Pedley's Ponderings

I’m always a day late and dollar short. That counts in life, and it also counts in the yard.

We should have planted grass last week. There are plenty of barren patches in our yard – partially thanks to my heavy herbicide use last year, and partially thanks to other factors, like the two dogs’ “business.” Regardless, we did not get anything planted, and April’s showers are making me kick myself that I won’t have May grass. Still, there will be May flowers...if you count dandelions.

That’s not to say I haven’t been busy. Thanks to the help of a friend and his chainsaw, I was able to remove three junk trees that straddled the property line on the northeast portion of our property. I hesitated removing them last year, as the kids used one of them as their primary climbing tree. Its main branch broke off this winter, though, which hastened its removal along with its two companions.

Other yard work has been focused on trimming up pine trees. I’m officially tired of it, and I’m closing the books on those for the year. They will be waiting for me next spring – still half-dead and gnarly as ever.

• Pupdate

Puppy Tucker has not grown much at all since we got him in November, reinforcing the vet’s guess that he is older than the shelter thought. That’s fine by me – German Shepherd Bo takes up enough space without her counterpart.

Tucker essentially looks like a mini Border Collie – he’s primarily black with an underbelly of white and a few brown spots on his legs. I think he’s mixed with that and either a Jack Russell Terrier or Blue Heeler, as he doesn’t have the long hair of a Border Collie. He is cute, nice and a total moron.

Tucker is not spastically energetic, but he gets bored when he doesn’t get enough playtime with Oliver. That usually means something is going to get destroyed – one of my belts suffered the consequences last week and I’m still perturbed. If he ever touches my Red Wing boots, I swear I’ll take him back to the road they found him on last fall.

I’m not really looking forward to the spring “baby season” with Tucker. He’s already dropped a newborn bunny at our doorstep and I can’t even fathom how many birds he’ll bring to us this month. As long as he never squares up with a skunk, I suppose I should count my lucky stars.

• Teeing up another season

The MLB season is in full swing and both my teams (Cubs and Mariners) are entering May above .500. That’s all I ever ask coming out of April.

Personally, I’m shifting my sights to the tee ball season, where I’ll once again be helping out with coaching. We have just under 30 first and second grade boys playing this year with five coaches attempting to keep things in order, which should be manageable.

Some other area towns have been struggling to field teams among a variety of grades for both baseball and softball. We are lucky here in Hartley to have a solid rec program in place with good turnout each season.

Growing up in Ocheyedan, I played Little League from second grade through sixth. We played teams like Harris, May City, Melvin and Ashton back then, none of which have youth teams anymore. Ocheyedan is still lucky to host 3-6 softball.

It’s important to provide opportunities like Little League for our local youth. Programs like the one in Hartley allow our kids and those from nearby communities a chance at playing, which is all that matters at that age.

Nick Pedley is the news editor and ad manager of The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News.