Time Keeps on Slipping

It seems like this year has suddenly geared into warp speed. We have Halloween behind us, daylight saving time is upon us and Mia’s wedding has come and gone. I guess I keep such a sharp focus on those things that when they are in my rear view mirror I don’t know which thing to focus on next. Right now the next focus will be getting the Christmas trees in and, the hard part, getting them tied to the top of your car on their way to a happy home. The trees will be arriving either late next week or a few days after.

Ben has been getting the place ready for the trees off and on for the last month so it will go as smoothly as possible. When we get the trees unloaded we will put one to the side for a buddy of mine who will forever get the first tree in town, it’s just tradition. In the past he has come to help us unload just for the fun of it. Once we have taken care of that we will tie the trees to their posts so our customers can walk all the way around a tree to make sure it will be the perfect tree.

Eighty percent of the time the customer will come in with their tree stand so we can mark it and set up a delivery at a time that is convenient for them. It’s a great idea to come in early to pick out your tree. That way you know you got the best one and it allows us time to put a fresh cut on the bottom so we can put it in its stand and let it soak up some water to keep it fresh usually until a date near Thanksgiving. That tree is taken to a place on the property where it will be tied up and gets daily irrigation under a shade cloth until delivery day.

The delivery guys are usually me and Luke and John from the grow houses. Our work back there is done until a little later in December when we begin planting next year’s Geraniums. We have a great time delivering and setting up the trees; people are always glad to see the Christmas tree delivery guys. While we are delivering, all hands are on deck helping customers pick out their tree, getting their stands put on and getting good directions so we can do our thing.

People have discovered that garden centers are also great places to get some of their Christmas shopping done. Sometimes that comes in the form of a gift card or some pottery or something whimsical from a garden center gift shop. You might be surprised at the great, one-of-a-kind finds that you just won’t find at the mall.

We are usually out of trees by the 10th of December. We will have a big cleanup and stay busy with gift sales, and poinsettias begin to really sell fast as we get closer to Christmas. We will continue selling pansies and other winter-hardy plants throughout December. I don’t recommend waiting that late if you can help it. It is better to get the roots established by planting now.

Mimi and I planted everything that we are going to plant at our house (over 200 flats) in mid-October so the plants would be ready for a little cool down. The plants are looking great and blooming like there is no tomorrow. My only problem so far is a coon that has decided that he is very angry with some of the roots of some of the plants. At first I guessed that they were attracted to the compost that we used during planting. We guessed if it weren’t that, it must be an organic fertilizer that we are testing out that contains blood meal, bone meal, feather meal and some fish stuff. That sounds like a menu at a raccoon restaurant to me.

We weren’t sure which kind of varmint it was. It could have been that our foxes were back checking the smorgasbord or it could have been an armadillo—they are built to dig. Knowing which pest it is makes it easier to trap so you’ll know where to set the trap and which bait to use. One night I caught a little movement in a specific area that the animal was most intent on destroying. It walked right in front of one of my lights with its back as high as a cat’s back. It looked so big I first thought it was a fox; as I kept my eye on it I could see that it was a raccoon.

That would make it easy since they are gluttons for a little can of cat food. It took me a couple of days and some replanting of everything he dug up every night to gather my stuff. I got the have-a-heart trap, found some cheapo cat food at a hardware store and just happened to have my little trailer hooked up to my truck. Trapping a wild animal is easy enough, dealing with a trapped animal the next morning before work is quite another.

I have wound up in this situation more times than I care to count so I had a plan. I tucked the cage into some tractor seat plants that I figured he was passing through to get to the coon café. I put a small can of Fancy Feasts on the trigger and set the door trap. All night I had visions of what might be in the trap and what to do in each instance. If it turned out to be a skunk all of my plans would be laid bare. I have been directly sprayed by a skunk in a trap before and that won’t happen again.

I got sprayed by one before high school one morning when my brother and I used to mess around with traps. My mother saw (or smelled) what had happened and the first thing she told me was that I was not getting out of going to school that day so I’d better hurry. I was known as “Skunk Boy” for a little while after that. The smell directly on you is enough to make you sick, much less my buddies at school that had to deal with me. It was bad.

