DUCK CALLS AND PHONE CALLS

APPLEFEST OR DUCKFEST?

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

A "PILLAR OF FIRE" 

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  53 degrees F, wind NE, strong and blustery.  We have had 3/4" of rain and it is still drizzling.  The sky is overcast and there is fog over the Islands.  The humidity is 94%, the barometer down, at 29.98".  It is, as they say, lovely weather for ducks.
   Applefest began yesterday, hampered by cold, damp, very windy weather.  It will undoubtedly rain today, but chances are the crowds will come anyway, as weather seldom dampens their enthusiasm, although this is more like Duckfest than Applefest.
   Meanwhile, the Virginia Creeper pictured above on the corner of 10th St. and Wilson Ave. is a virtual Biblical pillar of fire.
   Look at the above photo of yesterday's planting job and will see several large balled and burlapped evergreens left unplanted.  That's because I really screwed up.  Maybe it was because the job is not in town, or because the site is wooded,  maybe because...whatever, I forgot to call Diggers Hotline, and as we planted we kept running into a utility line that snaked through the planting area.
   After being lucky enough not to cut a buried telephone or electric service while planting thirteen of sixteen trees, we decided not to press our luck any further and left the three  largest holes undug until the lines were marked.   So I, embarrassed by my negligence,  called in the job site to Diggers Hotline, and the utilities will be marked by next Wednesday at 1:30 PM.   We will plant the three evergreens immediately after that.
   It is far better to be safe than sorry.  Always, always call Diggers Hotline before you put a shovel, yes even a plain old hand spade, in the ground.  Buried utilities are often only inches beneath the soil surface and sometimes it defies logic as to the path they take.  Cutting a utility line is expensive and can be dangerous as well.  You don't need to call any ducks, but you do need to call Diggers Hotline before you dig!