We’ve had pretty much a solid week of rain. We had small lakes in the yard, the driveway mud would steal your boots off your feet, and cleaning the dog’s paws when she came inside was more than challenging.

Today, we have sunshine! It isnt terribly WARM -only about 4°C, but the sun helps regardless. About half of the lake in the front yard has already soaked in. We’re supposed to get a few more days of uninterrupted sun, so thinga should start to dry out soon.

Sunshine mean a few things: we’re awake earlier than we’d choose on a weekend. The solar power packs can actually GO OUTSIDE to charge. And, of course, I spent some time in the greenhouse.

As of this morning, my red mustards, chijimisai, claytonia, perennial arugula, perennial sweet lettuce, strigolo, mâche, salad burnet and minutina are up. The kohlrabi is showing signs of sprouting, and the lovage seed is swelling, but not yet showing cracks.

On top of those things, today I planted 2 types of tomatoes (micro tom and smokey plum) and 3 types of peppers (ghost, datil and hungarian banana) in 3 layers of greenhousing. I planted loofah and clove pinks, sweet vernal grass, korean hyssop and catnip. I was hoping to get my jerusalem artichokes in the ground, but it was frozen again this morning and digging wasnt possible. I also have liatris, peonies and bleeding heart roots to plant.

Once the native plants start sprouting, husband has permission from his boss to rob some of the daylilies out of the ditch in front of his workplace. Free plants!

Tomorrow is errands day, and one of the things I HOPE to be able to source is two sharpened fenceposts from the feed store. For the last two years, my ‘clothesline’ has been two rough wooden shelf units discarded by the hardware store garden center, with nylon ropes strung around them. Last fall, the ropes failed dramatically. And this spring, I want to use the units to build my duck housing out of, so I need a proper clothesline. I have the line itself already waiting here, but I need the posts. Once those are in, I can actually start doing some of our laundry here again, which will dramatically reduce or eliminate the amount we need to haul off to mom’s each week. I am considering building a drying shed over my clothes line in the long term.