Let the gardening begin!

And I have noticed nothing the past week, Dawn! Amy did make me buy seeds from Adaptive Seeds in Oregon. 17 kinds of kale (all in one packet), pollinator mix, white ruffly Armenian cucumbers and pole snap beans. As you may recall, I had just gotten done saying I didn't think I needed any vegetable seeds. Of course you all knew better--and only took Amy 1-2 days to beat me down. LOL. She'll probably say it's not her fault.

I fell off the planet Friday evening. SICK You all know the kind--that 24-hr stuff. But by noon Saturday, all there was left was the need to sleep. Slept most of the day through til midnight--woke up for 90 minutes, then slept til 9:30 this morning. After being a little weak in the knees earlier today, feeling fine now. It sort of put me behind on Christmas gifts, so those will be a little late.

Dawn, I appreciated hearing about your wildflower sowing. Gave me hope for some of what I've been doing. I'm still going to winter sow some, as I hope to share with the school.

Rebecca, you had quite an upset in YOUR Christmas preparations, with Audrey's illness. (from FB, friends). I am SO glad to hear she's doing better. I know that can be very touch-and-go. I know that has to be costing you a bundle, and am thinking of you.

I hope you had a blessed solstice, Jennifer, and a Merry Christmas to you.

Remember I mentioned getting to choose products from Honeyville? I ended up with, 2 apricot habanero jams, 3 cranberry jalapeno jellies, and a jalapeno jelly. WHAT??? LOLOL. I think Dawn and Lisa put that in my brain after seeing FB posts. Thanks, guys!

Have any of you ever heard of pouring boiling water over calves' liver before it's fried? A friend send me a procedure and told me to try it. I'm trying it.

Season's hugs to all.

Y'all know I love this winter holiday season, but it's a weird year for sure. So many people have lost parents. So many people have had health issues, including surgeries. Maybe it's always this way, but--to me--it's been extreme this year...especially this past few weeks.

So...I'm ready to move past the holidays--which I LOVE--and go into seed starting.

I will be baking "gingerbread" people cookies tomorrow so we can decorate them tomorrow night. They are actually a nice "low sugar" sugar cookie. Our tradition is everyone decorates a gingerbread boy/girl to represent themselves. it's fun and we've done it for years. I'm going to cook my people's favorite things. Plus, I still need to shop a bit in the morning...and clean a little. I like a certain aesthetic for events. Mason's boyfriend will be coming over too.

Christmas Eve will be easy. Last minute shopping. That will be me this year. I still haven't bought a single gift for Tom. Mason will come over and spend the night with us. This will probably be the last time we have her on Christmas Eve night...she will probably be married next year at this time and they will be spending the night at their own home. Her boyfriend is close to his family too...and also spends the Eve with his family. We always joke that in some ways it's been "good" when she has dated a boy from a dysfunctional family...because we are always the family of "choice". So, we will enjoy this last Eve with her. Our tradition is to see movie on Christmas Eve. It's been different movies. For awhile, it was the "Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe" movies, but they stopped after 3 movies. Then, it was the Hobbit movies. Now it's the Star Wars movies. We do "Santa" on Christmas morning and go to my Mom's for lunch..

Anyway...

After this week, it's time to plan for our gardens! Yay!

Nancy, I’d never heard of that technique with the calves’ liver before. That reminds me, I haven’t had that in quite a while. I usually fry it with onions and then drizzle a simple pepper gravy over top, a side of toasted sourdough, and a salad. I’m hungry now lol. Lately I’ve been eating a lot of pork liver sandwiches, with homemade bread loaves of course. Everything I eat typically includes bread of some sort, always homemade, whether it be a sourdough, white tin loaf, baguettes, etc. I guess I just love bread. This past weekend I put all of the stale, leftover breads that had collected in the freezer into a bread pudding. I ground up the breads, mixed in a cream mixture (minimal sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla, a little all purpose flour), spiced rum, and some golden raisins I had on hand. It was pretty darn good!!

Jennifer, the first paragraph of your post is sort of familiar to me....It has been a weird year.

