KW-09 Making soil, saving carbons

Second spring is over - one more to go.

I did not have a great week this week, and this morning when I woke up, the laptop refused to turn on.

I didn’t even think it was that cold, but the aluminium uni-body which probably works perfectly well in the Cupertino sunshine does not like getting a chill and sometimes needs a little hot-water bottle treatment to engage. So we did that, and now it’s on and as a result, the newsletter is going to come out a bit late and the pigs will have to be patient for their breakfast.

But, as a metaphor for keeping going and carrying on, I guess I can take it.

This week, 12 weeks out from the last expected frost, I sowed a bunch of seeds. I’m not sure - did I do the peppers last week? They say you should date your seed trays. I’ve not really worked out why. I guess when you are starting out, it’s a good idea to know when you sow things, and adjust over the years. I am old and have managed to obtain something of a groove. I mark significant dates in the sowing and planting calendar mostly with reference to things that are already there. Conveniently located birth- and saint’s days, lunar events, equinoxes and (not so much) solstices.

We now have sown:

• A large variety of lettuces

• broad beans

• greenhouse tomatoes

• some of the pumpkins

• cucumbers

There will be more happening in the next few weeks. No rush. Unless you are a market gardener, or faking it for the socials, you really don’t need to panic to get every last thing in the ground as soon as possible. Not all of your plants likes to be rushed. Some of them would rather go into the ground when it’s already warm than to be forced into getting an early start.

We did have a bunch of warm days again this week, and I got on quite well with clearing some paths and making things look a little shipshape. If you squint at them, with the sun at the right angle.

Oh, and I get the lawnmower out. I replaced the oil, pumped up the tyres, charged the battery (which had actually held on to most of its electrons over the winter, but nothing wrong with a quick boost), and did two mows. Both of which went straight to the pigs .

I don’t really know what I am going to do this week. I was expecting the snow to come back towards Thursday / Friday, but it started last Saturday. When I went to feed the pigs yesterday morning, I made deep crunchy footprints which had entirely disappeared by the time I came back 15 minutes later.

I also went to the shop, bought soya milk, so I have enough of the good stuff to keep me in tea for a while. I think I shall spend some of this week contemplating the losing battle that civilisation is engaged in with itself and weeping about mass extinctions into my PG Tips.

This newsletter is supposed to be a bit lighter than the doomerist blog posts, but I don’t have the time or energy to filter myself this morning. Apologies for that. If there is one thing I have been saying for the last 10, 20 years, it is that climate change makes all bad stuff more likely. Anything that you can imagine that you would really like not to not happen is made significantly more probable by the simple act of adding heat into the global weather systems and until we admit that we will continue to be surprised that everything is slowly turning to shit.

The Number One project for Year One at the Barrack was Do Not Die. I wonder if society will ever adopt a similarly simple and effective approach to itself.

Sorry about that

and with continuing love to all things,

your Pirate Ben

xoxo

ps Hi new subs! Thank you to everyone who shares these posts. I do understand that this one will get fewer than usual, that’s ok. And to the new subs, sorry for it taking on that doomerist note. We’re usually a little jollier.