Jared (our first crew member) has been told to be here 8:00 sharp.  As soon as these little grandbabies go home and I get Henry his breakfast and send him to town to work, I am heading outside to move the boxes of potatoes, hook up the transplanter and start filling its tanks with water.  Alissa should be rolling in soon.

Jared and I will tuck extra rubber gloves into our back pockets and strap our bottoms into the transplanter seats.  I guess Alissa will do the tractor driving.  Jared is a farm boy and the tractor is no mystery to him.  However, our soon-to-be-born grandchild will make it very difficult for Alissa to sit on the back of the transplanter and plant potato pieces.   She will be bored silly by the end of the day.   Just the drone of the tractor for company , her only challenge is to keep the slow moving tractor on course.  Jared and my hands will be moving as quickly as humanly possible with almost no time for talking.

After all this rain and dreary weather, we are still on schedule when it comes to field work.  Our trusty notebook has the date of May 2 for planting potatoes.

Crops planted in the hoop house and the outside gardens are much slower than scheduled.  They really needed more heat and more sunshine.  But every growing season is different.

When people complain about the weather, I try to gently remind of other people’s woes.  “Guess this weather is better than tornadoes.”  “I know we can’t have tsunamis here, but this dreary weather is nothing compared to what those people are suffering.”   “At least the rain has been gentle.  The land has soaked it all in.  (Our soils, that is.  There is ground around Sioux Falls that has standing water).

The sun is shining!  The fields are drying!  And I’m happy!

Alissa is a talented flower designer.  She can assemble large bouquets in her hand.  A fluff, a tweak, a tug here or there … Gorgeous European Hand-tied bouquets!  She had a great time teaching her first class ever.

Part of the plan is obvious … Cut and store.  Cut and store.  That explains the short life of the flower bouquets given for these holidays.  My Sweet Heart bouquet lasted all of one week.  The iris never did unfurl their petals.  One lily bud opened; the other did not.  Mmmm …..

The Best Diet Food Ever!

Most Delicious!!

A fellow gardener gave us a Shishigatani winter squash.  Baked it for Sunday supper the last week of January!!!!  The squash was perfectly sound.  Absolutely the most delish!!!  Now I’m searching for a seed source.  Gotta’ have it!  Gotta’ grow it!!!