I will guess 8 hours to can salsa.

Ok I think I have caught up. Life has been nuts! Today I volunteered at the Humane Society because they recently took in 50 cats from a hoarding situation. So sad, but I enjoyed loving on those fur balls. I am crazy for animals. This morning I seen the coolest thing, my hummingbirds had the sun shining behind them and I could see the rainbow in their wings. Super cool! Have y'all ever grown a Lions Tail before? The hummers love it! Also while I am plugging plants, have you ever tried the Delicata squash? I never had it before we grew it this summer and they are the best tasting squash I have had the pleasure of tasting!

Finally the kids are back to school and the girls are happy about it and the teenager is, well a teenager. All he cares about is Star Wars.

The ladies I can send to are Shirley, Jayenne and Mary E.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

\\// Promise

Promise,

You are the winner! I started at 6:30pm and finished at 2:30am. It took me 8 hours of constant work (no breaks) to finish. By the time I was done, I was nearly out of jars and completely out of peppers (the three bags I had bought, plus everything that was ripe in the yard). I had managed to can around 30 pints of salsa.
When you have a chance, take a look at my trade list and pick 3 packs of seeds. Let me know what you pick and I will get them in the mail to you.

Swap members,

If you haven't already, look over everyone's gift registry and let me know who you are able to send to. Remember, you only have to be able to supply one item from the list. Let me know by tomorrow, as I will be assigning partners on Fri.

Erica

Erica

Yay I won something! I know canning is exhausting working. DH and I have done a lot of it recently too. Very rewarding work! You have a wonderful list, it was hard to choose but here is my selection.

Strawberry, White Soul Alpine
Lavender, French (Lavandula stoechas)
Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum Carinatum)

Thank you!

Promise

Promise,

I grabbed the seeds you wanted, but I don't have your address. I sent you an email, but if you don't receive it, just hollar at me with your address.

Erica

Today is the 14th. If you haven't already, look over everyone's gift registry and let me know who you are able to send to. Remember that you only need to supply one item from the list. Let me know sometime today, as I will be assigning partners tomorrow.

Erica

Hi Erica! Letting you know that I rec'd your wonderful selection of tomato seeds today! wow! love how you did your labels too-very nice! thank you so much =)

I am able to send to anyone on the gift registry.

Jayeanne

Jayeanne,

So happy it arrived safely. I'll get you updated now.

EricaBraun - Erica
(Can send to anyone)
1) Any purple or pink named daylily
2) Tree Collards
3) Oca
4) Any named, blue hibiscus.
5) Any seed from my GW want list.

brittneysgran - Shirley
1. Corkscrew vine
2. Peonies
3. Milkweed or plants for Butterflies
4. Goat's Beard
5. Dwarf Sunflower Seeds

pinkiris - Jayeanne
(Can send to anyone)
1. Working on a hummingbird and butterfly garden....so anything for BUTTERFLIES would be perfect.
2. anything that is VARIEGATED...
3. any daylily or iris that is PINK or BLACK
4. anything mini - love the mini collections
5. Scented herbs....

cottonwood468 - Mary E.
(Can send to Vina, Promise, Jayeanne or Shirley)
1 any named white marigold or zinnia or your other favorite white flower
2 anything for butterflies
3 great tasting tomato seeds--Paul Robeson, Indian Stripe, Cherokee Chocolate, Brandy Boy
4 rooting hormone or fish emul fert--things a bride needs
5 stress busters for the big day--chocolate, Wrigley "5" Rain gum, I even like sanseveria pups or whatever cutting you are rooting on your kitchen windowsill or see my trade list.

pmb2005 - Promise
1) Astilbe
2) Yellow Corydalis
3) Monkshood
4) lungwort
5) anything of your choice, not picky.

flowergirl34 - Vina
(Can send to anyone)
1. Any named daylily.
2. Any named sedum...I've been on a sedum kick all summer. Never had many before. Just love them!
3. Any easy to grow annual flower seeds. Marigolds, sunflowers, or anything that's kid-friendly and easy to grow. The kiddo's have really taken off with their annual beds the last couple of years and its fun to see what will come up.
4. Your favorite flower. Perennials or annuals, seeds or plants... doesn't matter which. I just love to try different things.
5. Agastache: Honeybee blue (mine didn't make it through the winter. :()

Erica, I just had to post that your seed packets are AWESOME! What great packaging... I love it. Thanks for posting the pic, Jayeanne.

Do we have any news on Carol or Melinda? I hope all is well.

