finally some sun

It was forecast to be dry today (finally!), so I planned to plant the seed potatoes I bought this past week.  When I woke up this morning, I could hear pouring rain, so I saw right away that the forecast had not been quite right.
I went ahead after breakfast and got the seed potatoes ready anyway, in case it would clear off later.

The ones one the right are Russet.  They were larger so I cut most of them into smaller pieces to plant and laid them out to dry.  In the middle are Yukon Gold and on the left are Red Nordland.  For those two I picked out mostly smaller potatoes so I will leave them whole.  Now they are all laying out in the pantry waiting to be planted.

Well it was still pouring rain so I decided to stay inside and start the new batch of kimchi instead.

The cat likes to hold the cookbook open for me.  It is one of his important self-assigned jobs, and he almost always makes sure to do it.  And he gets a good nap in at the same time.  Unfortunately sometimes he lays on top of the page I need and refuses to move, but luckily today he held it just right.  I don't really need the exact kimchi recipe but I glance at it as I go so that I don't forget to add any of the ingredients.

For the kimchi I chop the cabbage by hand, but I use this vegetable slicer to cut the carrots and daikon radish into very thin slices.  Here is my little trick for when I need to grate or slice carrots: rather than mess around with trying to slice or grate to the very end (even with the finger guard holder you can see laying at top of the picture to keep my fingers safe it is still more time consuming) I just peel more carrots than I really need and then grate or slice until I have a length of carrot left that will be good for carrot sticks and then move to the next carrot.  It goes very quickly this way, and you can see the bowl at left is full of carrots just the right length to make carrot sticks for snacks later. 
It takes awhile to cut everything cut up and mixed for the kimchi and I always make somewhat of a mess on the counter and floor, but it is worth it.  The kimchi is now sitting on the floor in my hall ready to start fermenting.
By the time I finished the kimchi the sun had come out, so I went to the feed store to buy some bags of soil and a couple bales of straw for planting the potatoes.  By the time I got those things out of my car at home my lungs were telling me that they had enough for now, so I had to come back inside and rest.  So I might plant the potatoes tonight, or it might be tomorrow.  My lungs are healing, but I have to be careful not to overdo in any one day or I will really pay for it.

One other thing that happened today that was really good, was this...Well first there is the background story.  I have been feeding a litter of feral cats since last year.  They were born in an empty property behind my yard.  By the time I saw them they were a month or two old and I tried to get them taken by a cat shelter but they never had any room for them.  By the time I saw them they were too wild to be tamed, but I kept feeding them, and after they grew bigger a few of them moved into my yard.  So I got them a little plastic dog house to sleep in and kept feeding them.  (My cat is inside all the time and the dog cannot get into the front yard so they are left alone there)  Two of the girls live in my yard most of the time, and although they are scared of me when I am outside, they know I am the one who cares for them and will sit on a ledge outside my living room window and purr at me when I am inside.  The rest of the cats come and go from my yard to eat, and other stray cats start coming here to eat also since they have found out there is always food and a dry place to sleep here.  I have started catching these cats in a live trap and taking them to the vet to be spayed and neutered.  I am happy to care for these cats who have no one else to look out for them, but I do not want there to be any more of them!  Well I have been very sad the last few days because my favorite of these feral cats, the calico that I call Penny just disappeared and had not showed up to eat or anything.  So I thought that she must have been killed by something because she was gone for three days, but this morning she showed up very skinny and very hungry and dirty.  So now I think she must have got stuck somewhere on another property, maybe shut in a shed or something, but finally got out and came back "home".  I was so happy to see this little cat and she was so happy to see me through the window (even though she is still terrified of me if I go outside).  She ate a bunch of food and other than being skinny she looks really good.  So this was a good day!

 This is a picture of Penny from a couple months ago.  She is much skinnier and dirty right now, but should hopefully be back to normal soon.