Electricity

When was the last time you thought about how great electricity is? I know that seems like a silly question but I have a whole new appreciation for it.
I visited my mother this past weekend in Michigan and the trip made me think about electricity a lot. You see the afternoon we arrived, so did a major thunderstorm and when it left it took with it all our electricity. Now when you are from Southern Indiana you come to expect these blackouts from time to time because they often accompany thunderstorms and thunderstorms are a common occurrence, but I wasn’t at home so I didn’t have my supply of LED flashlights, my candles, lanterns or my windup lights. The first thing we realized was that Mama doesn’t keep candles in her house and she has one flashlight. Luckily there were three of us with cell phones and in a pinch they work as tiny flashlights. Of course they also need recharged from time to time but we figured we would worry about that when the time came.
The next thing we realized was that Mama is on well water and the well pump doesn’t work unless, you guessed it, there is electricity. So now we are without lights, air conditioning, fans and water. We tried to convince the grandchildren that it was an adventure and that we would have fond memories of this weekend in the future but when the tornado sirens started to blast in the dark and they realized that there was no basement to run to they weren’t convinced. We discussed our safety training and decided the safest place was in the hallway away from all the windows. When my niece became upset and started to cry we decided that the logical thing was to sing songs about being brave and started with “I Whistle a Happy Tune.” So how many songs can you think of about rainbows, being brave and waiting for the sunshine? I think only a family that grew up singing together would find this the logical way to pass time during a storm but it seemed to help, well okay, not really that much for the frightened children. One thing that helped with the darkness was the huge flashes of lightning but somehow the kids didn’t find that comforting when each flash was followed by an eardrum shattering crash of thunder. So the first night in Michigan was spent hot, dark and noisy.
Finally morning arrived only to find out that there was still no electricity or water and the electric company said it might not be fixed until the next night. We spent part of the day picking up the limbs that had fallen in the yard and trimming up some still hanging in the trees. Then I busied myself working in the flower beds, which I love to do when I visit Mama. I’ve told you before that I love to garden and that morning I learned that my 17month old grandson also loves to garden because before I noticed he was elbow deep, digging in a flower pot of water and potting soil and he was covered from head to toes in black mud. Now I’m not a fussy grandmother and my daughter also has no problem with children getting dirty but as I mentioned earlier, we had no water. So we settled on the next best thing. We walked Henry over and allowed him to bathe in the mud puddle in the front yard. I’m not sure what the neighbors thought but I think Henry may want to take all his baths outside from now on.
We all laughed, sang and reminisced that weekend and it was nice not to have the distraction of television, computer and video games (but flushing toilets that didn’t involve pouring a gallon of water into the tank would have been nice). Mama said she wanted to be sure and write down all the memories we were creating and she hurried to the computer, then she laughed and took out her pencil and paper.

Trees in Southern Indiana

Trees in Southern Indiana are often considered big weeds. In the late spring and early summer you find them everywhere. There are small maple trees growing in people’s rain gutters, in the flower gardens and in the lawn. The same is true of the sassafras, mulberries and the catalpa trees. If you get to them right away they are easy to pull up and discard but if you leave them for a month you will find yourself having to dig them out.
So having explained that, I want you to tell me why is it that if you plant a tree on purpose in your yard you will have about a 50-50chance that it will grow. When I moved to my present home it had no trees in the yard. So I decided the easiest way to remedy that was to join the Arbor Day Society and get 10 free trees. You don’t get to pick which trees you get but I reasoned that any tree is better than no tree and they said they would make them native to my area. I received 10little sticks each color-coded with paint at the bottom of the tree and a list that was color-coded and named the trees as well as a planting guide. I dutifully planted the 10trees into my flowerbeds as they instructed, they said because of their size they would need the protection and the good soil for the first two years. I watered them and tended to them for the first summer and when the following spring rolled around I had six of the ten trees still growing. I thought that was pretty good considering they started life as painted sticks. So for a second summer I nurtured them and the following spring they were all healthy and ready to transplant.
Now, how many of you have transplanted a tree? It is a challenge to say the least and when the tree is twice your height it seems an impossible task. I read about how to transplant them and they suggested that you dig around them on every side until you can form a root ball. Then rock the tree until you can push burlap under the root ball and them move it ever so carefully to the new location and plant it. My first mistake was planting two of them too near the fence in the side-garden. With the trees near the fence there was no way to get to the fourth side so I decided to start with the tree in the circle garden by the back porch. I told my husband what the internet said about the root ball and the burlap but he said, “I have a better idea let’s just dig it up and move it. Trees grow like weeds here anyway.” So we did. We dug it up, which is no easy task when the tree is about 12 feet tall and then hoisted it into the wheel barrel and moved it to the back of the yard. There he dug a large hole and we sat the tree in it and filled the hole with good soil.
Well I think you can guess what happened to my little, well not that little, tree. It dropped its leaves and slowly died. I left it until this spring just to make sure it wouldn’t come back from the roots but it appears that won’t happen.
So now it is year three and I have a redbud in my back circle garden, a redbud by the fence in my side-garden, a crepe myrtle along the fence line in my side-garden and another one across the yard along the property line. Then finally I have a golden chain tree growing in the circle garden near the back porch. None of them have bloomed yet so I’m not even sure what color the crepe myrtles will be (I hope they aren’t white because I already had two white crepe myrtle trees I bought from the nursery). Anyway I am trying to decide if I should try to move any more trees or if I should just accept them where they are. They all bloom so I could just pretend they are big flowers. And the birds do like having their shelter.
I guess there is a lesson to be learned here: If you join the Arbor Day Society and they send you 10trees (painted sticks) and tell you to plant them in the flower garden for two years and then transplant them. Don’t believe them. I suggest you choose where you want the tree, plant it and then construct some type of protective enclosure to keep it safe.
Oh, by the way, my golden chain tree bloomed this year and is now about 16feet tall but there are still no blooms on the Crepe Myrtles.