Earthquake in Boise, Idaho

We had just wrapped up dinner here at the homestead yesterday evening when there was a substantial earthquake. Seriously, here in Boise, Idaho. It took me a few seconds to place into context what was happening, it just seemed so out of place. "We're not in California, but gosh this sure feels like an earthquake" (internal monologue has been made PG rated).

Interestingly enough we had watched a local PBS program a few days before about geology in Idaho (there's some pretty interesting stuff here) and they mentioned the last big earthquake in 1983.

There's a great comprehensive write up at the USGS here, you should check it out.

Earthquakes do happen here, but they are rare. From the USGS:

Historic seismicity in the immediate vicinity of the March 31 earthquake is sparse; no earthquakes of M5+ have occurred within 50 km of this event over the past 50 years, and the most notable historic seismicity in the region occurred about 100 km to the east on the Lost River fault zone.

Nothing was damaged here at the homestead and everyone is OK. Neighbors are a tad freaked out but they are all OK as well. Yesterday was indeed an interesting day. 

Exercising at Home During a Quarantine

Routines all across the country and the world have been changed as of late. Our local YMCA has closed indefinitely but has offered online classes for folks to exercise at home. While John has gotten his exercise through a number of outside projects at the homestead, Alycia has tried to participate in online yoga classes.

Alycia commented that this was a reminder of why she doesn't do yoga at home. Apparently it's difficult to get a relaxing stretch when you have doggy toes and a tail in your face.

And yes Alycia's shirt says "No Goats No Glory". Good luck finding a cooler goat related yoga shirt than that.

Greenhouse Seedlings Progressing

We're in the midst of strange times, bewildering and anxiety producing. In these unusual days we are glad that we still have the simple pleasures of preparing plants for Spring planting, nurturing little plants through their first few weeks, looking forward to sunnier days ahead.

This is the scene from the greenhouse a few days ago. Many seedlings have germinated and are getting established.

They're in their tender stage now. Keeping a safe temperature and proper watering is critical and we water a few times a day, mist frequently, and monitor vigilantly. It's good to have something to take our mind off all the events transpiring outside the greenhouse.

We hope you are all well, your family and friends safe and comfortable. And even though it may only be a few moments of distraction, we'll try to keep posting regularly.

Spring Blooms - Crocus

It seems early, but our first blooms are popping up. It's great to see this splash of vibrant color after a long gray winter.

This Fall we planted some bulbs in a few spots around the front yard and are already being rewarded with colorful blooms. Yellow and purple crocus, the first daffodils aren't far behind.

There are a few spots throughout the neighborhood where daffodils are already popping up. Our dog walks through the neighborhood are colorful in Spring as we look at all the blooms.

Spring Forward Causes Pushback

Here at the homestead there has been some resistance to the time change. Springing forward isn't always well received.

Shaak Ti is none to happy about having to get up an hour earlier and has decided to spend the day hiding under the blanekts. Maybe now she can understand how us humans feel after a decade plus of her waking us up before dawn.

Shadowfax is more adaptable but equally unimpressed with losing an hour of sleep. Perhaps she understands instinctively that Spring means the re-emergence of powerful sunbeams. Probably not, but we do give her credit for enjoying a good sunbeam. 

Seedlings Started in the Greenhouse

We started seedlings in our greenhouse mid-February, doing a few dozen of them every day.

The process has been to start them under the fluorescent lights with the blue heating mat warming them from below. Then as they germinate and establish their first true leaves, we'll move them to the South shelf which gets only natural sunlight and also has a blue warming mat underneath. Eventually when they get established enough, I'll move them to the upper shelf and remove the fluorescent lights.

We'll try to continue to post pictures as the seedling starting season continues. So far we've started veggies; tomatoes, celery, various melons, gourds, cucumbers and both annuals and perennials; several kinds of petunia, calibrachoa, celosia, coleus, salvia, various marigolds, and portulaca. Each shelf, two on the left (North side) and one on the right (South side) is about 11 feet long and I'm planning on filling them completely with happy little seedlings.

Seedling planting and germinating season moves quickly and we'll do our best to post updated pictures as our new plants emerge and start to grow. Have you started seeds this year?

New Greenhouse Pictures

We're rapidly approaching Spring here at the homestead and seemingly getting busier by the minute. It has come to our attention that we haven't posted any pictures of the greenhouse - our huge garden project that we chronicled last year.

The greenhouse is in midst of its busy time of year. We spent last Fall and Winter getting a feel for the space and seeing how the temperature would change based on weather. In the picture above you can see the electrical plug (small white box on the middle left side) that runs to the outlet on the porch as well as the hose connection on the far left side of the greenhouse. This was one of the cool features of this design, it's "plug and play", one outside connection for power and water and the whole greenhouse is ready to go.

Even though the hose is attached to the greenhouse it's been too cold to leave it permanently connected. We attach the hose to the back porch connection, run water and then disconnect so the hose doesn't freeze solid.

There were a few things inside the greenhouse over the Winter. On the bottom left are three dianthus that were potted up when the greenhouse was installed. We didn't find a place to plant them before Winter, so they went into the greenhouse to serve as plant guinea pigs. In the middle are two longer white oval pots that were on the front porch last Summer. They have verbeena, calibrachoa, and petnuias. I brought them in to see if the would survive (they did) and how they would look the next Summer (to be determined).

We also set up some fluorescent strip lights to provide extra light during seed germination. Between the strip lights and seedling heating mats (the blue mat on the shelf under the seedlings) we're hoping for good germination and growth.

The greenhouse is a tight space, 8 foot by 12 foot, that doesn't lend itself to easy photographing, so this is the best we've got. This is one last picture from just outside the open greenhouse door.

We'll share some more photos of our seed starting setup in the future post!

Snow Day at the Homestead

We're having a snow day here at the homestead in Boise, Idaho. No it's not like the snow days in North Dakota where we'd get a foot or two of snow, sub zero temperatures and blizzard conditions. Here it's just a pleasant snowy day, a few inches of accumulation and some slushy footing for a little while.

The dogs aren't taking any chances though, and they're certainly not going to fret over trivial matters such as the amount of snow. They're just going to get all warm and snuggly under as many blankets as we can pile on top of them.

We'll rest up for now. There are some slushy and wet paws in our forecast this afternoon.