Stormy Times

I don't know if you can really tell anything from this photo or not. The storm clouds are lower down in the sky and just starting to creep up over the trees. It's been on and off like this all day. Thunder and lightning acted as my alarm this morning. I had the day off as it is a company holiday. That has been nice. I haven't really done much. I intended to plant another grape vine and do a little work in the garden but the reoccurring storms have put that off.

The recent hard frost did not hurt any of the emerging flowers or garden plants but it did, it seems, kill most of my baby plums despite the efforts I took to prevent that. This is a native violet that grows very abundantly around here. It is hiding under another native wildflower. We call them black-eyed Susans. They are perhaps a type of coreopsis? I'm not sure.

This is bee balm or melissa as some call it. It is native also and this particular variety has really pretty dark pink flowers. I put my hand in there for size reference. This batch is just getting started; it will grow quite tall. It makes a nice tea.

My spring cabbage seems to be doing well. I need to spray (my organic!) bug control because I noticed one of the plants had been chewed on some. Hopefully these will do better than my fall attempt.

The onions are doing really well. I intend to follow karl's lead and dry much of these. That sounds like a very good way to store them for long term. They are a yellow variety.

Work has gotten so bad in the state that The Man From 12 Years is having to go to Louisiana to work. He must be there Monday morning. They don't give us a lot of notice. I hate to see him go and he is really upset about it but doesn't see much choice if he wants to keep working. I may only have this next week and then be out for work for a while myself. At least if I get laid off I can go visit him a little. It all just figures. He was finally starting to see a little break in the clouds that have been on him for so long and now he has to go away. I believe we can work it out but I worry about him and he worries that I will forget about him when he leaves.

Most people in the business are saying that they don't believe things will get better for us until about the end of 2010. I could see that happening. My company does have a couple of jobs here in the state but they are very slow to be starting. I hear it will be well into summer before they are far enough along to need carpenters. So, we'll see.