Hi Larry, I hope that you and Madge are feeling better today and also that your little Yorkie recovers and is able to spend more time with you. We lost our dog, Jet, who was 13 and a half, a couple of months ago and I still miss him so very much.

I'm glad to hear you got such a good stand of winter peas. Mostly we are growing mud puddles here, but there are tons of cool-season winter weeds growing, and quite a bit of rye grass. We didn't sow any rye grass seed to overseed the lawn or dog yard this year, but the dog yard is almost fully covered in rye grass anyway, so I guess it volunteered from seeds dropped by winter rye grass grown in previous years.

In the garden, the parsley that suffered quite a bit of cold injury when we dropped down to 15 degrees a couple of times now is making a good recovery, and so are the salvia farinacea and autumn sage. Neither is in bloom now but both have new leaf growth. Any green growth at this time of the year is such a blessing.

The birds are waiting for me each morning when I go out. They'd probably be happier if I'd make it outdoors a half-hour earlier each day, but I like to have a little daylight when I go out to feed them. I added a third finch feeder today. We usually don't have this many gold finches needing to use the feeders this early in the winter, so I'm guessing the summer drought adversely affected their food supply. When I first walk out, it is quiet, but as I put out the seed, the birds begin singing. By the time I'm heading back indoors, there's a lot of singing go on.

The last couple of mornings the deer have been standing out there waiting too. They almost disappear during deer gun season, mostly coming after dark for safety reasons, but now they are starting to show up more in the daylight hours too.

Today is all about getting ready for Christmas, with baking and wrapping gifts being my primary chores for today. If I am good and stay focused and on task, I might get all that stuff done so that I will get to sit still and order garden seeds tomorrow.

I have noticed that the one thing I don't like about having an artificial Christmas tree is that it doesn't smell great like a real tree would. I solved that this weekend by buying this little green scented sticks that you hang on your Christmas tree. They are called Scentsicles and the ones I got (they had several kinds) are called White Winter Fir. I hung them on the tree this morning and now the whole house smells like an evergreen forest. I just love it.

My cyclamen plant is looking more and more pitiful every day. I just think the house is too warm for it. I'm going to move it somewhere else....maybe to the mudroom, which stays cooler than the rest of the house, but also has little natural light. Maybe I'll just move the poor plant to the compost pile because that's where it seems destined to end up anyway.

Dawn

No garden news, other than the cilantro, parsley and rosemary are healthy. This is good because I need them all in recipes for the upcoming days. It's nice to use something fresh from the garden while cooking.

I am happy that it's going to be fairly warm for the next few afternoons. The dogs need to be outside some each day. I do want snow, but not until January. :D

Coyotes have been close here too, Dawn. Finbar likes to dart off in the dark. He doesn't even pay attention when I yell after him "a coyote is going to eat you!". Normally he comes back fairly quickly.

Larry, sorry that you've been sick. We had several kids out last week with various illnesses. I'm seriously washing my hands and using hand sanitizer so often that my hands are dry. I'm even putting a bit of hand sanitizer in my nostrils! Lol.

Today is list making. Tom's biological sister and her daughter are coming to visit from the 21st to the 25th. I love her so much. She is SO much like Tom (and my daughter in some ways), but...I really wish she would have consulted and we could have come up with a better time...like the 26th through the 29th. Tom could have taken off of work and we could have had our holiday celebration then AND they could have gone up to see their other sister in the Wichita area. Tom suggested all of that but she had already made flight plans. I know she wants to start making family traditions (recently divorced) and I want that too, but we already have a ton of things we do from the 21st to the 25th (and she is more than welcome to participate) and it would be fun to come up with traditions that we do with her and her daughter...and possibly Tom's other bio siblings. All great people. All so similar. (genetics are funny) ANYWAY, so I'll be making extra meals and such. Luckily my Mom said we could just do the meat and she and my sister will do the sides and desserts for Christmas. The meat will be easy because Tom can just smoke it. She was going to stay at our house, but luckily will be getting a hotel and rental car. We do have a third bedroom with a twin bed for Mason, but it is a disaster (a winter project). So that is a relief. In the future, it's possible we will have Ethan's room available and the 3rd bedroom--once E grows up and all. I'm such an introvert that I must have a place to retreat at some point during celebrations.

Our new little hen is still doing well. I have her separated from the others, but they can see each other. Sweetie Pie is her name. She's super sweet. I wonder if she was someone's pet in town--like an Easter chick that grew up. It's entertaining watching the rooster. He is not the boss yet, but he is the last to go into the pen and then into the coop at night. Is that normal rooster behavior. It's like he's waiting for the girls to get indoors before he goes in.

