Fearless Leader Gives Dramatic Speech The thought came to mind yesterday, while I was hanging precariously from a branch overlooking a number of spiky looking tomato stakes that I had forgotten to remove from the garden before climbing the ladder, that it was time to upgrade my watering system for Nick, Nora and Honi, the Butterfly Garden. Basically, this is what I've got in each of the gardens -- a Nelson Pattern Sprayer adjusted to the edges which waters each garden for ten minutes every other day. Since I don't know how to program the watering system, they also go off at odd times of the day or night, either drenching me, or scaring the golly by crap outta me in the middle of the night and sending me skittering down the stairs waving what I thought was a handgun and yet appears to be a hairbrush. I also have one of these, an ancient tractor sprinkler that I inherited from my Grandfather. He knew I would put it to good use as either a sprinkler or a short run, very slow mode of transportation. (So far, the best I've been able to do is 220 feet down the street before the hose ran out.) The one I've got is probably close to 90 years old and has been repaired about 95 times. I'm thinking to retire it, restore it, and use it as art. My wife says, that will never happen, unless of course its garage art. Like the bicycle crashing through the wall art I tried to make a few years back. That became garage art. Then garbage art when I wasn't looking. (It was like prohibition: they passed it while our boys were "over there.") The thought had been to go industrial this year, but given the size of these things, we, meaning not I, decided against it. I tried to build a smaller version out of a red wagon wheels and PVC pipe, but during the first test flight, the flow was too high and it raced across the yard, burst through the fence and watered two dogs and one ground hog on the bike path. So, now I've decided to go in a new, more artistic direction when it comes to watering the garden. The boys don't even want to think about it. What I was thinking was water features in a more conventional style. A European Style, much like the fountain in Nowa Huta, Poland, which celebrates Vladimir Lenin's Communistic Urination Prowess. (At least I think it celebrates him.) While I enjoy the spirit of the fountain, I have a problem with simple garden coverage. One asparagus plant will do well, but beyond that, we'll have drought conditions on the Collective Farm Unit. The same coverage problem exists with these fountains. You know, I've got to wonder if all fountain makers back in the day were 12 year old boys, as there sure is a lot of peeing imagery in the fountain biz. (Hey, that guy on the right ... Never mind. It can't be.) I'm telling ya -- 12 year old boys. And, I'm not sure I'd ever be able to eat produce produced using artisan designed body functions as a water feature, either. "Tomato?" "Uh, no thanks." "Carrot? Cucumber? Snap pea?" "Wouldn't you just rather go to 'Colonel Cluck' tonight?" Still, this might be nice, given proper placement and about a fifty foot mound of sculptured dirt. Provided, of course, that I can divert the Platte into it, and, deal with the flooding, and, cover the thing with greenery (let's see -- that would be about the number of seeds found in 2,382 Chia Pets). But, as always, I can always rely on Mother Nature herself to provide -- even though I think she's still pissed off about the Klettke/Moody Estes Rocket cloud seeding experiments of 1967. She tends to rain on everyone's yard in the neighborhood except mine, and, when she does hit mine, it's with hail the size of dwarf planets. I suspect I will be forever in her sights. But that's okay, because Trumly just brought the beer.
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