Strawberries ho!

[altivo]

It had to happen today or it was going to take another week to get them planted, so I finished the job this afternoon. I had ordered 40 plants on a special two for one deal, so the price was for just 20. There was a note in the box advising me that "Due to a packing error" in fact there were 13 plants in each bundle, so I actually had a full deck of 52. The packers were generous, I counted 56 total as I was planting. All were vigorous and starting to produce leaf sprouts in spite of having spent at least three weeks in a plastic bag in the dark. I'm also going to be very stiff by this time tomorrow from all the stooping and squatting. No wonder greenhouses keep the plants on benches. Still need to put down some straw, I skipped the mulching step due to imminent rain and the need to get Tess in from the pasture. But I did put the wire cages over the beds to keep the neighbors' chickens and cats from digging the new plants up. And I watered them with fish water taken from my aquariums. How green is that?

Now to start tomato and pepper seeds in little pots. That should have been done at the beginning of the month, but the cold I had kept me from hanging out in the garage.

Also Alpha progress. Both machines are coming into sync as far as software configuration. I have VMS running on both now, with Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl. This means I can test things at home if I choose, and compare differences by having two windows open side by side.

Time to feed dogs, have a hot shower, and put my hooves up. Gary's off playing for a wedding anniversary party and won't be back until late.

Comments

On Ponys and Strawberries

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Whinnyhi.

Well, I did not plant that many, only 20, but all in and fertilized. Only thing left is to encircle with the little fence I bought, which I will do today.

Bear was just sitting down to eat the breakfast of eggs and potatos and toast and oj he had just made when a truck pulled in to the driveway and the driver asked if he was missing two ponys. Uh... yea. Grab halters and lead ropes and off they drove to the farm kinda to the SW and presto, Stormy and Thunder grazing his hay field. Long walk back leading two ponys. Cold breakfast. Next finishing the fence between Tonka's pasture and the pasture out back. Ponys in that one now. Stormy flirting and Tonka wanting they can not be together. Thunder doing his hoofpawing and squealing to see Tonka again so Bear caught much of that on digital movie camera (yaay have not seen it yet).

Week ago Sunday I heard lots of barking and squealing and there was Thunder out back in the woods. So I got him back but, obviously that fence leaks ponys (was a temporary quickfix with hot wire and T posts five years ago).

Oh, and poor Soma is nearly twelve and is not doing well. Has cancer and is not eating and will probably not be around much longer. Does not want to come inside and very listless but wags. Happens. Bear and I are both gonna cry a good cry but the loss of a loved one is a perfectly acceptable time for crying. Sigh.

Imperator

Re: On Ponys and Strawberries

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ponies get to be naughty a lot. I shoulda been a pony. ;p Instead I get to be "responsible" all the time.

I'm really sorry to hear about Soma. She's such a sweet dog.

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

I miss strawberries. We got some strawberries as freebies from a nursery once, with an order of other things, and the strawberries totally took over the 4x4 plot I gave them. I kept moving runners back into the plot or they would have taken over the yard.

I was fortunate enough that the animals left them alone, and I was able to pick at least a pint of strawberries on the 4th of July. MMM-mmm.

Now I don't have a yard. Oh well.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Come see us this summer and I'll feed you strawberries. Well, maybe not from my garden yet because they make take a year to bear anything much, but we can get good ones easily enough. Railway museum? County Fair? Steam Threshing? Anything out this way that interests you?

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

Train museum is always good. I like small-townish stuff, being away from the big city, roads in the country, and quiet. I haven't been to a county fair since maybe when I was a kid. Dad took me to the State Fair once.

So much of the old places are being built over.

So yes, thank you, I shall come and visit.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Good. Boone County has the best fair, usually the second week of August though I haven't seen the schedule yet this year. McHenry's fair has been crippled by a loss of half the fairgrounds. (I probably have to judge at McHenry again this year, but haven't heard from them for sure yet.)

The Steam Threshing Show at Sycamore is great, and Casey will know the date for that one. I've never seen so many working steam tractors in one place before. There's another similar show out west of Rockford that we went to one year too.

IRM, of course, is here all summer unless the economy gives them trouble and makes them cut back. (Or it rains so much they flood out, as happened a couple of years ago.) They've had free admission on Thursdays in the past, though I don't know if that's still in effect.