I got to get back to list making. I have all meals planned except Christmas brunch. Her flight leaves at 3 on Christmas day, so she will probably want to be at the airport by noon. So...anyway, back to meal planning and list making. (I STILL am not finished with Christmas shopping. I'll be one of those ridiculous people who is out this coming weekend and last Saturday was awful enough. I couldn't even think. One must wear their Patience Pants for sure.

No real gardening going on here either! I have piles of wood chips that need to be moved and spread, but it's entirely too wet.

Hopefully I can get started on the new greenhouse in the next week or so, but I guess I need to decide on a location? I want it next to the garden, but that would mean having to run power about 250'. It may just have to be set close to existing electricity and then moved later if I decide to spend the bucks!

I've got most of my seed ordered, except onions and whatever I missed on the first round.

Today was the first day in a while that I could have been doing yard stuff, but NOOO, I had to assemble a billion cookies in 6 different boxes. I will most likely NOT do this again, at least to this degree. I sent out six boxes to various daughters/relatives, contents were cookies and in a couple cases, fruitcakes as well. You know what? Cookie ingredients are expensive! And though I've said I hate baking, I have to confess it was so much fun. Remember I said I needed to never do it again or else do it a lot? I dived right in and made two more batches and googled the easiest ways to frost cookies. I believe I may become a master. LOLOLOL

The hardest part this morning was getting in touch with all the kids to get their addresses and then getting the boxes wrapped up and addressed. And then the USPS $$$$ OUCH. Not gonna do THIS again!

Jennifer, Yes, that is normal rooster behavior. Even after everyone else is inside the coop, our rooster often walks back outside every few minutes. He just stands right outside the door and looks around---ever the cautious sentry protecting his flock. He probably is relieved once I close and lock the chicken coop door because he can relax and not feel compelled to keep playing the watchdog role.

I think you'll get your wish for no snow until at least January. We might have rain between now and then, but even for rain the odds are not very high.

Perhaps next year Tom's sister will plan better and discuss with y'all the best possible time for a visit, etc. We don't really have a dedicated guest room any longer either. One extra bedroom is the weight room complete with a weight machine and a treadmill in it and with only a small, toddler sized bed in it (for the cats or dogs if they are banished to that room because they're acting up) and the other extra bedroom is the two granddaughters' room now. I'm okay with that. We do have a sofa sleeper in Tim's office so that it can serve double duty as a guest room.

I have lists too. Now I need to make a list of all my lists so I don't lose a list and forget something. (grin) Seriously, though, I am about as prepared for Christmas as I can be. All the gifts are wrapped and most of the baking is done. All I really have left to do is some minor shopping for a couple more stocking stuffers, and fruit and nuts for the Christmas stockings. In a couple more days I'll clean house and start cooking the Christmas meal (which we're having on the 22nd, since the girls will be at their dads' houses on Christmas Day this year).

Mostly today I'm trying to rest and recover from all the activity of the past week, which is why I've had time to order seeds and to work on my tomato grow list. It's been such a whirlwind putting together all the gift bags (about 80 or 90 of them....I didn't really count) for the VFD and for Tim's work group. I confess to feeling happy/relieved each time a storage tote filled with the gift bags walks out of the door with Tim. I won't miss having jars of salsa piling up on every counter and tabletop.

Shopping this close to Christmas does require patience. I kinda like going out at least once (preferably not on the weekend before Christmas) just to enjoy seeing all the decorations, the crowds of people and the chaos in the stores. You know, if you're pretty much done with your preparations and ready for the holidays, you can spend your time in the store in alternative ways.....like searching the garden center to see if they've moved out enough Christmas merchandise to put out the first gardening supplies. I start doing that pretty regularly about this time of the year.

Bruce, Wet is good though, if the alternative at this time of the year is to be dry and at risk of burning. I don't like the mud though, and it appears we are stuck with it anyhow. The longer the wood chips sit, the more quickly they'll decompose. That can be good or bad depending on whether you don't mind them decomposing.

Am I the only one that thinks it is strange that an El Nino hasn't been declared yet? We certainly have had the sort of rainy autumn weather in much of the state that would be associated with El Nino. We have the right Sea Surface Temperatures in the El Nino region. What we don't have is the typical atmospheric response to those SSTs, so no El Nino exists, technically speaking. At least it doesn't yet. It makes me feel unsettled. If we had a declared El Nino, I'd be expecting a rainy spring and making my garden plans accordingly. Without that declaration.....I wonder if things could change and we might not have a rainy spring? Since we've been so wet for several months, I'm going to keep expecting a rainy spring. I think. Probably.

