It's a rambling kind of day..

Gardening:

Well, we are now through the sprouting cycle of the beans.
Two of the three coco noir beans did beautifully. In the last 48 hours they are already upright, have cast off their shells, the first set of secondary leaves are opening up, and the root systems are already starting to hair out. Boo-yah start!!
Disoy soy. One of the three turned to mush right off the bat. The other two started to sprout, but also died off. So I started a new sprouting dish today with four seeds and we shall see if they take or not. Next up on the list for sure is now going to be Totem tomato. It's a patio variety, so might be pretty well suited for indoor growing. Gonna start a set once the Disoys take or not.

And HOORAY!!!!! My Pinetree seed order came in today. I was just thinking about it, hopeful but figuring that it was still a tad too soon for them to have come in. My love grabbed the mail and there was my envelope. So thrilled :) Now my seed list for this year is complete, it's just a matter of getting the rest of the materials I need for the garden. And of course, sorting the new packets into their appropriate bags for where they are getting planted.

Still on the list? Big bag of starting soil, a few rolls of black plastic and the yard spikes to pin it down with. A couple packages of bamboo skewers and probably a couple more packages of bamboo stakes.
 I'm still a bit undecided about what to do about trellising. I have a bunch of staves curing in the fence runs right now, but I just don't think I'm going to use them, I got other plans for them. I'm thinking I will just go standard right off the bat and go PVC.

Recycling:

Bird scares.. I'm going to be doing a goodly bit of innovative recycling for those. Got a bunch of beer caps saved up now, and I got the bag of tinsel I took back off the christmas tree before we took it down to the firepit.. What the plan is is to make hanging loops out of florists wire for hangers, and then some strands of tinsel will be hot glued into half the cap. Crimp the cap in half, and volia, a bird scare. I was going to straight crimp the caps onto the hanging string, but then thought better of it. Making them with their own hangers means I can have as many as I need on a string, and if the tinsel wears out, I don't have to try to uncrimp a cap off the string to replace a scare.
And yeah, I'm NEVER using tinsel on the tree again. Too much of a cat hazard while in the house, too much of a nature ick when the tree goes back outside. I did pick up some decent bead garland on super sale for future use. Hah, at some time I plan on using a bunch more beer caps to make garland for the tree too :)
Looking forward to spring and starting on working with CD's for bird scares. Gonna be doing that outside because I'm trying cutting and heat methods to see what works best. Ha, that reminds me, I need to build a mini hot wire cutter.
Another spring activity will be my first fused plastic bags project. Planning on making a couple small tarps for the wheelbarrows, kind of liner sized with handles. For when I want to lift something out like a barrow full of chestnuts for shelling, or apples to dump into a press.

Recycling any crafter can do for the birds. All those little snippets of thread, string, yarn, ribbon, fabric scraps.. Toss it all into a container of some sort. Then in the late winter, toss out some nice nest building materials around the yard. Placing it in late winter gives the stuff a chance to weather out all human scents from it while still leaving it in decent condition for birds to use. And it gives you a nice chance to go take a tour of your yard and see what else is going on :)

Making stuff:
Made a supercute housefrock yesterday out of some quilters cotton I had left over from when I made a bunch of scrubs for myself. Happy red and pink daisy flowers with smiley faces in the centers. I used a vintage 60's pattern I borrowed from my sister. It's a simple three armhole wrap around dress, and it will be super comfy when it's all hot out.  Also started a hooded double capelet.
I dug out the dressform and took the armor off of it, and amazingly enough I remembered to recharge my camera so pics will be coming soon.

Cool items for crafting. Pattern stuff.
Medical table paper. You know, the stuff they roll out over the exam table for sanitary reasons? It's right handy, comes in rolls for cheaper than regular sheets. Look for it in medical supply stores. And paper bags. Excellent for heavy duty long lasting paper templates once you have your lightweight pattern.

Food:
Setting up a cook and bitch weekend with a couple of my favorite gals :) It's like a stitch and bitch, only it's cooking. Everyone that comes has to cook something during the weekend.