Pygmy Dates And Siestas

It took a long time and a lot of digging and frustration, but I finally got the last of the root balls from our banana palms dug out, and no more shoots were coming up over the last month or so. Now it was time to plant something else where those nasty, shedding things were.

Terry had been doing some research and decided that she wanted pygmy date palms, so we went to Lindley’s Nursery this past Wednesday and looked at their selection. They usually come potted with three trees and grow as much as nine feet tall. Most of the larger ones were already spoken for, but we found one the size Terry wanted and bought it. They said it would be ten days to two weeks before Jake could come out and plant the tree, and we said that was fine. Just let us know when it worked for their schedule.

As it turned out, Jake called Friday afternoon saying he could be here yesterday morning, and right on time, he rolled up with a truck and trailer and dug a hole and planted the trees. We were surprised to find that ours actually has four trees instead of the usual three, and Jack spent a lot of time getting the hole prepped and placing the trees where they would look best.

Jake is a very nice young man. In fact, he’s the one that planted our three citrus trees on the other side of the house last November. While he was here, he checked on them and decided that they needed the grass removed from under them and the dirt berms rebuilt to hold water better, so he did that, too.

It’s really nice when someone takes it upon themselves to do something like that for you months after they were planted, but that’s why we like dealing with Lindley’s. They don’t forget about you as soon as the sale is finished.

And here are the trees, planted and looking nice. Thanks, Jake, you did a great job!

For some reason, I wasn’t feeling great Friday, and after writing about 2,000 words, Terry told me to go take a little nap in my recliner, and I did for much of the afternoon. Yesterday I felt much better, but I hit the same wall about the same time and spent a couple of hours in my recliner again. I guess all that time I spent along the Mexican border in my younger days has programmed my body for taking siestas. I just don’t know why they started this late in life.

Even with that, I got another 2,500 words done in my new book yesterday, along with doing quite a bit of research to make sure I had some things right in a couple of the chapters. Then I proofed the chapters I had written so far, making some corrections as I went. Today is another day, and I’ll be right back at it.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Thanks for this one, Jim Harper.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Big Lake, the first book in my Big Lake mystery series. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high cost of shipping printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – Just because you value them doesn’t mean they value you. This is one of the hardest lessons to learn.