It went down to 12° F last night here. It's now 20° and heading way up to 24°. Should go out and clean up the luminaries we put out on Christmas day instead of Christmas Eve due to the rain. We did the 400' driveway and not the street as is usually done.

We got more snow on top of yesterdays 4" but it's so windy that I can't confirm the 1" report. My tracks in the snow are filled in. We broke the snow total records for both Christmas day and the December total snow fall.

Our forecast is a bit more optimistic but we have some cold nights coming.
John- I can’t remember the last time we had any snow at Christmas- I think we had a dusting in 2009.

We've had rain and this meme seems appropriate right now :)

Time to report about our beef short ribs. They ended up being sliced very thinly, basically Korean short ribs with the bones also being sliced thinly, like discs. And they were much more fatty than I expected.

Today I'm trying to boil the fat off of what is left and will make them into BBQ beef for dinner to make into sliders. Making some coleslaw, too.

We hit 51 degrees today. It all changes tomorrow.

Len - Have your red cippolini seeds germinated? How long did it take?

Cindy today is day 6 and no alliums have germinated yet. I'm going to sow more in gallon jugs outside today.

Cindy, I have about 5 or 6 of the red cippolini sprouts, and about the same of leeks, and the Texas Grano sprouts.

Cindy - I think I start seeing allium sprouts at about day 7 or so depending on how deep the seeds were sown. Some seeds take around 2 weeks.

Oh boy, it is starting to sleet here. We are supposed to get mostly sleet and freezing rain this morning and then changing over to just rain this afternoon. The heavy snow is staying to the north.

Good morning, day 8 and I see just a few onion and leek sprouts yay. It was gorgeous here yesterday with sunshine and about 45. I chopped down the asparagus ferns and covered the bed with compost. Should I mulch it with leaves or straw?

Len - here I mulch them with chopped leaves to keep the weeds down and so that the soil doesn't warm up too early and cause it to start growing before mid April or so.

I'm very late, but... Merry Christmas everybody, or Kwanza or Hanukkah or Festivus.

My garden news is that I dragged out the rototiller a couple days ago while it was 50 or better so I could till the last little bit of the garden before the rain/snow/sleet/ice came (today). Well, I was not successful at keeping the stupid thing running. I could get it started, but then it died within just a few seconds. Re-start...die...pull pull, pull, re-start...die. Sigh (curse), back into the shed it went. Grrrr...I'm not sure what the problem is. I did ponder that the air filter could be all gunked up. I'll call the guy who has serviced it and see if he can come take a look. This household does not know anything about engines.

The rain/sleet did make it to my yard overnight. I believe it's going to remain above freezing from here on out. It was bordering on 32 earlier this morning, but it's already up to 38.

Merry Christmas and HNY Margi. I had early Christmas a few weeks ago by giving my tiller to my garden helper...no till for me the rest of this life!

I finally got some decent sized Classic Beefsteak tomatoes that I will post later. The "purple broccoli" plants were actually Japanese Giant Red Mustard greens, which I planted in the same container and gave up on them- I let get way too big-I am hoping the cold weather will mellow the taste to some extent.

Merry Christmas Margi

Len, Richard and Jack - Thanks for the advise/information re: onions and leeks.

I just checked mine and there are three little sprouts. There were not any yesterday. It's also day 8 for my seeds.

Full moon tonight.

Merry Christmas, Margi!

Richard - I finished in fourth place in my FF league. Highest ever for me.

Cindy, I was 2nd place in my friends league. The friend who never made a lineup change the whole year even during bye weeks won. He is super lucky. I came in 2nd in 5 Yahoo leagues. I won 6 NFL leagues and I think I am in 4 more on ESPN that had a 2 week final. First year I didn’t win at least one league in yahoo

Richard, good looking tomatoes :).

So jealous of your tomatoes Richard. Today lots of leeks sprouting and 2020 crop starting to go to seed so we harvested the last...full circle!

Edit...not sure why this posted 3 times :)

Well, we did it. We signed the purchase agreement for 5 acres today. The settlement date is February 4. I’m not sure when we will start building but we will work that out soon. The new place is about 30 minutes south of our current house but still in the same county. It has a beautiful are for a garden - which will need a tall fence to keep the deer and other critters out.

