We took the dog to Atwoods and Lowes. She has gained enough weight that I am not strong enough to hold her on a leash if she decides to take off. Atwoods had started putting out seed potatoes. They weren't all unpacked yet. I got some of the black trays to replace the ones that broke or the dog chewed. Lots of Jiffy mix on the shelves. Picked up a cheap grow light kit to try at Lowes. It was so depressing to drive up and they had NO plants out side. I know it was really cold, but I don't remember ever going there when there wasn't SOMETHING out.

Kim, I wasn't always bothered by scents, but the older I get, the worse it is.

Nancy, burn those candles on the deck when y'all are out there. Who knows, might even deter bugs. I look forward to a review of your new book.

I gave up on teflon pans when I read how they had poisoned the area where they are manufactured.

The water lines in Tulsa are breaking right and left. That is something I could never understand. It happens often enough, why not put them deeper? And streets like Harvard where they're buried under the street so the street has to be dug up to fix them.

I hope our onions don't bolt this year. I bought long days, I want them to store.

I tend to plan my work for when DH isn't here. He goes to work later in the day and he's home an extra day. I think he spends one of his days off recuperating from working 4 10s, LOL. HE likes it, but apparently the company doesn't. They have people working Sun-Wed, Wed-Sat and normal 5 day weeks. They're confused, ha ha, and talking about returning to normal work week.

Rebecca, I'd just check the estimated DTMs on the short-season bell pepper you're interested in growing and see how it compares to the ones you usually grow. You may or may not get peppers earlier. With peppers, much depends on how cold or warm they are during their early days outdoors after they're planted out. If they stay warm, they can bloom and set fruit pretty early. If they get exposed to too much cold while young, they can stall and not bloom or fruit for a long time, and it doesn't matter what their estimated DTMS are or if they were bred for short-season areas---peppers simply don't like being cold. So, I think their growing conditions outdoors govern how early you get fruit more than the breeding up to a certain point. I learned this first-hand. I used to transplant peppers into the ground at the same time I transplanted tomatoes. After I learned peppers were less tolerant of cold, I started transplanting them into the ground 2-4 weeks after I transplanted tomatoes. The result? I started harvesting peppers in June instead of July. It is odd to think that planting later gets you an earlier harvest, but it certainly can work out that way, or it least it does here in my county.

I've grown other Summercrisp lettuces that were as heat tolerant as Muir, including Nevada and Cherokee. Pretty much any lettuce that is a Summercrisp will be almost as heat tolerant, if not exactly as heat tolerant, as Muir. Other retailers also carry Muir, including Harris Seeds and David's Seeds. If all of them don't have it this year, we can safely assume their wholesale seed grower had a huge crop failure and that none of them got their Muir seed for 2018.

None of us can stop you from buying zinnia seeds, but I'll say the words if you want to hear them: "Rebecca, Stop buying zinnia seeds!" There now, did that stop you? Nope? Well, I didn't think it would. So, the question becomes---is there a specific variety you want to buy and, if so, is it significantly different from the other varieties you already have? If it is significantly different, then of course, you need it. If it is very similar to what you already have, then why do you want it? I am a zinnia seed hoarder myself. I bet I have the seeds of 15 or 20 varieties in my seed box at the moment. The nice thing about zinnias is that even if I sow the seed as late as July 4th, I'll get flowers by the end of the summer so they are a great succession plant to replace something else that's already run its course.

I've been following the fire news all over the state and it seems shocking to me how many fire-related deaths (many, many of them related to space heaters) there have been all over the state in recent weeks. I read last night that OK is #1 in the USA this year for fire fatalities---not the sort of #1 we'd like to be. The OKC Fire Dept has been all over FB trying to get people to pay attention and check/replace the batteries in their smoke detectors because all their fatality fires so far this year have been in homes where there either were no smoke detectors or the ones that were in the homes did not have working batteries.

We're in clay soil too, so the house will always shift a bit here and there when it is very dry, but it never has shifted enough to crack a wall or anything. Usually the first sign of it is that the front door lock becomes a bit harder to lock and unlock with the key. When that happens I start running the soaker hoses around the foundation for a couple of hours a day a couple of days a week to try to keep the soil around the foundation from getting any drier than it already is. And, yes, our soil is too dry now and I need to run the soaker hoses (I've been waiting for us to get above freezing so I can do it).

Nancy, Celosia cristata is not at all fussy and it is way, way, way too early to start the seeds indoors unless you're going to repeatedly pot it up into larger containers indoors for months yet. It is most definitely a hot weather plant that doesn't like being transplanted into the ground while the soil and air temperatures still are cool. I usually start them about a month before I intend to transplant them out into the ground. To start the seeds indoors, sow them on the surface of your growing medium and just barely press them into the soil. They don't have to have light to germinate, but they will germinate more quickly if not covered too deeply---you probably could cover them with 1/16" to 1/8" of soil-less seed-starting mix, but pack it down gently and not too firmly. Keep the growing medium moist and the seeds will germinate in around 7 days (sometimes less) at a room temperature of around 68-70 degrees. They're really tiny when they sprout and will need the light source so close to the starter flat that it almost touches it. Otherwise, they'll stretch for the light and get leggy really quickly.

Amy, Honey sure gets to go to lots of cool places. I'm not going to tell my dogs that or they'll be jealous and want to go to the store too.

I don't understand about the water lines either, but it is exceedingly common here in this region. I assume that the pipes would put at a certain depth 50, 75 or 100 or more years ago---whenever the water systems were developed---and perhaps changing the depth of any of them would interfere in pressure in the whole system, but I'm just guessing. I haven't found any leaks here at the house, out in the yard or in the street where our water line comes off the water main, so I'm exceptionally happy. With an overnight low of 2 degrees, I was thinking there might be trouble but so far there hasn't been.

I do think it is harder to schedule around 10-hour work days than 8 hour workdays. In his years at the airport, Tim has worked every shift possible from 8 to 16 and every increment in between. They had the most trouble with the 10 hour shifts, especially since they have to have full staffing 24/7. It was hard to make the 4 10s work for everyone without having gaps.

Tim returned to work today, not 100% well but at least not coughing and not hoarse and raspy in his throat. So, he was back and at some point in the day one of the other 4 Asst Chiefs went home sick with the same stuff---almost like he was waiting for Tim to get back so he could be sick. They hate to have more than 1 of them out at the same time just because it leaves too much of the daily workload to be distributed to the others. Tim said the Chief has the same stuff too and just hibernated in his office all day, partly because he feels so poorly and partly to avoid spreading the flu. At least tomorrow is Friday so the administrative guys who've been working sick can at least stay home and be sick on the weekend since they're scheduled off on the weekends.

Murray County, two counties north of us, had a 2,000 acre wildfire today that started as 3 separate wildfires that eventually merged together. About 20 fire departments, from Murray County and beyond, fought the fires in that county today. I checked their fire weather conditions versus ours on the fire maps and they were virtually identical. (sigh) Everyone here was on pins and needles this afternoon and is dreading tomorrow because it is supposed to be even windier tomorrow. Our local TV met does a great, great job of explaining the fire danger every night and urging people to avoid burning.....I just wish people would listen to him and heed his words.

Fire danger is going up daily and, right now, Sunday's potential fire danger looks particularly bad. There's a chance of rain down here, but not a high chance and any amounts received would be very small.

One of our friends shot an armadillo at their place---I guess today, or maybe last night. They left its body where it fell in their pasture because, you know, vultures, coyotes, something/anything will be happy to have the meal. That something was a bald eagle. They looked outside and that eagle was sitting on top of the armadillo's body. One of them managed to snap a photo of it, and there were pretty excited to see an eagle on the ground at their place. Usually we only see them up in the air, though I have seen them sitting in treetops and on top of barns occasionally. There do seem to be more bald eagles around this year, though we always have them along the river. I just think they must be hunting more up here on the high ground this year, another sign that prey is scarce (which we already knew because we have a huge number of hawks and coyotes frantically hunting for meals each day).

I made a list of all the flower seeds I have, hoping that will keep me from ordering something I already have. I have so many that I shouldn't order any at all, but I still plan to order a few anyway.

Dawn

Onions

A gardener friend of mine ordered their onions from dixondale in a group order and he got them today and is going to plant while it is warm. I was shocked and he said well they came in I have to plant them.

I was pondering whether I should change my delivery date for later not sooner lol. I can't imagine all these market gardeners planting this week. They had a 20 plus case order so lots of market gardeners are planting early. Our zip says February 5th to 11th .

Dawn............not planting on the cart yet, no way! (I did a bunch of WS today, however.) The rest, including the celosia, I was trying to figure out which ones I'm going to have to start on the cart, and which I can direct sow. I've never grown it before, and read where it didn't much like being transplanted, so was thinking about direct sowing it. But if you say it can be transplanted to outdoors, perhaps I will put it on the cart. But NO not yet! LOL In fact, I'm going to plant on the cart later than I did last year, except for a few slow-germinating, slow to grow ones. Everything else, more toward the end of February--last year started everything in the first week of February. Got mighty tired of potting up! Besides, I have so many sweet potato vines, and a few begonias, brug cutting, perilla magillas, that are all going to be enormous by the time they can go outdoors. they'll be taking up otherwise needed cart room, too. So I'll direct sow anything I can, including zinnias, nasturtiums, ipomoeas, marigolds, calendulas. . .