Sheri

It's partner day! Not everyone updated who they could send to, so I did the best with the info I had. Here are the partners:

Erica sends to Jayeanne
Shirley sends to Erica
Jayeanne sends to Vina
Mary sends to Promise
Promise sends to Mary
Vina sends to Shirley

Just to recap, here is what you will be sending your giftee:
1) An item from their registry (or an item of your own choosing if you can't match a registry item).
2) Something Old: A plant that has been around for 50 years or more. This is often the length to consider something an heirloom. You can send seed or an actual plant.
3) Something New: A plant that has been around for less than 50 years. You can send seed or an actual plant.
4)Something Borrowed: This can be anything you'd like to send.
5) Something Blue: That one is pretty self-explanatory - something blue.

These are minimum guidelines. Have fun and be creative!

Make sure you post here when you send you pack off and also when you receive.

Our new bridal shower game will be starting this evening after I wake up, (got busy with the seeds and forgot to go to sleep!).

It's time for a good old-fashioned Scavenger Hunt!

Each day I will list one easily-recognizable plant. Take a picture and post! Since there is such a wide variety of pictures on the internet, you must have something denoting your name somewhere in the picture. Sorry ladies, no cheating allowed!

This game will end when someone reaches 5 points or on Aug 25th (most points wins), whichever comes first. In the event of a tie, there will be a tie-breaker question.

This game is open to all OBF members.

And last, but not least, the prize! The winner will get 2 floral notepads with 2 matching pens, a pack of blank thank you cards, a pack of organza bags, as well as a few surprises!

Have fun and good luck everyone!

Today's plant is the nasturtium.

This post was edited by EricaBraun on Fri, Aug 15, 14 at 15:45

To get you started, here is a sample pic of today's plant, with my name included.

Jayeanne,
I have your pack almost ready. I will be mailing it out on Mon.

For the rest of our August brides,
Please try and get your packs mailed off by Aug 25th. This will ensure that they reach your giftee before the end of the month.

Erica, Im not quite sure I understand how your new game is to be played ..... are you posting pics and we are to guess the name of it? Or we are all suppose to be posting pics with our names? and others guess?? Sorry....yes..... a blonde here, LOL.

thanks for the clarity Erica, I too plan to mail my package either tomorrow or Monday...depending on our crazy weather.

Jayeanne

Sheri - Yes I agree...the seed packages were so neat that Erica had created ...I thought maybe ya'll would enjoy a photo =) I thought you were in this months swap but when partners were posted I didnt see your name....I must have missed something somewhere. Hope you are doing well too Sheri =)

Jayeanne,

Sorry for any confusion in the instructions. I could have probably broken it down into an easier to follow format.

1) Each day I will give you the name of a plant.
2) Take a picture of that plant, if you can locate one. Be sure your name is included in the pic.
3) Post your picture.
First person to 5 points wins. Or if no one hits 5 points, the one with the most points on Aug 25th is the winner.

The picture I posted was just an example to show the plant + name. Any other questions, please let me know.

Ah! Ok! LOL Well so glad now that I planted nasturiums, LOL these are in my garden ....Ive been trying to locate the ones that have variegated leaves but so far no luck. Erica - hope Im doing this correctly.

Jayeanne

Jayeanne,

Nice, healthy plants. And yeah, that will work fine for today. If you want to just put your name on a piece of paper and photo it with the pic next time, that would be even better! (it insures that people don't snag pictures online and photoshop their name in)

I'll update points daily, starting tomorrow!

These are growing on the border of my tomatoes and peppers. However, I will not be able to get a photo until tomorrow. Photographer/equipment at band practice now.

Sheri, you can be my maid of honor.

Mary E.

That's fine, Mary. Thanks for the heads-up!

Vina - Your package is going out tomorrow morning...

Erica - Ok...so I did it wrong, LOL...You want a photo taken with our name on a piece of paper included in the photo?? I will be ready ....LOL

Jayeanne

Lol. I blame myself, Jayeanne. Apparently clear communication isn't one of my strong points. It sounded good in my head though!

But yeah, you've got it: your name on a piece of paper, included in the photo. :)

Scavenger Hunt results:

Jayeanne - 1pt
Mary - 1pt

Day 2 of the Hunt! Your plant for today is citrus. Any type of citrus tree will work.

Good luck ladies. Hope you're all having a lovely weekend, so far.

This post was edited by EricaBraun on Sat, Aug 16, 14 at 14:00

I have five Sioux tomato plants in a row. There are cages on three, short on cages here. As per Murphy's law, one of the not caged ones is the heaviest with green fruit. I just came in from cobbling it back off the ground.

The photographer sleeps in... later with the photos. Going to the Figment Festival today. Art installations, interactive, participatory ... what are you bringing?