I ordered seeds today and have, at least, compiled my tomato grow list for 2019. More or less. I might still need to do some editing to it, but I think it is pretty firm. I mostly ordered tomato seeds today, 1 pepper variety (I have cut back how many different peppers I grow to the bone, the absolute bone) and a very small handful of flower seed varieties. Other than that, I think I have all the seeds I need in my seed box. Well, except for whatever I'll want or need from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They usually don't update their website until January, so I always just have to wait and see what they have, but it doesn't vary much from year to year either. While working on the grow list, I pulled out the tomato seeds I'll be using in 2019, ordered the tomato varieties that I didn't have, and now just have to wait for seed-starting time to arrive.

Nancy, I think holiday baking is fun. Once it is done, though, I am glad it is over. Once all the cookies are packed up and given away, I'm relieved to not have them underfoot any longer too. I agree with you on mailing packages but just imagine how happy the recipients of those packages will be when they open them up and see the cookies and fruitcake.

Garden work can wait a while longer. I am pretty sure our ground still is too wet to do much. We still have a ton of mud in the yard and driveway and I imagine the garden is no different. Today and tomorrow I can coast a bit because everything vital on my To Do list is just about done. Thursday and Friday will be a bit more hectic, and then we celebrate Christmas on Saturday. We're ready.

The wind will be up a little tomorrow and even more on Thursday and fire danger will be higher. We've all been holding our breath and hoping the winter fire season here doesn't start until after Christmas. The ground is so muddy, in all seriousness, that it would be hard to fight wildfires because it is likely the brush fire trucks would bog down and get stuck in the mud. The wind won't be as bad in central parts of the state as it will be out west, so I imagine it will remain quiet for us even if it doesn't remain quiet for the folks in the more western counties.

There's a lot of respiratory crud going around here.....colds, the flu, bronchitis, RSV among the baby/toddler set, and several folks we know have ended up with pneumonia. Tis the season for all that, unfortunately. Some of the cedar trees are pollinating and are hanging heavy with pollen. That's not good for folks who are allergic to cedar pollen.

I am tired. I need a nap. Hmmm. I wonder if I can squeeze in a nap before Tim comes home from work?

Dawn

So, instead of taking a nap, I walked down to the mailbox, knowing the long walk down there and back up to the house would wake me up, and it did.

Observations: a John Deere tractor was being driven up the road. Apparently we gardeners aren't the only folks anxious to work our land. There's tons and tons of green winter weeds sprouting everywhere now---the yard, the driveway (henbit!), the edges of the garden (where the mulch meets the fenceline), the front pasture, etc. I suppose the recent warm weather and all the rain is contributing to the explosion of green plants. There's lots of green in the garden still: the winter hardy herbs like rosemary, lavender, parsley, chives and sage look great today. Then there's the comfrey. Well, it is spreading at a rapid pace. I'm starting to think that winter is its best growing season. I have a lot to dig up, divide and transplant in order to reclaim my garden from it----I'll probably toss some of it onto a burn pile and thoroughly burn it to death one of these days so it cannot spread any more. If I don't do something, my whole garden will be nothing but comfrey in another couple of years. If any of y'all need more comfrey I can bring tons of it to the Spring Fling. Some perennial ornamental plants have a lot of green: autumn sage, salvia farinacea, dianthus, Purple Homestead verbena, verbena bonariensis, etc. It is so good to see the green.

Then, in the mailbox I had two garden catalogs--two copies of the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog. I'm going to sit here now and flip through it to see what is new, and then if I find things I want (and I always do), I'll order the seeds now if the website has been updated for 2019. See there, a nap sounded like an appealing idea until a new garden catalog arrived.

A quick 3-minute flip through the catalog just now reveals a couple of favorite beans are back in stock this year....Tanya's Pink Pod, Kebarika and Fowler. I'm excited about that. They still haven't got Texas Honey June sweet corn back in the catalog yet---I think they lost their stock of it back when their warehouse burned down a few years ago (recovery is slow when there's not many seed companies keeping a variety going). Seeing Beck's Big Buck okra in the catalog reminded me that the great Malcolm Beck passed away in Texas earlier in 2018....a huge loss of a legendary organic grower, author, educator and entrepreneur. If you want to have peanuts, their selection of varieties this year is the largest I think I've ever seen. They have the All-Purple sweet potato this year, and 4 new tomato varieties. I'm sure there's more, but those are the things I noticed at a glance.

