Farm News 01-15-06
Sunday morning, after chores, 47°
Kansas has at least two beautiful days each month,
Today is one of them for January
Storing Canna Bulbs
Canna Lilies, Canna x. generalis, are generally USDA zone 9 plants, which means that they can stay in the ground year round only down in hurricane country; they don't like it colder than 20°F. Here in Kansas you have to dig the tubers in the fall, store them for the winter, and then replant them in the spring. That's a bit of a nuisance but Cannas are beautiful plants and they attract hummingbirds.
Three years ago I bought about a dozen Canna bulbs at an auction. Several were in bad shape, but I managed to raise six or seven plants. They were in good soil and from those I gathered half a feed sacks full of bulbs. The bulbs all spent the winter in a neighbor's basement and the next fall I had three feed sacks full of bulbs, which also spent the winter in the neighbor's basement. This fall I had about seven sacks, I suppose. They have grown beyond feed sack storage.
Instead of the neighbor's basement they have been spending this winter in the barn. Like the canary in the coal mine, they will tell me how well I do this winter at keeping the barn reasonably warm. So far, about a third of them have succumbed to the cold. They are stacked in a group of cardboard boxes about five feet away from the wood stove. The ones in the boxes on top of the stack have frozen and died but those lower down still look fine.
I knew when I started that some would die. It's like those big round bales of hay: you lose some on the top and the bottom, but, hopefully, not so much that it doesn't offset the savings in handling costs. In the case of the Canna bulbs, I expect to lose some on the top and sides but those on the bottom will survive.
For the past ten years the floor of the barn has not frozen except for a strip three to five feet wide along the north side. Generally, if the temperature is predicted to fall below freezing, there is a fire in the wood stove. Wood stoves are reliable only if there is someone there who will wake up if it gets too cold and tend the stove. Being happily married, I sleep in the house and seldom wake up because it is cold in the barn.
On ferociously cold nights, though, if there are baby animals in the barn, I'll drink a big glass of water before going to bed. Thus fortified with the 'Indian alarm clock', I can count on waking by 3:00 am, at which time I bravely dress and trudge to the barn, through the blowing snow, to feed the stove and help keep the babies warm. The cold air makes me feel warm and fuzzy about myself.
Do Canna bulbs qualify as 'baby animals'? No way. It is impossible to become sufficiently concerned about Canna bulbs that one would put on three to five layers of clothing and walk fifty yards through blowing snow to keep them from freezing. So, it doesn't bother me much to lose the outer layers of bulbs as long as I have several dozen left by spring.
After I put the bulbs in the boxes I filled in any remaining space with shredded paper to help insulate them. Unlike animals, bulbs don't have their own body heat, so insulation alone won't do the job. Mainly, it slows down the temperature changes inside the box as the outside temperature goes up and down. I'm guessing that it would take several days of cold weather to freeze the contents of the box even if I didn't have a fire in the stove. With the stove going the damage to the bulbs is limited.
Canna 'bulbs', by the way, are not bulbs at all but are rhizomes, for those who like to be correct about such things. They look something like Iris rhizomes. If I'm lucky, there should be Canna bulbs to plant out in the spring. Cannas will grow almost anywhere but they seem to like moisture. A neighbor plants them in pots and then sets the pots in 2”-4” deep water at the edge of his fish pond. I hope to plant some at the edge of the pond at the east end of the dam.
Will lots of Canna flowers make the hummingbirds happy? I doubt it, hummingbirds are tiny, beautiful, elegant, and have the dispositions of trolls.
Rabbits
Saturday morning four buck rabbits went to the sale. A week ago I purchased seven rabbits, five of which turned out to be bucks. The survivor of this reality show is a pleasant charcoal gray fellow. Both of the does are pregnant, probably, if they are both does. One, a solid black, is definitely pregnant and should have bunnies this month. The other, a tri-color, might not even be a doe. It kicks a lot and objects to being checked for sex. When I put it in with the buck nothing happened, meaning that it's pregnant, or a buck, or the charcoal buck is gay.
Ting
This morning I was taking the feed to the ducks. Ting, an ill-tempered and dishonest chicken who lives with the ducks, flew from her roosting place and landed on my arm. She then crapped on me and flew on down to eat her breakfast. Lovely bird.
Huh?
This week I received two booklets in the mail, the first from CareMark, who now handles the prescription drug benefits for retired bureaucrats, and the other from Delta Dental, who, obviously, provide dental insurance for the same group. I was an inept bureaucrat but I think that I am a very skillful retiree, so I carefully read a few paragraphs from each booklet. These two companies have no relationship that I know of except that Kansas is one of their clients, yet both booklets contained a fascinating typographical characteristic.
In both books the words 'you' and 'your' were printed as 'You' and 'Your', even in the middle of a sentence. The word 'I' is always capitalized, but not, generally, the words 'You' and 'Your'. The person, or committee, responsible for writing the text in which this usage appears obviously knew enough about current English usage to realize that this was not proper. The usage was obviously intentional. Why?
Good readers, I have thought about this for several days and have come to no conclusion. Why, indeed, would those two words be capitalized. I have considered the possibility of a sneaky software glitch, but two things argue against that: (1) someone would have proofed it, and (2) it occurred in the booklets of two otherwise seemingly unrelated companies. Do you have any thoughts about this mystery? If so, please write to FarmNews@Geezernet.com.
This isn't a contest; I just can't figure this out and thought that maybe, with the help of a few more minds, we all might be able to understand why a person, or committee, decided that 'You' and 'Your' should be capitalized. One or more smart people (possibly including even a Wellesley or Smith woman) decided that in a booklet about health care related insurance it would be a good idea to capitalize those words. Huh?
