Blowin' in the Wind

This wind is downright worrisome. I just read on the NOAA weather site that Hutchinson recorded wind gusts at 60 MPH today. Outside my window the wind is whipping the trees with such fury that I fear some of the branches will twist right off and go sailing downwind. It's probably good that the trees are not leafed out yet.

I wonder what else is blowing around out there. Thankfully we had just enough rainfall to keep the topsoil from taking flight. (In the middle of the last sentence I saw the chimney cap from the housetop flung onto the driveway.)

Yesterday it was almost as fiercely windy from the south, and then the wind shifted around to the northwest late in the day, and now everything that blew into Nebraska yesterday can head for Oklahoma today.

Today, on the tax filing deadline, is our average frost-free date. Stutzmans is having their annual Frost Free celebration with an offer of a free tomato plant with each purchase. Ironically, the predicted overnight low here is 31 degrees. We looked ahead at the forecast earlier this week and decided to hold off on planting our tomatoes. Stutzmans might have a better-than-average season if a lot of tomatoes get frozen tonight. I'm hopeful, though, that, with some plant protection, tomatoes can survive the night outdoors--that is, if the plant protectors don't blow away. Nevertheless, we've taken the precaution of bringing all of our tomato plants in from the greenhouse. They're in trays, laid out in ranks on the living and dining room floor. Tomorrow, however, a warming trend begins, and we'll move outside most of the things that have lived under lights indoors so far. It's time to start another round of seeds.

One experiment this year is planting strawberries from seed. Tresa got the seeds from a European friend who thought she should try these wonderful strawberries. She asked me to start them for her. I couldn't read a word on the seed packet label, so I didn't know if they needed to germinate in light or dark, in warm or cold temperatures. I did not cover them, and I kept them on a heat mat. Some of the seeds germinated, but the plants are sitting there, seemingly paralyzed. For several weeks, the leaves have been half the size of a pinhead. The Nicotiana, which germinated at about the same time, also with very fine leaves at the beginning, now has leaves the diameter of a pea.

I'm still waiting to get my asparagus, strawberry, rhubarb, and cane fruit plants into the ground. If Grant gets the volunteer mulberry tree cut down in the cane fruits planting area, I'm going to work hard on getting at least those things planted tomorrow. The biggest hurdle before that can happen will be to get the organic matter (polite term for manure pile) from the large mound by the hog barn to the Trail West garden. It will likely be either by shovel full, hauled in tubs, or, if the men in the family get involved, perhaps by skid steer scoops, hauled by the pickup load. Or maybe someone else will come up with an idea smarter than either of those. I'm praying about this.

I've just returned to this post after more than an hour's interruption when the power went out. I'm glad to hear the aquarium pump burbling away, and the furnace fan running again. I do wonder about the fire truck that just wailed its way toward Partridge, and I feel sorry for the lineman that worked to restore power under such wild conditions. I think I'll be glad to go to bed soon and wake up tomorrow to a calmer world.