What to do on a wet afternoon?

It's wet here again. I'm thinking of sorting my saved seeds.  




What other good things don't involve a walk in the rain?

Living where you do I would think you were an expert on what to do on a wet afternoon! My list at the moment,,

Sorting the onions and garlic for storage/sale/replanting
Finishing the curtains and putting them up (harder than it sounds)
turning the 10 cucumbers in the fridge into "cucumber salad" which is pickled sliced cucumbers
and since I am me, computer games!

+1 for computer games :P

I was going to mention your ‘experience’ but was beaten to it!  My ‘first world problem’ is heat, humidity and mossies - I’m soooo looking forward to Autumn. I’ve been stuck inside too much this summer so when it does rain, I’ll try and head out and walk in the cool.  When we get big rain, I like to stand out front where we have a covered porch and just listen. It almost sounds like rain on canvas which is a sound I love and have experienced often in your part of the world.

Having a task like sorting out seeds sounds like a great idea. I do try and tackle bigger projects, the ones I’ve been putting off, like clearing out stuff in the basement or organising all my shelves of jars. I also take the opportunity to write long emails - old style letter format to people I dearly love but haven’t seen for a long time as they all live on different continents.

Usually, I like to look at what the rain is doing.

If it is a light sprinkle then there is not much going on.

If we are having a really good rain then I watch where the water is going.

This year after seeing all the Blanketflowers aka Firewheels that naturally came up on our property in the outer zones, looking at the rain flow explains why the flowers were planted where they were.

I also like to watch how much water is absorbed and how much is runoff.

Usually, this doesn't take long so I go back to reading threads here on permies or some other task that I might have.

If the electricity goes off then I sit in my chair with the dog talking with dear hubby about life in general.

I just came in from an hour planting about 150 plant starts in the rain. It's 15 C (59F) and now I'm headed for a hot shower and a cuppa, but it will be warm and sunny tomorrow and I've got places to be and can't be stuck in the garden all day! In the meantime, my starts will get a nice drink with no effort on my part.
Spring officially begins next week. Can't come soon enough!

Design a fantasy earth sheltered greenhouse...

It rained yesterday. I filled up eight grow bags with masters mix (one pound of hardwood sawdust, one pound of ground soy hulls and three pounds of water), and cooked them two at a time in a pressure cooker for two hours. This morning I inoculated them with chestnut mushroom spawn.  Not the waiting begins.

When we first bought our land, the first "structure" we put up was a small canvas-roofed shelter. It was the only place to get out of the sun or the rain and it was nice to sit on a lawnchair and have a coffee while taking a break from working. One day, we had constantly alternating sunny skies, then downpours. I had to routinely rush to the shelter to avoid getting soaked. Sitting there with nothing to do but wait for the cloud to move on was very enjoyable. The drumming of the rain on the canvas forced all the busyness thoughts out of my head and allowed me to feel more connected to my surroundings and nature.
The next day, I was driving on the highway and encountered another harsh downpour. This time though, there was nothing soothing or relaxing about it. The speed of the car and the rigidity of the windshield made this experience ugly and violent. A few months later, I gave up driving and gave away the car. The contrast between those two encounters with rain has erased any regrets I have about giving up driving.

Michael said, "Sitting there with nothing to do but wait for the cloud to move on was very enjoyable. The drumming of the rain on the canvas forced all the busyness thoughts out of my head and allowed me to feel more connected to my surroundings and nature.

This reminds me of when I was a kid in Girl Scouts!  I can still hear those raindrops hitting the canvas tent "in my head".

And the part about:

driving on the highway and encountered another harsh downpour.

This reminds me of a trip when we were heading to the Smokey Mountains and encountered a rainstorm that was so bad we had to pull the truck and RV off the road into a parking lot to wait out the storm.

Thanks for the memories!

Anne Miller wrote:

This reminds me of a trip when we were heading to the Smokey Mountains and encountered a rainstorm that was so bad we had to pull the truck and RV off the road into a parking lot to wait out the storm.

Thanks for the memories!

We went through a similar downpour on a Georgia interstate. The alternator in our car died, and as the battery drained, the wipers slowed down so gradually that I just thought the rain was getting harder. Passing vehicles were flashing their lights because our headlights were barely glowing and we were essentially invisible. We were lucky we were able to pull off the road just as the car died.  

Why does it seem like the memorable stories tend to involve near-disaster?

Anne Miller wrote:
This reminds me of a trip when we were heading to the Smokey Mountains and encountered a rainstorm that was so bad we had to pull the truck and RV off the road into a parking lot to wait out the storm.
Thanks for the memories!

This reminds me of something similar, maybe the same storm? Somewhere around mid 1980s or so, early May? We were off trail looking for the elusive caves where the Cherokee were supposed to have holed up from the US troops, a long time ago, we never found it.

It was actually a little hot that day, a break in the cover topping a small ridge exposed some rather angry looking clouds, complete with some impressive lightening and a breeze that felt 50 degrees colder. We decided to seek lower elevation asap. It wasn't the Cherokee caves, I'm sure, it was just a little rock overhang, mostly hidden by the trunks of giant hemlock trees that we passed, on our way back to lower elevations and an official trail.  

By time we got there the official trail was more of a creek and the actual creek was a white-water torrent, the vote not to cross it was unanimous. We retreated back to the rock shelter and set up camp. It was dark by then and the rain had turned to snow. The big hemlocks were swaying all the way to the ground with the wind, it was magic.