I'm hoping to do a lot of garden clean up and preparation, starting this coming weekend. At this time whenever I try to get out there, something more urgent arises.

I did make some more mulberry cuttings yesterday. Last year I tried in July and they didn't take. I thought I'd try again, now, and see if a more prolonged time of cool, wet conditions might not help. I took about a dozen cuttings. I'd be thrilled if just one took.

I also took some grape cuttings. I know they'll take. We're planning to relocate our grapes to the main garden. These cuttings will be a good backup.

We lost our 14 year old beagle, just before Thanksgiving. That's a hard thing. Larry, I'll pray for your little Yorkie. Yorkies are so sweet.

I'm glad to hear that Southern Exposure has Fowler again. I noticed that they had cleaned up their seed stock. There were no longer any white seeds in it, like years ago. That's a very rare bean. My personal seed stock nearly expired. I only got one plant from my seed. So I requested a sample from Russell Crow. He sent me about 25 seeds. It was not a particularly good year for beans here. I might have 75 seed now. I might order a packet from Southern Exposure, just to be able to plant a sizable planting for canning.

Jerreth finished her masters degree last week! It's been a long three years, and we all had to pull extra weight while she worked on it. She's really looking forward to doing more on the homestead and on our website Homesteading Edu . We've come so far and learned so much, yet we constantly battle glitches there.

In the last year I took up blogging for Homesteading Edu. Wow, that's a lot of work! Jerreth's degree is in instructional design, which helps with the development of our courses.

Our daughter, living in the other house on our property, finally got her wood stove installed. What a relief! We were (she was) paying a lot for propane. We have a practically unlimited amount of available firewood, so the wood stove is a major blessing. Also, she's like a cat. She likes it between 75 and 80 degrees in her house. With the wood stove she can make it as hot as she cares too, without anticipation of a hefty heating bill. Makes me happy just to see the smoke coming from her chimney.

George

Tahlequah, OK

Oh! I miss having a wood stove! The wife is convinced she is allergic to the smoke, but think it has more to do with her folks not keeping some type of water pot on it for adding back the humidity.

I think the blogging would be fun for a while, but I'm sure I'd loose interest when it became work!

I missed the situation with your Yorkie, Larry. I do hope he is better; and I'm sorry about your beagle, George. So hard losing them all.

I've been either baking or reading the past 2 1/2 weeks; if not one, the other. I need to take a break in a couple weeks, though and get some winter sowing done! And I don't even know for sure what seeds I need. I best get with that program.

Ouch. . . Things really getting away from me. I always feel "lazy," if I spend my time reading, and I am working really hard not to feel that way lately. So much reading to catch up on. Needless to say, no TV or movies for me!

Garry and I had fun yesterday hauling more straw and wood chips and dirt and raised garden mix to all the raised beds. It was actually FUN being out working on a really decent day for it. It's a little chillier today and rained for about 10 minutes.

I planted some sweet potatoes in pots at harvest time. It was so wet and cold at that time I was afraid that I would not get a good cure and the potatoes may rot before slip time, but, so far, harvest and plants look good. I wanted to try Covington potatoes again.

Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers for Madge, Hercules, and me. We are all better, but I am afraid Hercules has a short life ahead of him. He has been such a blessing to us.

George, I love the word, "prayer". Thank you.

We are really enjoying the wildlife garden. I think we are eating more turnips and collards than the deer are. I think sowing them wild is the way to grow them. The fallen leaves and winter grasses serve as mulch. There is no work involved and the greens are cleaner than the ones in the home garden, but I have to walk an extra 2 blocks to get them.

George, Every time I try to work outdoors (or even think about it), it seems to rain. Why couldn't that happen last summer when rain wasn't falling? I'm hoping to work in the garden the week after Christmas. If not then (because it might rain), then maybe the first week of the new year.

Congrats to Jerreth on the completion of her master's degree!

I'm sorry to hear about your beagle....14 years is such a long time and I know y'all must miss that sweet furbaby terribly.

I was surprised to see Fowler back in stock. It seems like it has been a few years. I remember it did very well for me in 2011's horrendous heat and drought when so many other bean varieties did not. So did Kebarika.

I'm glad your daughter has a wood stove that will be able to keep her as warm as she likes without having to worry about an expensive fuel bill.

Nancy, So, go ahead and read and feel lazy now and then....reading is important too! I have a friend here who always tells me "you work too hard" and I know she is right, so the last couple of years I've really been trying to slow down a bit, work less hard and enjoy life more. To me, having more down time in winter is the reward for all the hard work done during the growing season.

