On the Move

Once more, I'm moving things around.

In the last year, I have changed domains for this blog a whopping three times. That's a bit much for a little blog like this one and I apologize to all nine of my regular readers.

Updates are on their way, just, you know. Wait. Read things. Or click on ads because that works for me too.

Winter Sowing

During these cold, winter months, I have been reading a lot about winter sowing. Apparently, for people with green thumbs, rather than people who are all thumbs (like me), you can sow certain seeds during certain months to get earlier harvests. There are those who swear you don't need special grow lights or containers for winter sowing, though I have my doubts.

Early in February, I sowed a full tray of seeds to see what would happen. Each section of six cells was filled with a different type of seed: tomatillo, Prudens Purple tomato, corbaci pepper, jalapeno pepper, rainbow bell pepper, and banana pepper.

No grow lights, very limited natural light, and fairly cold conditions are par for the course in my house. Still, I though I could at least try. I started with a seed starting tray that I purchased at Walmart for $3. It allows me to water from beneath so that the delicate seedlings don't fall prey to fungus or mold or whatever it is that makes watering from above wrong. I placed said tree on the back of the stove, hoping that the daily use of the oven and front burners would heat the tray sufficiently to allow for germination. Germinate they did. As I said in my previous post, I had an almost 100 percent germination rate in this tray, even with old seeds that were not stored well, which is better than I have ever experienced in the past.

Unfortunately, the low light in the house has caused all of the seedlings to grow leggy. This is bad. Leggy seedlings turn into weak plants. As the first leaves (cotyledons) reach for light, the stem grows tall and thin. Once true leaves appear, the plant does not have a solid foundation to stay strong. I repotted the tomatilloes about a week ago to give them a fighting chance. I buried them in the soil right up to their first leaves. Here is what we have now:

Subject One:

Either the leaves are entirely malformed because of the cold or low light, or this wasn't a tomatillo seed. When cotyledons misshapen and placed far from each other, it usually means there wasn't enough light to create a sturdy plant. One true leaf is forming on this seedling, but the growth is slow and stunted. One other seedling has the same appearance as this one.

 Subject Two:

 I think the biggest issue here is that my thumb was somewhere it should not have been. Or maybe that's just the problem with the photograph. After repotting seedlings, it is not uncommon for them to stop growing for a time as they become accustomed to their new surroundings. These tomatilloes have reached out of their containers to grab as much light as possible, but they haven't grown larger in any other way.

Subject Three:

The tomatoes were quickly outgrowing their seedling container. Also, I needed that space to plant more tomato seeds. Thus, I moved each of them to their own pots. After I did this, I realized I have no place in my house for that many pots of this size. I am now propping the front door open and letting all of the individuals rest on an old cookie sheet. I'm fairly concerned about the cold air seeping in, considering we have recently gotten something like 20 inches of snow at a time when we would normally be preparing our garden beds for lettuce and peas.

I'm also pretty concerned about the legginess of the seedlings. As you can see from the second picture, the tomatoes are simply too tall. When I repotted them, I planted them all the way up to their cotyledons. Again, they will be shocked by the replanting, but hopefully will recover into beautiful, strong plants.

Subject Four:

As should be expected, the pepper plants are growing at a slower rate than the tomatoes, but they are growing well. They are fairly tall, unfortunately, but lots of time in the windowsill is keeping them from getting overly leggy. I'm doing my best to combat the cold of the window by replacing the tray every morning and evening with warm tap water. I also move the plants out of the windowsill at night and put them on the stove top with the newly planted seeds. Because I am such an early riser, I can add the plants to the windowsill before the sun comes up, ensuring that they receive the maximum amount of sunlight.

I have four sets of pepper trays that are similar in appearance to this one.