I had a weak moment today. After all the talk about verbenas having poor germination rates, decided I'd better have more more more! So had to go find some MORE. Ended up at Pinetree. My they have a nice selection of greens, spinach, lettuce! Hahaha, so there went my final SESE order. I switched and got everything from Pinetree, just because they had the verbenas. They had this really cute little verbena called Verbena Tropical Fruits. It's different than most of what I've seen. And got the more bonariensis. So I can experiment to my heart's delight. Took the ones I had in the fridge and stuck them in WS today. I still have a few in the freezer. Think I'll take them out for a few days and let them warm up a bit, then maybe put in the fridge for a while, then WS later in Feb. (They'll be the "alternating" warm and cold ones.)

Oh--and Amy--those verbena Tropical Fruits looked kind of salmon-y, peachy-colored planted en masse. . . thought of you!

Kim, It is a risk to plant onions this early, and some years you can do it and get away with it and some years you can't/don't. Remember that onions are biennial and bolting can be induced if they are exposed to about one week's cold weather, and for this purpose cold is defined as temperatures below 45 degrees, after they reach roughly the 5-leaf stage, which is about the same time the diameter of the onion is the same as a No. 2. pencil. So, the folks planting now are making a calculated risk that they aren't going to have a week of sub-45 degree temperatures after mid-January. Are you buying that theory? And, of course, we don't know if Dixondale sent them onions with 3 leaves, 4 leaves...or 5 or 6. Maybe they always plant this early and it generally works out for them. Maybe they've just been lucky because recent winters have been abnormally warm. Maybe the weather that far west does settle down and stay mostly above 45 degrees beginning in mid-January. Who knows what their rationale is, other than the fact that with market growers, the first one to bring any crop to market usually can command a higher price for it due to the law of supply and demand. Maybe that's the angle they are playing. Can you check the weather history for your area and see what the last 3 years show as a trend in temperatures at this time of the year?

I generally plant a week later than DF's zip code thing says I should. So, this year I just requested delivery one week later than it suggests and I'm okay with that. I usually end up holding them at least a week while I wait for the weather to settle down anyhow and have held them for at least 3 weeks in some cold, wet years. I'm in a river valley and we tend to have cold nights late and I need to remain aware of that because if you don't plan for those late nights, they'll ruin your garden crops, both cool-season and warm-season alike. Sure, we'll be almost 70 degrees here this weekend, but a couple of days ago we were 2 degrees. That wide range tells me the weather hasn't settled down enough for planting yet. Maybe I'll feel differently two weeks from now.

Did you ask your friend if they mulch or use row covers if needed or have a plan in case another big cold spell hits in the next month or so? We had a forum member in Marshall County who planted his onions one year in the first week in January and he got away with it that year, but most years that is far too early so it isn't something a gardener here could do all the time. His attitude at the time was that if his onions froze, he'd just go buy more and replant them.

Nancy, I've grown every celosia and amaranth imaginable indoors and transplanted them out with no problem. I've direct sown them--no problem. They are easy and will grow either way. Then, they'll reseed for years thereafter, and at our place, they reseed in the oddest places....like 500' uphill from the garden. I think birds must eat the seeds off the mature flowerheads and then plant them in random spots. If people think the celosias are difficult to transplant, I imagine they have held them indoors too long and had them get too big and rootbound and then the plants stalled for a long time after being transplanted. Celosias and amaranths are generally on my "won't die and you can't kill them" list because they are that foolproof. Some of the newer ones need to be carefully timed, in terms of seed-starting dates, to correspond with daylength because they can have trouble blooming properly if started too early---it can mess up their blooming cycle if they are too large/mature and ready to bloom before they hit the right daylength that stimulates the bloom cycle. That's usually more of an issue for wholesale nurseries who are raising celosia bedding plants for retail nurseries that want for them to be in bloom when they hit the retail shelves, and it is only an issue with a few specific varieties. I think Dracula is one of them so that's one I specifically would avoid starting early.

I believe you officially have a seed-buying 'problem'. I don't have a seed-buying problem this year because I'm still using seeds purchased during the previous 5 years. If I could hurry up and use them up, then I could have a seed-buying problem going on next year....maybe.

Dawn

With our zoo, and somewhat lax cleaning habits, our house can get smelly quickly. So I tend to burn candles, use my wax warmer, douse the place in air freshener, you name it. But more often I seem to go towards simmering stuff on the stove. Orange slices, cinnamon sticks & cloves; lemon peel & rosemary sprigs; & vanilla extract & cinnamon are my favorites.

Nancy, I would just use the candles. Honestly, in the "holiday" months (Oct. Nov. Dec.) I have favorites from a particular store that I will probably always use--it's not just the smell, it's the tradition. Although, I might try to switch over to healthier ones especially if I make them myself. AND I will have another Woodwick next year. So cozy.

I even use the less "healthy" hand soaps during those months too--it's just a tradition I'm not quite willing to give up yet, although I've gone to healthier versions of most other household products for cleaning and such. I can't completely give up bleach yet, though. White vinegar is also a favorite of mine, especially when citrus peels are soaked in it.

(Healthier deodorant--I use it, but it's not my favorite!)

Thanks for sharing the pic of the grow cart on fb, Nancy. ! I love that thing. Was it custom built or can it still be purchased?

Does anyone use copper cookware? Any worries with it being safe? We have a couple of pieces and use it often. I make scrambled eggs in it almost every morning.

Speaking of eggs, my hens are really starting to roll them out. It's weird, but twice I've found green ones in the droppings "hammock" that is below their roost bars. Do hens ever drop eggs while roosting at night? I actually have 3 dozen right now. That's the most I've ever had. People keep asking if I sell my eggs and say that they're interested in buying them. I feel weird about taking money for them. I don't know why.

This has been a hard week for me for no real reason. I just feel out-of-sorts. Maybe because I "needed" Monday to sort my week out and didn't get it. I really do much better when I'm alone on Mondays and get charged up for the week. I feel better finally. I was able to get the kitchen back in proper order (proper by my standards) and walk the dogs tonight. Even cooked real food--Penne Alla Norma. A lovely vegetarian dish with eggplant, onions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and plum tomatoes. The tomatoes were purchased of course. But as I was chopping them, I had a terrible craving for garden tomatoes. I salted one and ate it and was disappointed. They were organic but just not very tasty. They were fine in the recipe though. Anyway...glad to be back "in sorts". It's really spoiled to be affected by a messed up Monday when so many other people have real problems. Maybe it's like Maslow's Hierarchy. I don't know.

The grocery store had little pots of herbs. I bought a basil and am so excited about it. I'm going to put it in a cute pot. I was so frustrated last week because I could not find fresh basil in the stores. Seriously, three months ago it was growing wild and free all over the garden.

I am heading to bed early--incredibly tired tonight. I am almost out of my Sleepy Time Tincture and need to make more. Valerian root is so smelly, but once tinctured, it's not bad nor does it taste bad.

Wow guys. I can't keep up with the thread today. Just took about 30m to review it hahaha.

Dawn, I'm thankful that we don't have nearly as many fires as you seem to have down there. Even in dry years, we seem to get enough rain to offset any. We do get the occasional wildfire in places, but not nearly as bad as down there! Can you believe what it would have been like 200 some years ago, fighting fires with a bucket of water? We visited the Old Salem site in North Carolina last April (which had some very pretty gardens), and they showed how fires would have been fought back when the town was at its peak. Of course it goes easier when every man of the town helps, but I would feel very hopeless fighting a fire with a bucket of water.

My camellia plant did great in the summer, but when I had brought it in over winter, suddenly the leaves started turning brown and dropping. Eventually it died. Our house is very dark, and I've wondered if it would have been due to not having enough light. Maybe it was too dry? I would love to put it outside, but it just gets far too cold here for that. I may try another this spring. Amy, I don't drink as much tea as you it seems. I usually only drink hot tea, 4-5 mugs a day. I do drink iced tea if available as well. I tend to stick to my hot tea in the mornings during the summer and mainly drink iced tea. Suddenly hot tea does not sound so great when it's 90 degrees outside. I have tried coffee, but do not like it. Way too strong for me. My favorite black tea is either PG Tips or Typhoon for hot tea. I don't like soda pop much either. I used to but haven't touched it in years. Anymore if I try it I feel sick for a while afterwards, way too sweet.