Larry, I hope y'all get to enjoy the company of Hercules for some time yet. It is so hard to see a beloved pet aging and getting sick and you just feel sick yourself because you know the end of your beloved animal's life is approaching. It is a great privilege to have an animal in our lives that we love so much that we then suffer great grief when we lose that animal.

That is great news that the wildlife garden is doing so well. We have been having too much wildlife around lately, but there's not too much we can do about that. Some years are worse than others.

We have had rain today. Or, at last, it is something that masquerades as rain....just light, misty, drippy drizzly stuff. Sometimes it has been foggy on and off as well. I don't think we will end up with much moisture in the rain gauge from this light rain, but it keeps the mud well, um, muddy.

I am nearing completion of the tomato grow list for 2019. Since I cut back so much in 2018 (and no real regrets about that either as the 'year without canning' was a wonderful vacation from reality), I'm going the opposite way for 2019 and growing too many. It will be good to get back to normal. Well, normal for me.

And, speaking of too much wildlife, Tim gets in some sort of trouble every time he opens the laundry room's exterior door to let the dogs go out into the dog yard. No matter the weather, something comes in that door while it is open. Y'all might remember he had a snake encounter on that little side porch a few months ago when he opened the door to let the dogs go out or maybe to let them come in, I don't remember which, and there was a rat snake on the porch with a bird in its mouth. He did a fancy dance, sort of a stomping version of tap dancing, in order to keep that snake from coming indoors. Tonight it was a bird that flew in the door when he opened it. The result? He was chasing a bird all over the house, being a Type A personality determined to get his way immediately, trying to catch it with his hands. He and the bird were back and forth, back and forth, all over the place. The poor frightened bird flew from one end of the house to the other with him in close pursuit while I was trying to get him to open the nearest door and just let the poor thing fly back out again. Usually it is something smaller that flies in....a moth, lady bugs, house flies, etc.

Ugh, more strong winds tomorrow.

Dawn

Lol Dawn, I'm afraid that if that happened to Cliff, I'd be busy grabbing the phone to video it. I'm a horrible person, I know.

Jen, Lol. I guess I could have done that but I didn't even think of it.

The prize today for First Dog To Snatch A Gingerbread Man Off The Tree goes to Princess, who succeeded in doing so less than an hour after I added the gingerbread men to the tree. She was a good girl in the sense that when I said "did you take a gingerbread man off the tree?" she promptly dropped it on the floor at my feet and looked up at me as if to say "No, I do not have a gingerbread man in my mouth.....now". I was worried I had hung that particular gingerbread man too low relative to the height of the dogs, and I was right. I tried to scold her but mostly I was just trying not to laugh at her as she tried to look all sweet and innocent.

The wind blew like mad here today, gusting as high as 45 mph. It has since calmed down. There was a grass fire that I think was an escaped trash fire, but it wasn't in our fire district. (Hooray for that.) Other than that, it was a pretty, sunny day but is supposed to be a cold night.

No new gardening catalogs came in the mail today.

I have one foolish cat (Lucky) still outdoors after dark. The coyotes already are howling, so I hope she comes in soon.

The moon is almost full (will be full tomorrow) and the winter solstice is almost here. The best thing about that is that soon days will begin getting longer instead of getting shorter. Yay! Nothing says spring planting time is on its way more than increasing daylength.

Dawn

Y'all talking about seed catalogs and ordering seeds! You're killing me. I'm not thinking about it. Nope. Not going to do it. However, my SESE catalog came in the mail a couple of days ago. I was tempted to crack it open, but didn't.

George, so sorry about your pup. And congrats to Jerreth.

I'm tired. It's been a full week of working, shopping and cleaning. I did get the sun cookies made for tomorrow. Now, the guests can just decorate them. Sad that my nephews are unable to come to our celebration tomorrow. They've always been part of it. Tonight, was shopping for meals and cleaning. Tomorrow, I'll leave work around 1 and start cooking for tomorrow night. It will be so much fun. I'm looking forward to the next few days...even if it seems like I'm tired and grumpy.

Can you believe that very soon we will be starting seed?! Wait! not going to think about it!But really, after tomorrow the days will be slowly getting longer...because the Oak King will win the battle. And...maybe those hens of mine will start laying eggs again. Seriously, one a day right now. I had to buy eggs at the grocery store! It felt absolutely creepy and wrong to do that. I had the hardest time choosing them...free range, cage free, organic??? ugh!

Hopefully will check in each day, but if not Happy Holidays!

