Leathernecks

Started hardening off my plants today. Planning on planting outside in about a week.

The company I used is about the only one around our rural area. When I first contacted them, they were only doing new construction, but they said they needed to have more business so they opened it up to existing homes.

I'm pretty happy with both picks. I think Kmet was a bit of a reach and would have like to have seen them trade down 10-20 picks to see if he was still there. Obviously takes 2 to tango, so maybe nobody was interested. Johnson seems like a really solid pickup. Was getting some late 1st round consideration. The only thing I don't like is this makes me wonder more about the Jimmy Graham signing. Seems like an expensive mentor for Kmet.

I ran a half marathon a few years ago, but I didn't prepare very well. It was definitely more of a chore than a hobby. This time I'm looking more for enjoyment to keep up with it. I guess there is just a part of me that wants to be a runner haha. If I can find the joy in it, that would be a life changing thing. I dont mind some HIIT as I was always more of a sprinter than a distance guy, but I find myself needing even more motivation for that than just a jog.

That's another thing about running. You usually don't hear someone get up really early to do a lot of hobbies, but it is like a rule with runners. I'm hoping to get there. What was it about running you enjoyed?

Does anybody here actually enjoy running, or do we not have anybody that crazy on this board? Man, I just can't convince myself to enjoy it yet. I'm sure a large part of that is because I suck at it haha.

Got my closets and shower door installed the last couple days. The company I used does it for a reasonable price and it is good quality, so definitely not worth my time to try to do it. I did do the tile in the shower though.

Here's the progress of all of my veggies.

A few years ago I bought a major piece of junk house. It was the crazy cat lady's before I bought it. Got it for less than what an empty lot would be (it was $14,900!). Needless to say, it needed tons of work. I did a lot of it, but needed a little help from my dad who is a carpenter. I gutted everything, tore out the foundation, and completely started over. The only major things I didn't do myself were the foundation, insulation, drywall, and some plumbing. Almost everything else I did myself, or had a little help from my dad. It was nice because I was able to figure out what I am good at and what I need to hire somebody for. Painting, laying floor, electrical. Knocked those things out. Doing shower tile...turned out great, but I would pay a lot of money to not have to do that again! I didn't help myself because I had a lot of small pieces with quite a bit of accents...and 3 niches. Just got that finished up, and I'm having someone come tomorrow to install the shower door. I got a raw deal from my bank on my loan, so I've had to fix a lot of things as I get the money, so I'm still trying to finish things up. I'll try to post a few pictures tomorrow of what I've done so far.

I got up to 275, and now down to 260. I'm shooting for about 215. Sometimes for entertainment I look up "healthy weights" for different heights. I'm 6' on a good day, and I'd probably have to get down to about 180 to not be overweight. I was 5' 10" and 180 pounds as a freshman in high school. I'd look anorexic at 180 pounds.

I gave up pop about 5 years ago and never looked back. Feel so much better after giving it up.

Can you fashion me a cupcake on a stick that I can dangle in front of me? I'd run a hell of a lot faster!

Things were definitely not going well for me for a while. Put on a decent amount of weight. Last week I started running to try to get back in shape. Before I came here, I just posted to my classes that I encourage them to reach out to help keep me on track. This time I got a fitness and nutrition tracker and I've been logging everything into it. It has been really helpful, and I am actually enjoying it. Hopefully I can keep it up.

A few years ago I played a Pandemic game where you try to wipe everyone out. Obviously the game hits a little close to home considering where we are at, but I figured I'd check it out again as I sat at home bored. I infected every person on Earth except for China. My disease supposedly never made it to China. I had to chuckle about that.

Exactly my style! Started shaving my head about 8 years ago, and never looked back. Now I just spend my days looking like a washed up, overweight Stone Cold.

Last week I was bored, so I went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Kankakee IL with my parents. We decided we'd eat in the Walmart parking lot to do some people watching, and it looked just like any other day. The parking lot was packed and people were in and out nonstop. Just saw yesterday that their rate of getting infected is the 3rd highest in the state. Not surprised at all.

That bus sounds like a prison!

We're a big farming area, so we have pretty good soil most places around here. My parents live about 3 miles away from me by a creek, and they have terrible clay, so I know how you feel! When we were kids, we would play in our parent's lake and try to make pottery with the clay. Let it harden and it would hold water the next day.

I'm definitely an amateur there! I have really good soil, so I just plant stuff and watch it grow lol.

I have never been a big fan of rocks instead of mulch. My grandma has areas of both, and I always hated pulling weeds and planting new plants in rocks. Not nearly as bad as lava rocks though. I rented a place with that, and it was the worst. I think mulch looks better and helps hold water and gives the soil nutrients, but it is definitely more work. Rocks aren't that bad of an option if you don't want the extra work. I know hostas are a really common shade plant around here (central Illinois). I'm not good at keeping flowers in pots either, so no advice there!

I'd probably wait, but since you're just doing pots (not doing pot!), you could always bring them inside and put them in a south facing window for a day or two if you really needed to. Also, there are tons of ideas out there for keeping plants warm. Can't think of any off the top of my head though.

@Seeking6 Like others have said, you should be good planting quite a few herbs in the same large pot, or planting them all in separate pots. If separate, I'd say 1 gallon pots would probably work well. Big enough to let them grow well, small enough that they aren't huge. You could go to a smaller pot if you want to save some space though. For you, or others doing it, I like to plant my herbs both from small plants, and from seeds around the same time. It helps give a lot longer growing season. Some herbs like basil, which others have mentioned, don't last that long. Cilantro is another one that bolts pretty quick. If you have the plants so they are a few weeks apart in development, you can get a lot more use out of them. Others last a long time though, so it kind of depends on what you are planting. For the peppers, you could probably get by with more than 1 in a large pot. They might not individually get as many peppers as if there was just 1, but combined you should get more. When you do your tomatoes, make sure you bury the stem a little ways. Roots will grow out of the buried stem and help support it. I would go even further than 1 inch below the top of the container since you're a little worried about how well you'll grow things. If the base of the tomato isn't that strong and is leaning, you can add a little more soil to help stabilize it. 1 inch is a good distance to shoot for stopping at. You can always add soil, but it is tough to take it away.

I'm stoked the new season of Money Heist comes out tomorrow!

Got my seeds going last night. Probably planted too many, but oh well! 4 kinds of tomatoes, 4 kinds of peppers, 2 zucchini, cucumber, cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, fennel, half a dozen herbs. I think some other things too. Now the hard part of waiting for them to start coming up.

I watched Designated Survivor this winter. I loved season 1 and enjoyed season 2, but I thought season 3 was awful. Way too much politics for me. I couldn't even make it through it. Just didn't care about the whole election thing they went for that season. Some Netflix shows I've watched lately that have been good were Stranger Things, You, and Money Heist. I wasn't sure what to expect from Money Heist since it is in Spanish and dubbed over in English, but I thought it was awesome. I got used to it quickly, and barely even noticed their mouths didn't match up with the words. Season 4 comes out April 3rd.