Can We Talk 2

Miscellaneous Growing Things

         I wrote about the voodoo plant. I pulled 75 plants and left them out to dry before discarding. It rained on them, so the day before trash collection, I went out to pick them up and bag them. With only the dirt clinging to the bulbs, they were standing straight up in the sun on the slate patio. They obviously don't need much to grow and prosper. I dug them out of moist, well worked soil. They were in Heaven, I guess. I dug an additional ten that day, small ones that I had either missed or that had sprung up in the days that had lapsed.

         Yesterday, I dug about 15 more, believing I had them all. Today, I dug up another 26. They really sprout up overnight. This is why I wanted to get rid of all of them, not saving even one. It looks like I will be going it all summer. I've even dug up a few in the yard, well below the raised flower bed. If I'm up to it, I may have to dig up the entire flower bed this fall, after all the blooming and growing is done. I will pick out the hostas and lilies, and discard everything else, putting down new top soil and replanting the good things.

         Meanwhile, there are lots of children in my family, and they are also growing. My brother passed away in February, so now they are coming to visit Great Grandpa more often. It gives their mothers more of a sense of family without Pop Pop to spoil the kids. I love them all, but the three year olds are making the most noticeable growth right now. I convinced one niece to take her three children to Farm Day in the same county where she lives. It was early May, and I was afraid Great Grandpa was going to have a heat stroke, even if he loved looking at antique farm equipment, and huge commercial farm machines. When we went inside a hot, but shaded building, the three year old boy got very excited about a set-up to shell corn. He took one look with the dried up cobs and corn kernels in buckets and exclaimed, "This is how you make corn!" I showed him the rack where the husks were hanging to dry out, and he figured out the rest. You put the corn in the top, turn the crank and the corn gets cut off the cob. It comes down the chute, a word he didn't know until I told him; the corn gets shoved down to a big box at the bottom and the cobs tumble into the basket on the side. It was fun watching him explore and figuring it all out. I was impressed with how smart he is.

         At my house on Monday, now that school is out, all six kids were there. As one niece was leaving to take her daughter to a swim meet, her three year old didn't want to leave. He wanted to stay with his three year old cousin, who is about 5 inches taller and 3 months younger. The bigger one is our farm boy. The smaller one said he would stay with me and yelled "Bye, Mommy!" as she walked down the driveway to her car. I told him she was really leaving, but he didn't care. I told him she was going to the pool, so he stopped and looking at farm cousin, asked, "You want to go to the pool?"

         Farm boy said, "C'mon, I'll take you to your family." They ran together out to the driveway and past my car. Farm boy stopped. The little one turned around, yelling, "C'mon." My little farmer said, "I want to stay with my family." I was so impressed. They were having a good time playing outside together, They both wanted to go to the pool. But this three year old had developed the concept of family. I was so proud and so touched by him.

         How exciting it is to watch these little ones grow, to watch them form their conceptions about the world and how it works. They are even forming values at such a tender age. It almost makes up for the destruction and messes they make.