Seeders, Sneezers and Squash

 Still fighting that dang cold. My daughter is almost over it, I feel like I may never get rid of it, and now my husband is just coming down with it. It's a sinus stabbing really unfun kinda cold. It has made me reevaluate my priorities like.. breathing easily and the ability to not lose control of bodily functions. 


 In an attempt to defy this raging internal germ warfare, I made tea. A LOT of tea... black tea with big knobs of raw ginger and honey. The heat soothed my throat, the honey gently coated it, the ginger settled my stomach while allowing me to breathe (if only for a moment)... and the caffeine had me twitching with the determination/ energy/ gusto to "git 'er done".

 I WILL get more planted. Nothing will stop me! I would have roared between my wheezes if I could. Right about 2 seconds after bending over to sow some seeds, the cold really did a number on me and suddenly.. stabbing pain to the sinuses.. coughing fit that was so wracking.. I realized it was not so clever to have drank that much of any liquid... ever.

 Did I mention my husband was walking up with a new neighbor to introduce to me? Ahhh good times. One of the few people around here that is a bit more worldly and close to our age. Nothing makes a lasting first impression like walking up to meet someone as they are slumping forward with a death grip on a tree, legs so tightly clentched that cinder blocks could be pulverized, and making hacking/ retching sounds fit for use in a sci-fi monster flick.

  Order be damned! 

 I called for Typhoid Mary my darling child to come over and then proceeded to throw caution in the wind. I handed her the seeds. 

 "Here kiddo. Try to sprinkle it about evenly within the stringed off plots. The chart is over there and has it clearly marked what gets planted in each plot."

 No.. it wasn't a sane move. I am rather convinced that whatever quality bits of gray matter I had between my ears before this cold.. has been forcefully evacuated out my nose. I will figure out what she planted later. Not overly important as this is just the house in town's kitchen garden.

 We're hoping to call in a few favors to get several acres at each farm tilled. 

 I am hoping I'll have enough variety for the farmer's market. It will take awhile just to build up the soil.. but that is my favorite part about all of this. My budget is microfilament thin and spacing of crops will be critical in order to save enough seeds for next year. We are having major issues with the tenant, so I've been looking for lawyers while gazing wistfully at various seeders.


 Anyone use a seeder? Any input about the different ones? 


 The melons and squash are what I am very excited about. After popping some cold meds I decided no time like now to attempt to figure out how much space is needed, where they need to be placed and the rest of that silly sane stuff seed savers love to ponder while sorting species. Needing some quality background sound to drowned out the guzzzsh guzzzsh guzzzsh this cold has produced in my ears, I flipped on the tv (first time since December 5th!) and was quickly entranced by Anthony Bourdain. 


 I have to admit I got almost absolutely nothing accomplished before those cold meds kicked in.. a little before Tony's episode had ended. My family reconsidered approaching me to ask what's for dinner (and all by themselves made salads)... when they heard me cooing to my seeds.

 "Oh yes pink banana.. this year you will have you chance. You will be close so you can be well watered and Hubbard would love your company. Although I should see if I can get Red Warty Thing as I would get so much joy from making signs for it."

 Almost nothing done.. because by the time I was rendered a drooling unconscious heap I did manage to doodle a lot all over my graph paper. Pens, markers, paper, seeds + cold meds and anything is possible... including conversing with cucurbita.