Hazel, none of our chickens are laying. We're not completely sure what's going on with them. They haven't laid since last summer. We haven't let them free range recently, and we're hoping to get a netting of some sort set up to keep them to the lower yard and forest. We're getting sick of poop on the porch! Most of the birds are 3+ years old and we've always run a light early in the morning in the winter, so my thoughts are just that they're just worn out. All year their production has been down. We had had a black snake getting in their last summer and eating eggs, but we haven't seen him in a long time. We also keep ceramic eggs in the boxes to train them to lay eggs in there when young, which seems to work well, but I suppose the snake thought it was real, as it suddenly disappeared, the snake with it. Predator control 101

Dawn, I'm just curious. Do you do mostly bed or row gardening?

HJ, glad you're back in sorts, sorry you were out of them. :) Xoxo. I know what you mean about the basil! I had 4 giant ones--like nearly 3 feet tall, just 2-2 1/2 months ago. I hope you have a beautiful night of restful sleep. . . sending a prayer for that while you're trying to sleep.

Glad you're getting eggs. I adore getting eggs from local folks. . . our grandkids' supply has currently been shipped out to other locations. A little bummed about that, but when we can occasionally get eggs at Aldi for $.46 or $.86 a dozen, it's almost as good! The eggs are far far superior to those we've gotten at Walmart OR Reasors! Orangish plump yolks. . . . good eggs.

HJ. David got the grow cart from Johnny's and yes, they still have them, as do many other places. I remember when he (had to hit the edit button here. Keyboard crashed. GDW just informed me the cats tipped my coffee cup over onto the keyboard last week. He meant to tell me, but forgot. LOL. So retrieved my other keyboard from the "computer room," which neither of us is ever in.) got it--he was so excited, and I was excited for him. He grew a lot of picky cacti and succulents on it. And a lot of everything else. He and my SIL had the Loveliest and most smashing large planting of globe thistles in their gravel raised beds in high desert Wyoming. They were just spectacular up there. I sure hope the ones I'm growing will do well here. . . but we get like 50 inches of rainfall (albeit mostly all at once!), whereas Wyoming's annual rainfall is 14 inches. No way in my lifetime so far that I could go spend $$ on this cart. But he did, and he thought to tell me to come get it, because he was retiring from it. He didn't live to see what I'm doing with it, but know he would be thrilled.

Yes, guys, of course we'll use the candles we have and then just not buy more. But we thought we were being very funny for deciding we could send the unhealthy candles to all our kids! LOL

Dawn, I'm sure GDW might think that you are right, that I may possibly have a seed-buying problem. He'd probably couch it in a nicer way, like a seed-buying "weakness." Haha! But his usual response when I tell him, somewhat apologetically or abashedly that I had a weak moment, is, "Honey, YOU see how many fishing poles and lures I have in the shop--YOU see how many of (this or that) I've got. I've got no room to say anything to anyone. If you can afford it, go for it. I don't have a problem with anything you decide." Yep, those are his words. In defense, I'm incredibly cheap on buying material goods, clothes, incredibly frugal with groceries and not throwing good dinner leftovers away, and all kinds of stuff. So as a result, I DO have money for seeds. AND, I keep saving him money! Got rid of his $340 Windstream bill by getting Roku, so now he pays $106. Got rid of the Sirius bill by making up playlists for him. Now can get rid of his candles expense by stovetop simmering! LOL Don't do holidays or birthdays or anniversaries. So he can relax about that. HATE leaving the house to go into town to eat. Oh, he has it SO made with me! I am a real bargain! LOLOL

I look out at the yard and gardens, and yep, Dawn. Frozen. Nada. Dead. BUT I laughed when you mentioned the honeysuckle. The ONLY thing I saw out there today that looked unfazed by the 3 degrees and similar temps WAS the coral honeysuckle Bruce accidentally included with the tradescantia he brought to the SF last year for me. I didn't WANT coral honeysuckle just because I had nowhere to put it. But hey, what's a person to do. So I plunked it in one of the near-to-the-house beds where the little 2-high rock walls run, next to the rosemary and thyme, Noticed later on, it was getting a little bit obnoxious, and growing in 2 directions, back toward the 4 o'clocks, and past the rosemary, thyme and oregano. Today when I was out, I saw these little strands of vine poking out of the heavy leaf mulch here and there and realized it was the coral honeysuckle. Figures. So--do y'all love the coral honeysuckle, everyone?

Jacob, when I was on Pinetree tonight, didn't see the lettuces I'd had on the SESE site, but saw your Rouge Grenobloise, so glommed onto it! I got a chuckle out of that. Meant to mention it in last post.

It's interesting to me that you tea-lovers don't have a problem with tea, but do coffee. For me, it is the reverse. I can do mild teas, and love some of them, but cannot do regular "tea" that one buys--upsets my stomach mightily. Tannic acid, probably? Even the unsweetened ice tea we always drank when I was growing up, nope, can't do for the past several years, and have tried! I love unsweetened iced tea.

Okay, back to the book. Yes, Amy, it's good and full of information, but a little advanced for me in the first 3 chapters. But GOOD.

Kim, I appreciated the onion question and appreciated your response to it, Dawn. Further education.

Y'all are still just too chatty today. But that's ok, I still got to read things I wanted to.

Nancy, I WSd celosia last spring, and it didn't do well. Basically keeled over mid-summer. Now reading what Dawn said about it, I'm sure I started the seeds and planted out too early. (FWIW, it did WS nicely, just was weak and stunted.) I'll do it again this spring, just wait until probably late March or sometime in April, depending on the weather. And if you're sure you have enough PEPH seeds, I'll PM you my address this weekend. I have some cactus flowered zinnias, but I'm not a huge fan of them. I'm a sucker for the dahlia flowered, scabiosa, and single and doubles. Anything big and brightly colored. Keeps with the 'hot mess' garden theme.

Amy, I think the problem with our water lines is how old they are, and how deep they buried them way back then. That's an awful break at 21st and Peoria. They said that they do have water service restored, but by the time they repair everything that needs to be repaired, and replace several hundred feet of line that's ready to blow, and THEN rebuild the entire intersection, it'll take at least 4 months- assuming no more breaks. And there are people who won't be able to get into their own driveways for that long.

Dawn, tonight Travis Meyer is showing the La Nina weather pattern through at least April. Worsening drought just west of you, but most of us around normal temps and moisture through next month. I'll also poke around on the DTMs on the peppers. If I put them out late April-ish, I don't get peppers until mid-July. I'd like to get peppers in June like you do. Wondering if wrapping the cages in clear plastic might help them out? Hmm. And yes, I just noticed this week that it's harder to lock and unlock my front door. My house is on piers and secure, but when it gets really dry, there are a few cracks that open up in a few spots, and then they close back up when we get enough moisture. Hoping we get back to 'normal' moisture soon.

I'm looking forward to having a milder weather week coming up, and getting to start some WS containers Saturday. At least, until next weekend when it might be winter again.

HJ, I don't use the healthier deodorant (or laundry or dish soap) because it doesn't work well enough (for me) to justify the cost. Hopefully soon it will get better. I don't like to stink.

Dawn I don't think he knows to have a plan. He doesn't trust me since I have only been gardening since 2011 and he was born in the garden. I tried to explain about bolting but I could tell he was not buying it. He thinks it's way too early but he has a case sitting there so he has to do something. Mine are due in the week of the 5th and I am not sure if that is not too early. We will see.

HJ I would sell the eggs. And don't feel a bit weird about it. The girls work hard making those eggs and deserve a fair wage. Here they bring 5.00 dozen for pasture raised eggs. Some people charge 3 but their chickens are in small coop and feed junk. And you know I really think we need more sun shine and soil therapy.

This place is chatty today. It's funny it goes in spells like rain. My personal tsunami is over and back to even keel. I am loving and appreciating this phase so much. What a blessing to be able to set up my new place and no crazy schedule working 8 to 10 hours a day. Hopefully today I will get almost all the rest of my stuff. I have spent many hours thinking outside of the box. Like I have given up the idea of a spare bedroom. It will have to be storage. And I gave my treasured desk to my son. I really am not a desk type person. I like tables. So I am setting up a mobile desk. It's funny to me at my age and I feel like this is my first home. But honestly since my first husband and I divorced I have not really had a home just places I stayed , temporarily. Uh that was 25 years ago lol.

My main focus today will be my veggie bed and my dog. They are growing like crazy and Sophie is eating 5x as much as normal. I bought her the good hi protein no junk food so she should do well. They have it specially made for a dog rescue lady who just happens to be my friend/lawyer.

Rebecca I find that if I do a vinegar rinse in the laundry it eliminates all odor. I do not like the artificial smell of chemical fragrance but I enjoy nature. Wonder if I could throw some basil in there. A friend of mine uses cheap vanilla. He smells like cookies lol.

Has anyone drank hot tea with fresh stuff straight from the garden? I saw a lady on YouTube video and she had something and just puts hot water on it. It looked so good. I may grow more stuff for that like more mint and lemon something.