Dawn, we’re definitely not in drought here....we had a first frost on October 12 (normal time), 12 degrees in early November (really not abnormal but colder than typical), and then December has mostly been 50’s and 60’s....Lots of sunshine. This next week shows low-mid 60’s for highs. I’m not complaining, but it definitely is odd weather. Ive only seen the local ponds freeze (shallowly) twice this year, and the ground freezes have followed a similar pattern...

I’ve been pretty busy lately. About mid November I picked up a construction job, and I’ve been pretty consistently putting in 30+ hours a week....Then there’s my schooling, upkeep around here, and everything else we’ve been doing. We are visiting family over Christmas Day, but no plans other than that. Most of my spare time has been spent cooking, mostly baking, working on old vehicles (the ‘74 Chevy C10 I’m driving, the VW I’ve been fixing up, and the tractors I’m restoring...), messing around with some wood working stuff, and occasionally messing around in the garden. My chickens are pretty low maintenance thankfully. Chickens are great! I do hope to get some seed orders put in before the end of the week, and hopefully I’ll be setting up a light system soon...

I do hope everyone has a merry Christmas. I’ll probably be posting before Christmas though haha.

My dad came down last week with a stack of feed tubs from my brother. I think I'll get some spraypaint and paint them all the first nice day we have, that way our neighbors have less to complain about. We'll have a houseful of pups so we won't be going anywhere, which means it's the prime time to start working on next year's garden.

Finished Christmas shopping last night. My niece's boy is into legos, so I ordered a kit from Amazon & one of those monthly subscription boxes. Husband's gifts are wrapped (except his new desk chair, it's still in the box it was shipped in). Mine are stacked, still in their Amazon boxes (his idea of gift wrap). And all the puppies gifts are wrapped. Ours will get their gifts after the crowd leaves, but I made goodie bags for everyone to open. Yep, we're "those" kind of pet owners.

Merry Christmas!

I've been procrastinating on Christmas stuff by working on seed buying prep. Now it's crunch time and I'm cranky. But Ron asked me yesterday if I had the garden mapped out yet. Too funny. I bought seeds from the Experimental Farm Network. Perennial kale and a Dutch variety I don't want to look up the spelling for. Red plantain (they sell it as greens) and coral sorghum. The coral sorghum sounded fantastic. It must have sounded fantastic when I bought it from SESE 2 years ago.....didn't realize I already had it. Vegetable-wise I'm really not buying a lot. I say that, but I need to see what I'm out of. Fedco seems to be the big one this year. Then there are the native plant things. THAT is where money will add up.

Dawn, I am ready for the light! I thought I might start with a small patch of yarrow and let it grow. Probably won't happen, but I can dream.

Nancy, go big or go home, LOL. I'm just hoping that sometime after Christmas the people who have sold out varieties get in new seeds. I think SESE has been out of Yellow Cabbage collards since last year, which is sad, since I really like that variety. A lot of the natives I want are sold out, too. I'm sorry you were sick! Feel better soon!

H/J it does seem to be a transitioning year. It is hard to get our family in one place. 3 have to work Christmas night, so we are doing breakfast. We will be babysitting all day Christmas. Already bought tickets for Frozen II for the afternoon. We may go to cracker barrel for dinner. My dad and sister don't want to travel so they're doing Christmas in Bartlesville. We will go see them, maybe on the weekend.

Jacob, good to see you. You made me tired with all you're doing!

Jen, I do gift bags. I've already told Ron I'm buying his after Christmas. I'll buy from the list whatever the kids didn't get. Those won't be wrapped. Sasquatch is selfish and would steal any gifts for the other dogs. She is really dominant and jealous if anyone else gets attention.

Merry Christmas my friends!

Another beautiful day. While out working, I see what I think are honey bees. My eyes are not as sharp as they once were, but they look like honey bees!

I am trying to work on my shed. As slow as I work it may rust and rot at the same speed as my work, but I am really enjoying it anyway. As sturdy as it is it will still be here when I am long gone. I am building it with "R" panel sheet iron and treated wood and placing 30# felt where needed to protect from a chemical reaction between the Galv. iron on my old barn and the copper in the treated wood on my shed. Everything is attached with 1 7/8 or 3" deck screws, with a few stainless screws thrown in where needed. When it is not use for gardening projects it will just be a hobby shed.

