Howdy folks.

It’s time to start pruning the fruit trees while the sap is down and also the raspberries. I started to prune my berries yesterday while the weather is nice. Years ago I helped John Pringle’s dad prune fruit trees. His dad was an Orchard man and he knew how to graft trees so John had some excellent training. John told me he was setting more fruit trees. The trees that are there now sure have some age on them. If you take care of them, they will produce fruit for several years. Years ago, Roscoe Pringle had the best peaches I’ve ever seen and tasted. I would help pick the peaches using a little basket. There was a lady helping pick and John’s mother was selling the peaches. There were several baskets of peaches picked and folks came for several miles to get the peaches. They knew Roscoe Pringle had some of the best beaches you could buy.

The Grants Farm and Green Houses are busy getting the hanging baskets filled with potting soil and different kinds of flowers – the season is here. They have been planting pansies so they will have plenty of flowers for spring. They have to put some new plastic over some of the greenhouses. The last time I was over there they had tomato plants four to five inches tall for planting early so they will have ripe tomatoes in May hopefully.

I told about planting radishes and Parisian carrots in some trays here in the house. The radishes are two inches tall now – I don’t know if they will have radishes or not but I have something green here in the house. The Parisian carrots are up and growing – these carrots are round like a radish. They are so sweet. I have grown them for a couple years after I ate some of them at Lake Manor by Lake Grant on state Route 68. They have them on their salad bar.

Last Monday I put the hoops over the raised bed and will cover it with plastic so the ground can dry and warm up. I will plant onions in this bed as soon as I can. The onion bulbs I like are the early variety. I had a call about planting in a five gallon bucket. If you use one, put some rocks or chunks of wood in the bottom then put about seven inches of potting soil on top of the filler. You can plant one sweet potato or Pontiac potato in the bucket. When the potting soil gets dry, water the plant. When the potato vine dies, pull the plant up and the taters will be hanging on the vine. You can take your hands and pull the rest of the taters out. The sweet potato vine needs to be pruned so the energy can go to the potato instead of the vine. I have had some of the sweet potatoes weighing 1½ pounds – that is a fine tater. Some fine eating! You can grow other vegetables in a bucket if you don’t have a lot of space to garden.

I was talking to Mike at the Boars Head Bait Shop in Afton. He said the crappie are biting good. One fishermen caught a two day limit a big crappie – now there were two of them fishing. They said the crappie were between eight and 14 feet deep. Sherry’s Lake was stocking trout Thursday, Feb. 4, and will open for fishing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The charge for fishing is $17 for three trout. Now in February you can get your 2016 fishing license for the year.

The Lions Club is checking out Cincinnati for the Lions club convention for 2021. This will be a big convention. The Lions Club is the biggest service organization in the world. The Lions Club do so much for disasters, eye glasses and a bunch of other disasters. I have been a member of the Bethel Lions Club for 46 years so get involved with a local Lions Club. Mark your calendar now for the Bethel Lions club pancake breakfast from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 20.

Start your week by going to the house of worship of your choice and praising the good Lord. God bless all.

More later.

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George Rooks is retired as a park manager for East Fork. He writes on local events and can be reached at grrooks@yahoo.com.