Singin' and transplantin' in the rain

(In commemoration of Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, and my favorite film)...

Compostumbler

Our compost tumbler arrived a couple of days ago.  I spent maybe 4 or 5 hours assembling it.  We did a bit extra in the assembly based on our experience of having a tumbler for over 10 years.  Its only problem was rust, so this time I spray painted the metal parts with rust inhibiting paint, and will do touch up if any rust shows up.
We loaded the tumbler with grass clippings and pine needle duff.  Theoretically one should have 4 parts green or nitrogenous matter for each part of brown or carbon matter.  Even though the grass clippings had been composting on their own and were steaming for three days in a pile (where the tarp is in the picture), this morning I took the temperature of the mass in the tumbler and it was up at 140 degrees F.  Yay!
The tumbler is easy to turn, and does produce excellent compost in 2 to 3 weeks in spring, summer, and into fall.  I love having compost to use as mulch.

Since it is raining today, I found myself singing the title track to that wonderful movie, Singin' in the Rain, as I mixed potting soil and fertilizer and began the process of transplanting tomato plant baby plants into larger pots.

First I used our outdoor potting bench, mixed potting soil (Foxfarm Happy Frog) with a small amount of Gardner and Bloom organic fertilizer, cleaned a number of small pots, packed them with mix, brought them into the greenhouse, and transplanted the young tomato plants which were planted March 9th into the larger pots.
I tried to be careful when disentangling the root systems.  I normally plant two seeds per six pack cell and separate the root systems when transplanting.  Finally I watered the plants and set them on the lower heat mat which keeps them at about 67 degrees.  The final picture shows some transplants from a few weeks ago.  Tomatoes are coming! (despite the endless rain)