Morel Hunt

Today I went on my first morel hunt. We only found one but it was delicious. We cooked it in butter. Other than that it was a pretty quite day. Did some work for my neighbor. That was about it. It's gonna be a shot post cause I'm on my phone.

Hunting and Gathering.

I have been bad about posting over the last few days. I have been doing way to much stuff to post consistently. 
Yesterday, I got a little money together to go the the Worthington Farmers Market. I got a bison heart and liver, a cow heart, and 3 dozen eggs for about 54 bucks. I am gonna try to make this last a week. There were no merchants there selling grass fed butter. The people at the information booth told me that this summer they will probably have more people with dary. I am hopeful that one of them will have good butter. Sadly, I didn't have enough money to get any veggies. However, when I was heading home I had the brilliant idea of foraging my greens. 
After the farmers market I went and assisted a practice. Then I came home and had lunch. I cooked four of the new eggs I bought with some pea protein and turmeric mixed in. When I was done I felt amazing. I don't ever want to go back to conventional eggs. I was bouncing off the walls. 
I had a hot tip on some more tires in an area of woods I have never been to so I went on an adventure. I have driven by that section of woods probably a thousand times and never even noticed it was their till my friend told me about it. You take cooper road over the 270 outter belt bridge and take the first right and park in that parking lot. I didn't want to go there during the week cause that lot was full of cars. Then you head across cooper into the woods. Once in the woods there is a huge hill. I would guess a 40 foot vertical change in about 25 feet of horizontal distance. I hiked around for about an hour and found only one tire. I got stabbed with thorns and covered in mud. My feet got wet and I got bloody. At one point I came out on a bike path looking wild eyed and gave some elderly bikers a bit of a shock. I was just about to give up on finding tires when I stumbled across 5 just laying out. Over the next few minutes I found one more and a HUGE tarp. The tarp looked like someone had been living under it but they had long since moved on. It was back in a really thick part of the woods. To get it out I would just grab part and run as fast as I could. It made every tire drag I have ever done worth it. I was worried the whole time I was gonna find a body. I got it to an open area and tried to spread it out. It was too big. I folded it up as best I could and took it to my tires. It took three trips up that ridiculous hill to get this whole load out of the woods. I took my tires to the garden. 
From there I went foraging. I got a bag full of dandolion greens. The whole dandalion is ediable but I am mostly interested in the greens right now. I got another bag full of chives. However, when I made some they were way too tough and fiberous to eat. I think I waited too long into the season for them. 
After that I went to my friends and we spread out this tarp in his back yard and swept it off. Its at least 30 feet across and circular. I think I am gonna try to figure a way to get three for four smaller square tarps out of it. 
All of that together made a tired Theodore. 

Farmers Market Apple, Perfect.

Delicious be-specked egg. 

I just want to drink them like this. 

I told you it was HUGE!

Planting Tires, Slingshots, Baby Bunny and the Heart of a Cow.

Yesterday, was a full day. I started early down in the garden. I scrubbed the tractor tire more and got as much of the alge off as I am going to. I put it in place  and filled it with dirt, only to find out that the flowers that I want to put in it, morning glories, 4 o'clocks and moon flowers are all supposed to be planted in June. I also planted two more beds, one with some more salad greens and one with radish. I think they will be done and ready to come out before the squash is ready to go in. I really like the idea of getting multiple harvests from the same beds before the end of the year.
Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time whittling this!

I got the designs on line. I used my Leathermen for almost everything. The Leathermen has no scissors so I had to used the another pair. It is surprisingly accurate with in about 30 feet. 

After I made the Slingshot, I picked up two old friends from the greyhound station. We returned to the woods for walking and slingshot testing. While there we found this! 

A few years ago I was out walking and I stepped on a baby bunny by accident. I eviscerated it and the experience was horrible. Several of my friends who know about these thing consoled me by telling me that it was abandon and would have died anyway. Then when I posted a picture on facebook about this bunny, those same friends told me I should put it back so its mother can find it. One of these statements can't be true. Regardless I am putting the bunny back. Dangress, my cat, has been eyeing this shoe box all night. Besides if it lives I can shoot it with my sling shot in a few months when its full grown and have rabbit stew. 

My friends and I cooked dinner together. There is truly nothing better than a good meal cooked with good friends. We cooked the beef heart I have been saving since last year. It was delicious. I had tried to make it once before and it went terribly. The trick was removing all the connective tissue and rinsing the blood out completely. Then I just used a simple apple-cider vinegar and olive oil marinade and grilled it. We also had sweet potato fries with it. Delicious. 

