Tex in 2021

 It’s been awhile since I’ve given an update on Tex.  The big red dun still owns the biggest part of my horse heart.  ...funny how so many people and animals can crowd into one heart without it feeling crowded at all.  

Some of you will remember that a number of years ago, when I first started working with Tex, when he became mine, I did quite a bit of liberty work with him.  We even spent a weekend in Sonoma County learning from a renowned trainer there.  At the time, Tex wouldn’t come near me and he was dang hard to catch.  Even with a bucket of treats, Tex was reluctant to come near.  And put on a fly mask?  HA HA HA.  No dice.  

Over time, he’s learned to accept a fly mask and he will come to me in the pasture to be caught.  I’ve made sure that most of the time getting caught means wandering around the ranch with me eating grass and carrots that I’ve hidden.  Its our scavenger hunt and Tex loves it.  In the past couple of years, Tex has come to enjoy being groomed and will stand quietly to be saddled and for the farrier.  When we (rarely) ride, he is relaxed and I always want to stop before he does.  We’ve come a long way.

Tex shares a pasture with Lucy and Luek.  When I am cleaning the pasture, Lucy follows me around begging for attention.  She loves having her withers scratched, or her butt, or her back, or her ears.  She’s big on hugs too.  Tex has always kept to himself.  He wouldn’t run off when I walked by, but he didn’t follow me around either.  

I used to get up at the crack of dawn and race around the pasture, flinging poop into the muck cart, and then racing back out the gate to get ready for work.  It’s taken me awhile to relax about chores, but since retiring I muck after breakfast when the sun is up and has taken the edge off the morning chill.  I enjoy the birdsong, the sunshine, and lingering with the horses.  In the past few weeks, after months of making a point to spend a little time scratching Tex’s withers and rubbing his neck — whether he wanted it or not — Tex has decided that he likes the attention.  Now, he is first to greet me and he follows me almost as much as Lucy.  A couple of times in the past week, he has walked over to me and stood at my shoulder like we used to do for liberty work.  We walked up and down and around a couple trees a few days ago and he never left my side.  He definitely took a bigger chunk of my heart that day.

Time to Start Tomato Seeds

 Tomatoes are one of the summer vegetables that can be started from seed in the weeks before spring.  I love tomatoes.  I mean, I really really love tomatoes.  Not the ones from the market, especially in winter.  Not those tasteless mealy things.  (I swear Brett thinks he doesn’t like tomatoes because he never had them fresh from the garden until I came along).

I plant ten or eleven tomato plants in my garden.  This year there will be 8 different varieties.  I like a mix of reliable slicers and sweet cherry tomatoes.  There are some varieties that show up again and again, year-after-year — for me that would be Arkansas Traveler, Black Krim and Sun Gold (cherry tomato).  Sun Gold tomatoes are the ones that convinced Brett that tomatoes are actually pretty dang good.  Very few of the Sun Golds make it into the kitchen, I snack on them while I’m working in the garden.  They are a bright orange color and incredibly sweet.  I’m trying four new varieties this year.  Two of them looked too interesting to pass up. 

I lugged my propagation stuff from the tool shed shelf into the greenhouse and got it all set up.  I unrolled my heat mats, and my thermostat, and dug out my block making tool.  I am kind of over-the-top when it comes to seed starting.  You don’t need all the paraphernalia that I have, but it does ensure a high percentage of germination.  I make my own seed starting mix (peat, vermiculite, sifted compost, fertilizer and a touch of lime), get it wet, and form it into blocks.  I plant one or two seeds in each block.  I planted eight blocks of each tomato variety.  The extras will be donated to the Master Gardener spring plant sale that is the main fund raiser for our demonstration gardens.  

Once the seedlings are big enough that I can see their roots on the side of the block, I transplant the whole block into a 4” pot.  This way I can start a lot of seeds in a relatively small space and I don’t have to worry about traumatizing them when I move them to a larger pot.  It works well for me.  

So, now I sit and wait.  I will mist the soil daily and keep the domes on the flats until the seedlings are up. In a few weeks, I’ll be starting more seeds.  Whee!

If you want to give seed starting a go without all the fuss of doing it this way, check out this article I wrote for a local publication on how easy it is to do.  Honest.