Category Archives: Fern’s Fronds

Home made olla options

Blessings Darlings!

Since at THIS moment, Wunderground says that we will get nice rain next week, I’m considering putting in some ‘home made ollas’ if the ground gets less hard.  Ollas are Continue reading…

Lost Plants

Blessings Darlings!

I just added up what my garden has lost to the drought so far…………

One blueberry bush.
4 out of 6 transplanted Swiss Chard (I was just trying to add to the one’s that survived the winter.)
Two out of 10 sweet peppers.
All but 4 of the carrots seeded (probably around 45 lost)
All but 30 of the turnips seeded) probably around 20 lost.
All but 1 of the beets seeded (around 50 lost).
All the radishes seeded.

I’m currently harvesting … Continue reading…

Drought. And a damned Plantar Wart.

Blessings darlings!

I have a little time to blog today, since I’m off my feet – well, off one of my feet – due to a plantar wart that is making it very painful to walk.   It’s a shock how it went from Nothing to Can’t Walk without PAIN in under 7 days!  Urgent Care couldn’t treat it (no liquid nitrogen), and getting an appointment with either my doctor or my husband’s dermatologist (where I’d be a low-priority ‘new patient’) can take forEVER.  So I’m doing the OTC treatment the Doc in the Box and I discussed and am off …

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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 … Continue reading…

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 …

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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 … Continue reading…

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. Continue reading…

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

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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

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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

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