Lin is replacing the bearings on his work truck. It isn’t going altogether well, so I am staying out of his way as much as possible by doing housework and puttering in the garden. He hates an audience, especially when he’s having problems. I don’t blame him. I do too.

As soon as I have finished the dishes, I’m going to go plant the potatoes. I was going to wait until I remembered to get the peanuts, so I could plant all at the same time, but I’m an idiot, so I still don’t have peanuts to plant. The potatoes need to go in the ground now (more like a week ago, but oh well). Instead of rows, I’ve decided to make a mound in the center of the peanut/potato area for the potatoes, and then plant the peanuts around them. I think this will work better, as the potatoes could cut into the peanuts’ sunlight if I intersperse them.

Tomorrow, I am making a special trip to get peanuts to plant. Might even run to the feed store to get some tomato plants, though I could wait. I’m sure the reason the tomato plants at Home Depot looked so yucky is because most people around here with home gardens are going to go by the extension agency’s recommendations on when to plant (weeks away), and these are really early plants at the stores.

I’m not going by the extension agency’s recommendations on when to start my garden … obviously. It was a risk to start planting so early, but it was an educated and calculated risk. I keep up with the weather very closely, and I’m fairly good at predicting it. There aren’t going to be any more freezes. I am 99% certain of this. If the air temperature drops to being quite chilly for a day or three, my soil temperatures have been holding at 80º or above for a couple of weeks now (even though we had a cold front blow through). And if I a wrong and plants die, well, it’s still early enough to start over. I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Tonight we’ll have our first garden salad from the garden! Pretty damn exciting, let me tell you. Rewards for work are always good. Early next month, I expect we’ll be eating our first snap beans! Can’t wait!

I’ve decided to replant beans when the beans are done and harvested. As quickly as these things grow and produce, I could squeeze in three, maybe four, harvests, but I think sometime in June, I will be devoting that space to something else … like pumpkins. I’ve gotten a little attached to the idea of having a home-grown Jack-o-Lantern for Halloween. They should grow really well there too. Beans are nitrogen fixers, which means they actually put more nitrogen into the soil than they take out. Anything I plant there will be getting some really good dirt to grow in.

In other household, non-gardening news: Earlier, I went into the Box Room and poked around a little. When I closed the door upon leaving, I must not have pulled it tightly enough closed (every door in the house is like this), so the cats –always on the prowl for something to get into– took advantage of the situation. I didn’t notice the door was standing open a crack for hours. I also wasn’t being pestered by cats for hours, which should have been my first clue something was afoot. Sure enough, when I step into the Box Room, three cats scurry to hide among the boxes. How’d I get them out? I got down their favorite toy, jingled the bell on it, and all three cats came running. Suckers. I hope they had fun in that room, as it is the last time they will see the inside of it until it’s not a storage room. In fact, it may be the last time they ever see that room. I don’t especially want them rummaging around in my art supplies or Lin’s electronic stuff either, which is what will eventually be in there.

And … Daylight Saving Time has started, which means I am all messed about about what time of day it is. I hate this time change stuff. Back in the day when they started it, it may have been a great idea. It’s not really relevant anymore in our 24-hour-a-day world. What does it matter if the lights are on for an extra hour in the morning or an extra hour at night? I’m still going to need to turn on lights to get all my daily stuff done!

Back to the dishes. Those pots have soaked long enough, and I want to get the potatoes into the ground!