A view from the front and one from above. Our property will include about half of the open area in the aerial view and and into the middle of the tree line on the left side of the image. It expands back to a line even with the top of the “3” in 3D

Congratulations, Jamie! Looks like a nice piece of property.

Nice looking site Jamie...now the fun begins!

Congratulations Jamie, glad you found what you were looking for and I hope all goes smoothly during the construction phase.

Congratulations Jamie. Put some straw bales around any trees you want to protect during construction. You can always use them later in the garden (s).

It's 48° now at noon and gusty. On the way to 54°. Looks like it'll be a warm start to the year.

Congrats Jamie! That looks like a nice chunk of land. Don't put your garden too close to the tree line or the tree roots will invade pretty quickly....ask me how I know!

Len- If I had those fresh leeks I'd be having Mongolian Beef for dinner. The recipe I use calls for julienned leeks rather than scallions. yum yum!

Thanks everyone! The garden will go toward the back of the property where it will get plenty of sunshine - and I learned my lesson about gardens and tree roots a whole back hahaha! The final location depends some on the location of the well and septic system.
I went out there today to look at a low spot in the front that looks like it will stay damp a lot. It’s close to the road and will be far enough away from the house that it won’t be a problem - and it’ll make a nice spot to add some bald cypress trees and some river birches.

Also, the highway is on the south side of the property and the open area will get plenty of sunshine.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year ...” hahaha the seed catalogs are pouring in.

Congrats, Jamie! Fun times ahead...with the land, AND the seed catalogs! :-)

I've been getting plenty delivered here too. I haven't yet started shopping yet. I probably ought to get going on that. I wonder if there will be a run on seeds again this year. Remember last spring...when SO many people took a dip in the gardening pool?

Jamie - Guess you already had a perc test?

Good catch Cindy. Don't do what the guy that bought the lot next to me did. Not enuf grade to connect to the sewer and the street was being paved while he was asking about digging up the street to get to the water. Then he wanted to build 5 bedrooms and they said no to optional water and sewer choices. He just can't imagine building 3 bedrooms and selling it to get out of his mistake. He's had two potential buyers who thought they were buying a lot with public utilities so he will never sell it till he lists it and lists it for what it is

I spent some time today in the garden. Turned over the ground where there were weeds; actually mostly grass growing. Covered it with chopped leafs and then an inch or so of horse compost. The bottom of the pile was busy composting. This was one of the new sweet corn plots. The ground still looks like mostly clay.

I'm out of shape, can feel it.

Jamie - I have been expecting a legal document for over a week. Since before Christmas. All of my other family members received theirs before Christmas. I still have not received mine.

Until I receive that document, I do not plan to mail your fig cutting. Even then, I may wait a week or even two to send them.

I still haven't received the leek seeds that Richard mailed before Christmas (I think). I also ordered a Dish network remote on Christmas eve and even though it already shipped from Illinois the tracking says it won't be delivered until between January 21 and February 10...WTH?

Speaking of leeks, the Megaton seeds I sowed last Friday have already started to sprout. I counted 6 so far.

Jamie - I'm glad your new property is on blacktop. I have some friends that have homes on gravel roads and their cars are always covered in dust and they can't keep the dust out of their houses.

We are in for a nasty New Years day. My area is forecast for 1/2" of freezing rain starting in the wee hours and then 3-5" of snow on top of that during the day. I'm going to run some shopping errands today and get some gas for my generator. I sure hope they are wrong and we don't get that much ice. I'm not up for a power outage and massive tree damage.

Jack - That sounds like a serious winter storm. Hopefully it moves out quickly and the totals are diminished.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! Please be safe!!

I am so ready for a new year.

Jack - Your storm comes through here first. Wichita is currently smack dab in the middle of the 3-6" swath of accumulating snow. It sounds like we'll get 1/4" or less of freezing rain. I moved a snow shovel from the shed into the garage and moved the gas can too so we'll have fuel for the snow blower. Haven't used the snow blower/thrower in the past 2 years. I hope it starts if we need it.

Let's all keep the partying to a minimum, shall we?

