Saturday, July 21, 2007, 19:09
Wilting on the Vine
The pumpkins in our garden look pathetic. Just pathetic. The leaves are all wilted and stressed. Not necessarily because it is so hot, only 82 degrees Saturday afternoon, but the heat combined with the dry conditions has really stressed them.
They are all wilted -- Big Max, Atlantic Giant, Cinderella, Connecticut Field Pumpkins. The leaves look like wet, green handkerchiefs hung over upright sticks poked into the ground.
Well, okay, the pumpkins don't *all* look pathetic. The tiny little pumpkins that get some shade by the barn are looking all right. And half the Cinderella pumpkins that get shade from the elm tree by the barn don't look too bad. And the volunteer white pumpkins look pretty good, too.
But then there's my muskmelon and watermelon. Pathetic as well. Some of the muskmelon doesn't look quite so bad. But the "ice box" watermelon have about had it. The Sugar Babies in the other part of the garden are doing the best of all.
As I was cleaning up Kajun's piles of horse manure this morning, I had a brainstorm.
I wish I'd had the brainstorm earlier in the garden season.
If we planted sunflowers in among everything in the garden, the big, "elephant ear" leaves could provide some shade.
I have noticed that the plants in the garden that get a little bit of shade in the hottest part of the day are looking the best.
Like I said, I wish I had thought of it earlier. Going into the third season of drought, the top soil is very dry, the subsoil is dry, and the plants need all of the help they can get. A little shade would remove some of the stress of the hot sun that hits them in the afternoon.
The horse pastures look bad too. Patches of sand in among the clumps of weeds. Why is it that the alyssum, pig weed and white cockle can survive so well on very little moisture when nothing else can? I suppose that's why they have proliferated and why we call them "weeds."
The funny thing is, though -- more of a miracle, actually -- is that later in the afternoon and early evening, when the sun is not so hot, the pumpkin leaves recover and by sunset, they look like pumpkin leaves again.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, July 20, 2007, 21:58
Dog Eats Money
You probably heard about it on television. Or read the AP story. It seems that everyone else did. Except me. And the other people at the newspaper I work for.
You know -- the story about the lady whose dog ate $750. The lady who lives in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
It became my job this morning to try to find out the information to write a story for the newspaper.
The dog's owner, a lady by the name of Hulleman, was not listed in the telephone book -- not in the Menomonie section. Or the Colfax section. Or the Sand Creek section. Or the Eau Claire section.
So, I called every vet clinic in Dunn County -- three in Menomonie. One in Colfax. They were not clients at any of the vet clinics.
Next I tried an Internet search of Anywho.com. There were Hullemans listed in Wisconsin. None in this area. The closest was New Auburn. So I called them. Oh, yes, the lady had heard the story on television. Was not related to the lady with the dog.
I tried the county clerk's office. No, they would need the tag number to be able to identify the dog's owner. Or a township where the dog was kept. But maybe the county treasurer's office could help. She transferred me to the treasurer's office.
The lady at the treasurer's office did have a person by that name listed as a property owner in the county. Had an address. No telephone number.
Now, each time I called, trying to find contact information for the Hulleman family, I had to explain the whole story all over again -- you know, that the story was published in the St. Paul paper. Was an AP story. People were supposed to live in Menomonie. Story was on television. Had a dog that ate $750.
I hesitated to call all of the banks and credit unions in the county to see if they had exchanged the money. I don't know how many bank offices we have in the county. Maybe between 10 and 20. There are two banks in my little hometown alone.
When I finally got hold of the address, which was all I had to go on, I called my editor. No, she wasn't available. She was talking to someone. I asked to speak to someone in the newsroom.
And guess what.
I was informed that the person the editor was talking to was one of the people in question. The husband of the family. You know. The people with the dog that ate $750. One of the television stations in the Twin Cities had contacted him and said the local newspaper was trying to reach them. Came into the Dunn County News office on his own.
After I spent an hour and a half trying to find contact information, the dog's owner walked into the office.
Well, alrighty then.
Not Again
Last week, I had a meeting every night. For the newspaper. Church council. You name it. I said I didn't want another week like that.
I got one this week. Newspaper story meetings two nights. Church council. And a book signing at a bookstore Thursday night.
The weather was hot and humid earlier in the week. It is cooler and less humid now on Friday. Lots of sunshine. Some puffy white clouds. Not that it makes much difference. I am too exhausted to enjoy it.
We haven't gotten any rain, either. It is really dry now. Burning up dry. When I took Charlie for a walk around the hayfield, the grass was really crunchy. The hayfield is not recovering after we cut the hay. Not one bit.
LeAnn R. Ralph