After dinner we went for a walk and found three more tires that are now sitting in my back yard. 

Oh and my watering can is growing something!

City Water!

Today, The water was on!

I did a jig!

Then it started raining.

I got my big tractor tire scrubbed some. However, its gonna need a lot of work to get all the algae off. That said my tire clock is on its way. Tomorrow it should be sunny though still rather cold and unpleasant. However, I have two old friends coming into town so I want to get my garden presentable before they arrive. 

First World Problems.

Today, finally, fed up with this malarkey, I took buckets and brought water from the creek. There is a creek about 100 meters from my garden. I had two five gallon buckets. I had to take three trips to get enough water. My shoulders burned and my back still aches. The radishes I planted needed wanter badly. 

Rant time. I spoke to the city two weeks ago about the water. Then, they told me last monday the 15th would be on. The water wasn't on. I called three times the the day after Tuesday the 16th. Each time the person I talked to said they would call the service department right away. Then on Thursday I was out doing silly heat training. I had hoped the water would be on then, would have helped with the heat stroke I got the day after.  When I was out doing that I stopped at the Service department. The guy there told me that they were not even the right people to talk to. But he did give me a number of someone else to talk to. I called that number the next day. The person there told me early this week the water would be on. Today Tuesday the 23rd it was still not on. I called again. The exact same woman I talked to last week told me not until the beginning of May. At this point I lost it. "I wouldn't mind if you all had just told me May One from the start. But no! You all have been telling me just a few days for two weeks. I have put seeds in the ground. I have already lost a good deal of money by putting things in the ground and not being able to water it." I think this got to her. She went to her supervisor (city workers). A few hours later I got a call from him. I explained the whole situation again. He told me they will be down there doing it first thing tomorrow. Its supposed to rain tomorrow morning. So you will forgive me if I am not convinced. Luckily I got his direct line when he called me. If its not on tomorrow I can call directly. And post the number. And tell all my friends to call. 

On the bright side, I met one of the long timers of the gardens. A guy who has been down at those gardens for more than 20 years. He told me that he was down there gardening before the gardens were even there. They used to be on the other side of the wooded area where they now are. I vaguely remember them being over there. I used to live on a near by street. My father and I would walk down there. This guy was down there before there were spigot down there. He told me that he was the one who petitioned for them to install the water spigot. Before that Everyone was hauling water up like I was today. Kinda puts it all in perspective. 

469 Pageviews and finishing my fence!

Wow. The pageviews on this blog just matched the pageviews on my other blog. Please Don't go look for my other blog cause it will bump up its pageviews and this cycle will never end. I want to thank everyone who is reading this. You rule and I am sorry for my spelling and grammar.
Today, I did some solid work in my garden. I used the mulch/compost in the back of the community garden area to cover the bottom of the fence. I only had a 35 gallon plastic tub to carry the dirt. I had to load it up and carry it on my shoulder about 150 meters. It took 10 trips.
The water still isn't on but they said early this week, so soon. When the water is on I want to wash off my big tractor tire and plant in it. I have moon flowers, morning glories, and a third flower that is supposed to bloom in the afternoon that I can't remember. I am also gonna put a sundial in the middle of the tire and a clock face around the sides. I am so stoked!

Squirrel Vs Dog

Yesterday, when I was down at the garden I noticed the fence was coming up around the bottom.  I noticed this cause my friend asked me to walk their dog when they were out of town. I took the dog down to the garden and she slipped out under the fence. If a 45 lbs dog can get under it a rabbit will have no problem. 
Today, I took my friends dog back and as I pulled up the the garden there was a squirrel inside my fence. The dog spent 10 minutes chasing the squirrel back in forth. The dog couldn't get in and the squirrel didn't have time to get out before the dog would get to where it was. I know I am probably going to hell for letting it go on that long. Finally I had to put the dog back in the car and let the squirrel escape. 
I had the idea to use the wire from old political signs to tie the fence down. The wire cutters I have were in no way up to the challenge. Leathermen are jacks of all trades masters of none. I got some bolt cutters that make you feel like a real man when you use them. They made short work of it. I bent the wire into V shapes and stabbed them through the fence into the ground. The fence was tacked down quickly after that. 
I want to go back tomorrow and use the mulch/compost in at the end of the space down there and bury the fence that is tacked down. But for the moment I have a bunch of homework to do. 