This warm weather is sure enticing me to be outside. I was hiking yesterday, rode a loop around Lake Hefner today, but no Bermuda digging today. I was just plumb wore out. 4 days in a row exercising... did me in. Oh, yes, I rode on Friday too, and swam on Saturday.

But the back yard lawn area is slowly shrinking.

Thank goodness I am past Christmas craze... not a present bought, and only one came in the mail (with instruction DO NOT OPEN YET). I really do like the no more presents or cards part of my life.

No matter what... I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Moni

Jacob--the bread pudding sounds perfect. Only thing I would do any differently would be to coarse chop the bread, instead of grinding up. Having said that, I've never made it by grinding up the bread (I save Garry's store-bought apple fritters to use), and so perhaps I'll give it a try. Good to "see" you. You HAVE been busy--congrats on the construction job!

The boiling water over liver? Don't bother. I think you fix liver about the same way I do. I soak in milk of buttermilk for a while first, then drain, pat dry, dredge in flour/salt/pepper, and gently fry, until barely done. Beforehand, I've fried bacon, then gently sauteed onions, and then I just pile the onions and bacon on tops of the liver. Sometimes I don't bother with bacon, but I do like onions. Pepper gravy sounds delish. I'll have to try that.

I'm intrigued by the baking--especially the bread. My granddaughter is the only one I'm related to who adores bread. She's just now getting old enough to want to make it. I think I'll suggest that she do it. Her mom doesn't. (And I don't.) I don't hate bread; I just don't ever care to have it when I could have pasta or potatoes or rice. But I am always envious of good bread-bakers!

Perfectly gorgeous here, too, Larry! But I'm inside, ready to go into full-blown cooking mode. I don't need a garden shed, but sure would like a small greenhouse attached to the house. I just had an idea!!! You all know my quilting/blah/blah/blah room was one half of a big double car garage. It's 22x22 feet. We discussed, at one point, replacing some of the garage door panels with clear panels. YES! (Initially, we were going to do it for my painting. . . . but I've sort of not been painting much since gardening mania set in--and yet! YES. If we put several clear panels, in, means I could grow a lot more things in here! With a lot of sunlight (even though it will be indirect) and my four 8' long fluorescent lights, I could totally expand the gardening operation. Garry will be so thrilled when I let him in on it. They're not TERRIBLY expensive. How fun!

Haha, Amy!

You all (and FB friends) have finally gotten me to my feet and ready to do something. I am all fired up now to cook lots and lots of stuff. I'll save some for us to freeze, and will deliver the rest to folks around and in town. And NOW finally, I'm in the mood to bake and decorate cookies. Better late than never, right? SO. Though it will be a very quiet Christmas (which I like), I will be very busy for the next two days. FUN!

XOXO

Hi All! I love it when everyone checks in even though there's not much gardening going on.

Jacob, how do you make your sourdough bread? I was gifted with a bag of "Amish" starter and in that process of mashing it daily.

I'm tired, but happy.

dbarron, Agreed! With the weather as warm as it is this week, one's thoughts naturally turn to the upcoming planting season, don't they?

Nancy, Being further south, I tend to see signs of "spring" arriving in stores as soon as Christmas week, which often is at least a couple of weeks earlier than folks further north than me will see the same--it is just a function of geography. Dixondale Onions have been available at one of my favorite Dallas nurseries for 2 or 3 weeks now, and that's just killing me. (grin) I wouldn't plant them this early here because our erratic winter temperatures likely would lead them to bolt, but I suppose I could plant them if I came up with an excuse to go to Dallas (this isn't going to happen with their soaring crime rate---we avoid Dallas proper like the plague) and drop by the nursery and pick up some onions. It is not unusual for folks down there in zone 8 to be planting them now though, especially since it is pretty warm overall.

I've never heard of pouring boiling water over calf liver, but then I don't like liver and don't prepare it, so that's not surprising.

