Megalith Revised; Tomato Doubts; SPRING!! Net Positive Solar

 

Megalithic Raised Bed Lowered by Local Man

Over the winter, I kept looking at the new raised bed. It struck me that it was raised to the point where it would be pretty much impossible to actually reach the plants and garden in it. So yesterday I cut it down from the photo below to the photo above. 

It was a fantastic day for it. The temperature reached the mid-fifties by the time I was toiling away in the late morning / early afternoon. Now we just need to get some dirt and put up some chicken-wire and it will be set for planting.

The tale of two tomato plants continues. The Delicious tomatoes are reaching the point where some of them may not fit in the greenhouse. Which is fine. I'll pot them up using some garden soil and put them in a window. The Beefsteak tomatoes from Pure Pollination I'm beginning to think are a total bust. They've got two leaves and they've been in the greenhouse for a month.

So I took measures this morning and ordered some of our old reliable Wisconsin Chief tomatoes from Seed Savers Exchange, along with a packet of yellow and a packet of red cherry tomatoes. There should still be time to get these started in the greenhouse and ready to plant over Memorial Day weekend. After they are delivered, there should be about 8 weeks to go. They won't have a head start, but they should be mature enough to go outside.

Spring has sprung. We're looking anxiously for the crocus and daffodils Kiki planted last fall to pop up (maybe a little early, as it was below zero a week and a half ago). It is going to be cooler later this week, with highs only making it to the 40's, but most of the snow that wasn't in piles has melted.

We also turned a corner on our solar production last week. We went from being electricity importers to electricity exporters. If that happens at the equinox, we should have 3/4 of the year where we make more than we consume - even with the plug-in hybrid car (which actually uses surprisingly little).