I bet that almost everyone has seen the “real earth” under the snow that is melting away! Yep, it’s still there! That should give us renewed hope and feelings of joy for the upcoming spring season. The days have over 2 more hours of daylight since the winter season began back in December. Then there is that hot rumor that comes true every year and that would be DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. Depending on your feelings, for better or worse, we will be springing ahead next week. Gathering in the above information, gardening is taking up a lot of space in a lot of our minds. For those of you who would have flowers that need to be planted out ready to bloom, you will have them started back in January and they should be looking like real plants at this time under your grow lights. It is a touch too early to start other plants like tomato and peppers as they will be getting too leggy come planting out time, if started now. Wait another week or so. The exception would be if you have the ability to greenhouse them with enough heat and light to create almost ready to bloom large sized tomato plants. Here is an idea that you can practice seed starting with or you could use it as a teaching class for young ones. It is called “window seed starting”. You will need plastic bags, paper towel material, seeds, water and tape. I will talk about a simple plan and then you can upgrade to a bit larger system. The easy one to do is a bean. Wet a paper towel that has been folded to fit inside the size of a plastic bag (sandwich size works good for this) you will be using. Open up the towel fold so that you can place several beans about an inch apart and recover to hold the beans in place. Put the towel in the plastic bag, label, date, and close to about ¾ of the way. Using tape, apply to a window that does not get direct, hot sun. Also, consider if the window area will be prone to cold air in the evenings. If either one, consider taping to a glass jar or other item that you can move around. The bean should start to show signs of life in about 5 days or so; less time if you presoaked the seeds. Keep moist. This is an easy class room type of project or if you are only doing a small number of starters. It is also good if you do not have the traditional starting equipment. Your new seedlings can be re-potted in good potting soil and individual pots once they have 4 leaves. Reuse the paper towel for drainage/moist content at the bottom of the pot if you wish.

The Christmas Fruit Cake Fairy made a late delivery this year but it was totally appreciated when it came. I send my first cousin Father Dick a supply of cookies, chocolate and related goodies for Christmas and other food worthy times of the year. (He has said the hot chocolate bombs are as close to heaven as one can get on earth). He tells me the incoming goodies are consumed in an extremely quick manner. As a Thank You to me he tried to order a fruit cake from the Trappist Abbey – Our Lady of Guadalupe – Old Style Monastery Fruitcake source. They were all sold out for Christmas and said they would be back in stock in February and I did receive that wonderful gift at that time. It was a “mommy bear” kinds of fruit cake – everything was just RIGHT! The fruits, the spices, the nuts and being soaked in 120 proof brandy made for a pound of total joy. (Husband Larry wants to know where to get 120 proof brandy). Those monks in Carlton, Oregon do more than pray, they make a wicked fruit cake.

To add on to last week’s food storage ideas, don’t forget your 4 legged pets and be sure you have extra food for them to have on hand in case food shortages or food shipping issues arise. Not all pets can or will take to human food as a back up.

I am going to contain myself about the canceling culture of Dr. Seuss, Mr. Potato Head and The Muppets. The world may not be safe if I did otherwise.