First tomato seeds of the season planted

 

Sweet Aperitif: 80 Days. This fresh new tomato might be the sweetest cherry you'll ever eat! Bright red fruits have exceptional flavor and very high levels of sugar - up to a Brix of 13 - even sweeter than Sungold and SunSugar! - that are perfectly balanced with just the right amount of acid to give this tomato a deliciously, refreshing, tangy flavor. Plants have a multi-branching habit and are completely covered with bite-sized, 1/2 oz. fruits. Indeterminate.

Principe Borghese: 70-75 days. Determinate. The Italian heirloom that is famous for sun drying. Small 1-to 2-oz, grape-shaped fruit is very dry and has few seeds. It has a rich tomato taste that is wonderful for sauces. Vines yield clusters of fruit in abundance, perfect for selling in fresh markets and making specialty products.

Neither of these are large tomatoes but they should be great for drying. Cut them in half and dry them with cut-side up.

I am working on my to-do list.

I mailed cuttings of Steuben grape, Marge elderberry, some black currants and Claribel quince to a nice lady in southwestern Missouri.

I "stuck" my cuttings of Marge elderberries.

I bought a yard of compost. I had to shovel it into the back of the truck because I have a cap on it that I have been too lazy to take off. Compost is MUCH heavier than wood-chips. A wet yard of compost might weigh as much as 1500 pounds. I don't feel so bad about running out of gas while shoveling it.

I am moving dirt from our burn-pit to raise the areas next to our foundation where the fill subsided. I put black plastic over the dirt on the north side and then 16", concrete slabs. My thinking is that plants don't want to grow there anyway, so why try to push a rope?

Automotive maintenance

The vehicles are showing their age.

Mrs ERJ's minivan is scheduled to visit the shop next week for an oil cooler line leak and then to Holt Auto Alignment for front-end work in May. Mrs ERJ will be in Florida with Southern Belle in May so that is a good time to have it in the shop.

My very tiny part was to search and eliminate some of the annoying squeaks. One of them was the crucifix (cross) that hangs from her rear-view mirror. I used multi-strand wire for hanging pictures to hang the cross. It is sturdy and easy to adjust. The crucifix emitted squeals when it swung from side-to-side. A half drop of diffy-lube administered with a cut soda straw quieted it down.

The other squeak was from the back of the minivan. It turned out to be the hard, plastic trim "itching" against the lift-gate inner. I had damaged the Christmas trees removing the hard trim because folks would push her out of the ditch and push large dents into the liftgate. I would remove the trim and push the dents out. Eventually, I gave up.

The tiniest bit of grease on the bright, shiny metal where the trim had eaten through the paint magically made the squeaks back there disappear.

The S-10 is also schedule to have its front-end looked at. Pele is driving that while he looks for his dream car.

Solar Flares

It looks like we have a major solar flare heading our way over the next day or two. This might be a good time to unplug your equipment from the recharger or the wall socket unless it really, really need it.