Time to Get Started

Wednesday and Thursday were some of the coldest days of the year.  Snow was piled up around everything. The green house furnace died -  so obviously, it was planting time!

  The first of our crops arrived here from New Brunswick. In fact we waited two days for the truck. It finally arrived late Thursday afternoon and the plants were in perfect condition. It was only one box and the truck driver kept them in the cab with him because of the cold!

However, we still weren't ready.  Lynn and I were both working on Friday, so we watered the plants and hoped the cats wouldn't damage them. (The cats love the greenhouse on Sunny days.) Saturday was the work day.  Thank God for grandkids! The 16 year old twins, Trent and Caleb, were willing to help. What a treat to have young muscles! We went to Napanee and picked up corn for the furnace.  They just manhandled the 40Kg bags with ease. Then we were off to Belleville to get a skid of potting mix. Since my trailer is buried in the snow, we had to make two runs to bring the thirty bales home.  Again, young muscles loaded and unloaded the truck, hauled then into the greenhouse and stored them under the tables to thaw out.  All before lunch!

Transplanting got under way.  I had one bale of potting soil that was not frozen.  Our brand new flat filler isn't working yet - I haven't had time to pick up the electrical switch and get it wired. As a result Trent had to manually dig out the mix, fluff it up with a paint mixer on a drill and moisturize it.  This is a lot of work that we hope will be reduced as we get the flat filler working.

 Caleb was our transplanter and started on the spikes (Dracena).  We ordered them early so they would be big enough for containers by May. We did find that one of the cats thought the flats made a lovely place for a nap! A few of the plugs were damaged but it could have been worse. It was a nice relaxing couple of hours in the greenhouse with the boys. The radio was on, the cats were napping and we soon got into a rhythm.

We knocked off early. The Deseronto Storm  http://www.deserontostorm.com/ were playing the Bradford Rattlers. Our son, Adam, is the assistant coach and our grandson, 16 year old Brett, is playing in his first year.  Brett has been off since December with a broken collarbone.  He played on Saturday and scored a goal in their win over Bobcageon!  We were anxious to see him play again.  Unfortunately we only saw one shift! After handing out a check at centre ice , something happened in his shoulder and had to leave the game in some pain.  Hope he's OK!

We will try to get out an update in a couple of days.