Jen, I save the peel from fruits like apples, oranges, pears, etc. and toss them into a freezer zip lock bag in the freezer. When I want to perfume the house, I'll add some of them and a handful of aromatic spices to a pot of water on the stove and simmer it. I like having a house that smells nice without having to use any artificial scents. Sometimes, when we are starving for fresh tomatoes in winter, I take a bag of frozen tomatoes out of the deep freeze, simmer them on the stovetop all day (which makes the house smell exactly the same way it smells when I'm canning or dehydrating tomatoes) and then after the moisture in those tomatoes has been greatly reduced, I'll turn what's left into soup or sauce. Having a house that smells like tomatoes all day long in the dead of winter is priceless.

Jennifer, I have some copper cookware I've used on and off since the 1980s and, as far as I know, it is perfectly safe. Mine is lined with stainless steel on the interior and, if I am correctly remembering what the instructions said when we purchased it around 1984, we are supposed to stop using it if the lining wears through and we can see copper on the interior. That hasn't happened. I would not use unlined copper pots.

Our chickens started laying around Monday or Tuesday, but they are laying in nesting boxes not while roosting. I believe they've begun laying again because the daylength has hit the right amount of daylight hours for them now. Sometimes, if we are not paying attention at this time of year, a hen will hide beneath the brooder and set on her eggs and then will hatch out chicks in late February or early March when it really is too cold for them. Then, we have to catch the chicks and move them to the brooder and turn on a heat lamp.

Jacob, Some people will keep a light on in their coop in the winter in order to provide enough light to keep the hens laying. You really don't have to leave it on overnight---just for a couple of hours in the evening and maybe another hour or two in the early morning. That little bit of extra light can help keep the hens laying if you want eggs in winter.

We have wildfires so much because we have so much dry grassland, low humidity most of the winter, and high winds. Just in my one little county, we have thousands and thousands of acres of dry range land ready to burn at the drop of a hat. The official winter fire season (which usually is our worst fire season) here runs from roughly January through March, but in some drought years (like 2005, 2006, 2008.....) it has started in September or October and run until early May. Much depends on when we green up sufficiently to slow down the fires. Green grass can and does burn (and it burns hotter than dry, dormant or dead grass because it releases oxygen....) but once we have more green grass than brown grass the fires usually stop running wild. Fire Danger has just kicked up to another level for 5 of the next 6 days with Sunday being particularly dangerous. Adding to the danger is the fact that we have a lot of big ranches where they use prescribed burning as a tool to burn off and renew pastures and keep brush and woodland trees from invading. Prescribed burning is great when done properly when wind is low and big firebreaks are plowed around 100% of the area to be burned. Unfortunately, too many people are lazy and don't plow firebreaks and also choose to burn when it is too windy. Then, those so-called prescribed burns/controlled burns escape and turn into raging wildfires. We have a ranch here in our area that has a prescribed burn planned for today. I hope they are very, very careful.

With your chickens, it may be a nutritional issue. Try switching them from their hen scratch to a laying crumble if you aren't already feeding them a layer mix of some sort. Sometimes that is all it takes. If the issue isn't daylength and it isn't nutritional, then something else is wrong. While egg production slows down as chickens age, we still have gotten good egg production from hens that are even 5 or 6 years old---not as many eggs as they laid in their first year, but still more than enough eggs.

I grow mostly raised beds in the front garden, where about 70% of it is raised beds. We generally build one new raised bed per year, so eventually 100% of it will be raised beds. The soil in the front garden is mostly red clay (you could make bricks or flower pots from it before it is amended) and raised beds are essential for most things (though not for corn or okra) and amending the soil every year is essential or it eventually reverts back to being pure red clay. In the back garden, which is more of a sandy/clayey loam, it is row gardening. In both the front and back gardens, I also have some large containers (cattle feed tubs) where I grow various things---sometimes veggies, sometimes just herbs or flowers. Those large containers have hugelkultur type materials in the bottom half with a purchased soil-less mix in the top half of the containers.

Nancy, Many of us have made light shelves similar to your cart (but without the wheels) just by adding shop light fixtures to purchased shelving units. They work just fine although they aren't as pretty as your cart....and I'd never spend that kind of money for a cart either, but it is great that you inherited one, especially one with such sentimental value.

I love, love, love the coral honeysuckle. It is beautiful in bloom and feeds gazillions of hummingbirds throughout the growing season. I mostly grow it for them. It can be invasive, but I don't care. Here in southcentral OK, summer drought can wipe out tons of one's plants---not just annual flowers and veggies, but perennials, shrubs, trees, etc......in the abnormally horrific drought of 2011, even the native cacti died. The coral honeysuckle? It just keeps on keeping on, so I have a deep appreciation for a plant like that.

Rebecca, I've been watching the La Nina and also watching Australia's summer weather right now because a very bad La Nina summer for them generally correlates with us having a bad La Nina Spring (and sometimes summer as well). It has been so hot in parts of Australia this summer that the heat is roasting bats' internal organs causing some bats to literally drop dead from the sky while flying. I've never heard of that happening before and worry it might be a bad omen.

Fire danger is ramping up. The entire western half of OK and much of the adjacent areas of TX now have a Fire Weather Watch for Sunday that is expected to be upgraded, at least in some areas, to a Red Flag Fire Warning. Our winter fire season began in earnest in southern OK this week, and it may be about to begin in other areas now.

Kim, Onion plants do not have to go immediately into the ground. They can be held for at least 3 weeks just fine----Dixondale says so themselves---and I have safely held them for 6 weeks. One way to hold them is to just open up the shipping carton and keep them in a cool, dry place. Some of the nurseries I frequent take it a step further. They fill flats with lava sand only very slightly moistened and heel in the bundles of onions into the lava sand. They don't keep it wet enough that they start new growth, but the lava sand around the plants keeps the bundles from drying out and turning brown.

Sometimes I make herbal tea with handfuls of leaves from the garden. It is great. Some people set aside a bed and grow a tea garden in it, but my herbs are scattered around and I just cut them as I need them. You also can collect your chamomile flower heads and make chamomile tea from them.

Dawn

Oh yes chamomile! I will have to have a small section closer to my back door for this. My raised bed will be 6x6 so I can grow a few things close. Like herbs and carrots.

I love chamomile. It makes a nuisance of itself by reseeding so abundantly everywhere, but it is hard to be unhappy about that. I often leave it in the pathways when it pops up there and just walk on it when it reseeds there--when you step on it, it releases that lovely chamomile aroma.

All this talk about natural cleaners and fresheners... There's a website (stopthestomachflu.com) where this lady has conducted all sorts of experiments (she claims to be a phd & details her process, so I give her more credit than some of the other "all natural" advocates). Some of her experiments are interesting. And now I'm vindicated in using peroxide to cleam my bathroom sink all these years. My mom used to tell me nothing cleaned as well as lysol.

Rebecca, my Muir lettuce is on back order from Johnny's. I wonder what they will do, since they took my money. Natural Gardening has it listed in their catalog.

I have decided I am going to grow pimento/cheese peppers more than bells. And the Figitelli Sicilia was the most productive sweet pepper I've ever grown. It's no a bell, you couldn't stuff it, but chopped, interchangable with bells. It was an impulse buy from BC. Last year was just such an exceptional year for peppers. The bell that did best for me was a hybrid called Blight Buster that was a bonus from Seeds n Such.

Dawn, it's been so cold Honey was bored with being indoors. And bored dogs get in trouble. She LOVES going with DH any where. She didn't even have any accidents today. The beagle gets car sick, so we could never take her places. She is so old and fat and can't get in the car by herself now, but she LOVED walking around Southern Ag before her rabies shot. I don't even think she cared that she got a shot. She is one of those dogs that looks like she's smiling, so walking around the store wagging her tail and smiling and walking up to people like pet me.

My nephew got a job disinfecting a grade school and promptly got the flu.

"Clusters of blooms in shades of cream, peach and salmon", Verbena Tropical Fruits. I am a sucker for peach and salmon. Did you get those, Nancy?

H/J, I've bought the Mrs. Meyers hand soap (it was on sale), and it smells devine and doesn't bother me. DH bought a lemon verbena that smelled very masculine. The other one we had was some kind of citrus. But I can get a huge bottle of generic softsoap at Walmart. For a couple of years I made my own laundry soap. I don't know if it was more natural, but no detergent. Then, one day I felt the soap scum build up on the top edge of my washer. The vinegar rinse might have got the soap off the clothes, but it was leaving residue on my washer. Could it be building up in the drain? I use a free and clear Tide or All now.

Legally, if you sell your eggs, you have to wash them. Then they have to be refrigerated. I only sell to my friends, who prefer them unwashed. Most of the time I give them to them. I gave one lady a dozen in a recycled egg carton. Her husband is like "these eggs are expired" "no they're not" "they will make you sick" "no they won't" "I'm not eating them" "good, I am" "those look REALLY good". Maybe it's funnier because I know them. Now, I cross out the expiration date and put the month laid on top.

If I remember right, our chickens didn't take much time off their first winter. They aren't laying now. Speckles had started laying again before her demise (she was the only one to lay white eggs.)

