Springtime

Springtime means starting seeds. Caro Rich tomatoes on the bottom. Sweet peppers on the top. The container is a tissue box lined with a disposable, plastic grocery bag.

Ash. It is spelled "Ash".

Belladonna went cutting firewood with me on her birthday. We spent a couple hours cutting dead ash.

What a great gal. She can cook. Dress a deer. Cut firewood. Lift heavy things. She even smells good. I am taking applications for future son-in-laws.

We were both heartened to see that the farmers were able to harvest the marshmallows before the weather got hot. Looks like a good year for S'mores.

Note to self: Remove covering when Charlotte has 150 GDD b50

This does not look like much. It is some yard trash stacked on top of an "elite" wild grape selection (L50-S from Minnesota). The difficulty in using Vitis riparia as a parent in grape breeding is that it blooms way before other, larger fruited and larger clustered selections.

One of the work-arounds is to lay some fruiting canes on the ground and cover them up to keep them cool. Then, after the later blooming, potential papas have a whacking good head-start, to uncover the Vitis riparia canes and tie them up on the wire.

God willing, I will generate hundreds of seeds of L50-S X Steuben or Swenson Red. I am not sure what I will do with them, but they should have interesting genetics.

Reducing the number of caretakers to reduce risk
My concerns about the 17 caretakers who care for my mother has been self correcting.

When I arrived back at home, Mrs ERJ informed me that there had been a barrage of messages. Three of Mom's caretakers are out for the duration. One is out temporarily and the third was exposed to three patients who MIGHT have had Covid-19.

So we are down to twelve caretakers to cover 168 hours a week. I would bet money that we lose more caretakers as time marches forward.