Some time on the Farm.

Still on the road of recovery from Thursdays heat training.
Today, I did some work in the garden. I found water collecting on the inner lip of each tire in the stacks. I filled that space in with more compost so there will not be standing water. The fence isn't working as well as I would have liked. I need to figure out something to fix it. I am thinking something to anchor it to the ground better and then dig it under some.
The carrots tops I planted the other day do not seem to be doing well. Who could blame them with this crazy weather. I didn't have much hope for them, but it still makes me sad. I also started some more salad greens. When all my salady stuff gets together, I am gonna be waist deep in salads.
I guess I still didn't do that much. But it felt good to be down there. I had to walk my friend's dog, who is out of town. I took the dog down to the garden with me.
I am hopeful for the summer.

Rehydrating

Yesterday I did something either awesome or stupid, depending on if you ask me or my mother. The high was 84 degrees so I put on all my thermals and sweats and a coat and ran around like a crazy person. I felt fine the rest of the day even went out with some friends. Last night I didn't sleep well and today I have been getting muscle cramps all day in my legs. I have been rehydrating and stuff and am starting to feel normal again.
Long story short, I didn't get much (anything) done today. I took some boards down the the garden to use as walk ways and that was about it. Oh! and I think I finally talked to the right people from the city about getting the water turned on, early next week. Ok I need to sleep

Busy as a Bee.

The water in my garden is still not on! Its been raining some, but I have things that are not making it. If they don't have it on by tomorrow, I am gonna do down to the community center and make heads roll. 
I spent some more time wandering the woods today looking for bees. Still nothing with that method. However, today I also went to a meeting of COBA. At the end of the talk during some Q&A I said "I am completely new here, new to bee keeping, but I want to catch a swarm. Can anyone help me? Or can I tag along and at least learn something?" There were several people interested in helping me and even a few who are willing to take me on swarm catching adventures. I gave them my information and when they get called, I will get called. 
I also learned about a few volunteer opportunity  with in the COBA organization. I am about to be busy as a bee. 

Update. 4-16-2013

Things are going slow. My car is taking longer than expected. I will have it again tomorrow though. 
I went out bee hunting more today. New woods, same result. Tomorrow, the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association(COBA) will have a meeting and I will be attending. I will hopefully get some advice on catching a swarm from the experts. I put the whole hive box back together today. The boards have warped a bit since I built it so it will be hard to work with. I think that means more angry bees and stings, but I will deal with it. 
I also mowed the lawn for the first time this year. I am  a supporter of food not lawns, but its not my yard. I used the grass clippings to mulch my garlic bed. That bed has been having a hard time staying wet in the spring warmth. This will help that some. 
I will have a full report on the COBA meeting tomorrow. And hopefully good news about bees. 

Going on a Bee Hunt, Gonna Catch a Big One.

Today I bought some multicolored carrots at the grocery store. They had really big greens on them. I chopped off the tops and planted them in my garden. I have no idea if that is a way to get carrots to grow. But I will find out. I called three times but the water still isn't turned on down there. 
I spent the next two hours searching the woods for a swarm of bees. Sadly nothing yet. But I will keep up the search. When I was out I found tons of bumble bees. I also came across a hive of ground bees that I remember from last year. I saw a few individual  honey bees out doing the bee thing. But no swarms yet. I did find a 55 gallon drum in the river. There are two holes in it that are drilled on the side.  I don't know what I will do with it yet, but I will think of something. 

State of the Garden.

Didn't do a lot for the garden today. Got some coaching in earlier. Then I did some odd jobs for my neighbor, to make some pocket money. Maybe, I will spend it at a Farmers Market this week. It will help me do some research.
I hung out with my sister earlier. We went to visit my garden. My radish plants are setteling into their new home. I still see no sign of the wild flowers or sunflowers. The carrot bits I pulled from the compost are also coming along. Everything is looking good. The water still isn't turned on, but I can only ask for so much.
My bee hive has the base coat, tomorrow morning I want to start stenciling some stuff on. I am worried that my desk worms are not gonna make it. Last night I added some sweet potato skin and I think there were pesticides on  them.

Bee Hive Base Coat.

