Random Thoughts on these Apocalyptic Times........

Keep your sense of humor #1 and then CYA (cover your ass) 

First off; HAPPY MARCH 1st!  

I feel like I am on the biggest adventure ever and when do we GET THERE?  

Have you noticed? 

The days are getting longer, the geese are flying north, I saw my first turkey buzzard yesterday (huge in so many ways!), bird songs are very different, and I just feel it down to my bones, things are stirring.  

I don't want to be cooking anymore I want to be pruning, planting and spreading compost.

I spent two days spreading compost.  Tip of the year......... Never ever ever ever put your compost pile next to a freaking locust tree!  Every year I have to chop through locust roots and sift the compost, what pain the sieve!  But it was done in February! 

The chicken chalet was cleaned and readied for a new flock! 

Spring is afoot and as we all know hope springs eternal and I HAVE SEEDS!!  

I have started seeds! 

We have had a mild winter with varying swings in temperature.  Trying to take advantage of those wild temperature swings, boots and gloves never got put away.  The entire winter allowed me to prune and transplant.  Two trees were taken out before nesting season. 

 I don't think I've ever been able to turn the compost pile in February let alone spread so much of it.  Mother Nature and I have a leg up on so many things that otherwise overwhelm me in March.  This March I am not so overwhelmed and pretty excited about what is coming.  

The cold frame I built a year or so ago is finally getting a proper work out!  

Kale, so much kale.....

Black Seeded Simpson lettuce..... I have been planting this cold weather variety since 1972, it just never fails.  This seed stock was marked 1993 and the germination rate is still killer! 

The cold frame harbors; kale (3 varieties), lettuce (3 varieties), onions (2 varieties) and leeks. 

Radishes will probably get planted later today while the moon is in Taurus.  I'm trying Biodynamic gardening practices this year but only when convenient.   Just not many hard, fast, set in stone rules around here. 

Why because I am a woman gardener and things get done when they get done.  There is a whole lot of grey area on this half acre.  Thank the goddess above and below, Nature is pretty forgiving and recovers, so y'all just need to forget about making mistakes and go for it!  Most things want to grow and survive, period.  

Which brings me back to the original reason I decided to write a post in the first place.  I'm not crazy about making any hard fast decisions at the moment as things seem to be in flux, wavy gravy flux.  

I am listening to NPR and occasionally watching CNN and I hear what is supposed to be coming and anybody who thinks this government is going to save us ........ well you can go to the line I am going to call; Culling the Herd.  Ok enough of that talk.   I have this little pottery I run and it's run hard these past 35 years.  I was in Boston for SAC Boston when the marathon bomb went off and we were on lock down for a couple days.  An investment of a couple thousand dollars and carnage.  I made expenses by selling mugs and bowls which I had not been juried in for but had tossed in the back of the van because something said; load 'em up and I did.  Thank you little voice in my head because I was one of the only artist that made her expenses.  Not very much art went out the door the last two days of that show.  Driving home I thought; the paradigm has shifted.  I opened a gallery in Cleveland and got off the road.  Had trouble paying the rent and hated the grind so found myself back at local shows.  Closed the gallery after 3 years and eked out a living back on the show circuit although things were changing and shows were getting harder to clear expenses and I'm not getting any younger.   

After doing taxes for 2019 and wondering why am I doing this but can't seem to stop myself I applied to a very large local show that runs back to back weekends.  I applied to both weekends with different bodies of work.  I did it last year and it almost killed me. Two days ago I got the congratulations to both shows and felt a pit in my stomach.  Cash out lay for both shows is around $1,000.  The show dates are the last week of June and first weekend in July.  I want to support local shows but this might not be the year.  The contract is due March 31st, and yes they gave me a primo tent space.  

Enter...... DEEP THOUGHTS

The stock market tanked last week due to this thing we are calling COVID-19 or the Coronavirus.  And can I just say every week I read something that is invading us on every damn front!  If you live in Ohio here is partial list that should make your heart stop:  The bighead carp, grows larger than a beagle (I am not making that up!) garlic mustard (which I can eat), the emerald ash borer,  the asian longhorned beetle, kudzu, callery pear, bush honeysuckles, West Nile virus, zebra mussels, the round goby fish, Canadian thistle, gypsy moth, chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, The European corn borer (we are the corn belt), sea lampreys, house sparrows, starlings (muscling out native bluebirds), feral pigs, white-nose syndrome in bats (who eat mosquitos carrying West Nile Virus), hemlock woolly adelgid, walnut twig beetle, lesser celadine (an escaped ornamental from Europe), Japanese barberry. 

So how are you celebrating; National Invasive Species Awareness Week in your neighborhood:  March 3-8th.

While all these deep thoughts rolled around in my head I went to the grocery store and watched the woman in front of me fill three shopping carts and drop over $600 on "stocking up" stuff while her husband was out filling gas cans in the bed of his pick up.  All this in my little town, in the middle of no where.  We are the BELT! the rust belt, the bible belt, the corn belt, the snow belt, we survive on getting belted........  We are Browns fans who are 99% sports scar tissue and people are starting to freak out.  

Ok I'm not worried about me but I am worried about "THEM".   Yup, I am glad the basement is full and the freezer is full and yup, I ordered a few extra seeds this year.  So now do I buy the lumber for a green house or spend it on show fees?  I'm leaning toward the green house.  In lieu of what I am seeing at the grocery store and hearing at the local watering hole I don't think people are going to be up to buying much art.  I think they're gonna be stockpiling and that include guns and ammo from what I see at our local shooting range, Point Blank.  Husband and wife team dressed in matching camo prints, both knuckle dragging limbs attached to large ammo boxes, also in camo.  And don't even ask me what I was doing at the local shooting range but WOW was it a wake up call to people I only thought existed in Idaho in a bunker..... they walk among us!  Well that sent a shutter up my spine but then calmed down when I realized they buy their art from Fur and Feathers All Outdoors for 50% off.  Oh and can we toss in an election year?  My sales are always down in election year, always!  It's like the cherry on a sundae.  

I am still teaching and hope the school remains open for the remainder of the school year.  We have many foreign students who return home for Spring Break.  I am not sure what will happen, another variable.  I have been well paid and would surely miss the income.   

So here is my plan........ thank you Elizabeth Warren (no, I am not endorsing or voting for her) I honestly don't know who I'm voting for yet as it's like watching a train wreck, you can't stop watching.  Seriously my heart hurts so bad for this country and my kids.  The orange one has got go so I would vote for any rational adult including Bozo the Clown.  

It is finally time for a studio sale!  I can bake some cookies and open the studio and gardens.  I don't care if I sell a thing.  It's place you can come have a cookie, glass of ice tea or coffee, walk around the gardens, visit the chickens, pet a blind dog and put your feet up.   

This last month we had the neighbors over for the pie party and last night a chili party.  It was fun and my house got a good cleaning on a regular basis. 

The chili was made with my scarlet runner beans, tomatoes, tomato jam, garlic, onions and poblano peppers from last year's garden.  Also served; cornbread made with local maple syrup and cheesecake with last years boozy peaches and/or blueberries. 

It's a lot of work but what isn't and even better, at then end of the party I don't need to get in my car and drive home because I am already here and I love it here!  

My gut is telling me to save the show fees and play my cards a little closer to my vest this year. 

Oh ya, and wash your hands, believe in science!  and don't hide...... 

 and just in case you need this magic spell which works great!