Annie, the Arlington Million is today. Did you watch the Beverly D. yesterday?

The Air Show is today ... they do fly by here. The Blue Angets, et al.

Mary E.

Here we go, LOL Day 2 -

I planted about 15 or so lemon seeds early spring and I had 2 seeds sprout....here are my 2 baby lemon seedlings....Not sure yet what I will do with them come winter....

Jayeanne

Mary,

Have a wonderful time at the festival!

Jayeanne,

Great baby plants. They look like they are doing well. How many years is it going to be until they produce fruit?

(more info shortly)

(more info shortly)

Mary,

Great pictures! What is that citrus you have there? It looks like a lime growing on a fig tree! (I did update the post above to give you credit for the nasturtium).

Lime on a fig tree... that's funny! Made me giggle, Mary. :)

What a great idea for a game, Erica! I may borrow it sometime. ;) I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Sheri

Thanks, Sherri. There are a lot of bridal shower games, but most don't adapt well to online endeavors. This, however, was one that worked. Although now I'm a little suspicious that Mary might be trying to pull a fast one on me!

The only citrus around here is the lime wedge in tonight's pad thai... And I forgot to put my name on it, too! Hehehe.

Love the game Erica..

Too dark to get pictures now though.

Shirley

Lol, Laura. If only pad thai grew on citrus trees! I would be such a happy camper!

Offspring Unit posted the photos for me. It looks like I have nasturtiums in the lawn, but that is the edge of the garden, direct sowed in July. The leaf at the top is on a pepper plant, a Jalapeno from seed saved from a pepper my son ate.

The lime is on a Morus rubra (mulberry) LOL short of citrus trees in Chicago. I do save lemon seeds, haven't sprouted any though. Nice work, Jayeanne.

Mary E.

Mary,

You know, I did actually think that you might have had some sort of exotic citrus that had some really non-citrus-like leaves. I'm afraid Sheri might have tipped me off with that giggle though.

As for mulberry trees, I certainly wish they grew something as useful as limes. I have one in my front yard and this year I've been on a mission to pull off all of its branches before they get more than a couple feet (I had it pruned back to nothing last fall). I think I'll let that picture slide and still give you a point for creativity.

Thanks for the great pictures, ladies. Here's a point update:

Jayeanne - 2pts
Mary - 2pts

And the hunt continues! Saturday's plant is Watermelon.

This year I had so many watermelons I didn't know what to do with them all. In past years I hadn't been able to grow them at all! We counted 22 of them on our first harvest.

Promise-Gosh I wish I lived beside you I love watermelon. I actually had to take one I bought back to Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. When I cut it it was all white like the inside rind color. It had never ripened I guess.

Good job ladies good luck to the winner.

Shirley

Promise,

Glad to see you joining in the game. Great picture! I have to say that I am jealous! I tried to grow several different types of watermelon this year and none of them flourished.

Maybe we can get our squirrel in one of these photos. Promise, you rocked this one!

Day 3.....

Mary - I have no idea on the baby lemon seedlings, Ive always wanted a patio lemon tree so I thought I would try a few seeds...it took awhile for them to sprout. I may need to find them warmer homes here soon.....

love all the creative photos! =)

Jayeanne

Hello

Seeing lots of watermelon pics today!

These beauties are growing on the fence right outside our back door. My first year trying to grow watermelons!

Laura,

That is absolutely awesome! I love it!

Hey Laura,

I clicked on your picture (yes, I was hoping for a closer look) and came across your photobucket page. I assume that's your cat. I have a silver tabby that has that same ridge of silky black hair down his back. Mine gets a mohock when he's scared. Does your cat do that too? I think it's the weirdest thing!

Erica, thats Zoe and shes a snugglepuss. She's an indoor cat whose developed an obsession with the outside world. She snuck out through a hole in the screen door in back to help me garden that day. (The stinker!) When scared its not so much a moehawk as a puffball :) We call it "the kerfluffle"!

This post was edited by lilangel181 on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 0:59

Laura,

Yeah, cats are definitely stinkers! Both of my cats are indoor cats, but Houdini, my tabby, is constantly breaking out of the catio my hubby and I made. My other cat, Meow, will come out front with me to garden. He's the good boy. He actually stays in the yard with me.

Time for a point update:

Jayeanne - 3pts
Mary - 3pts
Promise - 1pt
Laura - 1pt

I have to admit that I was tempted to give Promise and Laura an extra point for having the plant, but then I decided that Mary and Jayeanne actually went to the effort of going to the store and taking a picture, which is a hell of a lot more hassle. So, everyone got a point!

Monday's plant: Rose Bush.