Nancy, seeds are pretty cheap compared to some things people collect...antiques, shoes, jewelery, clothes. DH has tools. And I have not come close to the price of the shot gun he bought for his Christmas present.

Kim, does Sophie get to go with you?

Interesting web site, Jen.

I discovered how to see my yard through appreciative eyes, rather than critical ones. Look at the photos of it while it's green and growing, but don't look until January 18. My goodness. I actually just gasped.

Yes, Amy, I got 'em. Did you? I hope not, cuz I got some for you!

Howard Garrett is already getting me into trouble. Just started Chapter 4, Plant Varieties. Uh-oh.

Good info and ideas, Dawn, thank you. I see that I'm going to have to keep the honeysuckle, and also find a more suitable location for it. It was just this puny little twig when I planted it. I didn't give it a second thought, and never expected it to live, even. Oh, sheesh. WHERE to put it! They're not as thuggish as regular honeysuckles, are they? Do you think it would be okay on the lattices under our deck? Glad this came up. It's still small enough to move easily. I'll have to get that done soon. If it will work against the lattice, it would certainly be beautiful climbing up to the deck railing.

This is an interesting month for seed availablity. All the webstites tend to have seeds listed that they plan to sell in 2018. When those seeds are unavailable in January, we're left hanging wondering if is a seed crop failure (in which case most companies won't have that variety at all this year because they mostly all buy their seeds from the same large multinational seed producing companies so seed crop failures pretty much hit everyone the same), a seed germination failure (seeds tested fall below the Federal Germination Standard) or if their wholesale seed orders for 2018 just haven't arrived at their warehouses yet. I think Johnnie's has updated their website to show Seed Crop Failure (usually if they are awaiting a shipment, it will show Back Order and the date they expect to receive the seed), so usually in that case, if you already ordered, they'll send you an alternate of their choice unless you specified No Substitutions. For what it is worth, Harris Seeds shows Muir seed back ordered and due to arrive the first week in February, and David's Garden Seeds' (based in San Antonio) website shows they have it, though I have not tried ordering it to see if it really is in stock. You also can find it on Ebay where the packet offered by David's Garden Seeds was currently going for $11.77 when I checked it a few minutes ago---law of supply and demand and all that.

Amy, Honey sounds like she travels well and enjoys meeting "her" public---perhaps she was a Queen in another lifetime. I understand the boredom part. Today's the first day (60 degrees!) the dogs have stayed outdoors for a sizable period of time in quite a while. The wind still is blowing cold, but it feels a lot better than it has in the last week and they are so bored that they needed to stay out a while today to avoid losing their minds.

How unfortunate for your nephew. I bet he regrets taking that job. The last time I checked, the number of school districts closed here by the flu in Texoma now number 13. Some plan to reopen as soon as Monday. I hope their plan to get all the schools sanitized to help slow the spread of the flu when everyone gets back to class actually works. Some schools have been out ever since Tuesday, but others only closed for today or for yesterday and today. I don't know if just an extra day or two off will make a difference. I guess they'll find out next week if it helped.

I agree that seeds are cheap compared to what some people collect. Think about how many packets of seeds we can get for the price of one nice pair of name-brand shoes....or one designer handbag. Tim never complains about what I spend on seeds and I think it is because he is relieved I'm not buying shoes, clothing, handbags or jewelry instead.

Nancy, Take it all with a grain of salt. When I read The Organic Manual, I think mine was an updated version of the original one, and it was updated in 2001. I have no idea when the very first edition came out. There's been a ton of plant variety changes since then and HG is more a landscaper than a veggie gardener, so I don't know if the veggies he recommends have been updated much over the years. Even if you have the 2008 edition, that's a decade old at this point. I probably am not growing a lot of the varieties I loved in 2001 or 2008 either. Times change and better stuff comes along. Also, his target audience is Texas so his varieties, whether herb, veggies, fruit, perennials or whatever, often are geared to folks in a warmer climate than yours. To me, his books are more useful on the basis of teaching his philosophy and techniques than on specific variety recommendations. And, because I listened to his radio show forever when living in the DFW metro, I still hear his voice in my mind, saying (as he closed the weekly show) "and don't forget to feed the birds!" To this day, we still feed the birds year-round and if you mention HG to Tim, he's likely to quip "don't forget to feed the birds".

Our wind is a PITA today but both the relative humidity and dewpoint are much, much higher than they have been over the last week or so and the air feels cool, moist and pleasant for once. It is so nice! We have fires anyway, but no real bad ones today so far.

I'm watering the most important part of our landscape today---the compost pile. I want it nice and moist so that, if a grass fire sneaks in and makes it onto our property over the next few days, at least maybe the compost pile won't burn. I don't care if I get it soggy wet---at least it won't burn and it will dry out again, probably all too quickly with all this wind and high fire danger days.

I didn't order flower seeds today. I did order flowers for my aunt's funeral. After I got over the sticker shock from doing that (and I really tried hard NOT to compute how many seed packets I could have bought for the same amount of money), I wasn't in the mood to spend more money. I don't need seeds. I don't need seeds. I don't need seeds. That doesn't stop me from wanting them though.

Dawn

It was the herbs he talked about that got me, Dawn! LOL I just realized I MUST have borage and catnip and scented geraniums and pineapple sage. I've heard you talk about pineapple sage.

Jacob, Dawn, and Chicken People, my older hens (they'll be 3 this spring) began their molt at the beginning of fall, except Stella. She started hers when it got cold (she's a weird chicken). They're all fluffy again except Stella is just partially fluffy. I'm not sure who is laying eggs--if the older girls are laying again or it's just the "babies". Stella and one of the new girls are white egg layers. I have a white egg every day--but just one. Two are Easter Eggers and I get a green egg about every other day. The others are various shades of brown. I'm not home much, so it's hard to "catch" them in the nesting box to see who is laying what. I keep their coop light on until 8 each night. We are fortunate to have electricity in our coop. The green egg that was found in the "hammock" (twice) was found in the morning--maybe someone dropped an egg during the night? I'll probably skip baby chicks this year to focus on other things. My coop could comfortably house 20, I think. The pen is a little small for 20 though.

Kim, my chickens aren't really pasture chickens. They get to range in the afternoon. So...I guess they are somewhere in between. We eat a lot of eggs at my house. Someday I will try persevering them in the lime water.

Dawn, if you are sharing coral honeysuckle at the Spring Fling, I would gladly take some. I have a place all ready for it.

Our copper cookware is lined with ceramic tech...or something like that--those ones that are advertised all over the place now. I've heard/read that ceramic is bad for you. But this is advertised as 100% safe, PFOA, PTFE, and PFOS free. I'm honestly not sure what any of that means..haven't researched it yet.

Rebecca, I use the healthier deodorants in the winter and in the summer months when I'm not going to be around other people. LOL. I have the "bad" stuff for other times. I don't smell even without it--healthy or not healthy, but I don't like to sweat either. My right arm pit does a nervous sweat thing. TMI lol

Amy, I don't wash my eggs...just sorta wipe them off right before using if they need it. I have two dozen in the refrigerator and a basket full sitting on the counter right now. Once a carton is emptied, I reload from the basket and put them in the fridge. That way the older eggs are going into the refrigerator. People are funny about their eggs and food in general. I have a vegetarian friend who is freaked out by homegrown eggs--she really should be vegan as she likes to be far removed from her food's origins...and anything involving an animal is gross to her if she can't buy it in the store in a sealed package--even dairy stuff that isn't meat...like my eggs.

Kim, fresh herbs make great teas. I also like to slice cucumbers, mint, strawberries and other things to put in a pitcher of cold water. It lightly flavors it and is refreshing...especially in the hotter weather.

All right. That is all. Happy Friday, y'all. Leaving work in a few minutes. yay!

It is 56 degrees right now! I was just outside checking things out. Nothing has changed since this morning. But I was not wearing a jacket! Just sweater. It's kinda windy. Tomorrow and Sunday--supposed to be in low 60s! I got so sidetracked today from my mission. First all of your talk about smells. Love the fruit peel tip; love hearing about the drinks--your last one sounds yummy, HJ. GDW and I laughed about the guy who smells like cookies, Kim.

By the way, how is Sophie doing? Sounds like her broken leg/hip? hasn't held her back. Take a picture of the puppies when you have time?

Also need to see new picture of Honey, the giant industrial-sized Honey. She weighs almost as much as Titan now. Is she as tall as he is?

I'm awfully excited about the coral honeysuckle now. And everything else garden-related, including more herbs. I also got nervous about Almost Eden possibly selling out of the brug (a double pink, Sommer Joy). I wanted the orange one, too, but NO. I've had my eye on for, oh, about five months, as well as the Annabelle hydrangeas, so I went ahead and ordered them. Those are my big plant expenses for this year. Ouch. It smarted.

