I havent started anything yet this year other then 2 ginger plants. I guess it doesnt matter that much because once i find a suitable drain pan or something similar im going to try a small pvc hydro system. But i need to get the tomatoes started. They can handle directly outside if i let them vine out. But if it cant handle wind im not doing it this year.

Our soil temp is... no idea but still frozen.

@Twisterii Ground temperature ... I really have no idea.  If I'm going by what I remember then what I'm remembering is obviously wrong.  As a kid we planted as soon as it was warm enough that we didn't freeze (frost) overnight.  But that was 70 years ago and 2,100 miles away ... age will account for memory (what was I saying, I fergot!) and distance will play havoc on temperature. Night temp here is in the 40's - 60's with daytime temps in the 50's to high 80's ...

There is something definitely wrong here though.  Some morning glory's and marigold's I got last year did nothing as well ... seeds I bought at the same time sprouted last year (then died when I was in hosp.)  

I've fed mice which was the reason for the raised bed.  They may be able to get over the edge and in but I've seen no evidence.... Birds scratch and mice dig and I've seen nothing...

Al - do a germination test. Put 10 seeds in a wet paper towel inside a zip lock bag. If average room temperature is 70⁰ or better, check in 1 week. Of nothing germinated, wait another week. Acceptable germination is at least 70%.

I do wet paper towel in a clear solo cup. It how i start almost everything. So far poppies seem to be one of the few things that wont sprout that way.

Another thing i tend to do, especially with the mj seeds because at $120 per 10 seeds they are expensive, is to soak them overnight in water.

You don't want to soak bean seeds - they'll fall apart before they germinate. And they are best direct seeded. The wet paper towel in a baggie is for germination test only to see if the seed is viable.

Either in this thread or elsewhere I've mentioned about a Beauceron that's currently resident in the Alpine shelter. I took the opportunity today to go up and talk to her ... typical female, there was not talking with her, or to her. it was all one way!  She's like "I don't know you!"  "I don't trust you!"  on and on for about a half hour.  It's going to take a couple of trips up there before she's trusting, but that's okay.

With he folks we've got moving in down here I want a more proactive dog - as opposed to one who's active for attention.

Now, if the link behaves right here's Amethys (not for long, but it'll do for now)

Cute!

Pretty dog, Al. Good luck with bonding, hopefully only a few trips.

Nice looking dog. Would be an interesting DNA test I bet.

@TwisterII according to the previous owner who turned her and her 9 puppies in to the shelter she is pure Beauceron though if she is she's small for the breed. Papered Beauceron puppy's go for $2500. They either didn't have papers or ... or well, I don't know.

Do I need another high energy dog (rug? my two are crashed and it's not even warm today)? No, but I do want a dog who's bred for protection. We're getting some real sketchy people moving in and even more coming to the AB&B's

@Amymeme As I was thinking back over her actions yesterday and I don't think more than one more visit before I have a f2f with Avalanche. She was curious even though she was real reserved and definitely standoffish. She was smelling (and licking) my toes in sandals but if I moved she backed off. When I started to walk to the gate (we were in an open play area) she took (nibbled/???) my hand but when I wiggled my fingers she was back to "Uh-oh!!". If I am able to bring her home it'll be interesting (able=existing dogs and my age)

How's the hip, Al? You up for any "place determining" that may occur? Hopefully, she fits right in. I know you're thoughts regarding a dog with protection instincts. I've been pondering a malinois or similar as we get older. Anti semitism is rising, we have several people on the road flying Confederate flags, gonna are a way of life around here and F**k Biden signs are more prevalent than not. Oddly enough, it's not the immigrants that scare me - they want to work. And with the plethora of farms, there is high need for immigrant labor. We have a high rate of drug and alcohol abuse in the county, day on Grand jury a few years ago and opened my eyes. And now doors are locked, even when we're home! A significant portion of the crimes were rather close to home. Unfortunately.

It isn't the hip, it was the femur ... but I think people just mix them ... as if it really matters.  Actually it's doing pretty well.  I get tired after walking around a lot (more than a couple of miles) but I am getting around, no cane, crutches or walker.

Well, went to the shelter today, filled out an application expecting that they'd run it before I was able to bring her home ... but since I had gotten Avalanche from them they were ready to get rid of her.    So I coughed up $100 and drove her around town (some shopping) before we came home.  A friend drove me so she didn't have to set in a hot truck (and it was only 95 today!)

Got her home and Avalanche immediately tried for dominance ... I had my hands full - dog in one hand and 'stuff' in the other so he got poked with a foot (have to be careful there, I didn't kick him but did nudge him to get him off her) and that was pretty much the end of it. He's been called down for growling - but it's a growl with his tail going so not too serious.  I've been feeding the two inside but for a while I think I'm going to have to feed them outside and her inside ... Avalanche does get a bit possessive but I don't think that'll last too long.  'Course I normally feed them on the porch during the summer anyway.

We're going to have one discussion - she counter surfs!! (in fact just brought me a muffin, that I had around too long, from the trash)  I'm going to have to be careful here for a while.  If I say "No!" with any emphasis she cowers like she's been hit - so I'm going to have to let her get used to me before I start yelling. (Actually she's pretty good about respecting the "No!" so I'm impressed.)

