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March 15, 2008

Getting closer to spring time!

First of all, I am so happy that John is back home after being gone all week long (including being gone for my birthday!). We went to Outback yesterday evening for dinner and had some wonderful food. Yum. It has been a while since I've had a steak.

Today, we went to the Train Show in Kansas City at Bartle Hall. It was rather expensive for what it was. $10 a ticket and $10 for parking. There were about 1/2 as many exhibitors this year than the last time we made it to that show, some years ago. But I did see some neat ideas in our scale (1:20.3).

We went to Sams Club both yesterday and today - it is rare we go there at all, but with starting a business and all, there are things we have to buy. We bought a cash register and a battery converter that will convert a car battery to AC for the cash register when I am at the Market. I needed it because I will have to pay sales tax, and it's easiest to figure it with the cash register - plus, it will be a good way to determine what sells when and what does not, with the PLU and Department keys.

We went back to Sam's today to get some tables for the Farmer's Market and some other things. My dad would call some of the stuff we got "basic provisions" (In other words, booze!).

And then, on our way home, John stopped at Grass Pad (a very interesting garden and seed supply store - their ads say "Grass Pad, high on grass!").

I bought seed potatoes to plant on St. Patrick's Day - Yukon Gold and two other types. I also bought some green onion sets and about 100 Gladiola bulbs (they had a great price).

The bulbs were 12 cents each. I should be able to sell the flowers for $1 a stem - I think that's a good return, plus, if I am really ambitious, I can dig up the bulbs in the fall and store them until next spring and then plant them again - which would give me a really, really, really good return on my money!

Our 25 baby chicks and two ducklings are doing well. They are in what used to be the milk-pasteurizing room in the barn. I set them up in a brooder with heat lamps and I'm heating the room itself with a space heater. It is kinda nice to go into the barn, open the door to that room and be warm!

The room next to it will be my pottery studio. It will also be the place where I shear my Angora Goats. It needs some work, and we will have to have an electrician out to install the power outlet for my kiln. I have running water in the barn, and in the spring, summer and fall, it will be great - next winter, though, I think I'll just use the studio at the Carnegie Arts Center in Leavenworth - for $55 a month, I can use their wheels and get all my stuff fired.

I have mixed feeling about starting seeds under lights. They seem much more fragile that way. I talked to Rodney Parsons (the farmer who sharecrops our hay fields for us) and his wife just got a 6 ft. x 6 ft. polycarbonate greenhouse to start her seeds in, and she likes it better because it is natural light. The drawback, though, is that they need to heat it or it can still freeze at night. I think I'll look into that possibility for next year, assuming I survive this year!

Well, I'm fixing my handsome husband dinner now. Gotta go!

Posted by Beth at March 15, 2008 5:43 PM

Comments

Posted by: Da Goddess at March 17, 2008 6:01 AM