When you talked about having tomatoes simmering on the stove, Dawn, I thought, "YES!" So retrieved a sack of frozen tomatoes and dumped them into a pot. Then decided I'd make up a whole bunch of sauce and freeze it in batches. So that's how my afternoon has gone. . . adding a bit of this, a bit of that, more tomatoes, a bag of frozen onions, peppers, carrots, celery, lots of seasoning. And I had NO plans for that. And in between, looking for the missing herbs, reading more. I note HG likes alfalfa hay! I'm terribly excited about his bug chapter. I do not know bugs. I almost, in fact, got his bug book for my first HG book. But I am SO done spending money on seeds or gardening for this month.

My dad used to work for Simmons chicken company, and growing up he could get "unprocessed" eggs really cheap. Since they weren't cleaned, we left them out until they got eaten. I didn't even realize people kept eggs in their fridge until I got to college.

Tomorrow is puppy playground day. The boys are getting antsy & the puppy is ... being a puppy. So either we take them to a dog park or go nuts.

Nancy, I think the coral honeysuckle will do great there where you want to grow it.

I grow borage, both the blue-flowered and the white-flowered ones. The blues ones reseed more readily than the white ones. I don't know why. I like scented geraniums but no longer grow them---they need more water and attention than I am willing to give them in drought years. I'm really expecting a drought year this year, so need to keep things simple because drought years usually also are bad fire years throughout most of the year, not just in the traditional winter fire season. Pineapple sage is an incredible herb and the leaves are lovely in a tea mix of various mixed herbal leaves. In my poor, drought-challenged and heat-challenged garden, a pineapple sage transplant (they will be with the herbs on all the Bonnie Plants plant displays by April if not before) that is just a few inches tall when transplanted will be a 4' tall by 3-4' wide monster plant by mid-summer and it will bloom with gorgeous red salvia type blooms. I usually grow it tucked into a perennial border filled with various autumn sage plants that bloom in shades of red, white and sort of a fuschia-pinkish-purplish-red. It looks right at home among them, but they are perennial and it is not. Still, after a mild winter (so, not after this year's winter), it sometimes comes back and might be considered a half-hardy annual down here this far south. I had one come back in 2015 and 2016 (I think I planted it in 2014) but it didn't come back in 2017 and I didn't expect it to because we dropped down into the low single digits last year just like we did this week and it is a zone 8 plant. Butterflies and hummingbirds love it, and so do I.

Jennifer, I think Stella just marches to the beat of her own drummer. We've had chickens like that before.

I'm planning to bring coral honeysuckle to the Spring Fling.

We had a friend here who wouldn't eat home-grown eggs because he didn't like their color---he didn't like the bright yellowish-orange yolks because he was only used to the pale yellow yolks of grocery store eggs. No matter how many times we explained the color came from the chickens' higher protein/free range diet and their freshness, he just didn't like them. By contrast, the only eggs his then-young son would eat was our guinea eggs. Other than those, he wouldn't eat any egg from any store or anything. He thought the guinea eggs tasted "right" and all other eggs tasted wrong.

Happy Friday evening to you and I hope you have a great weekend away from work.

Nancy, Isn't that the best smell when the house smells of cooking tomatoes?

Should I even tell you that you can grow brugmansias from seed? Oops, I just did. Anyhow, here's a great source for brug seeds as well as some of the more unusual datura seeds......and all kinds of unusual seeds in general.

Brug and Datura Seeds

There, I've done my enabling for the day.

Dawn

So, I'm watching the 6 p.m. news and now we're up to 15 schools in the Texoma region that have cancelled school completely due to the flu. The three most recent ones resume class on either Tuesday or Wednesday and have hired a company called GermBlast to deep clean the schools. (I personally would not want to work that company or any other that does this sort of cleaning......). I think the flu surely must be running rampant down here now on both sides of the river. We've had a school district or two cancel classes due to flu outbreaks (or norovirus) before, but never 15 of them in the same week. This is crazy---and I do not blame them for doing it. I just cannot believe how bad this flu outbreak has become.

Daughter just sent this to me. She's been playing with her 3 dogs all day and they all got tired. That pillow is the biggest dog bed petsmart has. I think she's as tall as Titan. I think she's about 65 pounds.

You only have to plant catnip once. There will be pineapple sage plants around in spring. Sometimes it grows really well for me, sometimes not. It doesn't over winter. Borage tends to reseed easily, too.

H/J, people are weird about "home grown" stuff like veggies and eggs. Most everyone is ok with tomatoes, but only if they're red. Whatever. Their loss.

I've never heard ceramic is bad. Apparently everything is bad.

I don't was my eggs either.

Dawn, Honey is like a toddler that wakes up in a new world every day. She is so happy, so alert and I think really smart.

I can't remember if I said I wouldn't take substitutions on my Johnny's order or not. I would rather pick something else or have a credit. I will wait and see.

I'm sorry about your aunt. Sorry about the sticker shock. Sorry no flower seeds.

I cleaned the toy room today so I could put my grow light in there. I don't usually see the cat in there, and it has a gate to keep the dog out. I hope I can keep seedlings safe. Then we went to Hobby Lobby to get big eyed needles and upholstery thread to sew up dog toys and beds. I've been using dental floss, but I think the cinnamon flavor just attracts the dog to chew on it. BTW nothing beats dental floss for mending things that get rough treatment. The fabric around it will tear, but not the floss. I've repaired softball bags and backpacks. But the only kind I have right now is cinnamon.

Giant bed--yes, she is good-sized!

Yes, Dawn. I'm sorry about your aunt, too. Was this your father's sister? Travel safely.

Amy, I think you're right--folks are scared if a tomato isn't red!

Dawn. . . I was trying to remember some of the seed sites my bro used to order from and when I saw Seedman, realized that was the one he used to order lots of succulents from! I got a good laugh, in general. But you are BAD BAD BAD! But in a good way. :)

Thank you! LOL

Amy, She's so big! What happens when she outgrows the dog bed? She'll need her own twin sized bed.

Thanks y'all for the kindness extended with regards to my aunt's death. She is the widow of my dad's baby brother, and she and my mom were the last two survivors of his family---my dad and all his brothers and sisters are long gone, as are all the other brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law except for my mom, who turns 89 next week and my aunt, who turned 93 a couple of months before she passed away. I know a person shouldn't have a favorite aunt, but she was my favorite aunt. She always was well-dressed in a classy but not overstated way---sort of simple elegance. She sewed. She cooked magnificent meals. Her home was beautifully decorated---again, not in a fancy and uncomfortable way, but in a comfortable and cozy way. Her yard was to die for. She always was sweet and soft-spoken, but also didn't take any crap from anyone----and I am thinking all the way back to the 1960s when women were more or less expected to be seen and not heard. Her family was always the most important thing in her life. Furthermore, she didn't age for decades. I remember looking at her in the 1990s and thinking she didn't look like she had aged any since the 1960s, and that is not an exaggeration. My dad always thought she had the prettiest skin of any of the women in our family, and I think he was right. I don't think she really got significant wrinkles until she was in her early 80s.

My aunt lost her husband to a post-surgical (cancer) heart attack in 1979 when my cousin was a senior in high school. She carried on, lived her life, supported herself and her daughter, and never ever complained about it. It is hard for me to look at the calendar and realize she outlived her husband by almost 40 years. She never remarried, but she had a boyfriend for a few years, though both of them kept separate homes and never lived together. Until she moved back to her home town about 10 years ago, she never even had cleaned her husband's clothes out of their closet and dresser drawers (this freaked out her daughter who was helping her pack for the move to her home town). We all will miss her so much. No one can bake like she did. I think the last home-baked pie she made that I devoured like a starving wolf was lemon chess pie, and it goes without saying that her pie crust always was made from scratch and was perfect. Oh, and she loved my garden. Once she moved to an old country house in her home town, she loved showing us her house and all the things she was doing to it to make it suit her tastes without destroying its character....and she was in her 80s by then. I admired her energy! I always thought she was just the perfect role model for all of us girl cousins.

I feel sorry for my mom. She's the last one of her generation left on my dad's side. There are some older nieces and nephews that aren't far from her in age (one of them was the daughter of my dad's oldest brother....and I think she was born almost the same year as my dad's youngest brother). When there are 9 siblings spread out over a couple of decades, sometimes the oldest kids' own children are about the same age as the youngest kids. When I was a little kid, I thought my oldest cousins were our aunts and uncles too since they seemed the same age as our aunts and uncles. Luckily, on her side of the family, my mom has one brother and two sisters-in-law still living, so at least she isn't the sole survivor of her entire generation on both sides...just on dad's side.

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna bawl like a baby at my aunt's funeral tomorrow, and I won't be the only one. Her death, of course, was not unexpected---she was 93 and had been in a nursing home for several years after suffering a very severe stroke from which she never fully recovered. I don't care how old our loved ones might be and how prepared we might feel for their inevitable passing, it still is hard and it still hurts.

It isn't like I never order flowers from a florist, but I still had sticker shock and, you know what, no matter how nice of a flower arrangement you send, you still feel like you didn't buy one that was nice enough. I think that's because you are trying to wrap up all your love for that person inside the flowers you send to the funeral home, if that makes any sense.

