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

Smokey Saturn's Day

 Blessings Darlings!

Welcome to Saturn's Day.  A Saturn's Day where I have some Saturnian magic to do.  It's all about business and finances, because IMO my husband has the business skills of a gnat, and needs a lot of Divine Intervention.  Divine Intervention starting with Saturn.

So I'm here, in the mid day hour of Saturn, prepping for the ritual/offerings that will take place during the evening/early night hour of Saturn.  I'm doing this because, IMO due to his business sucking all of our money into itself, I can't afford to buy supplies right now AND pay for propane for winter.  Saturn likes black, including black candles.  I have zero black candles.  Nor do I have any charcoal to coat white candles with (and I do have white candles) to not only make them black but also do the black/white thinking that some say Saturn likes.  I DO however have the Sacred Small Weber Grill (the Smokey Joe) and wood. 

So I have a smokey little fire going (the remains of a hurricane came thru' here yesterday, with a full day of rain) in which I'm making my own charcoal.  At least I hope I am.  I don't need MUCH charcoal, but I'd like enough to coat a small candle AND have some for any black salt I might want to make over the winter. 

If I fail at charcoal, I'll roast some ground coffee so it's black not brown, and use that to make the candles black.  One of the offerings will be black coffee anyway, so it will be on the same theme.

That's what's up here today.

Frondly, Fern

Report - Testing a New Underwire Bra.

 Blessings Darlings!

I got a couple of new bras.  From Torrid, my first order from them - they were recommended by one of my co-workers.  See, finding comfortable bras is difficult when you have Bodacious Tatas, and I got 'em.  Band size is 36.  Cup size is G in a 38, should be H in a 36, but I've yet to find an H in a 36.  Ever.  And it's very hard to find G's in a 36.
 

Torrid had 36Gs, and some on sale.  So I got one with and one without underwire (this one was a plunge bra, for those special tops and special events when I want the boobs to look as if they deserve their own ZIP code.)  The one without underwire was exactly as advertised - didn't really contain the boobs, but was comfortable.

But we all know that underwire bras are a different thing.  Uncomfortable at best, and instruments of torture in way too many cases.  So I put it on for the first time and headed for work determined to make notes of how it felt all day. 

Got it on okay, tho' as always adjusting the shoulder straps wasn't all that easy.  I find wider straps than it has easier to adjust.  Not a big deal tho'.  Started off very comfortable.  Remained comfortable for 6 hours.  At the 6 hour mark I noted a 'hot spot' at the intersection of one of my ribs and the underwire.  The area of discomfort was less than an inch in length.  That remained the only hot spot all day, but the level of discomfort there increased the rest of the time at work.  OTOH, it stayed at 'discomfort' and JUST below 'pain' the entire day.

I DID take it off within minutes of getting home.

So, it's totally wearable, even if my cups overfloweth in it. 

I guess that's a win?

I am considering breast reduction, but from what I've read they can't guarantee I'd still have nipple sensitivity afterwards, which would make me sad.

Frondly, Fern

Garden Centers are WAY too tempting.

 Blessings, Darlings!

I bought some vegetable plants today. Yes, I started more veggie seeds yesterday, too, but I'm really worried about the food supply, and I do better with bought plants, so I'm doing both.

 

You should have seen me going thru' all the potted tomatoes/peppers/etc at the store, looking for pots where they had screwed up and had TWO plants in the pot!

 

I've planted the four heritage tomato plants in the rolling tomato 'raised garden' planters already. When (if) the basil sprouts, I'll put a basil or two in each of them as well.

 

We ARE due to have some cold nights in the next week, but I have clotches I can put over them those nights. And by 'clotches' I mean empty coffee cans.

 

Frondly, Fern

April Tarps make . . . July green beans?

 Blessings, Darlings!

I'm really pushing myself on this day off, to get stuff done in the garden. But first I have to make 'tarps' to put over the soil (to keep the weeds down) by taping black plastic garden bags (cheap, from Costco) together.

I HATE using plastic in the garden. But I've been so horribly low on spoons that every 8 X 8 area I make tarps for and get the tarps in place on is an area that some day soon, when I have spoons, I'll be able to plant fast and easily. If I can just cover the entire garden now, in April, then planting in May and June will be easy.

The problem is finding spoons in April. The plastic bags I've had forever, so they are here. The duct tape is here.

Spoons, as always, are on back order.

 

Frondly, Fern

Price increases

 Blessings Darlings!

We had another hard freeze Sunday night.  It did a lot of damage to my sprouting Swiss Chard, which we were hoping to use for salad and cooking greens right quick.  Most of the plants survived, but there will be delays.
HOWEVER - the freeze didn't bother the wild spring greens.  Today on my 10 minute break at work I filled a gallon bag with some lovely dead nettle.  It will become a creamy green topping for pasta tomorrow night. 
This all matters because my job exists, but doesn't really pay a living wage.  And the price of food has jumped . . . and so has the price of propane.  We are down to the point that out propane tank has only about 12% of its capacity left, about 51 gallons.  So I ordered another 100 gallons.  Which is more than 3 times the price per gallon it was when we first moved in here, some 4 or 5 years ago.  I DID get a small discount for our first fill, I'm sure.  But with Covid induced price increases (due to workers missing work from illness and/or deaths, leading to supply problems) followed by supply pressure from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, added to the fact that the past month was 3 degrees F colder here than it had been one year before (and that year wasn't a warm one) - I'm going to be spending $500 to just get 100 gallons of propane.  100 gallons.  We usually use 400 gallons a year.  In November I spent $1400 on propane (we really were sucking fumes at that point, 4% left in the tank).  It looks as if I'll be spending at LEAST $2000 for propane this year.
I expect there will be a lot of weed - excuse me, wild crafted vegetable eating in our future. 
Frondly, Fern