Planting Plans & A Pogo Interruption

This morning we woke up ready to map out our garden in preparation for planting today (I was so ready and excited for this!).  By a map I mean deciding where everything would be planted based on the sun pattern throughout the day (Mountain Man did an hourly time study of the sun over a couple days), and the needs of each vegetable.  This included plans for the two empty square foot boxes and the big garden which we determined this morning is 21'x32'. 

Well while we were having coffee and beginning our planning, Johny was petting Pogo and he discovered a big spot on his lower left ear lobe that was the diameter of a silver dollar (a bit bigger actually), puffy, warm, red and soft.  UH OH!  He clearly was not in any pain though and he seemed to be feeling fine.  But we were not comfortable, and after speaking with my daughter Jessi who works for a Vet and gave some input as to what it might be but that we should get him examined, and then getting a recommendation for a Vet from one of our mountain friends Janice, we called the Sylva Animal Hospital, and got an emergency appointment.  This is his ear, doesn't look bad on the top side, though you can see the bump...

This is is the inside, doesn't look too bad, but you can see it has a puffy spot (if you look closely, I know I say this often...) it is just above where Johny's thumbs are. Oh, and ignore the hole in his pants @ his knee.

Here we are, on our way to the Vet, Pogo is not his usual excited self on a road trip...poor guy!

The Vet, who was wonderful, as was the Assistant, said it was an aural hematoma, and that otherwise, for 14 years old, he was in good shape (though he had lost weight, probably from all his mountain hikes, so we can feed him a bit more each day...lucky boy!).  They drained the hematoma (ewww), gave us prednisone for him, and told us to monitor.  So off we went, back to the cabin.  Poor boy was worn out when we got home, traumatized I think, even though he never whimpered or complained!  A real trooper!

So, back to gardening...we finished our map, and decided, being that it was late, we would plant one of the square foot boxes, #3 to be specific maybe we will call it the lettuce box, with all the lettuce (it was beginning to get leggy, meaning long stocks with the little leaf buds on top resulting in them tipping over a bit), collards and spinach.  So, busy gardener's we were, and let me tell you, transplanting those tiny little seedlings was not easy! They are so delicate!  I gently spoke to each one I planted, and I am convinced they will be happy and will thrive in their new spots:)  Here it is!

It's hard to see them, they are so small; we have collards, spinach and a few lettuces in the forefront of the picture, more lettuces on the far end.  We also planted a few more seeds directly into the middle of the box, as we discovered we had more room than we anticipated.  This will also be a good test to see if planting the seeds directly into the ground is successful, and provides us succession planting, which if it works, will give us a lettuce and spinach harvest a few weeks after the seedlings are ready to eat.

Following the planting, we had rain, first gentle, then strong.

I am hoping all the little seedlings love the rain as much as I do, soaked up the water with joy and didn't get pounded.  I have confidence, because even with all the rain we have had here, and often it has been hard rain, all of our garden plants seem to be happy! 
Happy to be back!

PS, Jessi told me it could be a hematoma, said we better go to a Vet, smart girl:) Happy healing Pogo:)

Thanks for reading my blog, see you tomorrow,
Lise