There's not been much garden oriented work happening at the Urban Ranch this month. We had a battle against scabies over most of the month.  No pictures of that.  It was two weeks of horrific itching and house cleansing.  Anything with material had to be either sanitized or isolated for a week.  Scabies are little mites that burrow into the skin, lay eggs, the eggs hatch, feed on skin cells, and lay more eggs.  We battled through two house cleansing and two prescription cream procedures.  I think we are done with that plague.  We don't know where it came from and certainly wished it hadn't visited our house.  Bradley and I were covered from just below neck to the tips of our toes.  If you ever hear the word scabies .... run.  They can live on fabric for up to two days and is highly contagious.  When I visited my doctor, I pulled off my shirt and he stepped back a couple steps; made a comment about how itchy it looked; said he would call in a prescription for it; and scooted out the door.  You know it's bad when a doctor doesn't want to be near you. 

We got blasted with Storm "Q".  Well, we got about 9 inches at most.  However you know it's bad when the snow plow that plows the street can't make it up the hill past my house.  He did get the street plowed by coming up a shorter hill on the other side of my house and plowing down the longer hill.  Since I live on a street that has a T intersection on either end and most times the only traffic is those that live on the block long street, snow plowing our street is on the bottom of the list.  It's usually at least three days before the plow comes by.  The issue is not being able to leave the house but always getting back up the hill to the house on the return.  Storm Rocky gave us a whopping .01 of an inch of moisture.  Ha, we can scrape more off the windshield on any given morning than that.  That brings my area up to .87 of an inch for the month which is almost up to the average of .91.  March will be the key.  Our average moisture for March is two inches.  Hopefully, we can keep our averages up this year. 

Bradley finally got his wish for snow.  He and a friend of his spent two hours whizzing down the school yard hill.  His grade school has one of he best hills for sledding in the city.  Every snow attracts kids from all around.  Bradley had some one to sled with other than Grandpa.  I got to watch them slide down the hill for two hours from the comfort of my truck.  Yea!! 

The ariel fort built for Bradley and neighborhood friends is starting to loose it's attraction.  This year a zip line will be added to the fort.  It won't start at the top of the fort this year.  The kids are only four foot tall so maybe about four or four and a half foot from the ground will be a good place to start.  It will have to be strong enough to carry my rotund self down the line.  That way I'll know that a kid of about 1/3 of that weight will hardly be a challenge for the line.  It will zip diagonal across the yard and be about 50 feet of sheer child adrenaline rush and end in a three foot high dirt pile. 

I started some Cabbage and Broccoli seeds at the seed starting station.  I have special sun spectrum florescent bulbs that are on 12 hours a day and a seed starting heat pad under the planted seeds.  After three days, as you can see, Cabbage is up.  It's supposed to take seven days to germinate.  Now I have to find something to put these cabbage plants in as the Broccoli has not germinated yet.  They are supposed to take from 14 to 21 days to germinate.  Right now I have them under the same saran wrap cover but that will have to change today.  Misting at least twice a day will be the routine from now on.  I sure hope the weather warms up or I might be in trouble with these plants.  I'm hoping to make some kraut this year and maybe some fermented pickles.  I have many gallon glass jars that would be great for that.  Yes indeed the gardening season has begun.  Yea!!  It won't be long before we all will be outside digging in the dirt again. 

It's that time of the year when girl scouts are selling cookies.  Today was spent helping a friend haul girl scout cookies. She is the cookie manager for her troop.  We hauled 218 cases of cookies from the district distributor to her garage.  That's 2616 boxes of cookies.  What a load.  You might think that's really allot but this is for one week.  She said that next week will be more.  Then there's two more weeks after that.  So I probably be called upon again to haul cookies the next three weeks.   

So how have you been spending your winter February days?  Do you have big plans for Spring?  Tell me about what exciting projects you have on the todo list.  In the mean time, I'll just right here sippin' on a cup of coffee waiting to hear from ya.  See ya next time. 

Two weeks ago we ventured into the area of the basement we specifically use for that yearly task we have come to love. Getting winter out of our souls ... and bones! It has been so cold and snowy this season. I’m just so tired of it. With the exception of ice fishing. It’s never too cold for that. Ice fishing trips are my winter picnics.

So, Siri and I went down stairs three weeks ago and got to work. We moved everything out of the way from last year, and swept up real well. Then we put the old saw horses back up and laid out the plywood and 2x10’s. We cleaned up all of the old starting mix and tossed it out.

We took inventory of what we had, and then headed for the stores.

We purchased bags and bags of starting mix and soil.

Then it was off to the seeds! One clerk from a particular feed store thought we were nuts for asking about seeds so early. I mentioned to her that if she knew anything about veggie gardening, she would understand. I could feel the strange stare from her on the back of my neck until we got out the front door. Once in the truck, Siri asked me why we were getting so excited about starting our seeds if the store didn’t have them out yet. I explained to her that I obviously drove to the wrong store. She just shrugged.

We finally arrived at the right store and we hit the jackpot! Newly opened displays were out, covering two isles. Seed starters, growing kits, seeds, top soil bags, etc. It was all here! I was like a kid shopping at the toy store the week before Christmas! I must have been excited too because Siri was looking at me with that nine year old girl look. If you’ve had kids you understand. When they make it you can almost hear them saying “OOOOkayyy”. It’s the same look I give her and her younger sister Zoe when they get crazy excited about Justin Beiber.

Once we got home, it was right to work. We cleaned up all of last years growing trays. The ones we could salvage anyway. We took out the stacks of egg cartons we had and laid them all out. I had to adjust all of the growing lights to the right heights to get started. They get hung from the basement rafters with cord, so as the plants grow, I can untie the knots and make adjustments. My wife Tami usually helps me with all of the technical stuff like that. Once she was done with what ever menial task she was doing upstairs, she came down and helped. I still don’t understand the grumbling that day but I don’t ask too many questions.

While Tami and I hung the lights, Siri began filling all of the trays and containers, then she got the marker out and began making labels.

She forgot the Popsicle sticks at the store. She said I forgot. Anyway, they were forgotten, so we used mailing labels. They worked just fine. We began taking out the seeds and planting. Siri didn’t like handling the small seeds like cabbage and broccoli so I took care of those.

We got all kinds of seeds started and we watered everything lightly. We got all cleaned up and posed for a couple of pictures. Before heading back upstairs we paused to look out across our future farm and she gave me a high five.

That was three weeks ago. So far, both red and green cabbages are up.

So are the broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and spinach. While every day starts with me bringing in firewood, shoveling and or blowing snow, sanding the walkways and cleaning off the cars, I know spring is here. At least in the basement when Siri comes home from school. We always water our seedlings after school.