We got our first red tomatoes today. This week I decided to try and track how much our garden produced. We have been eating green beans for a couple weeks now, so I will estimate those. All I know is that we are going to have lots of tomatoes, and eggplants (we have already eaten about 15 of those) and peppers, and who knows what else.

Time to get the pressure canner out.

Our first change was to move our bean production to our home garden. Beans require too regular picking to keep up with when the garden is a half hour away. We added potatoes this year (4 varieties-including blue), so far they seem to be doing great. In the past (before I can remember) my folks had problems with potato bugs. We will see how it works out. We are doing almost all our tomatoes at home because of tomato worms. We haven’t had problems at home, but they decimated the plants at my folks. We have also planted two quarts of onion sets one yellow and one red. The potatoes and onions are so reassuring to see after planting seeds for the other stuff. It is nice to see foot tall plants.

Another cool thing we are trying is the 3 Sisters method of co-planting beans, corn, and squash in mounds. Right now they look like dirt moguls on flat ground with small corn shoots coming out of the top.

We spent the afternoon yesterday mostly weeding. I also planted a third phase on carrots. Phase 2 is just peeking out and phase 1 are a few inches tall and also got weeded over the weekend.

We got a ton of seedlings planted. Twenty some tomato plants, eight eggplants, 21 basil seedlings plus brussel sprouts, peppers, cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli. Most of that was at our home gardens. I also got much of it mulched with leaves and newspaper.

At the annex garden we did a ton of weeding this week and put more dirt on the potatoes!

The bags are of heavy cordura and lined with yellow ripstop. The lining has pockets around the outside which make nice places for tucking small things and the light color also makes it easier to find things in the cavernous bag. The bottom is hard rubber which adds weight, but it makes a bombproof bottom that can be set down outside without worrying about getting the contents or bag wet/dirty. I would like stiffer sides; it would make packing easier but storage more difficult. Three of the top edges unzip to form a lid that is a large pocket. The the rubber coated semi-transparent lid makes the pocket on contents easy to see.

There are handles on all four sides so grabbing the bag is easy no matter which way you attack it. The main straps work OK as backpack straps for longer carries.

We took them on a ski trip to the UP and had no shortage of space. Winter sports require so much stuff, but it all fit. One held ski gear; fleece, shells, gloves, socks, long underwear, wax, boot driers, helmets, and goggles all disappeared into the bag. One the way home I added a pillow and blanket. The bag still wasn't full. The other held clothes for three of us with plenty of space to spare. If I was traveling solo on a ski trip, one bag could carry all my stuff including ski boots and helmet.

Pros: Tons of space, Nice lining, durable, rubber bottom

Cons: Soft sides make loading and unloading a pain.

I have already covered why and how I got what tire as well as initial impressions here. Now we get into how they have worked out.

We have had a good snow year and it was a good idea to get winter tires. We are avoiding putting many dry miles on them to save wear. That is the one advantage of having one care with and one without snow tires. The tires have performed well.

Over MLK weekend we drove up to the UP for some skiing and family visiting. Almost 1000 miles total were traveled during the trip. Most of the trip up was clear until we got into the UP. We spent a couple hours on roads that were covered with packed snow and cruised along. The tires handled great and were in their element. About a foot of snow fell while we were in town. They didn't seem to like the brown slushy crud that develops on the roads. They had some initial slip that was easily mitigated by starting in second gear. In fresh powder and hard pack there was no problem at all.

At highway speeds with crosswinds the car got blown around a bit and the squidgy-ness of the tires made counteracting the wind wobbly. Another thing I found was that crossing the bridge being in the left (center) lanes was a bad idea. On the Mighty Mac the center lanes are metal grate and the snow tires got pushed around as they sunk into the holes. This usually isn't a deal, but was something that I had never thought about.

Also so far gas mileage hasn't been affected much. The first tank on the trip had quite a bit of warming up. One that was all traveling we got great mileage, 36.49 mpg.

It's mid Febuary now and soon it will be time to take them off. Supposedly they wear really quick above 45 degrees Fahrenheit.