She's gonna fit right in without too much of a problem.  Avalanche doesn't bark (except at a few things like donkeys) Sky doesn't bark, she whines if she wants something and Belle (I could not do Amethys - especially not misspelled!) I don't think has made a sound since we got here. Size wise she's about the same size as Sky so a good couple of inches shorter than Avalanche - definitely not at the large end of a large breed dog.

With the exception of the trip to bring me the muffin, she's been laying on the floor oh, say about 4 feet away from me.  Front door's open to get some cool air in and she's not in any hurry to go wandering - GOOD!!

(( The derivation of Belle:  Beau (the first part of her breed name) means beautiful but a male context, I think.  Belle is a pretty girl so rather than yelling "Bo!" I figured I go for Belle... and she's the first dog I've renamed in a long, long time! ))

Congratulations, Al! Thrilled to hear things mostly uneventful. Love the name Belle. A few years ago, as best we came determine, someone dumped aa dog near the corner where Son 2 lives. Appears to be mostly out all Australian Cattle Dog. She came whimpering to Son, he kept her safe, tried to find her owners but nobody came forward. His in laws dog had just died of old age and his FIL was quite bereft. So DIL decided her dad needed another dog (or he'd just sit in his chair and not move, ever.) So son and DIL bequeathed the dog to her parents. And dog is named Bella! She is quite the active little girl, very sweet. Still adores Son 2. I hope you're Belle settles in as well and becomes a similar sweet lady.

Belle is a sweet name!

Argh! I figured I'd see just how much training she had in the past so I left her out last night. After a trip outside before I went to bed, I had two messes in the kitchen ... so okay we know that she's got to be crated overnight - no big deal. I woke up this morning to hear her chewing<???> on something ... that muffin, remember that from last night? Well, it and most of the other trash from my trash bag was out on the floor. Yep, she's got to be crated overnight!!!

She has a bit of an independent streak. I think (hope) we can work that out in time (short time!) I've let her out off lead a time or two to see what she'd do, once after I'd taken her for a walk out back and she's wanting to see what everything is, that's normal enough but she didn't want to come when I called her (does she even know her name yet - nope, too soon) but at least she didn't run off when I walked up to her and put her leash on. (( That's better than Avalanche or Sky - they give me this "I'm free, come and get me!!" ))

On the other hand I went out with her on lead walked around a bit till she 'tinkled' and then went back in; then put the other two out on their leads and a bit later they wanted in. No more had they both gotten in and Sky is play bowing to Belle and it was on!! Good rowdy raucous play! Avalanche, grumpy old man, however was standing back watching them with a "What is this 'stuff'" He was having none of it at all ... still grumbling when Belle gets near him but not mean, just "Leave me alone!"

LOL - Al, aren't you the original NILF?!!? Let them earn their freedom? All in all, morning terrible, just annoying. Happy to hear Sky and Belle are rumpus pals. And Avalanche? There's a place in this world for grumpy old men, too. Currently sitting in doc's office awaiting hubby. Biopsy in particularly sensitive region. Now a yearly occurrence. Unfortunately.

@amymeme im glad we dont see the antisemitism here. Most are too Christian to be antisemitic here. We do see crazy anti immigrant stuff. And yeah they really dont bother me or scare me, its the poor white trash meth heads that scare me.

We have new neighbors again. Not exactly sure what is going on with the 1 house not separated by a giant field or ditch. But they glare instead of wave. Bothers me enough to order hardware mesh to attach to the feedlot panels to keep splinter in.

Congrats on the new pup. I dont know the breed and didnt see the pic

@amymeme I thought I'd responded to your response but I guess not.

There are things she does know --- "No!" is among them.  She's a chewer and pretty much if I tell her no she'll leave that thing along, but it seems as if it's one shoe, one sock, one towel, one ... at a time. I'm laughing, but she is getting better.

The shelter thinks she's about two years old, but I'd put money on her being much younger than that.  More like just over a year!  Assuming gestation at about two months and first heat (for her breed) at about eight months ... she may be as young as around a year!  Still a puppy and she acts like a puppy. (( I wrote as if I'd said it but I'm not sure, she came into the shelter with NINE puppies all of whom [except one] are now at their new homes so they're over 8 weeks ... ))

We've had some discussion at the door.  Seems as if she thinks she should go out first and she's run into my hand a couple of times (of course my hand is also swinging back, ostensibly to put a leash on one of the others but, well, she just runs into it ... LOL )  

She was counter surfing the first and second day she was here but getting yelled at a time or two (or three or four or ...) that's now a thing of the past (mostly - crossed fingers)
I've had her out for walks both on and off lead several times and it's easier with her off lead ... she pulls like 'most any husky!  Off lead she now stays reasonably close and generally comes when I call her (generally is a whole lot better than either Avalanche or Sky!)  While we're still having issues with the kitchen floor, for the nonce they're wet rather than solid and getting better (oh please!!)  

She is smart I'll give her that and if I don't break a leg again, I'll say she's a keeper.  

