Too Wet to Plow

Updated Below:

Afters days of rain it is way too wet to garden but the grass is ready for its first mowing of the season. On the way to the mailbox just a minute ago I noticed a couple of fire ant hills that have cropped up along the driveway. That, most unfortunately will require fire ant poison. I really hate using any kind of insecticide or poison but fire ants require special attention here in the south. They will take over if not dealt with summarily. The good thing is that the poison is very specific to fire ants and can be applied in very small amounts and only on the hill. It actually affects the queens reproduction and without the queen the rest of the nest is finished.

Potatoes are just about ready to plant but I am going to give them a few more days of light before I do. The ground temperature is still pretty cool and the sets won't do anything as long as it is below about 50 or so. You gain nothing but a good chance of them rotting if you rush it.

Anyhow, I have finished looking at the several thousand job postings for the day and actually found one that got a resume submitted and now it is time to drag out the lawn mower and mow the grass. This will not only be the first mowing of the season, as I mentioned, but the first time I have done it personally in a couple of years. The yard service was the first thing to go in December so now I have yard chores as well. Fortunately, I have all the equipment and plenty of time in which to do it now and the exercise can't hurt. That's rationalized so off to work.

Play nice. Oh! I also got my two tickets for the Master's in the mail today from a friend. So there will be one day of holiday next week to view the last day of practice next Wednesday. That will be fun. Even though golf is one of the "good things" that has temporarily(I hope) been lost a day in Augusta at the Masters is quite a treat.

Update: So much for mowing. I couldn't get my practically brand new Honda mower started. It will start and run for a minute when I spray some starter fluid in the carb but then it dies. I checked the plug and the fuel lines. It ran a couple of months ago just fine and I ran it out of gas. I filled it with fresh gas and pulled on it for a couple of hours this afternoon. Exasperating! I guess I will have to take it in to the mower place and see what is wrong. My 30 year old tiller starts on the 2nd or 3rd pull but it is an old fashioned cast iron Kohler behemoth with nothing fancy. The Honda is a "Quick Start" OHC super mower with all the safety stuff and interlocks. Probably something simple but I can't figure it out. Probably going to cost me.