A Fig Tree Start and a Sweet Cherry Replacement. 2.16.22

We picked up a delivery at the big box store. They bring it out to the truck. Outside, they had some fruit trees. I've been wanting to replace a sickly sweet cherry tree, so I bought a new one and planted it. Without a replacement, the healthy sweet cherry wouldn't have a pollinator.

They also had other starts. For the price ($10) I decided it was easier to buy an already well rooted fig start than root another Hardy Chicago. Also a replacement. I bought that and planted it too. Very small, but probably OK.

That was easy. I'm don't want to expand the number of fruit trees now, these are just replacements.

Helleborus. 2.16.22

Helleborus have been blooming for a while.

Cherry Pie. 2.15.22

I bought myself a present, a marble rolling pin. Today I used it to make crust for a cherry pie.

I learned some things. Pretty good, since I started baking pies after I returned from Army service, which would be about 1978. I still have the rolling pin I bought for that, plus my mom's, plus her mom's which is birds eye maple but doesn't roll well any more because the handles are stuck. Nobody needs four rolling pins, but it adds up to about one per decade. The marble pin works very nicely. The heaviness makes it noticably easier on my back, to roll out the crust. I still need to use a pastry cloth on the rolling pin, to keep the crust from sticking. The other thing I learned is that I like flour better as thickener for tart cherry pie, compared to starch (Clear Jel). The flour seems to reduce the acidity a bit.

Not related to the pie, but I learned something else. I also made a pizza, using Roma tomato sauce that I canned last summer. The canning process requires adding lemon juice as a preservative. That makes for too sour tomato sauce for me. What I learned is, if I add about 1/4 tsp baking soda per pint of tomato sauce before spreading it on the pizza crust, it's not nearly as sour and I liked that quite a lot. That's good because then I can can more next year, which means it won't take up freezer space.

Spa Day For Rufus. 2.14.22

Yesterday Rufus had a quick bath in anticipation of today's haircut. Today was his big spa day. Before. Where is my dog? All I see is a big dust bunny!

He's mostly OK as long as I use hair scissors for his face and paws. I wonder if they were too forceful with him at groomers - he always seemed kind of traumatized. Giving haircuts at home, he seems less stressed. I don't worry about a glamour cut, just make him easier to wash and brush, and he can roll around in the grass to his heart's content. There is my dog!

Total time spent isn't much more than the round trips taking him to a groomer then picking him up. Maybe 90 min. Plus I give us both breaks to let the clippers cool down and recharge my own batteries. Nails will have to wait for tomorrow. He got a quick bath after his haircut too, to remove all of those hair clippings and dander. Now he's ready for a walk, and won't overheat.

Planting Sprouted Potatoes. Planting More Snap and Snow Peas. 2.13.22

These were sprouting in the pantry. It's considered best to use USDA inspected potato starts, but those won't come in mail until April. I like an early start for some. We could have eaten these, but I planted them instead. They probably have boxes of these at the store, but I'm still in quarantine for another month.

I usually plant them in a trench about a foot deep. This year I'm going shallower and will mound soil around them as they grow. I think that's less work. I dug about six inches deep, mixed in general purpose organic vegetable fertilizer ("Dr. Earth") and planted the spuds, covering with about 4 inches of soil. That's all for now.

They are about a foot apart. I also planted short rows of Sweet Ann Snap Peas and Oregon Sugar Pod II Snowpeas, in a spot at ground level, where they can ripen longer and make seeds to save, in case the ones in raised beds don't have enough time. I gave these some wood ash / chicken bone ash for fertilizer, and a rhizobium inoculant.