This morning I had the pleasure of doing a massive greenhouse cleaning spree, while the rain pattered away on the roof. I did it mostly to organize stuff and clear up bench space for new flats of seedlings that I’ll be starting in the coming weeks, and also to get a sense of what goes where. To get anything done, I need to know where to find the tools, and it seems like every five seconds I’ve thought of something else. Duct tape? Rubber bands? Rebar? PVC pipe? I spend a lot of time poking around.

The major event of the day was the completion of the plumbing in the camper. SUCCESS. Oh how sweet it is. On more than one occasion, I was so frustrated with the whole project I thought I might burst into tears, which may have been a good move – purifying, cathartic, you know. Instead, out of fear of being found out as a total weenie, I cleared my throat, pushed harder on whatever it was (the saw attachment on the cordless drill, the stupid wrench, the barbed pipe fittings) until I finally got what I wanted. I got a lot of help with everything, from Allen and from the guys at Ace Hardware, but I also did most of the work myself, and I’m proud of that.

Here’s the front line in one of our big plans for the growing season – broccoli raab. We aspire to be the queens of broccoli raab. Some might say it’s bitter. Even yucky. Maybe kids don’t like it. But we do. And we’re going to grow tons of it. It’ll be one of the first things to move out of the greenhouse and into the field, when it finally stops raining.