Jennifer, It is that sort of year. So many people here in our neighborhood lost loved ones in 2019 and there will be an empty chair at the table at Christmas for them. Of course, it is our first Christmas without mom. I'm okay with that, but then her health was so bad for so long that I think that made it easier for us to accept her death. I just picture her spending Christmas with dad in Heaven, the first time they've been together for Christmas since 2003, and that image sort of soothes my soul. We were so lucky to have her for 90 years. A friend of mine here who lost her dad this year really is struggling though---not in the mood for Christmas, depressed and grieving, etc. Pretty much every day she says things on FB that indicate Christmas just isn't happening for her this year. She doesn't have any kids or grandkids and I think that makes it harder for her to get in the Christmas spirit too. Even when a person isn't in the mood for Christmas for whatever reason, kids will pull you right into the season with their excitement.

Jacob, I'd be shocked if y'all were in drought there. I feel bad for the parts of OK that are....we are okay here at our place, but drought lurks to our west. There's rain in the forecast after Christmas so hopefully people who need rain will get it, and hopefully those who already are too wet won't get more moisture than they need. Our ground still is pretty saturated so I'd be happy if the rain totally misses us, but it likely will not miss us. We have had tons of fog lately, and had freezing fog yesterday morning. The days are warmer than average and we're looking at a high temperature around 70 on Christmas Day, but the nights still are a bit chilly and often frosty.

It sounds like you are staying extremely busy!

Jen, I have tried painting feed tubs before, and the paint didn't hold up well and began flaking off their first year, even though I used the Fusion spray plant made specifically for plastic. Thankfully most of my feed tubs are black, and that helps. Even the ones that are pink, blue or orange have faded a lot over the years so their color is not as bright as it once was.

Amy, I wish I had been ordering seeds and focusing on the garden instead of doing all the Christmas stuff, but I haven't been. Once Christmas is over, I'll be able to focus on everything else. With the kittens running all over the house and climbing the Christmas tree relentlessly, I'll be taking down the tree on the 27th (Chris works on Christmas Day, so we're having Christmas here at our house with them on the 26th---otherwise I'd be taking down the tree on the 26th). I wonder what the cats will start destroying after they no longer have a Christmas tree to climb? How quiet will the house be without the sound of unbreakable Christmas ornaments being batted around the floor like balls? Our cats have cat toys, but they prefer Christmas ornaments.

Most seed suppliers who are sold out at this time of the year do get their seeds back in stock between January and March. I think their supply chain just isn't set up well for us southern gardeners.

We have the same trouble getting everyone together at one time---Tim is off only on Christmas Day but took a vacation day for the 26th since that is when Chris is off, and Jana is working a lot while nursing school is on its winter break, so she and I really had to work to find a day that would work for everyone. It was hard to find a day when at least 2 of the 3 of them aren't working and almost impossible to find a day when all three were off on the same day, but we did it (obviously, only because Tim took that vacation day). We considered the 29th which was the next day all three of them are off on the same day, but thought the two little girls would lose their minds having to wait that long for our Christmas celebration. They are having Christmas with their dads today and tomorrow and then they come home to have it with us. I imagine it is really hard for Jana's family since they just lost her grandmother a couple of weeks ago and their grief still is so new and so raw.

We enjoyed Frozen II with the girls, and they spent the rest of the weekend using their imaginations to re-enact parts of the show together. It was pretty cute, except they both wanted to be Anna and had to negotiate taking turns so each of them could be Anna at some point in their play time.

Larry, They could be honey bees! I see them a lot in winter, generally any time that it is sunny and even vaguely warm. Ours feed on the corn dust that comes with cracked corn, and the doves just eat around the bees. They don't bother the bees and the bees don't bother them.

Yesterday I saw goldfinches at the finch feeder for the first time this year. Often we don't see them until January even though I know they are around. They must have depleted all the natural seed supply already, which isn't surprising since we froze so very early this year.