Luckily, when I checked the trap this morning I had a big fat coon which was not very happy. I grabbed the handle of the cage while he looked up at me with cautious eyes. He was cute but I could also see that he tore up everything around the trap that he could get his paws on as he tried to escape so I kept my hands clear of his. I brought him straight to the trailer and continued getting ready for work, one more cup of coffee before I go. I don’t have it in me to hurt the culprit but I thought a relocation to a less populated area might be good for all involved. I had a place in mind that wouldn’t take me too far off track and he would have way more woods and resources that would make my pansies seem less “on the menu.” Hopefully they are not like dogs which can find their way home no matter the circumstances. I would have a coon with revenge on his mind on my hands.

After Thanksgiving we will start covering the greenhouses with new plastic tops so we can keep the young seedlings warm and sunny in order to be ready when spring allows. We like to get on those roofs right as the sun is coming up since that is when the wind is usually at its lightest. We can only work on the roofs when the wind is close to 5 MPH so we try to be finished with the kite part of the job before around 10:00 when the wind normally begins to pick up.

The kite part is when the 3 of us are pulling a sheet of plastic that is 100’ long by 30’ wide. We are tied to ropes that allow us to pull the plastic over the dew-covered hoops. Nobody wants to let go when a big gust of wind gets under that plastic but hanging on is a real bad idea. Blowing the plastic back over the hoops undoes a lot of hard work but the alternative is to hang on and try to out-strength the wind—you will lose every time.

I’ve done it, John has done it and every new guy has to try it. I have seen people get lifted off the ground and get whipped around like a rag doll. We warn the new guy that if it happens just let it roll, you can’t win and every time the new guy tries to hang on, always good for some laughs. Once we get that sheet to sit on the greenhouse like we like it, we start snapping the plastic in place, kinda hurrying because we know that time is ticking and the wind will get tricky. Once we get one snapped into place and the end walls are tight we begin to prep for one of the next 13 greenhouses to go.

It usually leaves us pretty banged up with bloody knuckles since it’s nearly impossible to do with gloves on. John and I have dreamed for years of having a crew of young bucks trained and ready to cover the houses next time—still hasn’t happened. Luke is the best cover person we have ever had but we need three more Lukes. I guess John and I are destined to be cover guys until one day we just quit.

These days allow me to slip out a little more to spend some time in the woods with Max and some of our buddies that hunt with us. We will park our camper out there with some of the others so we can come and go as we please. We love to hunt the woods together and separately. I can sit out there for hours and watch life happen, eat my snacks and I couldn’t tell you the first thing about what I think about.

Mimi asks me from time to time what I figured out while sitting there so long barely moving. My answer is usually “absolutely nothing.” It’s weird that there is no other time that my mind shuts down like that, my mind usually won’t be quiet. It would be a great time to write some articles but I just don’t get there, I guess that time is mine and I just don’t want to give it up. I don’t shoot very often, sometimes not once in a season or sometimes I’ll get enough deer meat that we can give some to everyone who needs some. I just enjoy the time and the mind-cleansing soak in my own what-it-is.

For now I am enjoying these low 70’s and 50’s at night. Mimi and I put up our new yurt and the weather has been conducive to setting up down there for every night so far. We sleep better in the yurt and it keeps us away from that ridiculous television. The night sounds and the breeze coming through the trees have lulled us into some great conversation and some even better sleep. On weekdays we go to the house for that coffee and get ready for work. On a weekend night we will bring coffee fixins and something to read upon waking up in the yurt, a great way to start our day.

Fall is fun and relatively easier at work and play with the heat relenting and the plants chilling out. We find ourselves walking through our garden without everything looking like it needs to have something done to it. We can just enjoy the fruits of our labor and talk about next season’s projects.

Happy fall. I am hoping you can get outside and be a part of Mississippi’s finest season, it moves on pretty quickly.