This video was filmed ahead of the horrific murder of yet another U.S. citizen by . Transport Evolved vehemently opposes the taking of life, and the heavy-handed tactics employed by the .
The weather might still be a little… brisk… but Nikki is already planning her greenhouse activities for the year. And that means ensuring the greenhouse itself is in good condition. After several years of hard work, the original cover is anything but…
These informal, unscripted vlog-style videos are a chance for the team to share some of the fun things happening in their respective gardens – and are filmed without a teleprompter in a single take.
Read the transcript here
Hey everybody, happy Sunday. I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing, you are safe, you are well, and you are with people who care about you, who you also care about.
Apologies for last week’s Sunday Musing and Chicken and Garden update being late. Obviously, the events in Minnesota made things very difficult for everyone, I think, and it didn’t feel right publishing the Chicken and Garden the way that we normally do, especially for Patreons. So we were actually late publishing it for Patreons, and I think late publishing it for other people.
But if you can, please spare some time for Alex’s family and friends and colleagues, and also for everyone in Minneapolis who’s feeling it right now. I’m friends with someone who’s a producer at one of the news networks who was on shift when that happened, and she sent me a picture of her desk — her video wall, literally — and how she and her team handled the breaking news on Saturday morning. I will never know how she did it. She is a very special person. The station is very, very blessed to have her.
But you’re not here to talk about that. You’re here to hear about the garden, and hopefully we can talk about growth and new shoots and all the wonderful things that happen in just a few short weeks.
So one thing I didn’t really mention last week was that at the end of last autumn, I brought inside some of the pepper plants that I had grown from seed at the very start of last spring. They’d taken a really long time to get to a point where they were any size at all, and I lost most of them. They’re little mini bell peppers — little mini chocolate bell peppers — and I actually brought them inside and potted them up into massive pots, and suddenly they’re growing really incredibly well. And that makes me so happy, because bell peppers are really difficult to grow this far north and this far west in Oregon.
But also, I wanted to have something positive to think about, and to look at, and to focus on that wasn’t the terribleness of the news cycle and all of the horrible things. I wanted to think about new life and new beginnings, and I was given that. So I’m very grateful and very lucky that I was able to do that.
The other good thing that I wanted to talk to you about is I reached out to Quictent. I did mention this in last week’s show — the manufacturer of this tent — and they agreed to send me a new cover for about a hundred dollars. No, I did not ask for a YouTube sponsorship or a YouTube freebie.
For those who don’t remember, this is the original Quictent that we put up. It’s 20 feet by 10 feet by about seven feet high, but obviously it’s about three feet off the ground, so it’s actually about 10 feet high at its tallest. And last year, we got some significant damage. So holes here, and here, and here. We got a couple of holes in the roof. It started leaking somewhere around here. This bit here fell apart.
So rather than replace the whole greenhouse — because the actual frame is in pretty good condition — I said, “Hey, can we just buy a new cover?” And I sent them details of the greenhouse cover, and they said, “Yeah, you just send us a hundred dollars and we’ll send it to you.”
Now, I’m going to be really honest. I don’t know if that hundred dollars includes Mr. Trump tariffs or not, or if I’m going to end up paying double. I suppose I won’t know until it comes. But suffice to say, I’m very glad that I was able to find a replacement cover and that the company was eager and willing to send me one.
So in a couple of weeks’ time, I’ll be taking this down and sorting out my greenhouse, and then putting the new cover on. I’m going to need to get my other half to help me with that, because I’m going to have to undo the screws on all of the sides, and then re-screw it in. Because if you see here, you can see this has come down, and then this is tightened through here. So we actually screwed it through here, which is a really good way of making sure that it doesn’t take off. And that’s been really great. It’s allowed it to stay pretty stable. But at the same time, yeah, I need a new one.
So that is some good news in the greenhouse. Nothing’s really happened other than that in the garden. Nothing else has really happened, as you can see. For the most part, things are still very much dormant. I don’t have any garlic coming up yet, and that’s not really a big surprise because it’s been really cold since I last filmed.
The volunteer potatoes that we had were killed off by the last frost, and everything has been really cold. While we have still got bulbs popping up out of the ground, I’d be really surprised if there are any bulbs popping up here, because the dogs and everybody else have been really tough here. Looks like there might be one right there.
While the bulbs haven’t come up here, they’ve come up at the front of the house, and they’ve come up by where we put our trash bins, which is great.
The chickens are now not only graduated from feeder school, but they are actually experts on feeders and how to use them. And that makes me very happy, because they’re like, “Yeah, we know how to do this. This is easy. What were you worried about?” Because, you know, I wanted to make sure they got food and they got water.
We had some really cold temperatures. A couple of nights ago, it got down to like minus seven or minus eight Celsius, which is nothing compared to what most of America was experiencing, but it’s still quite nippy, and the water here froze solid. Interestingly though, it seemed to thaw pretty quickly. And as you can see, the hens are just fine using it.
I’m still very proud of my 3D-printed feeder solution and watering solution, and as you can see, at the back there, they’re pros on the feeder now. They really have got it. They’re having their last meal before they go to bed. It is nearly bedtime for chickens. It’s like, what, nearly five o’clock in the evening? 4:30, 5 o’clock, and the sun is really starting to go. That’s why I keep turning around, because I don’t want the camera to look really, really terrible. VI hates color-grading footage that’s really dark. I cannot blame them.
But that’s really it. There’s not a lot else going on. I’m just very grateful to Quictent for agreeing to send us that tent cover for a reasonable price. So thank you to them.
Also very, very grateful to you for watching and supporting the channel. And if you look right now, you’ll see that either side of me there are some amazing people scrolling by — well, not the people themselves, but the names of the amazing people who support this channel. And you can be one of them too by joining us at patreon.com/transport evolved, or by making a YouTube channel membership, or by sending us Ko-fi, or sending us even an old-fashioned check.
You can also support the channel by going to our swag store, and don’t forget — I always forget to say this — you can also support TE just by sharing our content, interacting with us on social media, and all of that good stuff, because it really all does help.
Also, I should probably call attention to the fact that I am wearing this snood — I’ve been wearing it all day. I was filming the Nissan Leaf review today, filming it on my own for once. Normally Kate would be here, but this time we decided that I would just film it, because she had a lot of things on, and the weather’s not been great, and obviously ICE — yeah, that ICE, and the other sort of ICE.
So I’ve been wearing this all day because I woke up with a really stiff neck. The last week or so has done a number on me mentally and physically, and I’m sure it has on you too.
So make sure you get out in your garden. Enjoy the weather if it’s nice. Wrap up warm if it’s cold. Don’t worry — spring will soon be here if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, and if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, make the most of the heat before it’s gone for a few months.
Stay safe. Look after each other. Be the amazing, positive change that I know you all want to see in the world.
And as always, keep evolving.
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