It was pretty here yesterday afternoon after all the fog finally burned off. We have been having thick, heavy fog every day until almost noon. I believe today is supposed to be fog-free and we'll be sunny and in the upper 60s, which is great weather for Christmas week. All my work will be indoors, though, cooking food ahead of time for our Christmas Dinner here at home tomorrow and on Thursday with the kids and grandkids. I also have a little minor housecleaning to do, but that's always the case when you have dogs and cats shedding fur and dirt from their paws. They seem to take great delight in messing up the floors so I have to sweep and mop again no matter how recently I just performed that chore. I do like cooking as much of the food ahead of time as I can so that the holiday goes more smoothly. Tim and I are looking forward to a quiet Christmas Day at home, and then a rowdier day after Christmas with family.

Your shed sounds nice.

Moni, It sounds like you've been having a great time out in the nice weather. In 2020 I'll be working on getting rid of a lot of Bermuda. My goal is to have a much lower maintenance landscape as we age, so I need to hurry up and get that done....well, not that 15 acres ever will be low-maintenance, but it can be a lot lower-maintenance around the house and yard area than it is now. Tim could mow lawn endlessly and not complain about it, but I'm thinking that as we get older, mowing a couple of acres weekly will get really tiring, so I'm going to try to get rid of all of the lawn grass that I can, starting close to the house and then working our way outward.

Nancy, I baked Christmas cookies all day long yesterday for Tim to take to everyone at work today. He always enjoys being "Santa Tim", and with no salsa to give away this year (I am retired from providing salsa to everyone we know, and he still is having a hard time adjusting to that) at least he has bags of Christmas cookies and candy to distribute. Meanwhile, I don't want to look at another Christmas cookie for the rest of the year as I had my fill of them yesterday. We have pie and cheesecake for the holiday meals. There's some leftover Christmas cookies lurking in a plastic container in the kitchen. Maybe I can send those home with the kids and grandkids.

Here at our house, I've noticed an increasing number of songbirds waiting for breakfast daily. There's tons of them around, and listening to them sing is such a joy. Something unseen lurks in the woodland, and our dogs had hysterical fits over it yesterday. Every time they had a big barking spell, I went outside and looked but I never saw a thing, so have no idea what is setting them off. I don't think it is a predator that preys on chickens because the chickens stayed calm. The cats acted a bit spooked at times, but I don't know if they were seeing or hearing something, or if they were just alarmed because the dogs were carrying on so much. I noticed tons of new green sprouts in the yard this week---lots of henbit, chickweed and stuff. This is good for the bunnies as it gives them some greens to eat.

Yesterday, as part of my day baking, I cleaned up and reorganized the pantry. Things were on the wrong shelves and such. I don't know how that happens when there is a place for everything, but now it all is organized again and everything is in its proper place.

With the weather being so warm and sunny, it doesn't necessarily feel like Christmas, but I'm not complaining. I prefer warm and sunny to cloudy and cold. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Dawn

Dawn, I'm glad your girls want to be Anna. Because Ethan was already 12 (and a typical boy) when the first Frozen movie came out, we didn't see it in theatres. I know that EVERYONE loved the movie and the girls at school would fight over being Elsa. And I heard the weirdest comments from parents in the toy aisles (when I was buying gifts for children) about Elsa being "redeemed" and that's why they were gobbling up the Elsa dolls and leaving the Anna ones. When I finally saw the movie during a super cold day at school, I was disappointed (I think because it had been played up SO much and I was expecting something...amazing.) Also, I like Anna better.

We are seeing the Star Wars movie tonight.

Someone mentioned birds. We've had blue birds this year and still have them. They are super cute. I found a dead one a couple of months ago....poor little thing's body looked whole. No obvious injury. I don't know what happened to it.

Cleaning the pantry is on the "to do" list for January. All of the cabinets need to be sorted out. It's hard when two people in the family enjoy cooking and have ideas and opinions on how things should be arranged.

Our tree will probably stay up for a few days after Christmas. I work on the 27th. Also, it seems like I just put it up. Normally I'm ready for it to come down on the 26th, but not this year. It may have to do with the short time between Thanksgiving and December 1.

I've been to the stores daily (it's just one of those years) and it's interesting how every day the Christmas merchandise disappears and the aisles dedicated to Christmas become fewer and fewer.

