Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.

Rainy Saturday morning ramblings

Posted Saturday, January 7, 2012, at 9:00 AM

If it is a nice day, I am usually outside until I drop, which is getting shorter and shorter as I "mature". But today had light rain and what I wanted to do would be tougher with slick grass, sooo I am working inside.

The New Year came in like gang-busters. Between going five different directions at one with my "day job", I am also unusually busy with private and business eBay classes. No complaints, just sayin'....

It was such a beautiful string of days this week that I used my lunch times to do little things outside. Therefore, what was planned for today is not critical and I can relax.

One night this week without a bowl game, and I am starting to get a little worn out from watching. In fact, I have ended up watching one half, getting a flavor of how the teams were playing, then got the final results the next day.

Which reminds me, I have to check on the Cotton Bowl. Ahah, Arkansas over Kansas. That was the way it was looking at half time, so no big surprise, but the games have really been good so far.

I know you did not miss me, but I had to operate our semi-automatic patio door for our cats just now. To them it is automatic but I have to stop what I am doing NUMEROUS times during the day to operate it. Got lucky just now, two in and two out.

Anyway, I am already starting to feel like I am falling behind on my gardening. Melissa was thoughtful enough to buy some peat pots in trays when they were discounted this fall so I may start some cool crops this week.

I'm not complaining, but I still have cilantro, dill, mints and catnip growing outside and we have had 19 degree mornings. Not sure if I have a super breed of plants or something in our gardens have created micro-climates that are protecting them.

The mints and catnip I can guess are protected by the rock gardens and house but the cilantro and dill are far from the house, in the main garden. Yes, I tilled it late this fall, but their volunteers just re-sprouted anyway.

They are surrounded by large expanses of wood chips. I left a small section uncovered to see how long they would last, but they have far exceeded my expectations. Maybe the wood chips are heating up some and creating a pocket of warmth near the ground? Don't know.

I really need to get to work on the eBay presentations so, I'll continue this later. Not sure how many read this, but I use it as a way of talking to myself anyway, so....