I’d been getting kind of bummed lately about my Latin lessons, because it didn’t seem like I was getting any traffic to them. Then I discovered I couldn’t see the traffic because I’d never installed the Google Analytics code on them. I did that Saturday, and Sunday I had twice as many hits on my Latin pages as on my blog!
Apologies to all my avid readers for my lack of posts lately. This has been a really busy week, what with my regular work, plus doing quotes for some potential new clients, setting up a new web site we’re working on, getting ready for the Business Expo this week and another thing we’re involved in next week, and keeping up with the gardening and chickens. I had to skip my Latin lesson this week; they’re taking longer now that I’m diverging from the books somewhat and trying to find ecclesiastical selections that fit the lessons. I’ll finish the next one as soon as possible, but I’m not sure when that will be.
Harvested the third small batch of radishes today. With all the moisture they’re getting, they seem noticeably bigger every day, so I’m not just picking little ones to thin them anymore. Here’s a fuzzy picture of them halfway through washing them.
Radishes
It’s been five weeks now since we planted the first things in the garden. Sometimes radishes would be ready that quickly, but we did have some pretty cool stretches. They shouldn’t be far off, though. I thinned things somewhat the other day and fed what I pulled to the chickens, but I need to do some more. Time for some updated photos; as always, click to make them bigger.
First off, Angel posted some pictures and info about our new chickens, so go check that out. They’ve all survived so far, although she said one went over the wall this morning and was running around the garage. Apparently they managed to knock their water over, and one used it as a step to jump out of the box. Wily beasts, they are. I made their box twice as big this morning. They weren’t really crowded yet, but they’re growing fast, so they’ll need the extra space soon.
Almost all the Little Marvel peas are up now, but I don’t see any of the Sugar Ann (snap peas) yet. I hope they’re just a little slower, and that they weren’t killed off by the cold and wet last week. Some turnips are coming up in the other bed, so apparently the birds didn’t get all those seeds after all.
There’s a garage sale in the hall at St. Rose this Saturday, April 4. I don’t know much about garage sales, but I have a feeling it’ll be pretty big. We’re planning to take some stuff over, as soon as we find time to get it sorted out and loaded up.
The book sale at the library is this weekend too. I get pretty excited when those come up, because I usually bring home a box or two of books. At 50 cents/inch, and half-price on Sunday, I figure any book I’m even remotely likely to read is worth that much. Last fall I didn’t find as many as usual, maybe because I’d been to the spring sale and gotten everything I was interested in. I don’t suppose I’ll ever go away from it empty-handed, though.
I had a great match at pool last night—4-0 over another 4-handicap like myself. I don’t know what happened, but after a couple weak shots in the first game, I ran the table and hardly missed another shot after that. One shot had the whole bar cheering, although it was more strange than difficult. I don’t have the angles quite right because this is really pushing the limits of my drawing skills, but it looked something like this:
The blue balls were my opponent’s, blocking that pocket. The red and black ball were mine. (Yes, I know the second ball shouldn’t be black in 8-ball, but I’m not gonna redraw it.) I had to cut the red ball fairly sharply, and it cut the second ball, sending it back across the table at well under 90 degrees to my original shot. It looked really cool, but making the shot isn’t hard as long as you can see the angles. It’s not the kind of shot you need to try very often, though, because there’s usually a simpler option available.
Four weeks to go in the session (plus Easter off). We were six games out of first place going into last night, and we took 3 of 5. So our chances aren’t good at this point, but we’re not out of it. Last night reminded me why I play league: Livermores’ is a nice corner bar where the people are usually pretty laid back and friendly; the other team was cool and sportsmanlike; and the music wasn’t overly loud. All in all, it was a good night. Maybe for the summer, while I take a break from pool, I can find a softball team that needs a slow-footed infielder.
I don’t know if I mentioned it already, but we bought eight chicks a few days ago. They’re in the garage under a heat lamp for now, and they seem to be bigger every time I go check on them. They’re eight different egg-laying breeds, seven girls and one who hasn’t chosen a gender yet. We’re not sure if we’re going to build a chicken house or use some sort of large mobile “tractor” cage, but we’ve got some time to figure that out. Angel’s going to be blogging about them with pictures, so I’ll just point over there when she does.
Lettuce and Swiss chard are coming up in the garden now, so I’ve seen everything except carrots. They usually do take longer. After the snow, the soil was really saturated, but the sun later that day helped dry it out a little. Even our 11-inch-high raised beds were holding water for a while, but they drain a lot faster than the soil at ground level does.