Jennifer, As daylength grows longer, they'll start laying again. Probably by early February if not sooner. It varies a little bit by breed. You can speed it up if you want to by having a light bulb in the coop set on a timer to lengthen the current day length by a few hours a day. We don't do this on purpose, but when we have young chicks under a heat lamp in the brooder, just that amount of light from the brooder bulb, even though it is aimed directly into the brooder and not at the rest of the coop in general, can be enough to push the chickens into starting to lay eggs again.

We buy cage-free organic eggs at CostCo when our eggs aren't producing. I have no idea if they really are any healthier than any other commercially-produced eggs, although I hope they are. Their yolks are a nice rich color not too different from the yolks produced by our free-range chickens and that makes me happy because often the grocery store eggs will have pale yolks.

Last week seemed like more of a whirlwind for me than this week, but that's likely because I was working ahead and getting a lot done so I could coast a bit this week. Tomorrow gets a bit more hectic as I'm going to cook ahead some of the food for Saturday and also clean house. The housecleaning won't be a big deal because the house is basically clean already and just needs minor tidying up. I'm relieved that our Christmas celebration is almost here---it takes so much work to get to this point, and I'm ready for the fun stuff now.

I still need to order more seeds, but I did get most of my tomato seeds ordered and my Tomato Grow List compiled, so I feel like I accomplished something gardening-related this week.

The double-white amaryllis continues to be a holiday thriller. Typically the bulbs you buy in fall will produce two stalks with 2 to 4 blossoms each. This particular one has produced three stalks. The first one has 6 blooms, the second one has 5 blooms and the third one is just now forming blooms so it is too early to tell with it. I have a Christmas cactus that is about to bloom. It has tons and tons of blossoms but none of them have opened up yet and I'm not sure if they'll start blooming by Christmas. Some are getting close, and we'll enjoy the flowers whenever they do blossom.

It is looking like big rain is coming next week. Some models suggest two or more inches for us down here along the Red River. We really don't need any rain at all, but we'll get whatever we get.

Dawn

I really really need to figure out what's going to be happening with winter sowing, because I plan to have some of the stuff ready to go by the 1st.

George, I am so thrilled for Jereth. I wish it were me. Oh well. Lifelong learning is a wondrous thing, degree or not, right? I am a huge enormous fan of lifelong learning. It will be interesting to see where this new chapter takes her--and both of you.

Good luck, Jennifer, I do hope everything goes smoothly for you with such a busy schedule and your company. I'm sure it will be lovely, but don't be so hard on yourself needing everything to be just right!

Some of you saw my FB post about GDW and me seeing the dead feral hog about 2 1/2 miles from our place. That's plenty close. I frankly have believed they're here now for the past month or so. I saw some scat out back--not in the immediate yard, but at the end of the driveway near the back 40 (that seems to be the major highway branch all the lost critters come down on this street/road) that sent shivers up my spine. We raised pigs for 4-H when my boys were young. . .the stuff I spotted, I was SURE either had to be black bear or pig, and I was definitely learning toward pig (since I've never seen black bear scat, partly. Also because I figured it was more likely to be feral pigs than black bears. . .) I am so not happy about this. They could create hell here, with all these loose dogs, chickens, cats, flower beds, yards. . . .and all the foresty areas interspersed throughout this sort of "neighborhood suburban lake area.

I'm so glad, however, that we saw it today. In fact, we were coming back from town, I was driving my car. . . and GDW spotted it. He mentioned he saw a dead critter; couldn't tell if it was a calf or large dead dog. I said, "Well. Let's go back and see."

(That's my new interest--the area's lost and found pets. A lady lost a black lab last week in our area; GDW and I saw it--a black lab with red collar; and another guy saw it, too. We chimed in and reported where we saw it. . . but before she got back out there, someone had hit and killed the dog on the road. We saw its body, and someone else reported it, too. Sad. Since, as you know, we've had our share of "found" pets in the past year (thankfully no lost ones), I am very good friends of those lost and found sites now.)

I wanted to see what it was so I could report it on lost and found. So I turned around and we went back. Pulled over and got out to look after GDW saw that it was a pig. Yep. Knda longish dark brown/black coarse hair. Certainly matched up with the images on Google. Sound right to those of you who know?

More animal stuff. People across the street with the undisciplined chocolate lab who raises holy hell chasing cars, and barking at everything; chasing MY cats. I am not happy with this dog. For God knows what reason this dog has been turned outside for parts of the wee hrs of the morning. This morning it was 3:30-5:30. And non-stop barking. It did stop about 5:30 and we were able to go back to sleep. But the dog has gotten me up, this is the 4th time in a month, by 5 am. I'm not a 5 a.m. person, and definitely not a 3:30 a.m. person.