Rains and Automobiles

Yesterday after posting in self pity I decided to cowboy up and face the wet and the mud. First, I went down to the garden and dug in my "radish" sprouts. Judging on how crazy they went last year I am gonna have a ton of them in just a few short weeks. I also planted the carrot top and oniony thing I found in the compost. The wild flowers I put in the corner still haven't come up through. I forgot to look for the sunflowers. I am not to hopeful about the sunflowers cause I found out after planting them that its too early for them anyway. I will have to get more sunflower seeds in a few weeks when it is time. As soon as I was done with those tasks the rain started picking up again and I booked it.
Back home I set up the rain barrels, sort of. I saw holes in both the trash cans that we use, I dough they will work at all. I also need to talk to my father about the equipment he uses for the job cause I couldn't find the right stuff.
My other beds at home are looking good. The compost I used in my cold frame is laced with alfalfa seeds and they have started to sprout. I will have to weed it soon. On the bright side alfalfa is edible so maybe I can make a salad. 
In other news, I am still unemployed so I am still operating on a very extreme budget. I am looking into taking some odd jobs from people in town. 
My car is being fixed! Even though a honda civic is not the ideal vehicle for running a small farm its better than the car my parents want to get next (a smart car). Our getting a new car would have defiantly pushed back the day I will be able to afford the car I really want to get, a small pick up truck.  Having my little beat up car back will mean I wont have to fear getting some dirt in it. 
Today, I am gonna repaint the bee hive and figure something out about the top bars in it. Also I hope to find some work to do around town. 

A rainy day.

Its been raining since about 7 last night. On the one hand, I am loving this cause everything is getting a good soak and its giving me a chance to do some other weird projects. But there is that other part of me that wants to hang out inside in sweats and stay warm and dry.

 Last night, after the first down poor I went outside and spent about 45 minutes collecting worms. I would guess I got between 100 and 200. I want to do this more through the rainy season and maybe compair the performance between the feral worms and the domesticated ones. So far I just put them in a container, punched holes in the lid and gave them some coffee to munch on. I have the little guys sitting on my desk as I write.

My sweet potatoes are developing some good shoots. The last frost date in this area is May first. That gives them 19 more days to grow. I hope I have enough strong shoots to get them in the ground then. The first frost date looks to be around October 1. I guess that does give me 153 days with out frost. Wow, I never did the math on that before. Sweet potatoes need between 100 and 110 days in the ground. That gives me more than a month for error. 

Bee season?!

I am posting from my phone so it won't be long. Yesterday after posting I cleaned out my bee hive. I really want to be proactive this year and catch a swarm. Then today when I was out training I saw several bee sorta insects. I know they weren't honey bees. But between their not landing and my not knowing too much about early spring pollinators I couldn't identify them.
I still need to do some repairs to my hive and repaint it. Then it will be ready to go.

It was hot out today. Down right hot.

I started early today, with getting some flower seeds in the ground in the south west corner of my space down in the community garden. I was hoping it would rain on them, but the rain didn't come. Then, I spent most of my morning and afternoon, with a break in the middle to lift weights, churning my fathers compost bin out behind the garage. I would estimate that I got about 45 cubic feet of usable compost, that I get to keep. I filled the first layer of tires and have the rest of the compost in the corner waiting. I am so hot and tired.
In the compost I found a lot of shredded plastic. We live on a main road and I know I am guilty of running over some litter with the mower from time to time. It probably got mixed in that way. This year I will be more vigilant when I do that chore. I also found some carrot tops that had started little shoots and what I think is an onion growing. When the water gets turned on in my garden I will take them down there.  I want to clean out the bee hive too if I get a second wind but until then I will relax.

Project: Dark River. 4-6-2013

After class on Saturday, two of my friends and I drove down as close to the river as we could. The other day when walking down there I had seen a tire. A big tire.
I was carrying a bag with a grappling hook I borrowed from a friend and a shovle. The people on the bike path kept giving the three of us strange looks. I led my friends down the embankment to the small island where the tire was. Once there I knew there was no denying it, I was getting in this river. At that point one of them said "You're either gonna get super powers or cancer." I hooked the grappling hook on it and began wedging it out with the shovel. Passers by on the trail were still staring down at us. Finally, through a combination of leverage, scooping out muck from the inside and pulling on the grappling hook we got it onto dry land. I proped it up and began to roll it. Then we hit our next challenge, the embankment. There was nothing for it, we were just gonna have to muscle it up. There was much grunting and breaking of tree limbs but it made it to the bike bath. From that point on it was pretty easy going. The tire rolled easy enough. We went past a couple of fields where people were playing frisbee. They stared.

