If you Cannot Sleep, Work

That silly adage above is in homage to my mother.  She sees no point to laying in bed feeling miserable, when you could be up doing something productive.  Well, after a weekend of not being productive, getting home, and feeling overwhelmed with what needs to be done, I had a “productive” day at the office, at the end of which I did not feel really well.  When I got home, the bear roast (thank you Craig) I had put in the slow cooker that morning smelled heavenly, so I put a pot of potatoes, carrots and beets on to boil, cleaned up the kitchen’s clutter from the day, got the dishwasher going, and when that was finally done the vegetables were ready, so I drained them, mashed them with some butter and milk, added some salt, and we stuffed ourselves silly.

Patti had cooked the maple sap we had down to about 1.5 gallons.  It still needed reducing, but I felt like crap, so I took some cold medicine and laid down.  This was at about 7 pm.

I awoke at 130 am with my throat hurting.  A scalding hot cup of herbal tea helped it but by the time I had finished drinking it I was thinking about how much I had to get done.  The fire went back under the maple sap, which when finished put us at 5 finished quarts for the season.  Not bad for one tree, plus we have eaten a lot since I started harvesting sap.  Curious to see how long this lasts for us.  If I had been buying it a pint at a time at the local store here, it would be about $150 of syrup.

I went to assess what plants needed to get potted up.  Some of the tomatoes downstairs were starting to brush the lights they were under, so I took the most advanced flats and brought them upstairs.  These were from my plantings back on March 6th, so they are about 4 weeks old.  One flat each of Black Triffelle, Christopher Columbus, Kenosha, San Marzano, Joe Lauerer, Rumi Banjan, Nyagous, Sheboygan, Cherokee Purple, and Long Keeper.

I planted each of the flats with 8-10 clusters of 5-8 seeds.

I take a cluster out, and then carefully break it apart, discarding any malformed plants or ones without vigorous root systems.

They are then placed into small pots, and I label the pots as to type with white tape and a permanent marker.

The pots are then filled with potting soil, watered, and I move on to the next type.

By the time I was done with them I had 246 tomato plants ready to go back under the lights.Now it is just after 7am, I have been up for about five and a half hours, and what I would have done inside over the weekend if I had been home, has now been done.  The gardens outside are largely clear of snow and ice and I suppose the front gardens will be the next thing I have to get done if the weather stays nice.