Kansas has at least two beautiful days each month,
Today is one of them for January
Storing Canna Bulbs
Canna Lilies, Canna x. generalis, are generally USDA zone 9 plants, which means that they can stay in the ground year round only down in hurricane country; they don't like it colder than 20°F. Here in Kansas you have to dig the tubers in the fall, store them for the winter, and then replant them in the spring. That's a bit of a nuisance but Cannas are beautiful plants and they attract hummingbirds.
Three years ago I bought about a dozen Canna bulbs at an auction. Several were in bad shape, but I managed to raise six or seven plants. They were in good soil and from those I gathered half a feed sacks full of bulbs. The bulbs all spent the winter in a neighbor's basement and the next fall I had three feed sacks full of bulbs, which also spent the winter in the neighbor's basement. This fall I had about seven sacks, I suppose. They have grown beyond feed sack storage.
Instead of the neighbor's basement they have been spending this winter in the barn. Like the canary in the coal mine, they will tell me how well I do this winter at keeping the barn reasonably warm. So far, about a third of them have succumbed to the cold. They are stacked in a group of cardboard boxes about five feet away from the wood stove. The ones in the boxes on top of the stack have frozen and died but those lower down still look fine.
I knew when I started that some would die. It's like those big round bales of hay: you lose some on the top and the bottom, but, hopefully, not so much that it doesn't offset the savings in handling costs. In the case of the Canna bulbs, I expect to lose some on the top and sides but those on the bottom will survive.
For the past ten years the floor of the barn has not frozen except for a strip three to five feet wide along the north side. Generally, if the temperature is predicted to fall below freezing, there is a fire in the wood stove. Wood stoves are reliable only if there is someone there who will wake up if it gets too cold and tend the stove. Being happily married, I sleep in the house and seldom wake up because it is cold in the barn.
On ferociously cold nights, though, if there are baby animals in the barn, I'll drink a big glass of water before going to bed. Thus fortified with the 'Indian alarm clock', I can count on waking by 3:00 am, at which time I bravely dress and trudge to the barn, through the blowing snow, to feed the stove and help keep the babies warm. The cold air makes me feel warm and fuzzy about myself.
Do Canna bulbs qualify as 'baby animals'? No way. It is impossible to become sufficiently concerned about Canna bulbs that one would put on three to five layers of clothing and walk fifty yards through blowing snow to keep them from freezing. So, it doesn't bother me much to lose the outer layers of bulbs as long as I have several dozen left by spring.
After I put the bulbs in the boxes I filled in any remaining space with shredded paper to help insulate them. Unlike animals, bulbs don't have their own body heat, so insulation alone won't do the job. Mainly, it slows down the temperature changes inside the box as the outside temperature goes up and down. I'm guessing that it would take several days of cold weather to freeze the contents of the box even if I didn't have a fire in the stove. With the stove going the damage to the bulbs is limited.
Canna 'bulbs', by the way, are not bulbs at all but are rhizomes, for those who like to be correct about such things. They look something like Iris rhizomes. If I'm lucky, there should be Canna bulbs to plant out in the spring. Cannas will grow almost anywhere but they seem to like moisture. A neighbor plants them in pots and then sets the pots in 2”-4” deep water at the edge of his fish pond. I hope to plant some at the edge of the pond at the east end of the dam.
Will lots of Canna flowers make the hummingbirds happy? I doubt it, hummingbirds are tiny, beautiful, elegant, and have the dispositions of trolls.
Rabbits
Saturday morning four buck rabbits went to the sale. A week ago I purchased seven rabbits, five of which turned out to be bucks. The survivor of this reality show is a pleasant charcoal gray fellow. Both of the does are pregnant, probably, if they are both does. One, a solid black, is definitely pregnant and should have bunnies this month. The other, a tri-color, might not even be a doe. It kicks a lot and objects to being checked for sex. When I put it in with the buck nothing happened, meaning that it's pregnant, or a buck, or the charcoal buck is gay.
Ting
This morning I was taking the feed to the ducks. Ting, an ill-tempered and dishonest chicken who lives with the ducks, flew from her roosting place and landed on my arm. She then crapped on me and flew on down to eat her breakfast. Lovely bird.
Huh?
This week I received two booklets in the mail, the first from CareMark, who now handles the prescription drug benefits for retired bureaucrats, and the other from Delta Dental, who, obviously, provide dental insurance for the same group. I was an inept bureaucrat but I think that I am a very skillful retiree, so I carefully read a few paragraphs from each booklet. These two companies have no relationship that I know of except that Kansas is one of their clients, yet both booklets contained a fascinating typographical characteristic.
In both books the words 'you' and 'your' were printed as 'You' and 'Your', even in the middle of a sentence. The word 'I' is always capitalized, but not, generally, the words 'You' and 'Your'. The person, or committee, responsible for writing the text in which this usage appears obviously knew enough about current English usage to realize that this was not proper. The usage was obviously intentional. Why?
Good readers, I have thought about this for several days and have come to no conclusion. Why, indeed, would those two words be capitalized. I have considered the possibility of a sneaky software glitch, but two things argue against that: (1) someone would have proofed it, and (2) it occurred in the booklets of two otherwise seemingly unrelated companies. Do you have any thoughts about this mystery? If so, please write to FarmNews@Geezernet.com.
This isn't a contest; I just can't figure this out and thought that maybe, with the help of a few more minds, we all might be able to understand why a person, or committee, decided that 'You' and 'Your' should be capitalized. One or more smart people (possibly including even a Wellesley or Smith woman) decided that in a booklet about health care related insurance it would be a good idea to capitalize those words. Huh?
posted by The Geezer at 8:50 AM
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