I know it's only April...

 But really.....

It has been snowing heavily since about 8 this morning.

Last night it was predicted that the snow would miss us and that we would get only rain.  HA!!
Now they are saying we may get up to an inch and a half.  Bah Humbug, I say!  We already had an inch of rain yesterday.
I guess this means no outside gardening for me this weekend.  But, that may be a good thing.  I've still got tons to do this weekend.  Maybe, since the weather is bad, I'll FINALLY get the door and drawer pulls on the cabinets in the kitchen.
I do have some little seedlings to transplant so I can get my hands in the dirt.  And now that V has finished a big project for one of his employers (he got a $250 bonus if he finished it before midnight last night) hopefully I can pin him down on chicken coop design issues.  Of course, he still has to have all the image files for his book ready by the end of the month.  Ahh... no rest...
And especially no rest since Mom and Dad have invited themselves up for Easter. They want to see the new kitchen.  I'll have to see if my brother will be in the country and wants to come over as well.  We haven't hosted a family holiday since we've been in the new house.  But, that means lots of cleaning and preparation.  I'll be honest- the housekeeping has slid a bit the past few weeks with as busy as we've been.  I need a good excuse to really get down to some spring cleaning.

An update:  It stopped snowing and as of 1130 am, it had all melted. Hoorah!!  We had about an inch of snow- at least it didn't stick around.

Brutal

That was work today.  Busy, relentless and stressful.  Oh, there were some high points that reminded me of why I love my job- but today was pretty much just awful.  At least tomorrow is Friday and I'm not working this weekend.
But, some positive about the day.  V declared the new basement door finished (stained and finished) and we carried it into the house so he could install it.  This is the new door to replace the one we trashed to get the corner cabinet into the kitchen.  Well, actually, the old door was already trashed- we just helped it along...  So now the new door is installed and it is beautiful.  I'll have to get some pictures to post.
And it seems that Justine got the internship with 'the herb lady'.  She will go over on Saturday afternoon to find out more.  It figures... I can barely get her to help me around the garden and she's going to work for someone else for free.  Hmmm...  of course, I don't count as a job reference.  But maybe she can get paid in herbs ;-) That would be nice.
The weather has taken a turn to colder and windy.  My little plants are still looking well after the chipmunk ravages of yesterday but I worry about the wind.  I dusted them down with cayenne pepper to help deter the little critters- and I moved them to a different location.  If the weather cooperates, I will plant out the cabbage and kale this weekend.  We're supposed to get rain tomorrow into Saturday morning so I may not be able to get into the garden.  We'll see.  I also would like to get some onions and peas planted if I can.
Now, it's bed time.  I'm tired. And tomorrow at work looks just about as busy as today.

Grrr... Chipmunks

I was sorely irritated this afternoon to arrive home to this:

@#*$&! Chipmunks!  And the photo was snapped after I had done triage to get little roots into the soil.  Those annoying chipmunks had been digging in my seedlings and had uprooted 14 of the 32 plants in this flat.  Evidently, it had happened recently since only one seedling was slightly wilted.  I would have been thoroughly devastated had I arrived home to uprooted DEAD seedlings.  At least I had more pots so I could replace the pots that weren't salvageable.   They got into the broccoli and cauliflower seedlings    and, of course, at this size, trying to quickly identify a broccoli vs a cauliflower seedling was beyond my ability- so we will have a surprise row in the garden.  At least they have similar requirements.  Now I just need to figure out how to keep those little critters out in the future. I really don't want to have to do this again.
But on a better note, my last plant I ordered arrived today.  Another red currant bush.  After V backed into one of my two plants with the lawn tractor last fall it wasn't looking too good and I honestly didn't think it would survive the winter.  So I ordered another one.  Well, the one that got hit is looking great this spring so now we have three.  But best of all, this plant is HUGE!  Look:

 It is easily as big as the two out there that we've had for 2 years.  I'm impressed.  And I got it safely planted in the ground (after I repotted seedlings).  Today is probably our last nice day for a while since it is supposed to rain for a few days.  Good thing this plant arrived today, I hate digging holes and planting things in the mud.
And, lastly, an obligatory chick shot.  They are about 2 weeks old now.  This is Claudia.

Isn't she beautiful?  I'm a bit worried that she may be a Claude since she is already getting quite a little comb on her- but time will tell.  She is one of our mystery 'rainbow layers'.   Any ideas from the chicken 'experts' out there?  She has lovely wings.