So hard to figure out, you know? Like, they don't hear the dog barking? Of course, I'm going to have to say something if it happens again. I'll approach it good-naturedly but firmly. PEOPLE!! So glad those sorts aren't as large in number around us as those who aren't that sort.

So, Dawn, you are acquainted with the horrors of feral hogs. . . what's the situation with the rest of you and them? I'm somewhat nervous, not having been exposed to them before. And am glad we've got a shooter here who knows how to shoot.

You know, I ended up having so much fun frosting the little sugar cookie figures that I decided I want to get really good at it! Remember I said I either had to get good at it or never do them again? So I made a second batch, but this time, had researched so ordered little squeeze bottles. It was still a pain filling the squeeze bottles with frosting (used funnels, which made it a bit easier), but definitely pretty easy to direct the frosting. SO. I do believe I'm gonna add THAT little thing to my fun stuff. I can't believe I just said that. I HATE baking. And yet the fruitcakes and the sugar cookies and gingerbread men were a blast. Kinda love/hate.

I hope you all have a most blessed Christmas, whether it's cozy and tiny or whether it's glitzy and large. May you all be filled with love. And joy. And comfort. And renewed hope for LOVE and PEACE. And God bless all the Tiny's we all have. My Tiny cat is precious. I'm sure you all know how very special I think he is. And he is. BUT. Not more precious than our two gray tabbies or Titan, our flawed but great protector. Not more precious than my wonderful friends. My Wyoming friends, my MN friends, my gardening friends, my Oklahoma friends.My atheist friends, my agnostic friends, my relatives---it's all about LOVE.

.

LOVE GOD. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.

That's it. Love to you all and Christmas blessings.

Nancy, I know there are times where we've tuned out our dogs' barking. Our boys are good about not barking after dark, but our girl hasn't learned manners yet so I try and keep an ear out. It could very well be they don't "hear" their dogs anymore. Frustrating, I know. But *most* people are understanding and willing to work with you if you don't go in as a jerk.

Our neighbor in Tulsa mounted a light over their drive and it was pointing directly into our roommate's bedroom. She complained for a few days and kept saying how she was going to throw rocks and knock it out, shoot it, call the city to report it, etc. So I went next door and told the husband, who apologized and tilted it. Problem solved, without escalating it to "obnoxious New York yankee" status.

Nancy, It certainly sounds like a wild hog. I hate them. They scare me. I've had them come as close as 10-15' away, although at least one of those times it was on the opposite side of a pretty sturdy 5-strand barbed wire fence from me.

One of the first dead hogs we ever saw lying alongside the road was on Hwy 32 very close to Lake Texoma and was so large we turned around and went back to see if it was a bear. Bears are getting closer to us every year, and I've always told Tim that if we start having bear or wolf encounters here (I don't "think" we ever will), then I'm packing up and moving back to the city. Any city. Other people stopped for the same reason, and we all were relieved it was only a hog. That's not a rational form of relief either, as wild hogs can injure and even kill people, but all of us found the idea of a wild hog more bearable, pun intended, than the idea of a bear.

Barking dogs always will be an issue and I don't know an answer to it, but when dogs here are having a fit in the dark of the night, it usually is because a varmint is roaming nearby. Once the varmint goes on its way, the dogs usually quiet down. It is frustrating to have a neighbor who lets their dogs stay out and bark all night.

I love decorating cookies and could do it endlessly. It just is so much fun.

We had Christmas today. It was fun and awesome and so very enjoyable, and now I am completely exhausted. As much as I enjoy Christmas, I'm not sorry our family gathering already has occurred. I'm ready to move on to the next thing, which I suppose means taking down the holiday decorations and getting ready for seed starting. The tomato seeds I ordered earlier in the week from Tomato Growers Supply arrived today. Merry Christmas to me! The R. H. Shumway catalog arrived too.

There are three big dogs that I don't recognize roaming our neighborhood. They were in our yard yesterday, and I had to yell at them in my best and loudest redneck woman voice 'Y'all get on out of heah....." to get them to run down the driveway and vamoose. I was afraid they'd gotten a chicken, but the chickens were fine. The cats were a little mad, but not hurt or anything. I think the cats were just offended that strange dogs dared to be in their yard.

