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Show I 1 j Castle Valley Comments . . . j g5""' By JoAnna EhlersJ Last week I rode the school bus into town with my children. child-ren. I hadn't ridden a school bus in many, many- well too many- years. As I rode along I realized how much I had taken the school bus driver and children for granted these past 2 years. So this week I want to spotlight our Castle Valley bus. ..and its contents. Spotlight It is very comforting to know that when your children take off in the morning for the bus, they will be well taken care of. Twenty-five miles to school and back is a long trip. Our bus driver, Richard Stucki makes that trip 4 times a day. As I rode the bus I realized how important it was to have my children out to the bus on time. (Well, I'm still trying on that one.) I chuckled as I saw a few children eating the last of their breakfast on a dead run. That sounds familiar also. Every person that boarded the bus that morning had a big smile. I guess that is because Richard greeted each one with a smile. So that he could concentrate concen-trate on his driving, Richard appointed 2 of the older kids to help remind the younger ones to stay seated and to keep their voices down to a low roar. That system seems to work quite well. I enjoyed my bus ride into town last week; it made me more aware of my children's world and of some of the problems a bus driver has-with has-with a time schedule to keep too. Homestead Hints Spring planting is just about upon us and I feel like a race horse being restrained by the starting gate. Today I have a few words for you about saving and storing garden seeds. Even under idea circumstances, circum-stances, seeds will not live indefinitely. Nevertheless, seeds that are free of insects and harvested dry will remain sound and will sprout for long periods. I always have some seeds left over each year and I can't pass up a sale on seeds. So I thought I had better investigate methods of keeping keep-ing these seeds "alive" as long as possible. The trouble is that when you purchase seeds to put by for future use you have no way of knowing their condition. You can only assume as-sume that they've been taken care of correctly up to that point. Listed below are seeds and their approximate sprouting sprout-ing periods. Two yrs: chives, corn, onion, parsnip; Three years: asparagus, aspara-gus, beans, carrots, leeks, peas; Four years: Swiss chard, pumpkin, beets, peppers, tomato; to-mato; Five years: Brussel sprouts, cabbage, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cantaloupe, canta-loupe, cucumber, radishes, lettuce, spinach, turnips, squash, watermelon. The above holds true, of course, only if the seed is correctly treated in storage. The following are some of the factors that determine whether your potential garden gard-en will remain its viability on the shelf. For most garden varieties, dampness is a deadly enemy. According to James F. Harrington of the University of California, all seeds in a sample may be dead after a couple of weeks on the shelf in a hot, humid New Orleans summer. While in Sacramento Sacra-mento (hot and dry in the summer, cold in the winter) the same batch of seeds may last two or three years without with-out serious germination loss. So keep your seeds where moisture will not get to them. Micro-organisms themselves them-selves require water to grow and thorough drying of a seed inhibits their activity. Most fungi that develop in storage thrive at temperatures between be-tween 85 and 95 degrees. Their development is regarded regard-ed below 70 degrees and most of them grow very slowly, if at all, below 50 degrees. Low moisture and temperature, tempera-ture, however, will retard or stop the growth of most of a cached seed's enemies. And proper storage containers are also essential. Anything metal can, jar with tight fitting lids, etc., correctly sealed, provide an absolute barrier to moisture. mois-ture. They guard their contents con-tents against Goods, rodents, insects and maintain the products' pro-ducts' physical quality. The storage of seeds, which are after all, living organisms does present some problems. If you care for your supply properly, though, you will have the assurance of knowing know-ing that a self perpetuating food supply is tucked away on your shelves...ready to go into action in some future growing season. |