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Day 133: Plant husbandry

What I'm doing today

Pollinating - Last year we attempted to grow our own pumpkins in our garden. The plants themselves thrived all summer and fall, producing dozens and dozens of blossoms on the vines. Unfortunately I was not aware of the bee shortage in Colorado until it was far too late to do anything about it. None of the blossoms ended up getting pollinated and producing any fruit. This year I have spaghetti squash, and I won't make the same mistake again. This morning before the rain started I went outside to, ahem, get busy. I surveyed my three squash vines and identified about 10 open blossoms. Upon further inspection, however, only one of the open flowers was female. So I did what I could. I clipped one of the other flowers and removed the petals exposing the organs, which I then brushed inside the female flower. Hopefully this will be effective enough to pollinate the flower and start a fruit growing. There were a number of buds starting on the vine, so I will come back in a few days and do it all over again.

Puzzling - I sat down with the 3yo and worked on a 400-piece puzzle. This is one of the hardest puzzles  of all time. It's a USGS topographical map of my hometown of Tiona, PA, which means that it's about 90% green background with brown contours and very few landmarks to go on. The 3yo was mostly there for moral support and to barrage me with questions about life.

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