Total Pageviews

Monday, March 28, 2011

Issue 12 of 2011 Alternative Opinion: Spring and fires

Things are happening around here to prove that it is spring. One of my cats had kittens. Two of them. One with no tail what so ever. She looks like she will end up looking a lot like her momma. Except for the lack of that tail, that is. The other really should have been a girl so I could call him Blondie. That’s what color he seems to be right now. His tail makes up for his sisters lack thereof. Peggy tells me that if they grow into their feet they will be big ol’ kitties.

On the goat front, that white nanny I traded one of my black ones for is bagging up. So in a month or so I should have another baby goat(s).

Then there’s the stuff I’ve planted in my garden. The potatoes are going great guns. That cabbage plant left over from last year, the one I thought might head up for me, has decided it’s warm enough to set seed instead and has bolted. The year old brussels sprouts don’t seem to have done that yet but they haven’t made any of them tasty little baby cabbages either. There is hope though with the younger plants I planted last week, more cabbage, broccoli and some cauliflower. I also planted some carrot seeds but I think those have been killed off, or otherwise messed up by the neighborhood cats using my raised beds for a toilet. I do still have hope for the snow peas I planted last week.

Trouble is all of the stuff I’ve planted are cool weather veggies and it looks like we’ve skipped over the nice cool spring and jumped right on ahead into summer. Well, at least early summer. I’m tempted to plant some tomato’s and other warm weather plants now, and just be ready with a big old roll of plastic in case we do have that Easter Snap everyone warns of. Especially, as Easter will come so late this year, the last Sunday of next month, that I somehow suspect we won’t have that last ditch cold snap.

Speaking of Easter, I hear the Lone Oak Fire Dept. is still planning on hosting a visit from the Easter Bunny this year even if Easter is so much later than usual.

And speaking of the local Fire Department, I’d also like to take this chance to remind you all about how terribly dry it is out there. That big snow we had is long, LONG, gone and even the mud from that last little rain is dried up. The high winds we’ve been having are no help either, as they just help everything dry out. Believe me, if the air and the grass is dry enough, that grass will burn no matter how green it is. Besides there’s all that dead, brown, dry as a bone stuff out there in most fields that is left over from last year. That, at least, will burn plenty hot enough to catch anything else on fire. Especially if it is being pushed by the wind. So the best bet is to be extremely careful when you burn anything and to NOT burn anything at all on a windy day. Even on still day’s you should use a lot of caution, wet the area around your burn barrel (or whatever) down, keep a hose, or a bucket of sand or water, handy as well as whatever else might help you put out that fire if it tries to spread on you. A phone to call 911 and give them your address and situation wouldn’t hurt any at all either. Just in case.

Just use that stuff that’s as rare as hens teeth or unicorn horns when you are thinking of starting any kind of fire outside of a smoker or other kind of grill. That rare and valuable commodity called “Common Since.” I know it’s often hard to find and equally difficult to use at times. After all leaving it out of any kind of plan is often a lot more fun and lets you build all kinds of castles in the air. However, using it will often see to it that those castles are built so that they will stay up, even it they aren’t floating in the air. Not to mention keep them from falling on your head and sending you to the hospital.

Update to the above! I have a new little boy goat! A white one. He's sale bound soon as he's weaned! His momma had me fooled. Thought she wasn't that far along yet as I wasn't sure when the daddy goat got to her.

No comments:

Post a Comment