Happy Safe New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year's to everyone. Let's hope 2021 is a much better year!

Thanks Cindy, what happens here will depend on exactly where the rain/snow line falls. I'm rooting for less rain and more snow. I'm worried about our 2 young calves. Cold rain is very hard on cows especially the young. At least there is a lean to shed that they can take cover in.

Margi - It sounds like you will have pretty much the same forecast as us but just a little earlier. I'm heading out now to fire up my generator. I haven't started it since I replaced the fuel petcock valve last spring when it started leaking gas out of the old one.

We're not going anywhere tonight. We are going to have a nice seafood dinner. I got some sea scallops, shrimp, and snow crab at the grocery store. I will sear the scallops on the stove and steam the crab legs.

Not sure yet how I will prepare the shrimp but I'm leaning towards a sweet chili shrimp stir fry. It's an easy prep and only 5 minutes to cook in the wok. Yep, just talked myself into it! lol

Oh, and asparagus too. Need a bigger stove!

Good luck Jack and Margi! I hope that weather isn’t too rough! We are having a rainy NYE and it’s supposed to last all night.
Cindy- the sellers performed a perc test and will give us the results. There’s a contingency based on that and we are covered if the results aren’t to our liking. No problem on the cuttings, I really appreciate you doing that for me. They will be beautiful on the new property!
I had ordered some books from Powell’s in Portland and it took close to 3 weeks after they shipped for them to arrive. The usps and all of the commercial carriers have been swamped this season, and I hope things get back to normal soon.

Happy New Year’s Eve, everyone! I hope you all have a safe and happy evening!

Another onion question - Do you all put bottom heat on your onion seeds?

Good luck with the weather Margi and Jack. Jack; I hope you get your snow, and Margi I'm guessing you might prefer rain?? And I'm sure neither of you want the ice. Again; Good Luck!

Happy New Year to all of you. And I wish you a great year. And great successes with your gardens.

I'm making up an order with Baker Creek. I got a gift certificate which I'm trying to use up. I asked my gifter if they needed anything. Long Island Cheese Pumpkin. So what are they out of. Yup! LICP. But shipping is free and then there's the free seed.

good luck to all of you in the path is the storm! Cindy most of my alliums have sprouted in 9 days with no bottom heat. I put them under lights today.

Can't edit on phone. When do people in group start peppers in zone 7 or 8?

DW the chef is pulling out all of the stops tonight. So far we have had the shrimp ring and brie cheese in puff pastry, now have to rest up for the roast and veggies!

Yum, Len...you’re livin’ large! Your dinner sure veats my beef & noodle. i wait until the beginning of March to start peppers, I believe.

Len - I usually start pepper seeds in the middle of February.

Len, I started peppers last year when I started tomatoes, this year I will start them earlier. They were much slower growing, tomatoes once they have true leaves, seem to spring ahead, not peppers. I think that February is the latest that I would sow them.

Jamie, thank you for ordering from Powell's, even though it took a long time to get your books. It is an institution here in Portland and we love it.

Lea, I think only squash grows faster than tomatoes-I have already had to move the light over the squash up two notches and peppers are definitely slow growing until they get about 5 or 6 inches tall.

Cindy, I have about 100 sprouts now in the onions and leeks zone (where I am using the full spectrum light) and close to the same on tomato sprouts-still waiting on the peppers and the new seeds I just got in. The kohlrabi is sprouting like crazy-I always drop too many seeds in because they are so tiny.

Happy New Year! https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6047847/veggie-tales-january-2021

The freezing rain and sleet is piling up here. I sure hope the power stays on! At least the sun will be up in an hour so we won't need to use flashlights. The snow is supposed to move into my area around 9 am.

I start peppers around mid March to be planted out 2 months later at around 6-8". I'm not going to start my tomatoes until April 1 this year.

I have King Richard leeks up now too. Still haven't received the leek seeds that Richard sent and no USPS service today.

I even put two stamps on the envelope Jack. I ordered a printer stand for my mom’s birthday (which is today) and it was supposed to be here by the 29th but it still hasn’t arrived. I guess there is so much mail between Christmas and New Year, but I thought you would have them by now.