Happy Saturday! Welcome to WeekendCoffeeShare! Come on in and let’s get you something hot or cold (your choice). As always, thank you to Natalie of Natalie the Explorer for hosting our weekly Saturday shindig.

Well, well, well, hello February!

Are you looking forward to February?

Can you tell I’m looking forward to February by my extra post yesterday to say goodbye to January? I cannot remember the last time I’ve been so welcoming to the month of February. I’ve always remembered February as another monotonous month next all the other winter months. I think I am now looking forward to February because February is a month closer of getting to put plants in the ground.

I am also curious about Groundhog Day, which is tomorrow. Do you believe in such weather predictions? I like to see and compare the prediction with reality. Besides, I feel the weather prediction lends me a sense of hope whether spring is right around the corner or there will be 6 more weeks of winter.

I started a lot of seedlings in January. In fact, I have almost 200 seedlings sitting on heat mats and grow lights in my garage. I know there’s a lot of people out there saying to take the seedlings off of the heat mats once they’ve germinated but the thing is, my seedlings are in an unheated garage and often drops below 40-degree-Fahrenheit (4-degree-Celsius) at night. So I’m using a temperature-regulated heat mat to keep my seedling babies warm. They are currently set to 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24-degree-Celsius).

This week, I have started bringing some of the cold-tolerant seedlings outside to get them used to the sun. Hopefully, I can get the mustard greens into the raised bed around the week of Valentine’s Day.

The day-length in my area has reached back up to 10 hours this week, meaning the growth of my plants will speed up again. I can tell the accelerated growth in my seedlings just from a few days of being outside.

There is supposed to be around 1 inch of rain this weekend. It’s been a while since there’s been a real large storm here. There was a light dusting of snow 2 weeks ago but it won’t compare to this storm if it really delivers. It’s a warm storm, so I took advantage and put a few overwintering plants outside to soak in some nitrogen from the rainwater.

I hope to make the investment for some rain barrels this year as my veggies seem to love it when I give them rainwater and water is a scarce resource in these parts. So every little bit helps.

By this point, I know what you might be thinking, that I haven’t mentioned once about being the Lunar New Year this week. That’s because I don’t celebrate it despite my relatives in China have been sending me memes and gifs each day and it will probably continue for however many days the tradition says to celebrate.

I was invited to hotpot the night before at my aunt and uncle’s house. It was good even though my stomach didn’t feel too great afterwards. I went to the office on the day of Lunar New Year to say goodbye to one of my co-worker, who was moving onto bigger things. He had been with the company for 5 years. One of co-workers remarked, “5 years is a long time to stay at one company for our generation.” Our generation meaning millennial.

Perhaps, I’m just one of those weird millennials who wants to stay in one company until retirement.

I am looking forward to next week as we say goodbye to the coldest and most boring month of the year and welcome February. Until next we chat…