More Forays into Agriculture

Last night was K.'s first t-ball practice. I missed most of it, since my book group also met last night, but I did go over for a bit (it was at the park across the street) to watch my baby play ball. She is certainly not an aggressive player. She stood in one place (the spot the coach had put her), looking a little apprehensive, watching the other kids running and tackling each other for the ball. To me, she looked absolutely darling, in her pink shirt and pants and pink glove, but I'm not sure an athletic scholarship is in her future. I've been told, though, that she hit the ball twice after I left, and caught it once, so who knows? She had fun, anyway.

The county extension service man called me back this morning, and told me about cherry trees. He confirmed our friend Helen's advice that sweet cherries don't do well here, saying that even commercial growers don't have much luck with them, so Ed will just have to put up with pie cherries. Considering the amount of sugar he puts on his fruit, I'm not sure he'd really notice the difference anyway. According to the extension man, I should have ordered our trees (and also roses) last fall, so they'd have been delivered just about now and I'd be planting them, but he thought they would still do okay if I ordered them right away. So I ordered them right away. Stark Brothers will be sending me (quickly, I hope) two Montmorency semi-dwarf cherry trees and also three Triple Crown blackberry bushes (thornless!). Doesn't that sound like fun? I have visions of harvesting baskets of cherries and blackberries and making oodles of pies and preserves (my extremely competent friend Helen promises that this is easy). At least this is one of those visions that I should be able to enjoy for a couple years before I am disillusioned!

We employed the services of the Surry County Department of Education today. Someone (naming no names) left the door of the van ajar, and the battery was dead when K. and I thought we were going to drive over to a friend's house for a playdate. My resourceful Ed saw a Surry County D. of E. truck across the street at the school and asked the guys for a jumpstart. They very kindly came over and spent a good twenty minutes recharging our extremely depleted battery. I have serious doubts about the quality of education they offer, but I would attest to the local Department of Education's excellence as fixers of dead car batteries.