@Lostmaniac unless I missed something up there, I was the one with the new pup (but thank god, not a puppy) and she's a Beauceron (Bo-sir-on) ) and you can read about the breed here.  Other than being a very young dog (the shelter said adult but not really) she's good.  If you've read I'm having some issues but it was a case of me wanting to know what, if any, training she had had.  Now that we're on track she's learning what she can get away with and what I'm going to draw the line with.
She is good with Sky, makes a real good playmate and generally back off when the old lady is tired; Avalanche on the other hand wants as little to do with her as possible ... has snapped in her face a time of ten and she's learning to leave him alone - no play at all!

And, while it's not late, it's cold and this old man is going to bed to read and get warm.  (We've had a front come through so we've gone from 90 in the day to 70 and nights are correspondingly cooler!)

Looked it up, very cool breed. And i guess your getting the same front as us. Went from mid 60s and windy to mid 30s and windy and snowy.

Probably the same one, @lostmaniac, I thought winter was over and put the heater up so I'm heating with an outdoor space-heater tacked on my propane tank. At the moment it's 50° and Friday the high was 93° out low Thursday night was higher than the frigid 50° I'm seeing a little mist but no real rain and we need rain!!

Avalanche and Belle are outside but I think when they come back in, I'm gonna take my book and crawl back under the covers.

We got cold, too. 35⁰ last night and 46⁰ today. Most of the week only high 40s, low 50s I think I've day we got 60⁰. So back to keeping stoves lit. Sigh.

I'm trying to organize the music library on the computer. The problem is this computer is the 4th(?) we've owned in 25 years or so? And every time we migrate from one computer to the next, the music goes with it. But different folders. And hubby keeps buying used CDs, ripping them to the computer and making CDs for various cars and players in the house and the various garages. And now, we just bought a new back up drive. We bought a new one a year ago that was an SSD that we just found out has a history of abrupt, non recoverable failure. So we want to duplicate the whole backup. I am loathe to have duplicates on the new backup drive but I can't quite figure out which folders are duplicates. There are 3 folders - the first one, I think, includes the second and the third is, I think it's own. So I'm gonna copy the first and third to the new drive and then do some random cross checking. But this is SLOW. One file is 475 GB and the other is 497 GB. He rips everything in either FLAC or lossless so the files are large. The new drive has USB 3.0 but I think this computer is only 2.0 at best At least, the computer is opposite the wood stove so my back is only 4 ft away - toasty, I am🥰
Hopefully, I don't get hot under the collar before I finish this task but ya never know what kind of demon is hiding in a new device

More or less in no particular order:
1) I have two 4 TB Western Digital drives.  HD not SSD but for backup I'm not too concerned.  I back up to one every week and to the other about once a month.  I'm fairly comfortable I"m backed up well and can retireve what I need / want when I want to.  I use O&O Disk Image to back them up which lets me mount an image whenever I want. Diskimage makes a complete image of the drive or the selection of folders you want. Since my musinc and books are stasehed on the 4TBdrive I don't have much to backup from C:\ each backup file is about 80GB from 188GB so I can get a lot on the one TB partition I use for backup.
2)  I have about1 TB of music and have had to do some housecleaning and one that I use is DoubleKiller I've used it for years and never had a known problem (there is a pro version but I used the free one for years till I decided I'd give him a tip for a job well done)
3)  My music library is organized by album.  It's a pain since so many artists have the same song one different albums - but in many cases I find the different enough to make it interesting.  MediaMonkey lets you organize by a whole slew of different options,

Ill have to pass this on to hubby. I think we have Double killer or something like it. His music is stored by artist with their albums. If something is on 2 albums, he wants to keep the music in both places. We have very little on the computer that really needs backup except music and pictures. Documents, hubby is a dinosaur and its all on paper. Oh, and the new drive is a standard hard disc drive - Seagate FireCuda. I've had good luck with internal Barracuda drives, not so good with external Western Digital. But that was way way back. I've been using Seagate for a while now and have been happy with the passport series. Except for this latest thing with Seagate SSD. Nice little size with lots of storage. But if it goes belly up without warning and nothing can be retrieved, its not worth anything. I'll use it as its past its warranty. Maybe. But the music library will be duplicated on the FireCuda.

I tend to just keep the old drives from my computers. Pop the internal drive out and then I have a hard drive adapter that basically turns an internal drive into an external drive. This buys me time if I want/need to move a computer along more quickly. We have a few internal laptop drives that had a lot of movies on them but the processor quit in the computer so now we just use the adaptor that swaps it to USB and my husband can migrate as he pleases.

"Husband migrate" ?!!? What a novel idea Computer literacy is not his forte. I can't go do errands without 1 out of 3 trips resulting in a phone call: "The screen won't come on." (It was doing updates ) or "the internet is really slow" (What connection are you on - yep, that's for the west end of the house.) Right now, I'm showing him how file explorer works.

But, I like the idea of using the old internal hard drive as an external. Though, I do have an old Quantex from the 90's that's just sitting in a closet for disposal but I need to destroy that hard drive. Not sure what all is really important on there.