A Good Tired

All this family togetherness, and my lingering chest cold have taken their toll on me today...It couldn't be the frenzy of errands and chores I churned out once the Siskiyou Wing and Sister Sweetly headed home to the Great Green North this morning. Sister K made her exit Sunday afternoon...the better to get home to Hubby and her Birthday Dinner!

So, the trip to COSTCO, Trader Joe's, Smart & Final and Safeway are behind me. The Christmas Tree has been undecorated, moved outside and limbed so that it will fit in the Green Waste Recycling Bin.

I've managed to get an hour of packing some of my books and files in, so that my life may once again be lived in a single location. On my "To the DaveCave" list are a bunch of hobby stuff...Sewing Machine, fabrics, and sewing notions. A bunch of my Builder's Tools and Kayak Building goodies, too. My seedstarting stuff and my seed collection for the Diggins.

Part of the joy of starting your own plants from seed is the extension of your "Personal Growing Season" Over the years, I've learned to start my tomatoes around the Daytona 500...mid-February. I used to warm my seed flats for a few days atop my aquarium, but my last anemone fish dissapeared a few years ago, so I broke down the 30 gallon marine aquarium...the freedom to travel without enlisting an aquarium service has been wonderful, but I miss the atmosphere generated by the salt air and full-spectrum lighting...my own personal slice of The Tropics, as it were...

Mr Clownfish was over 11 years old when he went missing...I'm guessing that he lived two or three times as long in my little tank than he would have in the wild...not that he ever lived in the wild, Anemone Fish are among the first marine fish to be bred and raised in captivity...no coral reef ecosystem was raided for my enjoyment!

So, come seedstarting time, I just re-purpose some aquarium heaters to heat some flooded Rubbermaid Totes, and voilà, heated seedbeds! Before you know it, you've got a little garden crowding all your windowsills!

Though I won't be building anything before Summertime, and my sea kayak is already seaworthy, I have developed a re-purposing habit over the years...or more accurately a sort of cross-hobby hybridization habit.

I've kept aquariums since I was a teenager. In the ensuing decades, I've applied aquarium tech to Homebrewing as well as gardening. The old "Rubbermaid and Aquarium Heaters Algebra" made my chilly, second bathroom into a very controlled, consistent Alehouse, where I turned out 10 gallons of all-grain IPA and Porter every three weeks for an entire Ski Season. I filled the extra bedroom with cases of Ale...I finally had to procure a hand truck to move all my "product"

I brewed a batch of "Celebration Ale" and "Porter in the Snow" every three weeks, all winter, and as a bonus, the spent grain went into my three-bin composter and produced a whole cubic yard of the best compost I've ever seen! More hobby cross-pollination.

Looking at the remote sensors this weekend makes me think of gardening and summer sports...damn, it's been warm! Monday's Reno AFD all but promised record High Temps for the Reno/Tahoe Region...they even mentioned that meltwater runoff would be up for a couple of days.

The 6 O'clock news showed heavy traffic coming out of the High Sierra into the valley fog...glad I'm goint the other way Tuesday!