Planting by days off, not by the moon

 Blessings Darlings!

It was a day off of my 'paying' job today, so it was all about resting and garden work.  By 'garden work' I mean I planted more sprouting seeds in real soil and started hardening the plants off.  I can't work in the actual garden because we have a drought going on here at this time, and if I want to do anything with the garden I'll have to water it before I can work the earth.

While I never like to pump up groundwater for the garden, right now all the water I have is softened water.  When our pump died a couple of months ago, the plumbers removed the tap on the well head that was our only non-softened access to water.  Any water from the house taps has tons of softener salt in it, and kills plants.

Yes, there is a way to route water around the softener - but only for the entire house.  Tomorrow I am likely to do that.  Then I'll still have to first dump lots of softened water from the pipes on to the gravel driveway to the house/barn before I can get water that is free from the salt/etc.  It will waste a crap load of water plus electricity to pump it.  So I'll only water the parts of the garden that I'm likely to actually work on tomorrow.  And I'll have to do it after I wash and hang clothes so I have softened water for that (Local water is HARD HARD HARD in this schist rock area.) 

But I'll have to do it so I can prepare beds to plant.  And planting and eating what we grow is important to me.

Here's hoping that the rain that forecasters promise for this weekend actually arrives.  Forecasts have been wrong about that for the past 6 weeks.  This time they are promising a full inch of rain on Saturday afternoon.

That said, almost all my seeds are sprouting well, other than the usual lazy pepper seeds.  I lost the first round of Cherokee Purple tomatoes and shishito peppers when I went to the Sacred Space/Between the Worlds conference (I hadn't explicitly told the family about water and 'take them in if there is a freeze') so I'm trying to make up for lost time.  I found 11 shishito seeds I hadn't planted, so I'm hoping to get at least 3 producing plants from them.  I bought more Purple Cherokee seeds, and found I had some old Roma and Rutgers seeds, too.  Alas, no Brandywine seeds around the house. 

If I can work the ground tomorrow, planting (late, as always) beets, radishes, neeps, and swedes will commence.

And just maybe, the Chubby Hubby will get the rain barrel ready for Saturday's rain.

Frondly, Fern

Easter! Time for Necromancy!

 Blessings Darlings!

Five days ago was western Easter Sunday.  On that day, I attended a class (at Between the Worlds/Sacred Space) by Christopher Orapello on Necromancy.  Yes, the folks running that conference UNDOUBTEDLY chose that scheduling.  Yes, I'm sure that they laughed and laughed and laughed.  Yes, Gwendolyn/Ivo/etc, you know I adore you all.

This coming Sunday is Eastern Orthodox Easter. 

And I've been reading BJ Swain's book on Familiars, which includes 'networking with the fairies via the dead to ask for a familiar'.  His writing style also inspired the parallelism in the first paragraph.

So while many have resurrection and new beginnings on their mind - I have a 'new beginning' in necromancy on my mind, thus combining all themes.

It being a beginning, I don't have any 'dedicated tools' for this type of work.  And it occurred to me that since I work at a thrift store chain that gets lots of stuff from people cleaning out homes after the death  of family members that a lot of what passes before me has strong links to the dead.

Of course this is not the FIRST time this thought occurred to me - it's why I do a quick cleanse on all things I buy from work.  The difference is that now I am considering SEEKING things that have links to the dead.  Many donors tell me when they are clearing out stuff after a person dies, so I can look stuff over, note what is there, and look for it after it's been on the shelves a day or two (I am required to wait at least 2 hours after things are on the shelves before I can buy them so we employees don't bogart all the good stuff.  I choose to give things extra time.)  

Mind you, I'm still not sure I will do any necromancy.  But then my Prepper side speaks up and reminds me that it's good to be prepared for anything, and an offering plate, a box or bowl for requests, and a candle holder or two won't take up much room . . . and you never know when necromancy will be the right tool for what you need to get done.

Frondly, Fern