I bought two concord grape plants on Sunday. Grapes are so easy to start from cuttings but I don't know anyone who grows concord grapes so I had to buy the plants. I didn't need to buy any more than two because after this first growing season, when I cut the plants back, I'll probably be able to start at least twenty more grapevines from the cuttings. I have a small jar of rooting powder. I don't know if it goes bad or not but I'm going to purchase a second jar to keep on hand, just in case. It costs about $5.00. When you want to grow new grape plants you take about a one foot piece of vine with several little nodes where branches could grow, dunk the end of the vine and at least one node into water. Shake off the water. Then dunk this damp vine into the little jar of rooting powder. Once you have a bunch put them into a plastic pot filled with potting soil. Make sure the soil stays wet - not in standing water, just water and let drain. After several months you will have great roots on your vines and will be able to plant your new plants. It's this easy for grapes, berries, and other plants too. I already have Thompson seedless and Red Globe grapes. These Concords will make a great addition to our vineyard.
I've had several offers of free cats. Most are indoor/outdoor cats or only indoor cats. I had to explain to the kids that you don't take a pet that's always been indoors and not let it inside anymore. I'm willing to get an outdoor cat or two. I could use help killing the squirrels, mice, and bunnies and if some good hunting cats came along I'd be happy to have them.
Our other indoor animals have searched the house looking for the older cat. Our big cat, who weighs 17 pounds, decided on his own that he was going to sleep with me last night. I guess he figured that I wouldn't notice the other cat was missing if he tried to take her place. Unfortunately I noticed the 17 pounds on me since the other cat weighed 7 pounds on a "fat" day.
Several times a week I wear a uniform to work. I ordered two new pairs of pants a month ago. They cost $100 a pair. Even though I get a uniform allowance buying more than a couple of pairs each year would bust the uniform budget with no money left for t-shirts, shirts, or sweatshirts. When I got to the office today there were two packages waiting for me. Odd. One pair in each package. That's sort of a waste of postage, but whatever... I opened the first package. Two pairs of pants. I opened the second package. Two pairs of pants. Score! Four pairs of pants for the price of two. I made the phone call to the company. Can you provide me a shipping label so I can send you two pairs of pants back since you sent me a double order? The person asked for the two order numbers and said that the order got put in twice. No problem. UPS will pick them up on Thursday. They will reimburse my credit card. But I didn't pay twice. I only paid once. No, she told me I paid twice so they will reimburse my credit card. I checked my credit card statement. I only paid once. Hopefully they will figure it out because there is only so much effort that I am going to spend trying to tell them that they did it wrong and I'm trying to fix it. I may end up with two free pairs of pants after all.
Speaking of pants, I do a load of laundry just about every night. If the weather is good enough I'll hang the load up on the clothesline before I go to bed, otherwise I'll pop it into the drier. Most people think I'm a little crazy for doing the laundry like this. At most I'll have to do three loads in a day if I'm doing separate sheets loads and towels loads. Normally I don't let it pile up. Why? What if tomorrow you woke up and there wasn't any more electricity? Or water? Or the best case, your washer broke? Although most of us have way more clothes than we need, having almost all your clothes/towels/sheets clean all the time means if anything happens, laundry isn't going to have to be on your immediate list of things that have to be done now. Anything that takes the stress away is a good thing.
Rooting hormone last a very long time. I have used some approx 10 years old and our Horticulture Dept used some way older.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to make your own rooting hormone by soaking willow twigs in water then using the water to root cuttings. The only problem I have had with it is that bacteria seem to like it too. Keep it very clean by changing out the willow water frequently. Watering cuttings with the willow water works slower that the powder, but at least it works!