Hallelujah, the grass is finally turning green. Not just the grass around my house but it's also greening up at the ranch right across the road from us. About 50 acres of grass hay is being watered right now. The large irrigation wheel line was left on last Monday night and the temperature dropped into the mid-20s. The result - lots of ice on top of the grass.
The plan is to bale the first cutting and then maybe graze cattle on the last cutting. That green grass hay sure does look good.
Neighborhood watch
It's been awhile - about 20 years ago - when I received an alarming phone call at my work at Gardnerville Elementary School. It was Jim Finch, an early homesteader who sold us our property and where we built our home. He said it looked like something really fishy was going on. From across his 68 acres he said he could see an unusual car parked in our long driveway and a man was walking all around our house. Jim feared he might be a thief.
My husband and I were both at work and not expecting any company so I asked Jim to keep an eye on the trespasser while I called my husband. Jim grabbed his gun and jumped in his truck and drove across the field to his daughter's house a little north of ours. He saw the man walking nearby and yelled at him to raise his hands high. All that drama and it turned out to be the tax assessor.
That was an exciting example of effective Neighborhood Watch. Fish Springs is a small community and most of the houses are pretty far apart. It's a good idea to watch out for your neighbors and to keep your eyes open for suspicious happenings. Call the sheriff's office if you're concerned that something is fishy.
Recently we've heard that some kids were caught messing around in an unoccupied house. Even though there was no damage to the house, we don't want those kinds of things going on in our neighborhood. Please keep alert, parents. Do you know where your kids are?
Garden corner
We picked our first asparagus last week and boy was it delicious. It grew so fast you could almost see it rising up out of the ground. It was fresh and tender and I hardly cooked it at all. We also planted lots of potatoes, onions, garlic and peas.
The Red Pontiac seed potatoes have a bright red skin and taste delicious. To plant, cut the potatoes into pieces that contain one (or more) eyes and then put the pieces 18 inches apart and 3Ú4 inch deep in rows 21Ú2 feet apart. Remember to keep the eyes up. We added about a foot of straw on top of the potato pieces. Then you water them well and wait until the vines are dead to dig the potatoes up. They're stored in a cool, dark place like our downstairs closet. Sound pretty technical? No big deal. Potatoes are easy to grow, to store and to eat.
We also planted red onions, gourmet shallots and Italian garlic last week. We eat a lot of garlic bread. Umm, good.
-- Linda Monohan may be reached at 782-5802.