Next morning was clear and cold, snow was about two feet deep. On the second day late afternoon some rangers came by, we were not on an official trail let alone camp spot, they found us by the smoke from our fire. One of them was a bit of a jerk but back country, off trail permits, were available back then and we had one. They had come to rescue us which we declined but jerk told us the park was closed and we had to leave anyway.

We gave them some hot coffee which even the jerk appreciated and promised we would leave at first light the next day. But it was just too cozy in our little home behind the hemlocks and figuring they had better things to do than check on us we stayed a couple more days before getting too low on food, so we went home. It was sad.

Sorry to drift too far off the OP topic.

Mark Reed wrote:

Sorry to drift too far off the OP topic.

Yeah, I think the thread has been diverted a bit, but maybe in a good way? Your story was great. You're a good story-teller.

Michael Helmersson wrote:

Mark Reed wrote:

Sorry to drift too far off the OP topic.

Yeah, I think the thread has been diverted a bit, but maybe in a good way? Your story was great. You're a good story-teller.

Thanks, I got lots of them, that one in fact could be much, much longer. Seems often times the best things come when stuff goes off the rails one way or another. That was supposed to be a couple warm spring days in the woods.

To bring it back around to topic activities for wet afternoons, I like to take walks of course. Also, quite fond of napping, that's why my house has a metal roof. Reading books is always good too.

Of late I've gotten a habit of torching, pounding, sawing on old silver coins until they look like snowflakes to put on the Christmas tree, I'm not very good at it though. I have a 5-ounce round of pure .999 silver that I want to make a tree topper, but I need lots more practice. But I got a little heater in the shed and a metal roof there too, so it's great rainy-day fun.

This is a great question, and the OP's seed sorting is definitely something I have done on many a wet Autumn or Winter afternoon!!  My other sorting predilection is sorting out my boxes of screws in the garage - to try and avoid having to buy 10 new screws for some simple little project that comes up!

However - who else does garden planning on rainy days? I rarely sit and spend a lot of time on the laptop, so keeping my current plan updated - and planning for next year -  are often on my TODO list, but get relegated to rainy afternoons for sure.  So this is not meant as a brag, neither I hope will it invite too much derision or mickey taking LOL - but I would be interested in what other forum members put into their working plans.

The first image is the latest update to my NOW horticultural plan - December 2021.

The second image is my just completed plan for 2022.

In addition to this, our main horticultural growing area, in 2022 we will also have 4 pig paddocks next year that can be cultivated - because sadly (due to economic realities) we will not be raising or breeding pigs net year. This will amount to almost 2,000 square meters of well manured :-) and deeply dug :-) and rock free growing space, that we have not yet decided what to do with.  We will be buying 6 lambs to fatten during 2022, so we might utilise it to grow fattening and finishing crops for them.

Winter best wishes to all the forum members.

Ha! More suggestions from the dailyish!

and I quote from Jay's message:

Sewing's an inside job. But what fabric to choose?

https://permies.com/t/108813



So is cooking - despite the weather, my nettles are starting to sprout:

https://permies.com/t/44253



Some of us need to start seeds indoors. Jen upcycled an old metal rack to make an awesome plant-starting station:

https://permies.com/t/174511



Planning can be done inside - S. Marshall has a surplus of old toilets and is collecting good ideas. I love some of William's suggestions in the thread!

https://permies.com/t/173965

I think I'll still win for rainy afternoons though! We once had 18 months where it rained

E V E R Y  D A Y ! ! !

I think seed starting is probably a good idea, but I still have more marmalade to make if it's going to last the year.


Lots of thin shred to make....

Nancy, those links from the dailyish sound like some fun things to do on a rainy afternoon.

I like getting the dailyish because it is like getting a letter from a friend with informative threads.

I like putting together puzzles like this one:



From https://permies.com/t/85122/Burra's Online Jigsaw Puzzles

These can be fun when there are one or more people:



Permies themed jigsaw puzzles

I have never played this game though It might be fun:


source

https://permies.com/t/172277/Dungeons and Dragons

Card games are fun:



https://permies.com/wiki/57503/Permaculture-Playing-Cards-Paul-Wheaton

This post has some other suggestions:

https://permies.com/t/174437/Starting-tool-gaming-library#1372588

It was supposed to be dry today but it wasn't - it was rather showery. I was going to pick some of my soft fruit, but if picked when wet they woudn't keep very well. The raspberries have done particularly well this year, one might almost call it a glut! However it doesn't count unless you can harvest them!
Instead I pricked out some of my Hardy Plant Society seedlings. Exciting new ones that have germinated include Azorina Vidalii (shrub with leaves edible raw) lots of Tigridia Pavonia ("one of the most delicious of edible ornamental bulbs." according to William Whitson), Commelina tuberosa (edible starchy bulbs), some grasses that may have edible seeds, Himalayan blue poppy (my saved seeds), and Omphalodes Linifolia, which may have been a mispick, since apart from having pretty flowers I'm not sure of it's use....

Baking a batch of kale crisps. Actually this was on Thursday - it's been an excellent day today!
Plain was just added coconut oil and sea salt. I also did a simple coconut oil, tomato puree, babbington leek (garlicky), parsley (maybe vit and omega 6), apple cider vinegar and sea salt.
Note - untouched by plastic. Baking tray is enamel not 'non stick'