Starting the New Year right

After an eventful night dealing with a couple of boys who think a runny nose is a valid reason for incessant (well, at least until 2:30 a.m.) whining and crying, I looked forward to a relaxing New Year’s Day. It was everything I hoped. We Skyped my brother and sister-in-law in Lithuania, and were able to see my niece and nephew. Plus, we finally got through to one of my sisters in Ohio. I had to convince my oldest niece that there won’t be grizzly bears waiting for her when they disembark from the airplane this summer. I’m sure she needed that confirmation looking at me versus just hearing it through the phone. It’s such a blessing to have technology where we can visit “face to face” across the country or the world.

January first is traditionally the day I reorganize. Today I dumped out all my seeds, and moved them to a larger bin. It’s always a lot of fun to go through the packets, and today Sam and John gave me a hand. Sorting seeds is a great way to start the year since there’s nothing but hope and positive energy in them. Everything is possible.

And, as always, I have grand plans for the garden. I’m going to graft tomatoes again, so I need to order more ‘Maxifort’ seeds for the rootstock. Plus, I might teach a class for River City Harvest on tomato grafting, and need to see about ordering rootstock seed for that, as well. At roughly $20 for 50 seeds, you don’t want to buy them unless you have to. There are lots of pepper seeds in the bucket, yet I know I need to order a pepper a woman told me about that tastes as good as ‘Carmen,’ but is open pollinated. (As soon as I go through my notes to figure out which one it is!) Overall, I won’t have to order much more. Undoubtedly there will be new varieties that need to be tried, but the spring line up is looking pretty good.

I hope all of you had an equally enjoyable first day of the new year. May everyone have a joy-filled and blessed 2013!