On being .
a farm wife
-And other
hazards
Joyce Bnpp
Of course, it’s all the ground
hogs’ fault
As anxious to get out of their
winter ruts as the rest of us, these
little furry field friends came
charging out of their dens Tuesday
morning to embrace a taste of
spring. One look at their shadow
(the sun shone here for 30 seconds)
and bingo! back to their sea
sonal snooze and more winter for
us non-hibernating types.
While the groundhogs might be
put on hold, another seasonal har
binger won’t Seed catalogs. A
large stack of these wishbooks for
diehard gardeners has accumu
lated in the back of my file drawer,
beckoning to my checkbook with
their pages of promise.
Increasingly large sections of
catalogs are being devoted to gar
den gadgets and gimmickry. Some
of the past new and unusual garden
gadget introductions have become
standard fare plastic mulch,
tomato towers, pots of pressed
peat, and seed tapes so who’s to
say these latest offerings won’t
find similar popularity?
Something called Agripaper
sounds like a winner, especially if
you’re as weary as I am of endless
ly fishing ragged bits of black plas
tic out of your seedbeds each
spring.
Agripaper is a heavy paper,
devised to replace plastic mulch. A
mmmm
equipment from
C.U. Stoltzfus M
When It comes to spreading dry
fertilizer, nothing beats Wlllmar. For
accuracy. Or value. Period.
The Wlllmar S-500 5-ton spreader
shown above features spread rates
from under 100 pounds per acre to
over 1000 lbs. with a highly accurate
spread pattern.
Many features assure you of long
service life and high resale value:
Stainless steel hopper and conveyor
C. U. Stoltzfus Mfg., Inc.
black side is for use with warm
loving plants, and a tan side for
those thriving in cooler soils. Best
of all, it biodegrades during the
off-gardening season, breaking
down into organic matter to enrich
the soil and leaving no residues of
shaggy plastic shreds to tangle in
garden tools and tiller tines.
A plastic tape that scares away
birds sounds interesting if you
have a problem with feathered
friends hogging your sweet com.
Strung tightly around a garden
plot, or area of potential bird dam
age, the narrow tape makes an
ultrasonic sound which is sup
posed to drive the birds batty, and
perhaps send ’em off to raid your
neighbors’ prized tomatoes
instead.
My biggest bird problem in the
garden is chickens. A sharp hatch
et handles that more permanently
than a plastic maze of macrame
around the sweet com patch. If it
showed promise for keeping out
escaped heifers, however, I might
send off for a double order.
Creative pest controls are espe
cially fascinating, probably
because of the entertaining clever
ness of these gadgets.
But, the Farmer Fred Scare
crow, lifesize and inflatable,
garbed in overalls and straw hat,
just wouldn’t cut it here. Carved
from a comer of a field, our garden
PO Box 527 Morgan Way
Morgantown, PA 19543
(215) 286-5146
LEBANON Last Fall we
became involved with the exciting
Lebanon County Quilt Documen
tation Project spearheaded by Jean
generally catches every breeze
passing through. One good late
June thunderstorm, and we’d no
doubt have to go retrieve a flat
tened Farmer Fred, with a badly
deflated ego, from the hickory
trees down yonder.
How about a Rodent Rock?
These chucks of porous lava are
soaked in an herbal formula con
taining onions and garlic, and can
be buried in the ground for root
crops, or just scattered around ten
der, tasty plants. A word of caution
here: the odor could be drawn into
root crops if the Rodent Rocks
aren’t buried a bit away from the
planting.
Could be great for pre
seasoning potatoes. Wonder if
they might repel mice from explor
ing kitchen cupboards?
Just in case the above rocks
don’t solve your mole problems,
there’s the Mole Trap. This spring
loaded device is placed over the
opening to a mole tunnel. It
appears that when the unsuspect
ing little tunnel-builder pops up, it
triggers the trap’s spring mechan
ism, which in turn causes a hefty
square of metal to snap down on
the mole’s head, which in turn. . .
well, no doubt you get the picture. -
As you may have guessed, I do a
lot more amused browsing than I
do ordering, especially from the
“garden aids” catalog pages. But
my check is headed for the mail for
a couple of Wall O’Water protec
tive structures for planting a few
tomato plants outside ahead of
season.
er
chain. 12 Gauge, continuous-weld,
409-stalnless steel body. Straight
line PTO shaft no U-Jolnt. And lots
more.
C.U. Stoltzfus Mfg., Inc. has dis
tributed Wlllmar fertilizer equipment
throughout the Northeast since 1972.
We are well known for our parts and
service departments. Please call or
write today for more information.
Lebanon Quilt Update
If we can eat fresh tomatoes a
month early, they’ll be worth
every cent.
1 z
Frick. We asked you to help as vol
unteers and by bringing in your
quilts to be documented to build a
history for the county. It was a
resounding success. Here’s a
report from Jean Frick about what
happened:
Imagine walking through five
quilt shows in one week that is
what the Lebanon County Quilt
Documentation Project was like
that third week in November. Over
800 quilts produced the most daz
zling array of color and pattern
possible. The Radiating Star, Ris
ing Sun, Starfourst, or Star of Beth
lehem appeared frequently as a
popular pattern. So, also, did the
Nine-Patch, the Irish Chain, and
Trip Around the World. Log Cabin
patterns appeared in every con
ceivable variation from Streaks of
Lightning to Rail Fence to Court
house Steps to Furrows. The pro
ject certainly proved what a limit
less pattern it could be.
Shoo-Flys, Charm Quilts,
Delectable Mountains, Baskets
and Autumn Leaves also appeared
regularly. The list of patterns
uncovered was endless. Many
quilts, however, defied a pattern
name. Whether a variation of a
standard pattern or a totally origi
nal one, one could not help but be
awestruck by the ingenuity, the
boldness, and often the humor
found in so many of these original
designs. This was also true with
the high Victorian crazy quilts.
With these originality and imagi
nation truly knew no bounds. From
script to paint to embroidery to
needlepoint, these displays of sew
ing prowess were veritable show
stoppers.
,st people think that diesel fuel additives are
only used in the winter months to solve winter-type
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But, quilts were not made, in
fact, to be show-stoppers. They
were made for warmth and com
fort and use. Regardless of spills,
stains, and tattered edges, they all
retain the dignity of their maker.
All quilts age gracefully. These
quilts of use were interspersed
among those never to be used and
their beauty was no less. Gentler in
color with the patina of age shining
through, these simple utilitarian
pieces had their own stories to tell,
of young and awkward fingers, of
first quilts, (one was made by a
five-year-old girl), and of scraps of
shirting or clothing materials, still
recognizable as “my sixteenth
birthday dress.” The heavier com
forters were obviously just that
comfort on a long, cold night.
Thick, somber, and staid, they
have endured well.
For many who participated in
the project it was a delight to see
the quilts hung under lights and
how differently they looked. One
woman did not even recognize her
Star of Bethlehem! For others it
was a moment to relive past rela
tionships. For most, it was a
moment of appreciation of the
work of relatives past and a deci
sion to use or display the quilts
more frequently. For all of us, it
was a wonderful event of sharing a
heritage of traditions rich in craft
manship and color.
Programs based on the informa
tion gathered during this project
will be available toward early
Spring. Please contact either Jean
Frick at 274-3220 or the Extension
Office at 274-2801, Ext. 346 if you
or your group is interested in hav
ing a program presented.
PUELPOuuen
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