 Subject Five:
 

I love a garden experiment, therefore I have more experiments on the stove top at this very moment. I have never been successful at growing rosemary, but I have never put the effort into it that I should. I also have learned that I give up far sooner than I should. From what I understand, it takes about three months to properly grow rosemary. Even under the best conditions, rosemary seeds only have about a 50 percent germination rate. I have them in the large pot on the back of the stove, covered in plastic. Next to it is eggplants, placed in a plastic sandwich bag for germination. Next to this is a milk jug. It has been cleaned and drainage holes are in the bottom. This is what I'm using for zucchini seeds, just to see if this method works at all. The milk jug method is supposed to be for outside sowing, but seeing as how I have three jugs outside covered in snow, I thought I would try it inside to start. Not pictured is a supermarket berry container that is sown with tomato seeds.

A Time to Sow

Living in Mid-Missouri as I do, we are currently experiencing some serious winter weather. The four of us have been housebound for three days after a 10+ inch snowfall. More accurately, three of us have been housebound. My dear husband was at work when the snow hit and, unable to drive home or even so much as move his car, he was one of the 1,000+ individuals in our town who had to abandon his vehicle and find an alternate route home. 

This weather does not make me cheer, but it doesn't make me cry either. I know that we are fortunate to have a warm home, stocked with plenty of groceries, and family that loves to be together. Still, the snow does make me long for the spring, when I can start planting my garden. I long for the spring so much that I have already started sowing some of my many, many seeds,

By all rights and means, it is too early to start tomatoes and tomatillos. Guess what? That's right, I did it anyway. I had an old packet of tomatillo seeds leftover from last year as well as a packet of Prudens Purple Tomatoes from Pinetree Garden Seeds and Accessories. The tomatillos have far exceeded my expectations. The packet got wet somehow and was stored in the garage with no special container. I thought, as an experiment, I would try to start the seeds just to see what would happen. Thus far, all of the seeds sown have germinated and the true leaves are already starting to form. Unfortunately, I'm guessing due to the low light, the tomatillos have gotten leggy. The tomatoes are doing even better, but they're getting leggy too. I plan on replanting in individual containers in a week or two.

Along with the tomatoes and tomatillos, I decided to sow several other seeds that were leftover from last year. Rainbow bell, banana pepper, and jalapeno went into a seedling starter. I also tried the Corbaci Pepper seeds purchased from Baker Creek. Funny enough, all of last season's seeds germinated, save for one bell pepper and one jalapeno. Conversely, the newly purchased Corbaci only has a 50 percent germination rate. However, I truly expect none of the seedlings to survive to the garden. It's too early, I know, but if I don't start watching something grow I could grow (more) insane.

In the last two days, I have also sown rosemary, Turkish eggplant, and, in a moment of panic, zucchini. I figure the worst that can happen is I enjoy myself while being housebound.

Insanity, Week One

I completed my first week of Insanity! Sort of. Five days after I started Insanity I also started on a 50 percent larger increase of levothyroxine sodium for the Hashimoto's Disease. The last few months have been all about me changing my diet and starting these drugs in order to manage the disease. I found that after going gluten and sugar free for four months, as well as taking daily dosages, my TSH levels nearly doubled and T4 levels dropped off the chart. With the increased dosage, I also experienced brand new, super fun side effects of feeling like I was swimming constantly for about three days. The feeling subsided and I'm growing ever more used to the drug, which means I was able to start Insanity up again.

That said, I did have some good experiences with my first week. I feel stronger - not on the inside. I actually can feel my arms and feel the muscle. Stronger. Also, I've already lost two pounds. Not too shab.

Insanity!

Enter here a paragraph about how it's been a long time since I've written and how I'm really sorry but I've been really busy and this time I'll stick with it and I truly mean it. Whatever.

For the last couple of weeks, I have been researching Insanity, the BeachBody workout that is supposed to make me super hot in the space of about two months. The cost of the product is high, the commitment is higher, and the punishment is supposedly highest of all. Still, I was sucked in by the amazing before and after pictures and the fact that my family is traveling to Central America this summer. Beachbound! 

