there is a lot of time wasted mowing the grass. If I had a tractor with a tiller I would till the whole yard once a week and not have grass. It would be nice to plant the whole yard in wild flowers.

[Peter1142]

No snow here. Very unusual. I am going outside and sowing some spinach and mustard greens today. Also starting all my brassicas indoors for the early Spring. I could probably get away with direct sowing outdoors now. Next weekend sweet peppers. I have artichokes and onions and leeks going on indoors. I can't wait to try these new heat tolerant early Hestia brussels sprouts I just purchased for late Spring harvest. Brand new AAS winner.

[jal_ut]

Beautiful clear blue sky. Not a cloud in sight. 41 degrees. A foot of snow on the ground. That bright sun on the white snow is blinding. The snow doesn't seem to be melting. The forecast doesn't show much change in the next week.