Well, danged, Joybell. That oughtta teach you not to go gettin' all lovey dovey wid a possum... Them critters is only goood for stews and pies... Awww, jus' funnin'... I loves all them little four legged critters as long as they live above ground... The moles and voles I could do very nicely without...

Hey, SRS. What's worse than a lawnmower that won't start?

Give up?

One that will...

Nevermind.

Everything is up and happy here in these Wes Ginny mountains. Even got blooms on the paw-paws so I might harvest enough paw-paw fruit to make some jelly. The P-Vine is not doing well with her one-day-a-week-parttime-job at the garden center in that she is spending more than she makes. Even with the 25% discount, we're loosing ground.

Yup, me and the Wes Ginny Slide Rule is all over this one. She get's $10 an hour and works 9 hours. Hmmmmm, that's about $75 after taxes. Now lets see what she got fir her $75 this week:

1 Fringe Tree @ $49.99
10 Acuba Japonica @ 39.99/each = $399.99
4 bags of Pine Fines @ 7.99/each = $31.96
2 bags of Permitill @ 8.99/each = $17.98
40 lb's of SuperPhosfate at $34.99
$10 worth of gas for my truck and 4 hours of my time going back yesterday to pick up the acubas and 4 bags of pine fines...

Hmmmmm, even with the discount, I'm sure you all can see that the part time job ain't gettin' no extra tators on the table?....

And it seems that every week is just like this one... Now throw in the 2 hours per acuba for digging holes, mixing in the ammendments to the soil to plant one in, planting one, watering one with collected rainwater and mulching them, and poor ol' me has just eaten up a good two hours. Did I mention that she bought TEN of these monsters?

Now I know exactly what Robert Johnson meant in his song "Walking Blues" where he says "Lord, I don't mind diein'...".

BTW, my gardening friends, I got Turk's cap lillies and Linten Roses going to bed. I'm really going to have to dig some up and give them away... Too bad the garden center won't buy them from us since they are getting' 15.99 a pot for the Linten Roses and 13.99 a pot for the Turk's caps...

Bobert