Tuesday, February 03, 2009

High Speed Internet At Last!

Today we finally got high speed Internet. Century Tel started offering it about a month ago in our area, which, we were told last summer was one of the last places in the country that did not have high speed Internet. I can't believe what a joy it is to have this. I can actually watch a short video within seconds instead of waiting an hour or more (for a movie trailer) to load. There is no stopping to wait for audio streams to buffer. Wow! I am happy!

While the phone guy was here, I decided to work on starting some herbs. I have pots of common sage, sweet marjoram, oregano, summer and winter savory, and true comfrey started. I discovered that one of the date seeds I planted last fall has sprouted. The tiny plant looked dry but still alive, so I repotted it and gave it a good drink. We'll see if it takes off. That was an interesting experiment. My sister told me I should put together tiny herb gardens and sell them at the farmers market. I think that's a great idea. I looked at the state regulations and discovered that I can sell up to $250 worth of plants without needing to have a nursery license, so if the herbs grow for me (I'm afraid I don't have a good track record with herbs) that is what I'll do. I love herbs. I think those tiny seeds intimidate me. My chunky fingers prefer handling corn, squash and melon seeds.

I also planted a big pot of Thai Hot Hot pepper seeds from our friends, Bill and Linda Betz in Albany, NY (thawing out there yet guys?). I forgot just how hot these peppers are and somehow inhaled the heat essence from the seed bag. I actually had to get my asthma rescue inhaler for that one I was coughing so much! I love these peppers though (and they even aren't the hottest ones!). Tom and I just finished eating the last jar of hot peppers I had canned with our latest batch of chili. There is nothing like hot peppers and chili to warm you up in the winter.

Speaking of Tom, he took our Ed to the foot doctor today to get his ingrown toenails fixed again. I hope everything goes well. It is almost a year since Tom found out he had cancer and our Sarah called to tell us she had orders for Afghanistan. I figure if I can get through the "anniversary" lunar eclipse on February 9th (also is our Ed's 22nd birthday) I will be doing all right.

On Thursday, Lara and I are going to go to a conference at the Ag extension about how to price your products and developing a local food economy. It's an all day affair. I'm hoping to get some help with getting the Local Food Guide off the ground. Should be a fun day. I know it's been a while since Lara was out of the house.

The weather had warmed up in the 20F range for the last two days, but it was -20F again last night and the day is windy and bitter again today. Supposedly the temps will warm closer to the weekend. I will have to watch temps now as sugaring time will be coming up quickly and I like to catch that first run of sap because it is the sweetest. I have ordered another 12 tree spouts from Lehmans. Tom is going to help me make syrup this year. That will be fun! We sent our soldier girl our last two pints of syrup for Christmas and we sure miss not having any.

I am not in to country music, but I have to admit that if you like really old country/blues (Bill Monroe, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, etc.), you will like listening to KWBC.FM radio on the Internet. This station is from the people at Back40 Books, and it is a really good station. Try it, I think you'll like it. (I can't believe I said that, but it IS true LOL).

February started out with a bang. I could almost feel the vibrations change in the air. I orderd the tree taps, brooder light bulbs, a new cover film for the high tunnel and film repair tape, and a couple of Jonathan Goldman healing music CDs for Ed for his birthday. I have been praying for a healing help for Ed as his autism is taking a bad turn with his obsessive/compulsive behaviors and I came across some information about 528Hz being a healing frequency. I strongly believe that Providence comes to my aid when I finally ask for help, and I know that coming across this information was meant to be. The CDs are Holy Harmony and Chakra Chants. I'm going to sit that kid down and clamp my headphones on him just as soon as I can! When Ed went to the Easter Seals School in Tinley Park, Illinois, they used music a lot with the kids. It was amazing to see how music could calm those kids down. Ed just needs to be "re-aligned". I think his feet hurting have put him off his normal easy going self. Poor kid; I hope this trip to the doctor does the trick. Maybe I should the Queen (our Lara) listen to them, too -- I have to take her on the 18th to get two widsom teeth pulled!

Stay warm, Everybody! We're on the down slope of this horrible Winter!

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