The double-white amaryllis now has a total of 7 flowers in bloom on 3 stems. Sort of. The plant got top-heavy and toppled off the bookcase onto the floor overnight, snapping the first blooming stalk in the process. I cut it off this morning and put it in a vase. So far, the other two stalks remain upright and fine, and in bloom. One has two open flowers and a third about to bloom, and the final one has one bloom so far.

The Christmas cacti opened its first bloom yesterday and then a couple more today.

Oh, one final dog tidbit. Tim was really late to get home last night---maybe an hour later than I expected. It turned out he had stopped at Home Depot and TSC, but then he found an injured puppy that had been hit by a car lying in the road a few miles south of our place. He got out of the car, found the puppy couldn't get up, so picked it up out of the roadway so not one else would hit it. He placed it on the ground a pretty good distance from the road and went knocking on doors to see if anyone recognized it. It probably had a broken leg or hip and needed vet care. No one claimed it, but one lady told him to leave it where he placed it and she'd call a friend who does dog rescues to come get it. We drove back by that area a little while later and the puppy was gone, so I assume the rescue lady came and got it. Poor little thing. I hope it gets the medical care it needs and also hope it finds its family.

We've had a lot of wrecks here the last few days, and not because of rain or fog or anything. I tend to think it is distracted drivers. I wish people would just slow down and be more careful for their own sake.

I've been seen so many 'rescue me' photos of dogs and cats from shelters that need a home lately on FB, and I want to adopt them all. We have plenty of dogs and cats, but I'd give all the homeless ones a home if I could. Unfortunately, not all pets are garden-friendly and we really have all the pets we need. I'm pretty sure if that woman hadn't told Tim she'd call her dog rescue friend to come get the injured puppy that Tim and I probably would have a new dog, at least temporarily, while it healed and we (hopefully) found its owner. Between all the flu, bronchitis and stomach bugs going around right now, I intend to stay home the next few days, hibernate and avoid the general public---not to be Grinchy, but just to try to stay healthy.

A new week starts tomorrow. I can't believe it. And now, at least, we get to enjoy watching the day length grow as we begin to move towards Spring.

Dawn

I've never grown an Amaryllis! Can you believe it? I can't, either. And won't be growing one here, since it's so dark. I used to have a lovely Christmas cactus. . . . . again, won't be having one of those here.

Yes, Dawn, so many dogs and cats to be rescued. Rescue folks are the best--angels for these poor animals. I hope the puppy will be patched up well; bet it will, now. I wish I could talk GDW into making room for a couple more of either, but he's been a good sport about the ones we have, so won't push him.

It was SO beautiful outside today! Got up to 65. I had so much fun being outdoors, hauling more wood chips/dirt/leaves/peat/raised bed soil. I'll go spill some alfalfa pellets on it all tomorrow.

And we're over hump day. That's what I call the winter solstice. :) Wow. it's already getting dark later! LOLOL

Nancy, Oh, you must grow amaryllis. One little pot with one bulb in a semi-bright location brightens up the house so much in winter. The double white amaryllis that reigned over our Christmas table with its gorgeous blooms cost be maybe $5 at Wal-Mart in late Oct or early Nov. They are so easy to grow--bring them home, remove the lid from the pot, wet down the growing medium and set the pot near a sunny window. All you have to do is remember to keep the growing medium moist and, for the sake of the blooms, to not place the pot directly beneath an HVAC vent. Now, the sunny window is the fly in the ointment because we've spent the last 20 years turning our full-sun yard into a shady yard, especially the southern side yard. It obviously is more important to block the sun in summer than to have flowers indoors in winter, so we don't have the sunny windows now that we used to have. We have shady windows. I try to carry the amaryllis plants outside every morning we're above freezing for a few hours of sun, but then once the flower stalks start shooting up, I stop doing that because the wind will snap them off. My plants get a bit tall indoors stretching for light, but I suppose I could alleviate that next year by hanging a shop light above the shelf where they grow. We now have 9 amaryllis bulbs (six are carryovers from last year) with two in bloom and a third one about to bloom. We'll probably have amaryllis flowers well into the New Year. If you don't want to keep them indoors in pots year round, you even can plant the amaryllis bulbs in the ground. They aren't always winter hardy in the ground in the coldest years, but I've had some survive for several winters, reblooming each Spring or Summer in the garden.

It looked beautiful here yesterday, but the air felt cooler than I had expected. We were busy having our family Christmas gathering, so I suppose it doesn't matter---I wouldn't have been out in the yard anyway, but I did notice how cold the air felt by mid-afternoon when everyone was leaving to head home. I don't think today is expected to be quite as warm.