Nancy, That is too funny that your brother used to buy from the same company. Seedman has an amazing range of seeds and I don't want to be blamed if you have to buy some of them---I find things there that are hard to find anywhere else.

Oh, and for more rare seeds, check out J. L. Hudson, Seedsman. Amazing, hard-to-find stuff there.

J. L. Hudson, Seedsman

Y'all have a good day tomorrow and I'll check in tomorrow night after we get home. We're expecting a bad fire day on Sunday, although I think it will be even worse in far western OK.

Dawn

Here and at Leedey we continue to be on the weather roller coaster. Real dry both places. At least the wheat here is still holding in so no blowing. The wheat pasture in OK is basically over. Between the temps and no rain. Hoping for moisture but nothing in site yet. One of my long range forecasters says might only be a couple of chances in Feb. The warm up has started. We hit 79 yesterday. Too warm for this early and as dry as it is. Have already had a big fire at a cotton gin in this area. And the threat grows everyday with all of the vegetation that grew last summer.

Haven't got in the garden yet but will soon. Think I will start some seeds starting in mid Feb. Earlier than normal but want to get some things out early if I can. May not here but hopefully at Leedey I will be able too.

Will be praying for moisture for everyone as I know it is needed. Have started what will likely be my last year at work. So can start saying this will be my last time to do things soon.

Did someone mention spring fling♡♡♡

Nancy I can't help but laugh about vanilla scented stuff Back in the day my girlfriend used all that vanilla stuff. One night this guy was trying to hit on her and his best line was you smell like a sugar cookie we laughed so hard he left. And that has to do with gardening because I wish I could grow vanilla ;)

Sophie is great puppies are fat and they are coming home to my new home today. Along with my grandson. Love is in the air.

I was shocked all my stuff would not fit into the trailer. Which means I still have stuff to get and go through in quitaque.

But I did get my lumber for new planting bed

The posts previous to mine just now showed up.

Dawn I am so sorry for you and all your family. I will be praying for your peace as you grieve and I am sure will miss her for a long time. She sounds like an amazing woman , someone you would desire to be like and have for a neighbor. Such sweet memories.

Here's a shot of Honey when she's awake.

she is only knee high when standing, but she's so long when she stands on her back legs she's tall. If she realized it, I think she could jump the fence. She jumps 2 feet off the ground when she does her "I'm so glad to be alive" jump. That bed in the other pic is really big. It was actually my daughter's dog's bed (she has one just like it.) Her Bentley won't let anybody else sleep on it, but he shared with her. He is thigh high and 80 pounds, and has no problem with it being too small. Of course, there always comes a day when they chew a hole in it and pull all the stuffing out. We caught these beds on sale right after Christmas for half price. I may have to get her a bigger kennel, though.

Wasn't it Little Women where one of the girls put vanilla behind her ears?

I'm sorry to hear that about the wheat, Jay. It DID get warm there yesterday. I am concerned about the drought conditions out there, too.

I'm afraid to look at those websites Dawn. I am a sucker for rare and unusual. I think I will just save them for later.

Sounds like your Aunt was a neat lady. Funerals are hard, but spend some time with the people still with you who attend. My condolences.

We are babysitting tonight.

I looked, y'all, I looked at Seedman. I could go berserk. And voila! Seeds I searched for and bought from numerous places. I will have to look there first next time. Resisting the desire to go buy buy buy.

Hahaha! Yes, I spent quite some time looking through it, too! Not at all hard for me to resist this month. I done spent my allowance. Now, next month? Hmmmm. I read through some of the review's on Dave's. I kind of laugh when folks complain about the lack of germination. There are a lot of difficult-to-grow seeds on that site. If I get something that's hard to grow, I never expect success, so if I HAVE success, I'm always thrilled.

Jay--it's a wonder to me that you EVER get a good crop! Farming is not for sissies! I hope you'll get some good luck. Are you excited about this being your last year at work? Bet you'll be busier than ever, after this year.

Dawn, I hope it was a lovely service for your aunt, full of sweetness--tears are more than appropriate for loved ones. Yes, saying good-bye is always hard.

Honey looks like she has a lot of Rhodesian Ridgeback in her, don't you think, Amy? (I love that breed.) What are all those plants peeking out the window?

Everyone thinks she looks like a Rhodesian Ridgeback. When I look at pictures of them some look just like her, some not so much. Sometimes I think she is a giant, long legged dachshund. (Her mother was supposed to be a cross between dachshund and Basset hound. No one knows who the daddy was. Sometimes she gets the wrinkle browed look of a blood hound. Her ears are pointed like the RR, or a dachshund. Basset and coonhound have round hound dog ears. They all seem to have longer ears than her.

Oh my Nancy, I think I looked at every page of Seedman. Medicinal herbs, groundcover, fruit and nut....oh, my. 13 things made my things to try list just today!

Jay, I've been wondering how you were doing both at home and at Leedey with all this wind, dry air and lack of moisture. I was wondering, too, how the winter wheat is holding up. It sure has been a tough winter, and the long-term forecasts don't offer us a lot of hope moisture-wise.

That's such exciting news about this being your last year to work. Tim is looking at maybe two more years. He wants to retire when he is 62. We'll see how that plays out. It will seem odd, won't it, to keep saying "this is the last time I'll do this....." Well, odd, but in a good way if you know what I mean.

Kim, I see you have your priorities straight---getting lumber for the planting bed even before you finish moving all your stuff from Quitaque. I did that. We built our first two raised beds in the future back yard (where the tornado shelter sits now) about a year before the builder started building the house. We only put a 4-strand barbed wire fence around those two beds, and nothing bothered them. I guess none of the wild things expected to find any sort of garden beds in the middle of a pasture. The barbed wire fence was just to keep the cattle out of the two raised beds because we told the guy that was running cattle on our property that he could leave them here until the end of the year. It didn't bother us having them here, and we got to enjoy seeing their babies born here during their moms' last few months on our place. After the cows left our property, I walked around with a bucket collecting the cow chips for the compost pile. Still no house built at that point, but I had started a compost pile too. Priorities!

Thanks, Kim. The memorial service was conducted by her grandson-in-law and it was awesome---full of memories and laughter, and not too many tears. She is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Fort Worth and there are massive live oaks there that are hundreds of years old, one of which looms over her grave...in a nice, peaceful way. My cousin and I were talking about how long that cemetery has been there--as far back as the two of us can remember, and we remember driving past it with our parents on our way to the Montgomery Wards on W. 7th Street (which now is a shopping center and condo development, which blows my mind) way back in the 1960s. It turns out, the cemetery is over 100 years old, and when they put it in, they carefully saved all the big old trees they could, which just adds to what a beautiful and peaceful place it is now. One thing I think is hard about burying someone from the older generation is that it means there's one less person between "us" and our mortality. My mom's the last one left in that generation of my dad's family. As long as she lives, she is the old one. Once she's gone, my generation becomes the old ones....that feels weird to us. We don't feel old yet. (We sure do look it, and have the aches, pains and middle-aged spread to show for it, though.)

Amy, That Honey is going to be so big when she is full-grown!

I saw some huge dog beds at CostCo today. I'll try to remember to take a photo of one of them the next time we are there---I think I could sleep on one of them. (Granted, I am not very tall.)

We spent more time standing, talking, chatting and laughing than we spent at the actual memorial service, and I mean that in a good way. It's been a while since we've had that many cousins all together....and the cousins' kids too, and some of their grandkids (who are hitting the teen-aged years and starting to get taller than their parents and grandparents). It was hard to tear ourselves away, but it was very windy and was sort of chilly out there, so eventually we did. They invited us to join them for lunch, but we had to run to the airport because Tim was on call and then had that long, long drive home so we declined, even though I would rather have joined them for lunch than gone to the airport. Sometimes duty calls. We don't make it down to Fort Worth that often---maybe 3 or 4 times a year---and it is mind-boggling how much growth and development there is nonstop, nonstop, nonstop, nonstop. I cannot even keep up with it all. My cousin's family lives in Tolar (where my aunt was born) and they said the flu hadn't really hit them there yet. My cousin's youngest daughter, who is an elementary school teacher there, said she had one student who might have had the flu but that was all and it didn't spread, etc. I think they've been really lucky, because it sure is running rampant here.

I hope you're having fun babysitting.

Please don't go berserk. I want for you to enjoy the website without losing your mind. We like you just the way you are---more or less sane like the rest of us. Okay, maybe none of us are sane during that special winter season known as seed-buying season.

Nancy, I feel the same way when I read complaints about seed germination---too many people just buy seeds, sow them and expect them to sprout in 3 to 7 days without doing their research to learn if the seeds have specific needs for certain temperatures, light exposure, stratification, etc. and lots of the more exotic seeds do have very specific needs that must be met. I've been happy with the seeds I bought from Seedman in the past, but I did my research and then did my best to give them the conditions they needed.

Amy, Thirteen! Oh my. Where will you put them?

