Happy Tuesday! I hope you are doing well. It’s 5:27 a.m. and I’m mostly awake – which is a stark contrast to last week when I could barely pull myself out of bed due to pure exhaustion. I would probably still be sleeping this morning if it weren’t for all the swirling thoughts of what needs to be done before our big event on Saturday.

Thankfully our winter is finally letting go this week, it’s been a sheer rain experience all the way trough Sunday this weekend, where it downpoured for what seemed like an eternity! It’s our 12th coolest Spring in the last 75 years, I’m sure it’s all that and more. Our yard will have a chance to dry up a bit this week, while temps go all the way up into the upper 70’s by Friday & Saturday. Choosing a date 6 months ago was a bit on the stressful side, thank goodness we didn’t do it the second to the last weekend like we did last year. It wasn’t nearly as cold, but it certainly rained on us a fair amount. I think next year we will do the last weekend in April.

There are several other events happening around the county that day – the pure fact that it’s going to finally be sunny most people will probably stay at home and just work in their gardens. I know this economy doesn’t lend itself to people spending money on things they will find at a Spring Market either. So, in addition to stressing about the weather, I’m worried people will not be buying which isn’t good for our artisans that are coming on Saturday. I think the more I worry about it, the more likely it is that things will be just fine – that’s how it works right? I know, it’s out of my hands, I’ve done a lot of advertising, I’ve ordered cute yard signs to put out and about the day of – so now we wait. We do have 50 people interested in the event on Facebook (yes I know the company I love to hate, but honestly, there is not other place to advertise, I’ve tried!)

The garden still isn’t tilled – not for lack of wanting to – just the simple fact that there was standing water in it two days ago makes it impossible to get a tractor in there. Joe found 16 carnations in there that came back from last year, in addition to two Feverfews, so we moved those last night in addition to chopping up several Maximillian Sunflower bushes. Remember back two years ago when I started those seeds so I could be more like Carolynn? And now, I’m chopping them up because they grow like crazy and I need to make some room for other perennials in the garden! They are hardy little buggers – and super easy to and happy to be chopped up and moved. I’ll be putting some at the end of the driveway this week – for free!! If there is anything left I will be popping them into random places along the road, maybe even bring some to my daughter’s house to sneak in her woody area, see how it goes!

The stuff in the greenhouse looks amazing! Bruce and Jill took great care of it while Joe and I went to Palm Springs for a few days. Joe has been doing a great job of keeping the temps in there at an even keel – 80 degrees in the greenhouse isn’t always a bad thing.

I’m starting to pot things up – Strawflowers, Asters, Bells of Ireland, Cress, Pride of Gibraltar, and Goditias were potted up last night. I decided last year that I would grow them bigger in the greenhouse before I put them in the ground, this way I can mulch around them to cut down on the weeding situation. I will be planting later than usual also, there’s no reason to hurry and get things in the ground before we leave on our annual trip mid-May. There’s just too much to do, and I don’t need that much stress, so keeping them in the greenhouse to get bigger, isn’t a bad thing. Potting them up also gives me a chance to see what I have that’s extra so I can sell the extras at the even this weekend.

Also – the plugs I purchased all look amazing – however – I need to charge more for them next year! only 3$ for a beautiful healthy Dahlia cutting is certainly a very good bargain to find – at least this way, hopefully I will be able to get them out of here so I don’t have to figure out what to do with them! I’m hoping to sell at least 150 of them….I managed to off load 6 yesterday, so I’m on my way! I’m also only charging 1$ for petunias, silly girl! I didn’t want to have to deal with change, and I didn’t think I could sell them for 2$….we shall see how it all goes. I have around 100 of those to get rid of also. I’m keeping 25 or so of both the Dahlias and the Petunias for our patio planters – that I would like to have put together for the event. Adding it to the written list of things to do so I can prioritize things as it goes along.

I did a kiln unload yesterday morning – managed to slice my thumb open on an star ornament that had been stuck to a heart pendent – breaking them apart was easy, but it left a shard of glaze (glass). I didn’t know I had cut myself until I found a pool of blood on a Christmas tree ornament and bowl that I had been looking at. Thinking it was glaze in the wrong place it didn’t dawn on me until I found it on my other hand that indeed – it was my blood and not glaze (insert face palm here). Good times, good times!

The items that came out of the kiln turned out mostly great! I’m a bit disappointed in the gnomes, but that’s always the case, there’s always something I’ve had my hopes up for, and it turns out not to be what I was hoping to be. Often times, when I pull them out of the kiln I will find things wrong with them, but then when I go back to look at them again in a few days, they aren’t as bad as I had originally thought. First impressions are not always right.

On the employment front – I’ve been looking for another job, I’ve put in two applications, but haven’t heard back from them. I’ve been unhappy for a while, I thought perhaps it wasn’t fair of me not to have spoken to the lead teacher about my unhappiness. So I had a conversation with her about it. I think we’ve cleared the air a bit. She asked if I was staying for next year, I said yes I plan on it, but there are major budget cuts across the board, so I’m still keeping my fingers in the job openings just in case. I’d be pretty silly in thinking my 7 hours were safe when they are cutting critical staff such as librarians, and reading support, back to half time., while also slashing jobs like math support and world language in the elementary schools. They are even cutting back the dean of students to part time. It’s going to be nothing short of a shit show.

I better get a move on – need to do the full time job, to get home and do some things to get us closer to being ready for Saturday. More potting up to be done, signs to make, a trip to the bank, and whatever else I’m not remembering at the moment. It will all be okay, I’m really not overly stressed, just a healthy amount of stress 🙂 It’s good to keep me on my toes.

Until next time my friends -hugs to you.