Melting Away

Spring is humming it's warm up tune here in NW Iowa. We had temps in the 40's this past weekend and there was a lot of melting. Much to Rowen's delight, as that meant wonderful puddles and mud holes. :-D We lots about half of the snow cover, and almost all of the ice. Yay!

The warm temps, combined with the seed organizing for the seed swap, combined to create the perfect excuse to get my trusty cold frame into the spring action. I repaired a bit of the winter damage, chucked out the failed experiments of cabbage heads, (they were from the same batch of cabbage heads that did so little in the rest of the garden, after I pulled them I did a little dissection and the root systems never managed to get past their root bound start. ) and got arugula and swiss chard seeds sown, with melting snow to moisten things.

A first for me this year, I think I'm going to get my garden planted, and have no need for a seed order. :-D This is exciting, because seed prices are nothing to sneeze at, and some of my favorite companies are running low due to increased demand. I have excess seeds from past years, plus seeds I've saved myself, plus seeds from trades and swaps; all that seed is exceeding my storage capacity, so the goal of planting the garden entirely from what I have on hand will serve multiple purposes. One, to get my seed levels to something manageable in size, and two, a chance to prove to myself and hubby that the time and space and mess involved in seed saving is worth it. Three, it's always good to grow out and get fresh seed, and some of mine are 3 years old and in need of that.

Speaking of the seed swap, I think it went well. I had 5 people show up, plus myself and Laura the extension gal. I got some good tips on ways to advertise next year, (local radio station) good tips on local food producers, and some interesting new seeds. I also got some advice on people and places to contact about my interest in starting a community garden. I was sad we didn't get any new gardeners, but I can try again next year.

Also melting away is the last bit of my baby weight. :-) I've started a Zumba class at a local gym, and the 2-3 hours/week of fast tempo aerobics has boosted my energy and weight loss. I'm to the point where I need to work on my muscle tone. :-D I'm not interested in paying money to go push heavy things around in a gym, so I'm thinking I'll rely on my yoga DVD, and maybe a bit of boot-camp style workouts just to get me through till spring chores. Come on spring! Mama needs to hoe!