It’s been almost 6 months since my last post. Egads. But to be fair, I haven’t just withdrawn from my blog.  I pretty much withdrew from everything over the winter and I’ve been a hermit for most of the last 4 months. There have been lots of major life changes over the last year: kids moved in, kids moved out, no work, too much work.  Too many projects and not enough time. And of course the biggie – a grandbaby on the way.

It’s hard for me to even type that. Grand baby? I’m not even 40! I think I’m beyond the shock stage now and diving head first into excited panic.  But I dunno, they’re very similar emotions I think.  I can’t wait! I have so much to tell her, so much to share. I can’t wait to teach her to read! She’s expected to arrive on June 24th but I’m putting my money on July 2nd.  Whenever it is, if I think too long about it, I pee myself from smiling so hard.

But spring is sprung. My funk has fanked.  Veggies are sprouting, flowers are blooming…the ones I’ve started indoors, anyway. This year we have strawberries, asparagus, bush & pole green beans, romaine & butter lettuce,  New Boy tomatoes, broccoli and a variety of herbs.

I’ve yet to see a leaf or even a bud on a tree, but I know it’s just around the corner and all of Alaska will turn green seemingly overnight. The last few days have been in the 50’s and 60’s, even creeping close to 70 with bright, sunny skies and the seedlings are lovin’ it almost as much as I am. Life. It’s back. And just in time.

We have sunshine for 2 days running! Yay! All the quail have new homes and it’s just me and Dan again. Yay! I got 2 new long-term design gigs today! Yay! All PFD recipients will be getting an additional $1200 energy rebate this year! Yay! Wes will be home this weekend! Yay! It’s a good day. Yay.

But yeah, I sold all the quail except Dan. They were awesome and I’ll definitely have them again in the future, but I just don’t have the space now. And to have more than one or two, you really want them to be outside. Crowing at 3am in the living room is ridiculous. And anything beyond a single bird, you’re going to have a smell. I don’t do smells. But it was a fun experiment and I’ve got a really cool bird friend now. The one I started with. Here’s a short video clip I did of the quail rooster crow. I think you’ll get my drift quite quickly.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="It's huge! And fruitless!"][/caption]

The plants are getting some much needed sunshine. Hopefully there will be a growth spurt. I’m worried about my carrots. They were planted late anyway, but with the lack of sun, they’ve hardly grown at all. The beans just aren’t going to happen. The strawberry plant looks nice but it’s a June bearing, so there will be no damn berries. Gah!

The cabbage is pretty, though I see no cabbage ball forming. I’ve already resolved to accepting a barren garden this year but they’re pretty plants so I keep them around. And keep hoping.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Pretty purple cabbage - sans cabbage balls."][/caption]

Oh! Almost forgot. The broccoli was spectacular. Beautiful and yummy. I do believe that once it was steamed, it was the greenest broccoli I have ever seen. Even topping that $8 plate I got from Sullivan’s a few years back. There are still some side shoots growing that can be harvested soon; I’ll try and remember to get a photo before I eat it. I’m not sure your monitor could handle the green though. Might just blow out your pixels. Heh.

Something else of note – with the warmer weather we got a thunderstorm yesterday. It was pretty darn cool. Skiala called and told me there was heavy hail in her part of town. Sadly, we didn’t get that on the East side. There have been a few more rumbles this afternoon and all the neighborhood dogs are barking. Not sure if that’s connected, but, well. Yeah. Barking dogs suck.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Mystery peppers!"][/caption]

And on that note, I leave with peppers. Wes calls these Talkeetna peppers, but I can’t find any reference to a Talkeetna pepper on the web. If someone stumbles across this and happens to know what kind of pepper this is, I’d appreciate a comment.

The lack of sunshine hasn’t slowed the quail from growing, that’s for sure.

We should be getting eggs from the 2nd batch of quail soon. They are now fully feathered with an attitude to match. They’re not near as friendly and social as Danquail, but that’s ok I guess. They’re the food, I think they know that on some level.

The third batch, The Dirty Dozen, will be looking for new homes soon. Two have already moved out, I do not miss them. As cute as they are, they are also some messy little bastards. The first 4 weeks are brutal. I’m constantly feeding them, giving fresh water or cleaning their cage. Nine chicks that only stop eating when they’re sleeping can make a lot of poop!

I’ve been leaving the Quail Web Cam up pretty much 24/7. You can check in on them here. They’re almost always doing something. Eating, sleeping, digging, pecking, pooping.

And the garden continues to slowly grow. All the lettuce has been harvested, most of the broccoli (which continues to grow side shoots) and a few tasty cherry tomatoes.

Today I discovered some hilarious little bean pods growing on small 10″ plant I have sitting on the bird cage. I almost didn’t know what they were. Poor little beans; they’re trying so hard to grow.

The peppers are doing really good. We’ve got lots of Talkeetnas coming in, as well as some habanero and jalapeno. They’ll spice up the pickled quail eggs quite nicely, I think.