Even baby plants are acute, prep for rain, prep for repairs, early voting

Mama and Victoria are always attracted to and enamored by tiny living things. A little child, a puppy, a kitten, a newborn goat, a small chick, anything young and new to the world. Now I have learned that even baby plants are cute. Mama told me so yesterday as she was looking over our newly sprouted potato plants. To my way of thinking, the little ones, plant or animal variety, are the beginning step in a long process. That beginning is one of the encouraging stages in the multifaceted process that will eventually produce fruit, or offspring, as the case may be.

Baby Potato

I see a good start in the tiny sprout and begin immediately to anticipate the blooms that will indicate the potential for fruit to be set by the plant some weeks from now. So, while they are cute to Mama, they are only at the inception of producing the outcomes I look for from each sprout. I guess it as much the biology major in me as it is the male in me that sets those quantitative expectations, but I am trying to see the cuteness of the little plants as well. Mama perspective is so much more fun than mine.

Yesterday, during my lunch break I walked over a mile in laps back and forth through the yard – front and back – spreading the fertilizer that Mama bought a few months ago at Lowe’s. Those very large bags of fertilizer cost her $5 per bag at the time. The store was trying to clear out the leftover bags which normally are priced a $65 per bag so I had Mama get three bags. Those three bags were enough to cover the large areas we have in our back and front yards. I chose yesterday to spread the fertilizer because there is a strong probability of rain in the forecast for today and overnight.

The volume of rain is not much as far as the forecast is predicting, but even a quarter inch will dissolve the tiny pellets and allow the nutrients to soak into the ground. In this case, a soft, gentle rain will be better than a flooding downpour. At least that is my hope. Nonetheless, the task is done, and the timing should be about right for our area since the days are warming up. We will have a hard freeze tomorrow night, but those are fewer now and the temperatures almost always get well above freezing through the days. Yesterday’s high was in the mid-seventies. Today will be the same. Fortunately, the onions we put out can survive those overnight lows and the potatoes planted in the garden are not yet sprouted. So far, so good.

Through the lunch hour today and tomorrow I will prep the fireplace for the repairs scheduled to be done Friday afternoon. The recent inspection of the fireplace provided the path forward to calculating the repairs and Mama and I evaluated the cost of those repairs versus leaving the fireplace in an unusable state. The cost is not as high as I had imagined, and the repairs are slated to take only one afternoon to complete. Our expectation is that by Friday night, we could actually use the fireplace as it was designed to be used. That will be nice. It is the first of the repairs/upgrades Mama and I will be doing to the house over the next few months. It will not be obvious to the unobservant, but it will be a great selling point if Mama and I ever pursue selling the farm. Plus, I do not like for things to not be working as they should, and it will be nice to be able to have a fire in the fireplace – especially when we lose power to the house in the colder months.

Of being bothered by things not working as they should, I am reminded of the father in Mary Poppins. When the neighbor’s cannon was fired and the father ended up sitting on the piano bench as things in the house were moved in the shaking caused by the cannon fire, the father mentioned to the wife as he struck a key on the piano, “And Madam, have someone tune that piano.” The wife’s response was, “But Dear, you don’t play the piano.” “Madam”, he thundered, “That is entirely beside the point!” I can sympathize with that sentiment.

Today Mama and I are going to vote early for the primaries in our state and local elections. This will determine which Republican will face which Democrat in the November general election. It took me a bit of time to decide on the candidate selection, but I have a cheat sheet prepared for us to use. I am very concerned about the general election this year.

I hope you are as well.