Our last challange was the car. Mom if you are still reading here, I love you and please stop. First thing I realized was it was not gonna fit in the back. I thought about calling around and trying to get a truck down there. But I didn't know who to call. We all just stood around staring at our predicament. Then a cute girl walked up to us and told us that we had to put it on the roof. No further discussion was needed. Up it went and I tied it on.  The whole way home I was afraid to go over 30 mph. It was a grulling 10 miles or so. I dropped if off as fast as I could. I needed to get my mothers car back to her in less than 20 minutes at this point. In a panic I looked for a near by drive-through-carwash. There was none to be found. The only carwash in town was the do it your self sort and it was 5 minutes out of the way. So I went home with a muddy car and before I was even in the drive way my Mother was outcoming out to take it. I unloaded my things and as I did that I realized I had forgot my rope. Except it wasn't my rope, it was my friend's who had loaned me the grappling hook. In addition to that it was 100 ft of climbing rope, that I could not afford to replace. My mother was leaving and taking the car in the exact wrong direction.

The only thing I could do was run. So I ran. Just over 1 mile to get down there on foot. I wish I had timed it. The rope was still there, thank god. I got it and walked home.

When I got home I cleaned my tarps (shower curtains) and the wall of my house where I sprayed some mud shaking the tarps out. Then I watered the gardens and weeded my garlic. I would like to do the garlic again tomorrow. If I don't have a car and cant get down to the other garden I will definatly weed more and plant more tomorrow. All in all its been a very good and very long day. I am tired.

It's been a long Couple of days.

I guess I should start with Friday. About 12:30 I called the city and asked if they had any idea when the garden would be open. A few weeks ago I asked them the same thing and they told me May 1. But Then they told me that it had opened a few days ago. As fast as I could I got my fense and drove to the hardwear store to get some posts. Then I hit the garden. After an hour or two I had set up all the posts and all the fence I could. I was still about 30 feet short. Last year, the permiter of my garden was 100 ft this year the two together is 120. I finished up about 5:30 and went to practice.
Yesterday morning, I went and got my tires off Moe's back porch and bought some more fence on the way back to the garden. I finished the fence and put the tires in place before I had to leave for another practice.
After class, I did project Dark River. I can't at this time disclose what that project was but let me inform you it took three and a half hours and was very hard and exhausting.
After I got home, I weeded the garlic bed and watered both that and my salad green bed.
Just this morning, I went back to my garden and placed some planks to walk on. I also went for a walk in the woods and found two more tires. Actually, I found three but only brought two to my garden. Then I came back to the house tried to remove some more of the salad greens from their egg cartons. Then put some more seeds in the ground in that cold frame.

Don't tell mom.

Fence is almost done. 

Tires

Tires in place. 

Hose hook

Fancy front door. 

Looks professional

Very professional. 

Garlic. 

Update

Yesterday, I took a day off from concentrating heavily on the garden. The transmission on my car is going, so I was doing a lot of that. I kept everything watered and so far its all seeming good. This is gonna be a short one cause I have a lot of non-garden stuff on my plate today. 

Foraging

Wow, just two days ago, I was excited about hitting 100 page views. Today, I hit 200. I also, now have Five followers! I want to thank everyone who is reading and following this blog. You all are keeping me motivated to keep this thing going.
Yesterday morning, I planted three more egg cartons with seeds. I started some sunflower seeds, I only had 11 seeds so I am growing them just for aesthetics and to get more seeds. The other things I started were more salad things and some beets. 
In the afternoon, the boys and I took a hike in the same woods where we found all the tires the day before. I showed them what wild chives are and we all tasted them. They were soo excited about them, that they wanted to take some home for their mother. We added them to the meat loaf. 

Also, when we were in the woods we came across one of the tires that was really far from any others that we gathered. As a result of its distance we forgot it, but it was in great shape. The boys rolled it up the trail (I helped with the hills) and we now have 18 for my Sweet Potato SkyScrpaers.

Later that night, I noticed that I have my first case of poison ivy for the year. Its Spring time!

Holy Michelin man, Batman.

I am really sore. And I need some coffee.
Yesterday, my girlfriend and I followed a tip from the same guy who told us about the freeway-under-pass about a place to find tires. I have hiked out in that area before, but never ventured much off the paths. The first three tires I found were in those woods. However, we found at least 18 or 20 tires and removed 9. There were some that we left were not in great shape and really full of dirt and heavy. There was another group, that we left cause they were in the corner of the local college practice feild and looked like they may be being "used" for something. Though they also clearly had a years worth of growth through them. We also found a piece of re-bar about 6 feet in length, That we used to carry them.

