Sharp Edges

Weather: We had rain Thursday and Friday. Before that we had smoke. It didn’t arrive with an obvious odor, but the effects were the same: burning or sticky eyes and a sore stomach that came when I started breathing through my mouth.

When I looked at the government’s forecast for vertical smoke, whatever that is, I saw this part of the state engulfed several times. The surface smoke chart showed the nearest hot spots were still the Durango area. When I changed the display from New Mexico to California, it was obvious the smoke from those fires was drifting east, and then south to us.

Last useful rain: 8/10. Week’s low: 48 degrees F. Week’s high: 91 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid roses, yellow potentilla, trumpet creeper, bird of paradise, silver lace vine, red-tipped yuccas, Russian sage, rose of Sharon, purple phlox, datura, sweet pea, annual four o’clocks, alfalfa, farmer’s sunflowers, coreopsis, corn

What’s blooming in my yard: Miniature roses, caryopteris, golden spur columbine, large-flowered soapwort, David phlox, winecup mallow, hollyhocks, lead plant, pink evening primroses, white-flowered spurge, sea lavender, perennial four o’clock, calamintha, larkspur, white and Coronation Gold yarrow, chocolate flowers, blanket flowers, Mönch aster, purple cone flowers, bachelor buttons, zinnias

What’s blooming outside the walls and fences: Apache plume, tamarix, trees of heaven, purple mat flower, stick leaf, velvetweed, bindweed, silver leaf nightshade, greenleaf five eyes, leather leaf globemallow, yellow mullein, white sweet clover, Queen Anne’s lace, goat’s head, prostate knotweed, toothed spurge, purslane, Hopi tea, fleabane, horseweed, wild lettuce, common and native dandelions, goat’s beard, plain’s paper flower, áñil del muerto, native sunflowers, goldenrod, golden hairy asters, Tahoka daisy, pigweed, Russian thistles

Bedding plants: Pansies, sweet alyssum. One person replaced his pansies with marigolds, probably dwarf Africans since they were all the same shade of orange.

Tasks: One man cut his hay. Another market garden has been abandoned. Three are left with corn and peppers.

Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbird, other small brown birds, geckos, sidewalk and large black ants, hummingbird moths, bumble and small bees, hornets, other small flying insects, grasshoppers; heard crickets

Weekly update: When I injured my thumb, it became obvious I needed to find sharper knives. It takes more physical effort to use a dull blade. I had found decent scissors a few years ago made from a titanium steel alloy, and thought it would be simple to find other manufacturers using better materials. I was wrong.

Two reasons came to mind. A dull knife was less likely to cut someone seriously, and thus less likely to lead to a lawsuit against the seller and manufacturer. The second was many buyers used price as their main purchasing criteria, and good steel cost money.

But, even when I looked for tools for professionals I found the same assumption that anyone working in gardens was strong.  When I used my loppers they would tear rather than cut small branches. When a guy I hired to cut some big branches used them, they worked fine.

I went to one garden center and asked if its loppers would stay sharp. The salesman showed me the honing tool the store sold. It had a thin handle that required a thumb to manage. When I rejected that idea, he told me I could bring it back and have them sharpen it. I didn’t ask what they charged.

I’d already tried sharpening my old loppers by using a whet stone. Since I hadn’t acquired the knack it took half an hour to figure out how to hold the stone and blade without using my thumb and what angles to use to get an edge. When I was done, the edge was dull after about a dozen cuts. The quality of the steel mattered.

The underlying economic assumption was no one invests in improving tools if cheap labor existed. As long as there were slaves and then Jim Crow laws to guarantee a servile labor force, no company created a cotton picker because no farm owner would buy one. The fact credit was tight in the South after the Civil War didn’t help.

International Harvester finally introduced a mechanical picker in 1942. By then, the war had increased demand while decreasing the amount of available labor. African Americans had begun leaving the South after World War I, and more moved north and west for jobs in war industries in World War II. No doubt there also was more credit available for defense suppliers.

When white, middle-class men did want less labor intensive tools, the answer wasn’t improved steel, but the application of motors. Chain saws, weed whackers, and brush cutters were introduced. The problem was they were all heavier than the tools they replaced, and so still required strength.

Besides, you don’t use a chain saw on a rose cane.

Notes on photographs: You know it’s August when the late summer flowers come into bloom. All pictures taken in my yard on 11 August 2018.

1. Zinnia coming through the protective mesh.
2. Crab apple beginning to change color.
3. Goldenrod.