Valley Stuff What a week, right? Last Sunday I waited in line at the car wash…it was just that nice! It was awesome to see so many folks out, thinking spring. This next week will be in the 30’s, until Wednesday and then watch out…because we will be in

What a week, right?  Last Sunday I waited in line at the car wash…it was just that nice!  It was awesome to see so many folks out, thinking spring.  This next week will be in the 30’s, until Wednesday and then watch out…because we will be in the 40’s for 6 days!  It’s hard to know that we need snow, yet at the same time so enjoy the beautiful afternoons we have had.  Maybe snow in April, when it really has some moisture content, and melts right away.  That would be perfect.

When I said ‘what a week’, did you think I was going to go all political?  Well….not wanting to disappoint you, I do have a few more questions for everyone to ponder.  When it is said that we now have 50 Republican Senators and 50 Democrat Senators and our Vice President will be the deciding factor on all votes—voting Democrat, of course—does that mean that we don’t have a single elected Senator, on either side of the aisle, who has a mind of their own?  What the heck?  When did elected officials stop voting on issues FOR the people?  When did the blackmailing start? 

You know…if you don’t vote for this, we won’t vote for you.  Or your bill will never see the light of day, if you don’t vote the party line.  Or…if I can just add this 18 million dollar pork barrel project, I will vote for your bill.  I am so sick of all of this. Really sick!!

How in the heck did the last stimulus bill get to be over 5,500 pages?  That’s 11 reams of paper!  Wouldn’t you just love to know how much it cost the taxpayer just to print that bill?  And then they probably had to rent moving vans just to deliver the bill.  And everyone got a new 2 wheel dolly to move the bill around—so they could read it in their spare time—in between impeachment hearings!!  Do you think if all the pork barrel items were removed from the bill, it would have been about 25 pages?

And now…our trusted, elected officials are working on the next stimulus bill!!  From last week’s column…who is loaning the US this money?  Don’t you all worry about the debt this country is so freely jumping into?  If you are not worried…you should be—in my humble opinion.  Again, I say, grant money is NOT free!  Is it China who is buying our debt?  Doesn’t that worry you?

Meanwhile…let’s get back to gardening.  I have been looking at tomato seeds and trying to figure out the best time to plant.  Most packs say 4-6 weeks before transplanting outside.  Transplant 1-2 weeks after your last average frost—which is (sometimes) around June 10th.  I just can’t go with those directions.  In my opinion, you need to get your tomatoes to a nice size where you can plant them the beginning of May.  You need to plant them really deep, with most of the stem buried, and protected however you can—wall o’waters, tires, boxes, blankets, etc.  If you use anything plastic, do not let it touch the plant.

The plants won’t really grow much above ground but the goal is for the stem to be putting out roots, so that come June, your plant is ready to take off.  The earlier you can plant, the better, in my opinion.  You can plant late, and have a beautiful, beautiful plant in August, but plants know when it is fall, and the days are getting shorter.  They just know.  They shut down with the approaching fall and you are left with a bunch of green tomatoes. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I work with a number of folks who have to do community service.  My granddaughter asked me a couple of weeks ago if these folks were bad people.  She was kind of nervous being around them. Of course I said no!  And my daughter and I explained to her that we  had had to do our own service years and years ago.  We made mistakes.  I figured out this morning that my workers/helpers are going to be part of my Operation Pride group.  We are going to start this weekend, and hopefully I will remember to report to you the following week what we got done.  I so appreciate working with these folks—they even know when they sign up with me that they will get a lecture—because I care.  I care that they are doing better, and I hope they turned their lives around.  I do have compassion, right?!  Oh yeah, it was an anonymous person who said I was uncompassionate!  Oh well.