The latest additions

 We had some new arrivals today and over the weekend.
First, today's newcomers:

A pair of cranberry vines.  They don't have to be grown in a bog. They get only 10 inches tall and spread out to be 2-3 feet wide each.  I LOVE cranberries but never thought I could grow them here.  We'll see how they do.
And then, over the weekend, I made a few plant purchases.  Two for the Goth Garden.  One is a red climbing rose that we plan to have vine up over an arbor and then this really cool guy (or gal):

It's a twisty rush.  J16 really wants a Devil's Walking Stick bush but they are so expensive.  This looked like a less expensive alternative to add some interesting texture to the garden.  It is perennial and should form a 2 foot tuft of spiral grass.  Pretty fun.
I actually had some time to get outside today to enjoy the weather.  I woke up this morning about 3 am with a migraine so didn't go in to work.  After some drugs and sleeping until 10 I felt much more human and was able to get out and clear off the herb beds, goth garden and the hostas along the garage.
I also did some measurement and planning for the chicken coop.  The current chicks (The Fab Four!) are almost 2 weeks old so we really need to get that coop built.  The new batch of chicks arrive the first week of May so we need to get a move on.  I did get the rough plan made and I'm happy with it.   I just need to sit down with V and finalize the plans and figure out how we will run the roof lines since the coop and run will be right up against the west side of the shop.
Now, I'm exhausted.  I'm still nursing a nagging headache that the sun today didn't help. I had to wear my sunglasses because the brightness made my head spin this afternoon. But, it was worth it to be outside in the spring.
I have so much to do here- I don't want to go to work tomorrow!

Another post- photos of the weekend

A few photos of the weekend.  We were busy....
V installed a new window in the shop office.  Now we don't have to turn on the lights in there...

Our dairy neighbor was 'spreading some sunshine' to make hay!

 And dinner from the farmer's market and freezer:

 Butternut/sage pasta primavera with local parmesan cheese.  Mmmmm....

And, what happens when you send an 11 year old outside for an hour?

A tower of corner protectors, of course.  These are from the cabinet packaging.  There were 8 of these per cabinet box.  We've been slowly putting them in the recycling so as not to overwhelm them.  They are fun to play with!
Little plants on the porch:

 And the first daffodil!

 Last but not least- the bluebells are beginning to bloom.  It must be spring!

Warm!!

Oh my, what a weekend!  The weather has been fabulous.  Windy today but with temps in the low 80's.  Yesterday was calmer and almost as warm.  I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped but some things got done.
J16 and I did get to the farmer's market yesterday.  The city is doing a trial run of an indoor market that may go year round so I wanted to show my support. I was amazed at how many people were there- it was heartening.  There were 38 vendors present and we, of course, made a few purchases.  We got some fabulous handmade pasta (roasted butternut squash and sage) a few cheeses (a fabulous gouda from Frisian Farms and cheese curds and parmesan from Acoustic Farms).  We treated ourselves to a pair of handmade dark chocolate truffles and picked up a rosemary plant since mine died over the winter :-(
While at the herb table, J16 made a discovery.  The lady running it is looking for an intern to help her out.  J16 jumped at the chance.  She has been looking for work but at 16 with no job experience in this economy she hasn't found anything.  An internship, while not paid, would give her some valued experience and a job reference.  She has always been interested in herbs and herbal medicine and has quite a bit of knowledge about herbs. This lady not only grows plants to sell but she evidently harvests and dries them and makes several herbal salves and such.  She and J16 exchanged numbers and they are going to chat to see what she thinks.  Probably to J16's benefit, as we were selecting our rosemary plant to purchase a friend of ours stopped by and was asking about rosemary (the herb lady didn't know that we knew Robin already) and Justine was able to answer questions and make suggestions of what foods rosemary complements.  Impressive.  The flier J16 picked up says that the internship would include transplanting, weeding, harvesting, drying, and learning about herbs and herbal remedies.  It also involves manning the table at farmer's markets in the area.
When we got home, J16 and I started transplanting little tomatoes into bigger pots.  I pretty much spent most of my afternoons this weekend transplanting little plants.  We did 67 tomato plants, 40 peppers and a variety of other seedlings (eggplant, tomatillos, litchi tomato, romaine and some herbs).  The cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale seedlings are on the porch to harden off.  As windy as it was today I'll have to check them for water before it gets dark.
I need to get going.  I spent so much time on garden stuff I didn't get any laundry done this weekend.  Oops....

No prize...

 J16 didn't win one of the prizes at the art show last night.  But she wasn't really disappointed.  The winners clearly deserved the prizes!
Here is she and one of her friends with her picture.

She was a bit disappointed that her piece hadn't sold yet by the time we left the show.  But, the show is up through May 2 and we left about 7 to go have dinner out.  There were 14 students from her school in the show and they went home with 6 of the 10 awards.  One of her friends won best of show and clearly deserved it:

 Isn't that an amazing painting!
Still, it was a fun evening and quite well attended.   J16 is already thinking of next year now that she has seen the competition.  Her friend above is a senior this year so that competition is out.  Whew!