Beltane Waning Planting Moon
Plants up, time for photos:
Beltane Waning Planting Moon
Plants up, time for photos:
Beltane Full Planting Moon
Ah, the sweet feel of being in synch with the moon. I planted Scarlet Nantes carrots and golden beets amongst the green onions and the radicchio. Threw in a few zinnias for good measure. Next in the onion bed with storage onions, dill, marigolds and some other flower I can’t recall, I planted more carrots, more golden beets and some Red Russian Kale. Over in the bed with the Russian sage, some leftover onion and garlic and the bok choy, I planted Swiss Chard, beets vulgaris (I love that), the deep red ones, arugula and flame lettuce.
At that point the direct sun got to me so I retreated to the garage to turn on the zone for the area I had just planted. The beds seemed dry to me, so I wondered about its time and its arc. Sure enough, it’s going 360 when I want 180. That means the veggies only get half of the water they need. Later on the drip irrigation will provide most of what they need, but now, in drier conditions and with seeds starting over-head watering is the best. I’ll change the arc when it finishes this round.
The cold also leaves me more exhausted than the work would usually suggest. Now I’m inside for the siesta time period: lunch, a nap, perhaps some Latin. As the evening cools, I’m going to go out and at least dead head the grasses and other weeds that are about to go to seed. Then I can take them out with a hoe at my leisure.
Beltane Waning Flower Moon
The potato bed now has three bags of composted manure dug into it and the leek, sugar snap, bok choy bed has one and one more coming. Kate has weeded several beds including the herb spiral and the sun trap. It all looks better with the weeds gone. I found the seeds purchased Friday, so I’ll be able to plant them after lunch and the nap.
The honey house is swept out and ready for a large table and better organization. It feels good to have a place just to store bee related things like frames, hive boxes, the smoker, smoker fuel, bee suit and gloves.
I leveled the foundation for the divided colony and after lunch, as the winds die down toward mid-day, I’ll do my first division. We’ll see how that goes. This will be my third colony. After this year I should run at four colonies until or unless I have a winter kill or disease.
A full outside day with pleasant (60 degree) temps and a light breeze. Not like the 40 mph gusts from yesterday.
Spring Waxing Flower Moon
Kate called from the Northstar. She arrives in Anoka at 5:52. She took the light rail to Target Field and caught the train home from there. Feels like living in Connecticut. I’m glad to have her home. This is a two-person house and needs both of us to make it run smoothly.
Got the results of the fitness assessment I did last week. The heart rate thresholds were not very dissimilar from the ones I had been using, though the max is about 10 beats higher and the mid-range of low is about 3 beats higher. I got some good recommendations on how to modify my aerobic work and, as I hoped, the whole experience gave me a jump start back to the more comprehensive workout I had been doing before Christmas. It involves flexibility, muscle warmup and stretching and resistance. I kept faith with the cardio, but I’d let the other stuff slide.
Spread more compost and worked it in. I’m almost ready to plant. In fact I may plant tomorrow morning before I amend the soil in the next bed, the one with the garlic and the lilies. The garlic and onions and parsnips look healthy, as does the asparagus and the strawberries. The bed for the leeks and the sugar snap peas and the bok choy needs some weeding and some soil amending, too. In the next day or two I should have all the transplants and seeds in that go in now. Just got word that the potatoes are on their way, so I have to get some more composted manure for the potato/bush bean bed.
Last night I did research on four of the ArtRemix objects and I’ll finish all 8 of them before Friday. The tour itself is not until May 7th. Thrashing around the enlightenment, romanticism, modernism, Liberalism, post-modernism, Vico and Rousseau. I want to arrive at a synthesis between enlightenment thought and the thought of its primary critics, those in the romantic family of thinkers: Rousseau, Hegel, Kant, Vico, Burke, Hume. Maybe somebody else has done it, but I want to do it my way.