Yesterday, after much debate, I finally decided to bite the bullet. I grabbed my credit card and went online to purchase the less expensive copy of the Insanity DVDs that I saw advertised through Newegg.com. However, when I went to make the purchase, it was out of stock. Should I pay the $144 by going directly through BeachBody? Should I try my hand once more at eBay? I thought, for a moment, that I should take a look at Craigslist just to see if anyone had one for sell. Just my luck, someone had just posted, minutes before, a pristine copy for $65. If I believed in fate, I would say it was fate. 

I did the Fit Test yesterday, took the required pictures, and signed up with the BeachBody community so that I can get my t-shirt when I am finished. I set my goal, researched my calories, and I am ready to tackle this thing head on. In 60 days, I can tell you honestly if Insanity is a workout worth doing. Furthermore, a friend of mine is starting P90X today. In 90 days, when she is finished, we are going to switch workouts so that we both can be in killer shape.

Novel Writing, Halloween Candy, and Road Racing

Updates, updates, updates

I am off to a big start with my venture into National Novel Writing Month. As a freelance writer, I have to churn out hundreds of words in a matter of minutes, which I think has really helped me to be able to write quickly (though I'm not sure how well).

"The night was sultry."

I may put some portions of my project up here so that others can read my NaNoWriMo effort. I think the feedback would help me a great deal, but I'm not sure that I'll have the time or will to do anything about any suggestions offered to me. Just getting through the words is a feat in and of itself.

In other news, I am thrilled to say that I have (mostly) stayed out of the kids' Halloween candy. Being told I must avoid sugar is a big help to keeping me from raiding the trick-or-treat buckets each day. When there is chocolate in the next room, and lots of it, the temptation is pretty strong. My will is stronger though - even stronger than fun sized Snickers bars. I did, however, pull out everything that was sugar-free. I never knew a Werther's Original could taste so good.

Because I fell off the blogging wagon, my hand full of readers don't know that I did run in the Waddell & Reed Kansas City Marathon on October 20. I finished the 1/2, which seems like such a short run until I ran about eight miles. Then it seemed like a crazy, stupid idea. By 10 miles, I was ready to give up. In fact, I told one of the pacers that I wanted to turn around and go back. She didn't think it was as funny as I did. I enjoyed the scenery, but the race itself was not that fun. First of all, I was ill-prepared for the hills. I knew it was a hilly course. I didn't know it was a HILLY course. My mostly indoor training left me aching for three days after the run. Second, I think that the still (at that time) untreated Hashimoto's was a big culprit in my energy levels. By the time I reached that 8 or 9 mile mark, I could feel my body shutting down. Energy went from and eight to a negative three.

I am tentatively planning on running in the Eisenhower Marathon next April. But before I can do that, I need to buy a new pair of running shoes. I threw mine away as soon as I got home from the race and haven't gone for a run since. This weekend is Operation Adidas (because I know I won't spend the $$ on those Newtons I covet so).

NaNoWriMo

With November comes National Novel Writing Month and this year I have decided to take part in the challenge. 

I am a writer, but I am decidedly not a fiction writer. Years ago I tried to write fiction. I even completed a novel length manuscript at one point, but it took most of a year and was, to put it mildly, not good. I shopped it around with a few publishers and was widely rejected with great fervor. The only press that was willing to publish my novel was a vanity press that asked for an investment in exchange for the novel's production. I had neither the will nor the funds to follow through with this. Thus ended my aspirations of becoming a published novelists.

There were a couple of times in the past when I tried NaNoWriMo. I had what I thought was a pretty good idea about a group of lovable losers who worked for an underground organization to try to overthrow the government or something. I don't know. It's been a while. Another time, I had a great idea for a book title, but no substance to back it up.

I have not tried to write fiction in years. Now, because I think this will be a great way to relate with my dear, sweet son who loves to write, I am going to give it a shot. Who knows? It could end up being a lot of fun and it could improve my day-to-day work exponentially.

On the other hand, where am I going to find time to churn out 50,000 words?