The first bunch that we carried out was by far the worst. There were only four in that load, but they were much heavier. We also hadn't figured that our packs would be getting in the way. Who ever was in front was fighting their own pack the whole way. In addition to that we had to carry them about three times the distance, I would guess about 3/4s of a mile to the car. There were a lot more ups and downs that we had to negotiate with that first load as well. We crossed a stream and were bushwhacking most of the way. Once we put them in the car we left a lot of our stuff to go get the second load. 
Just before we picked up the second load, I heard some dog walkers coming along the trail. We asked them to take our picture with this huge load of tires we're carrying out. They look way lighter than they actually were in this picture. Also we are clearly running on endorphins cause we are way smily. In the end the back seat and trunk of my little honda civic was full of tires. We went back to her place and unloaded all the tires on her back porch. I picked up the kids as she made some omelet for us. 

The second load. We make a good team. 

We took the road less travelled. 

This is what we started with

Tired Theodore in the woods

Pretty woods picture 

After I got home I dumped out the open part of my pack and this was in it.

Tire City.

There was another frost last night. The grass this morning shone with icy dew. 
Without really meaning to, I did some good work for the garden yesterday. I hiked in two areas. One that I have not been to in many years and one that was very new to me. The first one, was the very new one. We got to it by parking in this apartment parking lot that until a week ago I didn't know was there. Then hiked into the woods climbed a fence, scrambled up and then down the other side of an embankment. Then we entered a tunnel where we balanced on little bolts over running water that travels under a freeway-off-ramp. We came out in a small ravine between the off ramp and the freeway. We were so far down, that I could barely tell there was a freeway not 100 meters away. I was down there with My girlfriend. We found a planter that probably holds 5 gallons in perfect condition and I found a tire. We hauled both of them out, using some team work to get the tire around the tricky ups and downs. I will use this tire as well as all the others I have collected to plant my sweet potato skyscrapers. 

Oh and this was down there too. Weird tropical plant growing under a free-way over pass in early April in Central Ohio. 

After that adventure, I picked up her kids and we went to what I thought would be a more reasonable hiking trail. I have not been down there in years and we got a little off the trail. At one point we found ourselves at what must have been a dump site for a long past farm. There were at least 15 old tires that I could see on the surface, probably more under the leaf litter. Most were too decayed to be any good me and there was a bunch of broken glass. Once I got the kids out of the area. I had them stand at the top where I could still see them but they were out of harms way. I went back in to investigate the tire situation. I found one that was in decent shape and we hauled it back to the car, well I did most of the hauling they gave me moral support. Oh, and we named it Tyler the Tire. 
At the end of the day yesterday, I finally got to get a good look at the sweet potatoes. We were rushing out the door to get my girlfriend to work when I saw them in the morning and I only saw them for a second. I saw two last night with little shoots and several with roots. One had spoiled so I added it to the compost. 
Today, I got a hot tip for a place to get some more tires. I will let you know if I have success. 

Everything looks better in the sun!

I just crested over 100 page views. I am not sure what that means, I think its just every time the page is loaded onto someone's server. I made mine and my girlfriends computer not count, so it has to mean something. I am sure in a few months I will look back on that and it will seem insignificant, but right now it feels like a milestone. 
This morning, when I checked the sweet potatoes I saw one had a little tiny shoot coming off it! Last year, I didn't even buy my sweet potatoes until april 9th. That means I am at least a month ahead of where I was last year. 
The radish seedlings are starting to perk up through the soil. The other seedlings the kids started are doing okay as well. especially The youngest boy, he just dumped a bunch of seeds in his tray and they are all going crazy. Before I left My girlfriends house this morning, I also checked on the worms, fed and watered them. They are not working through the compost as fast as I expected. Though to be honest, my expectations were probably way to high. They seem healthy though. They haven't gotten any thicker then they were, but they are a good deal longer. They are lively too. I figure I will just add a few handfuls of compost every week till the box is full. then just let it sit for a few weeks/months until it seems they have worked though most of it. Then work on making them move to a new box. 
When I came home I inspected my garlic bed and the cold frame. The garlic is looking strong. Another month or two in the ground and I will have me a lot of pretty tasty garlic cloves. My salad green cold frame is looking good. I pulled some of them out of the egg cartons they started life in. It got really annoying to do that, so many are still in them in them. I hope the cartons just break down. 
Well the sun is out and I want to go be in it, even if its a bit cold.