Dotting the I's

Yesterday evening I submitted my order to Fedco for the last of the remaining seeds I needed. 5 pounds, carib potatoes, 5 pounds yukon gold spuds, and 1 lb of stuttgarter onion sets. Moose tubers (a fedco division) is adamant that they do not ship until early april. According to my planting chart (Jeavon's chart with my dates plugged in) I should be chitting these April 2. Seems a tad close but there are few places that even have the spuds I need at a reasonable price. Start looking earlier next year if these end up a little late, thats the lesson.

If anyone has any advice for chitting, I am all ears.

In other news, it looks like the Tulip poplar in our yard (that sappy horrific mess of a tree) has began budding. Tulips and Daffodils at our daughter's daycare appear to be sprouting too. Understandable since it has been in the fourties the last couple days. Like Today:



Why is this a problem? Cause it is supposed to drop to the 30's tonight and snow for 3 days. What a tease! Oh well, it ought to be enough of a thaw to loosen up the soil so I can dig the beds soon.

One last thing, I got an email from the folks over at the waterHOG rainbarrel company. A bit pricey for my budget right now. Not to say that I wont ever get them as expansion tanks but right now I am leaning toward an agricultural sprayer tank from TSC to use as a horizontal barrel for under the deck. I'd like to hear from anyone out there who has a rainbarrel and has stored it low in elevation how effective it will be without some kind of pump, to pressurize the stream. I'd be perfectly happy with a low pressure level, so long as it is enough to work one of those fan type wand attachments for the garden hose. I am going to mount the outlet at the bottom of the tank to let gravity do ...well in this case all the work which should be sufficient when it is nearly full at ~50 gallons, but will it be enough when it gets low?