Snowshoe Farm

I have been sick for the better part of this week. One of those thrilling late-winter colds that sticks in your chest and clogs your ears. I could feel it creeping up on me on Monday of this week; I attempted to psych myself out of getting sick. It did not work.

Tuesday came with a wet cough and the annoyance of mouth-breathing. Wednesday was more of the same.

Tuesday and Thursday, of the current semester, I have an economics class. Because of being sick, I missed Tuesday and was considering missing Thursday, as well.

<sidenote>
I am in the process of taking prerequisites for the MBA program at UofM Duluth. My undergraduate degree is in computer science with a minor in mathematics. This has nearly zero overlap with the prerequisites for the MBA program.
</sidenote>

I did manage to drag myself into class; a hot cup of Earl Grey in hand, and I made it through the 75 minute lecture.

In the horticulture-apiculture arena, things are progressing according to plans (if you did not just read that with a James-Bond-villain-voice, please go back, and reread it with one, thanks). For Melissa's birthday, I picked her up Adobe Creative Suite 4 - Design Premium. Using Illustrator, she put together our honey jar labels. The label to the right is the proof we received back from the printers. Being married to Melissa, I guess I am somewhat partial to her work, but setting that partiality aside, she did a damn fine job. A larger version can be found here. And before you say, "apiaries" - plural? It is future thinking. We will only have one collection of hives at one location this year, but hope to expand next year if all goes well.

A colleague/friend/co-worker and myself put in an order with Fedco Seeds of Waterville, ME. They are a seed coop and specialize in open pollenated seeds, non-GMO, as well as heirloom seeds. Here is a list of what we bought:

• Royal Burgundy Bush Bean OG
• Golden Rocky Bush Wax Bean OG
• Blue Coco Pole Bean OG
• Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea
• Cascadia Snap Pea
• Cream of Saskatchewan Watermelon
• Marketmore 76 Slicing Cucumber OG
• Super Zagross Middle Eastern Slicing Cucumber
• Spaghetti Winter Squash
• Sweet Meat Winter Squash
• Tonda di Parigi Carrot
• Shin Kuroda 5" Carrot
• Danvers Carrot OG
• Detroit Dark Red Short Top Beet
• Cherry Belle Radish
• Hailstone Radish
• Gold Ball Turnip
• King Richard Leek OG
• Forellenschluss Lettuce OG
• Mesclun
• Bright Lights Chard
• Ruby Streaks OG
• Piracicaba
• Red Russian Kale OG
• Rainbow Lacinato Kale OG
• Black Prince Tomato OG
• Elephant Head Amaranth OG
• Chinese Lantern
• Panorama Red Shades Bee Balm
• Blue Flax

Prior to being made useless by this late-winter cold, I also planted stevia in a pot; it is on a window sill in the kitchen. In an unrelated stroke of genius, I noticed that on the underside of the paper cups used for coffee at the University, the cups are "compostable" - this made me think they would be really nice seed starters. Yesterday, I brought home a box of used cups. I will be planting various herbs and tomatoes.

Finally, the snow has been rapidly melting. There are patches of soggy grass poking through. If this extraordinarily nice weather continues to hold, I will be able to prep the site for the hives sooner than I had anticipated.