Bon posted on the State 777 thread about 4 hours ago, so at least we know she is okay. I hope their home is okay too.

I did not know about the earthquake but have wondering where she is.

Earthquake? I didn't feel that one!

I woke up one day last week and was facing severe depression, because I'm not gardening! I plod on. I'm TAWRD, I tell ya. TIRED of b'tchin about poverty and hardship and blah blah. I switched gears and made new priority toggles switches. Most are temporary and come with the off switch.

I enrolled the kids via online public school. I feel like someone hitched jumper cables to my breeches while the other end is gnawing on a transformer. Good Lord public school moves fast.

Bill and I cleaned up the lot of the other property, trimmed and cut trees, moved dirt, manipulated grades, hauled off tons, literally, of undesirables. After he reset the foundation on the house by hisself, he ripped the front porch off, installed siding and now is replacing the roof, facia and trims. Working. I've been working to pay for materials.

Ya'll helped me with my missing-mah-garden depression, tho. Really. You didn't even notice. I knew I was missing it. Have no choice right now. So, I thot about what ya'll would suggest: Indoor plants. I bought some stupid philodendrons and they help me through. I even put mayonnaise on their leaves. Makes 'em shiny and all professional-like. I'm up to three pots now.

Speaking of leaves, I hope to get some raked soon. I have pepper plants that are doing very well as plants, but the bunnies keep eating my stuff. Except the Tabasco peppers. Yeah... not those.

bon

Good to see you Bon! The earthquake was near Pawnee, maybe far enough away for it not to bother you. Sounds like you're moving forward on your other house! That is great! I started with houseplants SO many years ago. I had 115 when I met DH. Then I had kids. They took over the focus of my life and the house plants dwindled. I suggest an aloe vera. Hoya will survive even if you forget to water it. I have a sweet potato growing in water right now. That's a good one for the kids to do.

Aloe Vera is a very good idea. But 115 plants? OMG that's a lot of plants. That's enough to start your own nursery!

I have kind of an obsessive personality, LOL. They weren't necessarily big plants. I would buy dinky little cuttings and try to grow them bigger or get cuttings from friends. They were my babies at the time. Couldn't have pets. I had this ugly shefflera, one stem that eventually grew to the ceiling. It wasn't an attractive plant, but I had too much invested in it. I'm partial to succulents, but I tend to kill them.

This bunch is a healthy group of enablers. They're always spreading the greenie love.

Oh my!! I had an aloe vera plant at my other house but it died for some reason. I bought another one for this house and my daughter wanted it so I gave it to her. It was a smaller one too. She NEVER watered it.......EVER!!! Poor thing....she does not have a green thumb....yet!! I told her I would take it. Gave it a drink, put it on the kitchen counter. About 2 days later I saw green again. It greened up very nicely and even started having babies!!! I later bought her a planter with 3 little separate containers that included FAKE succulents. She does well with those, hahahaaaa.

My sister has several hundred houseplants and years ago I was taking care of her babies. Well I killed two thankfully not the African violets but she said I over watered several plants. I couldn't imagine till she said the fake ones. Well who would have fake plants with over 200 real ones.

LOL!

Kim, I have a photo for you. Remember the Plant ID tags we received from you? one of the upper cabinets in the kitchen is perpetual ajar because of previous quakes so I laced these tags over the door handles on a cabinet filled with thick bottles of sauces that act like projectiles when a really BIG quake (just) hit.

For the record a Jack Daniel's bottle is more stout than a mason jar. lolz

Oh my I can't imagine if my cabinet doors flew open. It would be very dangerous. Glad they came in handy.

Love it Bon. Whatever it takes to keep bottles from hitting you on the head. I like your style : )

Bon, That was a pretty strong quake last night. I'm hoping you don't have too much damage. What a great use for the plant tags!

Hmmm. So, you're telling us that the makers of Jack Daniels have better earthquake-proof glass than Mason jars. I'm not surprised. I feel like modern-day canning jars do not seem as thick and sturdy as they were even just 2 or 3 decades ago.

Now, the question is, how many more big quakes do y'all have to endure before somebody takes these quakes more seriously and shuts down a lot more water disposal wells? The current piecemeal process of closing a few and cutting back a little on the volume on others after each quake is dragging along too slowly.

Dawn

The cottage will be toast, soon. Bill says the sill plates are not nailed down to the footings. We gotta get to haulin' ass on the Dungeon (the 2 story house). No damages over there. Some ceiling tiles came down, but that's all. We're grateful. Most others don't have that option.

That's so true that at least you have options, but it still is unfortunate you have to deal with this at all. It seems to me that living here in the land of Tornadoes, Wildfires, Flash Floods and Ice Storms is enough for anyone to put up with, and it seems unfair that Earthquakes now are added to the list. I love living in Oklahoma, but our climate and weather often are cruel and now the earth keeps moving. That's just not good.

Now, with regards to the quakes, let's hope a really big one in the 6 or 7 point something magnitude never happens here. I cannot even imagine the damage if The Big One ever strikes.

Speaking about fake plants, I had a couple worker who was out for 3 months on medical. When she came back, another company worker stopped by to say hello and mentioned that he had taken care of her plants, so hopefully he didn't damage any. She assured him they were fine and thanked him, then when she left said "I didn't have the heart to tell him they were fakes."

Dawn,
Little Miss expressed it best. She wanted to sleep outside in a tent last night. I don't blame her. Today, she decided she didn't want to live in Oklahoma at all. She woke up from nightmares this morning. When all the authorities get simmered down, I'm headed up to the city engineer's office to see about retrofitting for quakes. We're backed in a corner, so, maybe we should just be innovative, somehow. I can't imagine quakes larger than 5. The odds are slim it would happen under Cushing since the plates or whatever beneath the earth that is moving is state-wide. So, I feel for whoever sits at the epi of a quake that large. I swear, it's like living a lottery experience but the winners are losers kinda thing.

jlhart!
That's hilarious! I can't believe they never noticed they weren't real. hahahaha I cannot. keep. a straight face. I would have cracked up on the guy.

Jen, That is hilarious.

Bon, I can't say that I blame her one bit. I hope you can find a way to soothe her jangled nerves.

I have no idea how one would retrofit an existing structure to make it more earthquake proof. Be sure and share with us what you learn about that. All my life, I've heard the endless jokes about how "The Big One" is going to hit California one of these days. I'm starting to wonder if it might hit OK instead.

We have an ancient faultline down here in southern OK but it is relatively quiet. You already know the whole story about how they opened a disposal well, earthquakes started happening almost immediately, there was a community meeting with outraged people, and the owner of the disposal well, while not accepting any responsibility for the damage caused by the earthquake, did shut down his disposal well and we haven't felt a quake since, except for the ones that have originated from Central or Northeaster OK. We were lucky our problem was so easily solved. From start to finish, the whole issue probably didn't even last a month. I don't think it will be as easy to solve the earthquake problem in central and northeastern OK. I think there's too many disposal wells and I believe the folks in charge will not shut down enough of them to make a real difference. I'd like to think I'm wrong about that.

Dawn