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DeSoto Extension Agent

A Busy Spring For The Bugs

If you’re a gardener, you know that dealing with pests is an inevitable part of the job.

Two common pests seen on garden plants are thrips and spider mites. These tiny insects can cause damage to the leaves, flowers and fruits of your plants, and if left unchecked, can lead to stunted growth — sometimes causing major damage. Both insects feed on houseplants, flowering plants, fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs as well as vegetables.

Thrips are tiny insects that can be difficult to spot with the naked eye. Typically less than 1 millimeter long, they can range in color from yellow to brown or black. Thrips feed on the sap of plants and can result in damage to the leaves and flowers, causing them to become discolored and distorted. They also can transmit viruses from plant to plant.

Let bygones be bygones dwell not about what may have been a mistake on your behalf. You’re only human, what you did in the past is history so don’t be consumed with guilt instead accept what has begotten you and move on, have prestige in ones self the ultimate guide to correcting ones mistake is to make good choices in future events.

Southern folklore is a combination of beliefs, myths, charms, superstitions, and many more things. It has been a way of life in the South for many years. Southern folklore usually deals with the unsophisticated folks, a category that most of us fit into if we were truthful. The sayings varied some from one region in the South to another as the older generation came up. Some say that it is a dying art.

An old saying about folklore is “You can get a Southerner out of the South but you can’t get the South out of the S o u t h e r n e r. ” Imaginary tales are one form of folklore. One old man used to tell about the 1949 tornado the came through western and central DeSoto Parish. He said, “The twister was so strong it pulled the water well right out of the ground. It blowed so hard it made the road straight and scattered the days of the week so bad that Sunday didn’t come around until late Tuesday afternoon.”

Don’t Cut Yourself Too Short How to Balance your Time and Finances There are two things in life that are the hardest to come by – time and money. The last thing you want to do is to cut yourself short with either of these.

When it comes to time and money, no matter how you spend it, you can’t get it back. But you can save them, with a little creativity, ingenuity, and planning.

In order to manage our money, it helps to have a budget. A financial budget is a tool that helps us know where our money is coming from and where it is going.

A Time Budget works in a similar way. To best manage our time, we need to know what we are doing, when we need to do it, and whether or not that time is being used efficiently.

I’ve Got Some Famous Friends…

Have you heard the song Famous Friends, by Chris Young and Kane Brown? The chorus goes like this: “I’ve got some famous friends you’ve probably never heard of But back in Rutherford County, our crowd is second to none You might not know ‘em here in this big city we’re in But when I go back home, I’ve got some famous friends.”

John and I visited Grand Cane, before we moved to DeSoto Parish. We’d have lunch downtown with John’s parents. It was always a meal to remember, because my father-in-law, Billy Franklin, was a celebrity. People walked in the door and headed straight for our table. The man could hardly finish his meal, what with all the handshaking and conversation. And he loved every single minute of it. As I sat quietly eating my meal, I’d wonder if that was how the family members of Hollywood celebrities felt. It was pretty cool.

Don’t Cut Yourself Too Short - How to Balance your Time and Finances

There are two things in life that are the hardest to come by – time and money. The last thing you want to do is to cut yourself short with either of these.

When it comes to time and money, no matter how you spend it, you can’t get it back. But you can save them, with a little creativity, ingenuity, and planning.

In order to manage our money, it helps to have a budget. A financial budget is a tool that helps us know where our money is coming from and where it is going.

A Time Budget works in a similar way. To best manage our time, we need to know what we are doing, when we need to do it, and whether or not that time is being used efficiently.

Goin’ to California

The catch phrase and common answer throughout John Stienbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath”. Written in 1939 and chronicling one Oklahoma family’s flight from a failed Dust Bowl farm in Oklahoma to the promise of a better life in California. A grueling but exciting journey that thousands of Midwestern families made.

I almost went on a similar journey back in the late 90’s when Lowes Company purchased a similar chain of west coast hardware stores concentrated in northern California and Washington State. Lowes corporate put out a big push to all its employees, especially, to department specialists and middle management to transfer to help transition these stores. AND they were selling the opportunity big-time with promotions and hefty stock options!

Have you ever found yourself in a slump? Life is stale. Your creativity feels similar to a dry creek. There are things you want to do but can’t seem to find the motivation. If this is where you stand, it may be time to get an Accountability Partner.

To understand what an accountability partner is, you must first know how to define Accountability. According to Dictionary.com, to be accountable means to be “subject to the obligation to report, explain, or justify something; responsible; answerable; capable of being explained; explicable; explainable.

An accountability partner is someone who is on a similar journey. This person can be a friend, family member, or even a professional counterpart.

You Don’t Have To Explain It All

My youngest was in Cub Scouts, so we met weekly at his Den Leader’s house to have our meetings. His leader Tammy’s son Evan was a friend of Cameron’s so it worked out well. It was a good group and the kids had a lot of fun and learned about Scouting. But I observed Tammy doing something that I didn’t understand. So I asked her about it.

When Tammy would ask Evan to do something, anything, she would explain why she wanted him to do it. I mentioned my observation and asked her why she did that. She replied, “Well I find Evan does what I ask him more easily when I explain to him why I am asking him to do something.” I stopped, started to say something, and then stopped again. Then I said, “Okay, well I was just wondering.”

As the old saying goes, April showers bring May flowers !! Can you imagine the size of the blooms we gonna have after alllllllllll this rain !!! But, come July or August, we will have forgotten what rain looks like ha ! So we take it as we get it and move on.

Our resident gardener, Mr. Billy Emfinger, is proud of the rain and all the plants he has outdoors. I myself am a plant lover as well, so we spend lots of time talking about plants and gardening out on the back porch. Several residents will roll down the end of hall 4 just to look at all the plants he has outside. Those that wish to go outside and look at them go with us at times just to get some fresh air and see the plants. There are rocking chairs, a ceiling fan, and plants galore, as well as some humming bird feeders. Its a nice place to relax !!!