It’s quite remarkable how quickly the fields are turning shades of yellow and golden brown. With the combination of shorter days and dropping overnight temperatures, we find the start of the shut-down of extended growth. The plants now know it’s time to give it up for another year and hopefully the seeds which they’ve created will be re-born next Spring. The cold tolerant plants continue to grow up until the hard frost. Root crops like carrots, beets, and turnips tend to become more sweet when left in the ground as long as possible. When I was young, and we had monster gardens, we used to cover the rows of carrots with leaves from the trees so that the ground would not freeze and when in need of more carrots, we’d go out and take away the leaves in the section we wanted to dig up. Those were the absolute sweetest carrots to be had. To this day I find it hard to eat carrots from the grocery store because they have a tinge of bitterness to them and sometimes e a trace taste of mold. Yes, I’m sure some would think me crazy by saying this but I don’t care what anyone says, I can taste it. I suppose now I must be punished for being so spoiled in my youth with really good food. I speak of these things as an encouragement for especially the young to start growing their own food. If everyone would start out in a small fashion the first year, and then gradually become proficient at gardening in a larger scale, we’d all be living better lives. Backyard gardeners always seem to grow into the best neighbors. Having a good chat over the fence always seems to break the ice with some of the more guarded neighbors.
Due to some of the last minute things not being accomplished on several closings I have coming up, I’ve discovered I’m becoming less and less patient with people not getting their jobs done. After numerous phone calls and e-mails, I think I’ve finally got those who’ve been lax to get their part of the closing process finished. I can’t even begin to imagine why some sellers wait until the last dog is dead before they kick into high gear. Sometimes I think they’re not capable of being time and deadline oriented. They likely have jobs that don’t require timeliness in their work. Like someone said to me once about finishing a project, “It’ll be done when I get it done.” That was certainly an open-ended reason to work on something when he felt like it. Some bolt whenever there are deadlines, while others jump right in and work to get everything completed ahead of schedule. I was on the phone with one file today far longer than I should have been simply due to another’s work being shoved to the back burner. Oh well, I’m glad I am who I am and work to keep things moving in an orderly fashion in the continued hopes that all my closing have soft landings. One of the sales coming up are between the absolute charming sellers and delightful buyers. I told the buyer today that as the old saying goes, “Like attracts like”, and they definitely must have attracted each other. I apologized to both of them this week for seeming to be a clucking mother hen in my specific reminders, but when it’s all over, I think they’ll look back and be appreciative that I became a little intense with my mother hening.
