A Return to the Grind

After a big party weekend, it feels good to be getting back to the grind. I've missed the grind. The grind is good.

We're in 'leftovers' mode here at the run, trying desperately to use up the leavings from our party this weekend...the food was so good there's no way I'm letting it go to waste! Someone is going to benefit from it, even if it's just the chicky-bits! So on the menu for the next few days is smoked turkey and beef brisket...ala turkey pot pie, beef brisket hash, turkey and gravy, beef hoagies. I love the challenge!

We're also in preservation mode...I have a bushel of apples that froze solid during our last cold snap...they taste great, but the texture is awful, so sauce it is! We've run out of strawberry preserves, so I'll be hard at work jellying too. I have a gallon bag of mushy, overly ripe strawberries that I popped in the freezer last year; perfect for preserves! It's sounding like a full day already.

But I have made some great accomplishments today....all my herb seeds are sown. They're placed in their little toilet paper cups, lovingly lined with lint from the dryer to keep the soil from falling out. The lint also holds onto moisture beautifully, so they don't dry out nearly as quickly. After they're sown, they're placed into their little trays and popped up on top of the furnace trunk line for about a week, give or take. The extra warmth really seems to speed up the germination. After a week, they're under the grow lights with all their kith & kin. Today we planted parsley, rosemary, dill, thyme, sage, oregano, 6 or 7 kinds of basil and a few other herbs I'm surely forgetting. So yes, a productive day already.

Next up on the planting front; tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant and peppers! But not for a week or so; there's only so much room up on the trunk lines. Surely it's a sign of good things to come that my little basement grow-room is so full of seedlings already. So remind me; how many days til spring???