Seeds on the Way

January 5, 2025

I love planning my garden at this time of year. I was busy ordering seeds online from Southern Seeds, when by chance I looked out my office window on Friday (January 3).

The moon was a beautiful crescent with Venus nearby, brightly shining. I took a picture through my window, then I called out to Bruce so he could see the stunning beauty of the moon and Venus.

We went outside to get a better view. It was beautiful! I didn’t remember to get another picture.

I went back inside and proceeded to order so many seeds. After I finished ordering from Southern Seeds, I headed over to True Leaf Market and ordered more seeds, including crimson clover and buckwheat. I visited TomatoFest and ordered four additional tomato varieties.

Yesterday (Saturday, January 4), Bruce and I finished putting together another tall bed, lined it with chicken wire, put cardboard over the chicken wire, and put several carts of wood into the garden bed.

Our next door neighbor was out on his tractor, digging holes for a new fence while we were working. He stopped by to chat with us. He was curious about what we were doing with the garden beds. We were curious about what he was doing and found out his bull decided two of his fruit trees were delicious, thus the new fence.

I noticed he had used his tractor’s scoop to clean out his barn. I asked him if he’d be willing to sell us some of his manure. He was happy to dump a scoop over the fence for me for free!

After he finished his fence post digging, he dumped a scoop of manure from his barn over the fence for me. I am going to have to something nice for him.

We started putting together another tall garden bed, but sunset happened before we finished it.

This morning, Bruce and I finished putting together the garden bed we started on yesterday. While I lined the bed with chicken wire, Bruce went to get the mower and cart to get more rotten logs.

While I was busy cutting cardboard to fit the garden bed, Bruce walked up to me. “That’s not good,” went through my mind.

The left front tire of the mower was flat. Bruce went off to deal with the flat tire, while I finished laying down the cardboard. We had some logs available from the previous day. I put those in the garden bed. After some consideration, I took out my wagon and filled it with branches and logs.

I had expected Bruce to be back about the time I was done unloading the wagon. Since he wasn’t back, I decided to go see if he needed help. He didn’t really need help, but he was happy for me to be there, “just in case I need help.” Bruce did beat himself up over not checking the tire pressure sooner.

Once the tire was aired up and back on the mower, Bruce drove the mower to the backyard and hitched up the cart.

We picked up several logs and branches for the garden bed. We dumped the logs and branches into the garden bed. The next load of rotten logs had fire ants in it. I got stung on my wrist as the fire ants found an opening between my long sleeves and gloves.

The next load was even worse. The fire ants stung my sweat shirt and my wrist again. Bruce helped me look for the fire ants. After I was clear, I looked for fire ants on Bruce.

I didn’t see any fire ants on his jacket. A bit later, Bruce had welts on his neck from fire ant stings. He was afraid it might be poison ivy, but it follows the classic reaction to fire ant stings. He was very relieved it wasn’t poison ivy. A several hours later, the welts now have blisters. The stings are very itchy.

We finished adding wood to the garden bed, we got everything put away, and the rain started as Bruce was closing the barn door.

We made a dash to the house through the hard rain.

The rain and thunder storm put an end to our outdoor activities. Nox managed to sleep through the thunderstorm and Bruce’s noises during the assembly of the rocker.

Bruce decided to put together one of the two rocking chairs we bought after Christmas from Rural King.

The two rocking chairs will go onto the front porch.