A little of this and that

By Rennie Phillips

Sometimes I have kind of a jumbled mind. I think about this and that and no real central idea. This is one of those weeks. I was watching Kentucky play Auburn the other day, and I was rooting for Kentucky. Since we lived close to Lexington, I have been a Kentucky fan. I'd have loved to see them win but they didn't. Auburn played a fine game and probably outplayed Kentucky, so in the end it was OK. Life didn't stop when Kentucky lost. I didn't go into a rage and trash the streets. I didn't cry and carry on. Charles Barkley was happy where he had played for Auburn so I was happy for him. I enjoy listening to him. He kind of says it without even thinking about the consequences. I may have to root for Auburn now.

Warming the greenhouse

We have been having some really cold nights with lows down to freezing and below. I've been heating our greenhouse with an electric heater and, when needed, a little propane heater. I was looking at the plants in the greenhouse the other morning and noticed that one tray of tomatoes had some plants in it that had been frosted or froze. They had been up against the edge of the plastic so the frost or cold reached through the plastic and got them. I hadn't thought of that but will watch that from now on till I forget and do it again. Funny how we forget and do the same dumb mistake several times.

Now that it's the first of April we can pay closer attention to the future forecast and when we can begin planting tomatoes and such. Most of the Cole crops could already be in the ground, but it's still too cold for tomatoes and peppers. We have a 10-day forecast where we live, and it looks like nights will be above 45 degrees for the foreseeable future. Almost tempts me to plant some of my early tomatoes. I have two varieties that are early tomatoes which will set fruit when temps drop down in the mid 50s. They are Stupice and Malkovich. I planted early several years ago and probably lost 75 tomato and pepper plants to cold temps. I've been a little more careful since then.

I finally picked up the last of the potatoes we are going to plant. We usually buy a 50-pound bag of Yukon Gold potatoes but not real crazy about the size of them. Many of them are just huge. This year we went through the bin of potatoes and picked out all the small taters. We picked out a good bunch of Yukon Gold and some Red Pontiac. I like to plant a whole little potato without cutting it up, and if it's a little too big then we can cut them in half and plant. They just seem to do better for us if we plant this way. The Red Pontiac are a little bit shriveled so we'll need to get them in the ground.

Tractor and fish

I worked on my 135 Massey and got it working, so I disked our big garden. Now we need to clean off two rows of tomatoes from last summer and disk where they are. When that is done we can put down some plastic and plant our onion plants and cabbage and Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. We also have some rainbow chard and kohlrabi to get planted.

A local store had fish days a couple weeks ago so I ordered a couple pounds of shiners. What I was wanting was some 1.5 to 2 inch minnows to use this spring for fishing for crappie. I like jigs but there are times when a minnow just works. I really miss Faust's up in Cape. I really hated when he had the accident and didn't make it. I miss his store but miss him as well. He was a nice guy. When we got the shiners they were from about 2 inches up to 4 inches. It would take a giant crappie to eat some of them. We dumped them in our stock tank or cattle watering tank. When I was little Mick and I'd bend a pen, tie on a string, bait the pen and catch us an overgrown minnow or sucker. That was fun. First catch and release I practiced.

Kittens

I went out this morning to feed the calves and the cats and noticed that Kitty Girl, my oldest high tunnel cat, looked considerable thinner than the night before. I figured she had some babies somewhere. I glanced in a box with straw in it that we had put in the one high tunnel. Yep it looked like baby kitties. Marge checked a little closer and she said there were three in it. Marge didn't touch them because Kittie Girl doesn't like that. She is a good momma and does a good job raising the babies, but she does get tired of them. So she weans them and abandons them a little too early. I think she assumes Marge and I will finish raising them for her. Worst part is she is right. Kittie Girl is a really pretty striped gray cat. Her coat just shines. Her mother is an ornery old heifer and Kittie Girl is as well. Both of them don't hesitate even an iota in showing another cat who is boss. Kind of interesting that Kittie Girl's momma looks just like her and acts just like her.

Roses

I spent most of a day last week fixing fence and spraying wild rose bushes and some lespedeza type stuff. It just grows everywhere. So I sprayed it and then in a couple weeks I'll spray it again if it shows signs of still being alive. Normally I don't spray this early but we are wanting to turn the steers back there and let them graze the grass. So I wanted the fence fixed but also wanting to spray without them being in the pasture. We are ready for them now. I've still got them shut up and still on hay and a little grain. Kind of waiting for the weather to warm up and the grass to get cranking.

Marge was gone most of one day last week, but she came home with a couple surprises for Duchess, my dog, and me. She had bought four or five pounds of good-looking turnips. Made our day. Duchess and I just love a good turnips all sliced up with a little Lawry's seasoning salt on it. Duchess will turn down a piece of apple or buttered bread and wait for a piece of turnip or cucumber. She also loves those little mini wheat cereals. Marge had also brought home several doughnuts. Don't eat very many doughnuts where they are so sweet and I have diabetes, but now and then I splurge. I like to let them sit for a couple days and get crunchy. I really prefer day-old doughnuts.

Well have a great week and enjoy the nice weather.