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SUDOKU

Fun by the Numbers

Like puzzles? Then you’ll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test! Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

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Pickleball – observations from a cucumber

I did it.

I dove into the jar, or better put, the Pickleball court. The sport itself has nothing to do with pickle jars; it actually takes place on a mini-court, similar to the type used for tennis, just more manageable for those looking to avoid running, diving, dodging, lunging, jumping and backing up.

Especially backing up.

No one in Pickleball wants to back up, because that can lead to loss of balance, which in turn can lead to falls. Falling is never a joke, but it’s especially not funny in Pickleball, where falls can lead to twisted ankles, bumped bums and other injuries too serious to name here.

In Pickleball (at least in my neighborhood) the serious ballers are ranked numerically

By JILL PERTLER Columnist

from two to five, because starting out as a two sounds and feels so much better than a one.

A level five is a professional pickler, full of spit and vinegar – skilled to his or her greatest potential after many hours spent on the court and in the brine, so to speak. A level two is a cucumber, not yet wrinkled or salty, but possessing growth potential and promise yet to be recognized.

By my own admission, I started the game as a double zero. By day two or three, I was

On the garden path

a negative one. I couldn’t even call myself a cucumber, much less a gherkin.

I hit a lot of shots that didn’t make their mark. In Pickleball, this is known as a falafel. My falafels were awful, and they put my game in a pickle. You can’t score if you can’t land your serve. I was in danger of being pickled, before ever leaving the vine.

But I digress – in more ways than one.

What I really want to bring to light about the newest, biggest, bestest sport of the 21st century is rather, well, salacious – at least in its terminology. Turns out the newest sport might have ties to the oldest sport – if you catch my drift.

Or maybe my mind’s just in the gutter.

Either way, follow me on

this convoluted Pickleball journey, and let’s have some fun.

Like most sports, Pickleball starts with a warm-up, which consists of sharing dinks with your opponent. This is known (obviously) as dinking and consists of short lobs back and forth over the net.

Once regular dinks have been achieved, players may opt for an advanced version known as dinkling, which is simply diagonal dinking – nothing improper, it just sounds that way.

As does the next example.

When someone hits the ball hard in your direction, they are known as a banger and it’s said that you are getting banged – by the ball, of course, but it’s hard to not let your mind wander elsewhere.

I’ve been a widow for three years, and never thought I’d get banged on the Pickleball court. But that happened just last week. And, I’ll answer the obvious question before you even get the chance to think it: I did not successfully return the bang. Maybe next time.

One can only hope.

I don’t know all the Pickleball terminology yet; I’m still a newbie. But being a word lover, I’ve come up with a term of my own: The dilly.

This sweet term isn’t as tasty as the DQ delight, but instead is an extra special serve that that lands just inside the outside corner and is practically unreturnable, unless your player level is that of a 4.5 or above, at which point the return itself has its own name: the buster bar.

These picklicious

meanderings may all seem fun and even a little bit silly, but there’s nothing silly about a sport that’s seen a more than 200% growth rate over the last three years, with 36.5 million pickleball players currently in the U.S. Pickleball’s immense popularity has made it the fastest growing sport in the country.

It’s getting people of all ages up and off the couch and into the court, and that’s a good thing. So at the end of the day –or match or game – I think we can all agree on one thing.

Pickleball is a big dill.

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

Jill Pertler is an awardwinning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.

Gear up for the upcoming garden season

It’s never too early to prepare for the garden season ahead. Having the right tool for the job saves time, reduces the frustration of trying to make the wrong tool work, and allows you to garden longer with less muscle fatigue.

Take an inventory of all your tools. Be sure to check the shed, garage, or tool caddy. Make a list of those that need to be replaced or need an update. This is also a good time to clean and sharpen those tools you plan to use in the coming growing season.

As you update your tools, you may want to purchase a few hand tools with comfortable wooden handles and carbon steel heads. The wood adds a natural aesthetic that goes hand in hand with gardening.

Make sure you have the right shovels for those frequent digging tasks. Perhaps it is time to invest in a longhandled shovel with a narrow head that allows you to dig in small spaces. Corona’s DigMaster Nursery Shovel

By MELINDA MYERS Columnist

has a hardened steel blade and a handle for durability and long life. The ComfortGel grip allows you to keep working longer.

Like digging with the rightsized shovel, deadheading flowers with the right tool makes it easier and you’re more likely to get the job done. For those with a lot of deadheading, select one with an ergonomic design, a finger loop for better control, and an easy-release lock like Corona’s Ergo Dead Header Snips.

Late winter and early spring are also the time to do a bit of trimming and pruning on indoor plants. Pruners and snips with specially shaped blades, like the Corona BP14623 Houseplant Pruner, make trimming individual

leaves and stems easier, ensuring you make the cut where planned.

A scoop comes in handy when placing potting mix or fertilizer in containers. The more you use it, the more uses you will discover for scoops like Corona’s Multi-Scoop with a stainless-steel scoop and ComfortGel grip.

If you struggle to haul soil, mulch, and plants to the garden bed, it may be time to invest in a garden cart. Wheelbarrows are a traditional favorite but how about a 4-wheeled cart with pneumatic tires to make moving the load over rough ground easier? Consider one with sides that fold down for easier loading and unloading. Or perhaps one with a dumping mechanism, like Corona’s CR1000 Poly Dump Cart, that makes it easy to empty loads of mulch and soil where it is needed.

And don’t forget about the young gardeners in your life. Having their own set of properly sized hand tools, long-handled tools, and of course, a wheelbarrow will make working with you in the garden even more special. Kids, like adults, benefit from

spending time in the garden. Give them their own garden patch or row to dig, plant, and tend. You’ll all have more fun.

When upgrading your garden tools, consider donating those that are still in good working order to a nearby community garden, school garden, or master gardener group. They can always use extra tools to help them grow gardeners of all ages. And those that have reached the end of life can be turned into garden art. It’s a great way to save memories of gardens’ past.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program.

Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Corona Tools for her expertise in writing this article. For more information, visit her website, www. MelindaMyers.com.

PHOTO COURTESY CORONA TOOLS Rock Valley Publishing

The long-handled Digmaster nursery shovel, with its narrow head, makes it easy to dig even in small spaces. It’s an ideal tool to have in preparation for the upcoming garden season.

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