Thursday--

Though warmer than yesterday at this time it is still very cool.  But I don't see any frost threats in the seven-day forecast so I will put the Tumbler tomatoes back on the fence and uncover the tomatoes in the containers.  The strawberries I wasn't happy have given me no reason to change my mind about them.  If they still haven't shown any life by next Monday I will replace them with developed plants.  Still haven't seen any life in my rose either.  I am not sure when I should consider it a lost cause.  I need to move the last of my seedlings upstairs into the mini-greenhouse to harden off a bit before I transplant them.  I got an e-mail from Cook's Garden telling me my wintergreen and lemon verbena plants are on the way and should arrive tomorrow.  The sweet potato slips should ship next week.  That will complete all my orders.

Friday--

Had heavy rain off and on last night.  As soon as I have more light outside I will check the plants especially the Tumbler tomatoes which are back on the fence.  And the standard tomatoes which I uncovered yesterday.  I don't know if it will dry out enough to plant anything more.  We'll see.  Waiting for the sweet potatoes.

As I have mentioned before, I am very skeptical of the whole notion of "privatization."  It is simply a means of commodifying goods/services that shouldn't be turned into profit centers.  But we have seen more and more of the process of supplying such goods and services turned over to private companies so they can squeeze as much as they can without regard for the wellbeing of the people receiving those goods and services.  Water is an intensifying battle ground as this piece shows.  I have read horror stories about cities who privatized their water systems only to have to reclaim them after the companies failed to either up the maintenance of the system creating a health crisis and/or failed to follow through on their other promises.  Given what good neighbors profit driven companies based in distant places are, perhaps it won't be so bad.

We haven't used our dishwasher for nearly ten years.  We weren't happy with how it cleaned the dishes and never could get it adjusted properly.  We simply gave up.  There are only two of us here so one of the suggestions the repairman made--to make sure we had a full load each time--was unrealistic.  Mom always washes the pans separately anyway but even with a pan or two our few dishes each day wouldn't come close to filling the dishwasher.  We could go a week if we had the number of dishes required before we would have a full load and by then the food residue we were supposed to leave on the plates would have dried rock hard.  This little article, however, indicates that families with children might have healthier children by mothballing the dishwasher and doing their dishes by hand.  Though cleanliness may be next to godliness too much can be a health risk.