I hope to finally order flower seeds tomorrow. I need to get it done. And, I have to order birthday flowers for my mom and a shower gift for a baby shower we'll be attending next weekend. I need to get it all done in the morning hours because that's the time we're least likely to have fires tomorrow. Fire danger will be much worse to our west/southwest especially in the afternoon so I'm hoping for the best. I do not want to wake up tomorrow to a Red Flag Fire Warning. Right now, the current Red Flag stops two counties to our west. I hope it stays there and doesn't migrate here overnight. It shouldn't but if our expected relative humidity plummets, it could happen.

The sky looked horrible this afternoon and evening. It was....dirty. It looked almost a rosy pinkish-red. It wasn't quite the reddish-brown we get when all of west Texas's loose soil blows here in a dust storm, and it was very widespread over the whole area---so, maybe some sort of dust kicked up by the steady winds today or maybe smoke from some big fire somewhere, though we don't know of any big fires today. It was in all directions too, so you couldn't tell it was coming from any specific area. It was odd.

Dawn

Jack could get more chia seeds for his Trump head, too, from Seedman! What about all those lovely herbal tea plants?

I only have one WS bin left. . . saving it to put a truckload of verbenas in it! LOL But the only ones I have right now are having a vacation in the freezer for a few days. No matter, back-ups will be arriving shortly.

I still think Honey looks like an RR and that's how I'll think of her now.

Kim--love that your got stuff for the raised bed! Way to GO!

Dawn, I'm sorry for the loss of your aunt. She sounds like an interesting and amazing woman. I would like to be that kind of woman--one who is remembered so fondly and lovingly when my time comes.

Honey is pretty, Amy. Weather that keeps the dogs indoors is to blame for the restlessness that causes bed destroying. I need to purchase new beds after last week's cold spell. Enjoy babysitting!

I am enjoying a quiet house. Tom is at a men's thing at church and Ethan is working. I baked cupcakes for tomorrow's lunch and cleaned up a few things tonight. I really need a quiet house after today. I helped Dale and Bill (Prairie Wind Nursery) at the OKC Home and Garden Show. It was really fun to talk to people about gardening. But I left with a terrible headache probably because I didn't eat or drink while there. I'm a person that has to sip all day long.

A hot bath sounds nice....maybe I'll do that after doing a final check on the chickens and frosting the cupcakes.

Ahhh. . . . I started this then got sidetracked watching an episode of a series I'm watching. Posted, and see Dawn was here. Dawn--so happy today was celebratory! You know. . . I've often found funerals to be that. And that is lovely indeed! I'll probably be back here in an hour or so. . . .

Seedman, despite the sentimentality of it, and despite the wondrous seeds it offers, has not fazed me all that much (other than the brugmansias, Dawn!). I tell ya, I am truly seeded out. If half the things I WSed grow and half the things I'm growing on the cart grow, and half the things I'm direct-sowing grow, I'll have WAY too many things to find a place for. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to narrow down my list of peppers. Tomatoes, I'm on course with. The herbs are under control. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, mandatory. Asparagus, beets, and carrots and lettuce next. Everything else would be good, but optional. Except the seminole pumpkins. Those are mandatory too, just because I want to see them travel across and climb up an oak tree.

I'm into herbs and want those. But the rest is a crap shoot. With the flowering sorts of things, I recognize the need to experiment. And this year, experimenting I am! Have already zoned in to ones who are happy-go-lucky here. After my horrible experience with the asclepias tuberosa last year, will see how it does this year, re-seeding. I am trying dozens, at least, of ones I loved up north, and ones I didn't try up north, but are encouraged here. I hope for the ones I shouldn't be able to do here but did up north. (Hostas, Asian lilies, maybe even rose campion (still being tested), wild ginger, (ditto), Joe Pye heliotrope, filipendula .And part of why I won't try to grow them here is because of the deer) But meanwhile am exulting in the ones who love it here and the self-seeders. It's like the people in our lives, frankly. We don't want to say good-bye, and we mourn. But with beautiful memories. I'm really with you, Dawn. I'll grow what grows. But I have to see what will grow. Right?

Nancy, Asiatic lilies do wonderfully here. I have a corner of my front garden dedicated to them. Some of them grow taller than I am. Oriental and Trumpet lilies do not do well here. Plant Asiatics now and they will be beautiful in May. I've planted as late as the end of March and had flowers in May.

Well, two very dangerous catalogs arrived here today. Schreiner's and Brent and Becky's. I'm trying not to look.

Starting perennials tomorrow!

Dawn I'm not sure what happened but for some reason something has told me it is time. I still love my work and love to stay busy. I plan on always being busy just doing more of what I like and maybe we'll do some traveling. My supervisor has kept asking me when I was leaving for the last 2 years. I told him this week the time frame I'm looking at. I think after 2 years he was surprised I finally had a time frame. I have been told by others I would know when it was time and I feel that the time is close and I'm ready.

Jay, I am glad you are listening to your inner voice telling you that it is time. I think a person's inner voice never steers them wrong. I'm so happy for you and I know that you're going to rock the retirement years! I just know in my heart that you are going to be one of those people who is even busier in their retirement years than they were back when they were working. (You stay so busy all the time now that I am not sure how you'll be able to be even busier, but I bet you will.)

Rebecca, Those catalogs are dangerous in the best way! Because of the resident voles here, I cannot grow much of anything involving bulbs or other tuberous type roots here, not even dahlias. So far, the only bulbs/tubers the voles haven't eaten are the ones of four o'clocks, cannas and crinum lilies. One of these days I'm going to build a hardware-cloth lined bed just for perennnial bulbs because I'm tired of planting lily bulbs for the voles to eat. The problem with building that tall bed is that it also must be a couple of feet tall to keep the voles from jumping or climbing up into it, and beds that tall require tons of soil to fill them up. That's why we only have the 3 tall beds used for root crops. I wish we had at least 3 more.

Nancy, Everyone reaches the point of being seeded out, so I'm not surprised you are there. Enjoy experimenting with all the seeds you have now. You always can reserve Seedman as a source for some of next year's experiments. I spent a lot of years experimenting to find what grows best for me here in the soil and growing conditions I have and I don't regret them, because I learned so much from all those experiments. I am happy that everything is more settled down now and I don't have to experiment so much any more. While experimentation is fun, planting seeds of plants already proven to do well here is a lot less nerve-wracking.

Today is going to be warm and windy, y'all. That's sort of a nice day for January!

Dawn

No WS today. We are getting some killer wind gusts here. I could do it in the garage, but that would require dragging my soil bags, bag of milk jugs, etc, in from the back yard, and it's just not that important today. I'll throw the seeds in the fridge until next weekend. The pruning I need to do can wait too. Plus, I woke up with a killer headache that isn't going away, even with Tylenol and Sudafed. So, I started laundry, made bean and cheese nachos for lunch, and am going to putter in the kitchen, cleaning up and maybe making some fridge food for this week.

Dawn, I'm lucky that my soil is just clayey enough to not have burrowing critters, so I can do a lot of the bulb plants. I have daffodils, hyacinths, and Asiatic lilies every spring. My crocus disappeared, so I need to replace those. I'm glad, because all those are my favorites. I was asking about tulips at Stringers the other day, and they said that climate change has made us too warm for tulips now, that we should either lift them or treat them as annuals. That makes me sad, both for the earth and for those of us who love tulips.

I gave up on the Asiatic lilies here, Rebecca, because of the deer. I love them, too, but so do the deer.

I've typed and submitted the Week 4 thread twice today and when I hit submit it just disappears into outer space. I wonder where it goes? So, I'm going to try again, with only the word test, rather than typing everything and losing it again. I think I'll change the Subject line too in case the system is having a hard time telling week 3 from week 4.

Rebecca, In Texas in zone 8, we only could grow tulips as annuals, though I sometimes had them come back for a couple of years. I planted them here anyway when we moved here, hoping that being further a little bit further north would help them live longer. It really didn't, although they came back every year--sort of. The second year most came back, and then less of them in the 3rd and succeeding years until there were none left at all. I love tulips, but don't bother with them any more. The warming climate worries me too for the sake of earth and all its flora and fauna.

I had big plans for working outdoors today, but the wind has been gusting more than 10 mph higher than it was forecast to gust, and the things I want to do are not something that can be done easily with wind gusts at 40+ mph, so I ditched those plans.

Tim's flu has relapsed and he is upstairs sick in bed with aches, pains and a very sore throat. (I told him he went back to work too quickly after only staying home for two days last week, and now he agrees with me.) Wow, we had great plans for this day in the bright, sunny early morning hour just after sunrise when it was fairly calm, mostly clear and 61 degrees. Then the clouds and wind rolled in and everything just fell apart. Today's weather now looks better on paper than it feels in real life, if that makes sense.

Nancy, Think of what you and I could do if we didn't have all those pesky deer! And, for Rebecca, it may be the same---only with the squirrels. If they come back this year, I imagine the war is on, though I am not sure how you can war with squirrels within a proper city---out here in the sticks, people just shoot them if they must.

Dawn

Hmmm. Venison?