Slightly Icy Saturday

It's an ice rink out there this morning, and not in the places we would choose. The ice is strategically located in spots where we want to walk, not skate.

After about 36 hours of snow, the rains came and washed a lot of the snow away. We still have a pretty good coating, but the driveway and the road are a mixture of water and ice. This morning I walked very carefully to the road and had to find a safe spot to start crossing when I discovered the paper boxes were empty.

We are believers that this is an El Nino winter: lots of moisture, followed by a few warm days, some snow, more rain and a few uncomfortable days of walking gingerly to avoid falling. So far, it is nothing compared to the last two winters, and we'll even deal with the slop, knowing that we don't have to shovel too much of it----at least not yet.

Yesterday was a "slug" day around our house. Lots of time spent in the living room, gathered around the television set, watching a parade and several football games. Bill and I took a little time out to attend an open house at the Raiha's----always a New Year's type gathering. We really enjoyed the delightful spread of goodies and all the visiting.

Then, it was back home to watch more football. It was that kind of day where no other worries were keeping us hopping, and the weather pretty much said to stay inside. So, we complied.

Today we'll watch the Gonzaga game at 10 and then head out to Willie and Debbie's to help them set up a few things in their house. We figured yesterday was a day of rest for all of us, and we'd go fast at it today.

The holiday season is quickly coming to an end, and soon everyone will be setting out in different directions to go back to work or to get projects started for the new year.

We're still keeping our fingers crossed for Debbie, who should hear something about her job possibility in the next few days. In the meantime, she has some time to get settled and organize their house. Willie refers to her as the "CEO" for their new residence.

I spent a little time off the couch last night getting a start to my 2010 garden. Planted a couple of pots of lettuce. My friend at All Seasons in Kootenai says she grows her lettuce in the bedroom throughout the winter. She has a grow light, and I'm thinking I need to look into one of those.

Like everyone else, I'm excited to see my seed catalogs and am looking forward to sitting down and putting together an order. I saved lots of seeds from my gardens last fall, but it's still fun to write all those choices on the order blank, calculate the cost, fill out the check, send it off and then wait for the brown package to come in the mail. I think that's a garden rite of January for most anyone who likes to play in the dirt.

This year I'm going to be a bit more careful about planting some stuff too early. It gets just plain worn out before the time comes for it to finally go into the garden. I also hope my tomatoes look a bit more healthy during their early stages this year. I don't know what was wrong last year, but they all appeared pretty sick until they finally got to the ground.

And, there are potatoes to discuss. This past year was pretty much a bust. I planted LOTS of potatoes, and they were all doing just fine until that one winter blast we had in September. Some of them actually had frozen leaves after that one, and the growth slowed down considerably.

Still, I harvested a couple of big boxes of rather small spuds. Then, during the week of my trip to Maui, it froze big time here, and the potatoes, stored inside the motor home, inside the shop froze. They all went to the Colburn Transfer Station a few days ago.

Still, we enjoyed them all fall, but it was sad to throw so much of that hard work away. This year we'll be more careful and hope for better luck, cuz we all love our spuds.

I'm getting too excited for my own good, sitting here dreaming about gardening. So, I'd better return to reality and remember that this is Jan. 2. Best to get some other projects going, and there are plenty around this house----a lot involve clutter, and this is a good time to take care of that.

In the meantime, it's getting closer to ZAGS game time, so I'd better go slide out to the barn and finish my morning chores.

Happy Saturday.