Hobby Lobby especially. They are moving their spring items in to replace the Christmas items. I nearly waited too long to find a nutcracker for Ethan. He's collected them since he was small.

I hope we get rain. We're not super dry...but I would like some rain for our new trees and other plants, like the brassicas.

Anyway...we are enjoying a very chill day at home. I will bake my Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Jar this afternoon and get the green bean dish prepared to bake for tomorrow's lunch. That is about it until our movie tonight. It feels weird to have such a quiet day.

Hobby lobby is always ahead because people who make things need Christmas stuff in Oct and Easter stuff in Feb, and Valentines must be slipped in there, too. Hobby Lobby is a GREAT place to go to get Christmas clearance like big gift bags and Christmas decorations. You're so lucky to have Bluebirds. They like pastures and open areas so I don't see them in my neighborhood.

Cleaning. Bleach. My PLAN had been to clean one thing a day from Oct to Dec. Didn't count on pneumonia. Health issues really are slowing me down, but that is my New Years resolution.

Ron has a recipe for bread that you mix together the day before and allow to rise over night. You don't have to knead it, which is something I never mastered. It can be baked in a loaf pan or "mounded" in a dutch oven. Tastes much harder than it is ;). I tried sourdough, but we couldn't use it fast enough. I felt like I was throwing too much away and wasting flour feeding it to keep it going. It is tasty though!

Poor Dawn, baking cookies for the multitude!

My big project for the day is cleaning the bathroom. This is a bigger project than you might think because I dry my clothes on the shower curtain rod and there's a drying rack in the tub. Ron wants the kitchen floor mopped. I think that's him. He baked 2 kinds of muffins and biscuits for tomorrows breakfast.

We have this tradition (comes from Ron's family) that everyone gets a toothbrush in their stocking. We added to that with chapstick and combs every year. I bought too much chapstick and too few toothbrushes. Luckily Ron had some unopened ones stashed. I was filling stockings last night and the cat wanted to be in the middle of everything. Finally found the tree box. She turned 11 recently.

I'm rambling as I eat my lunch. Merry Christmas.

Jennifer, This movie is more about Anna and I won't say more because I don't want to spoil it....the girls love both Elsa and Anna, but it seems they favored Anna a bit more after Frozen II. It also seemed to trigger memories because later on they were talking about things they remembered from Frozen.

It drives me nuts when Hobby Lobby has Christmas stuff in the stores in June, but that is the nature of their business. If I was big-time into crafting, I'd certainly want at least the holiday craft supplies in the store early. I haven't been in a Hobby Lobby in a couple of weeks....maybe three weeks....so I bet the holiday merchandise really has thinned out since then....because it is time to put out the Spring stuff!

Amy, I never make it to Hobby Lobby quickly enough, I guess, because there's never much left there after Christmas. Maybe it is because I'm distracted by seasonal items appearing in the gardening centers in big box stores at that point. lol.

I've noticed that whenever I get sick nowadays, the recovery is slower and it takes quite a while for my energy to come back. I've just accepted that this is how life is at 60-something as opposed to 50-something or 40-something. That doesn't mean I have to like it, but I have learned to pace myself better.

I enjoyed the baking yesterday, though it was a lot to cram into one day. I probably should have given myself two days. Still, it really was nothing compared to the time I would have spent canning salsa, jams, jellies, etc. in past years. Tim left the house happy this morning with a sleigh full of gift bags for all his friends, so he was about the happiest you'll ever see him in the morning hours since he isn't at all a morning person.

I'm glad we aren't having the family Christmas until Thursday because I can postpone cleaning one more day. (grin) I did try to do Christmas tree repair so I could get it back to looking as good as it did before the kittens began climbing it. Today one relentlessly carried cat toys up into the tree. Perhaps she was trying to decorate it on her own. The adult cats spend a lot of time growling at the baby cats, but that is how the babies learn what not to do and who not to mess with, except that none of the adults tell the babies to stay out of the Christmas tree. I guarantee y'all that on the morning of the 27th or 28th I'll be taking down the tree. Or, I can wait another day or so and the kittens will take all of it down for me. They tried their best today.

It is 70 degrees and sunny, so just about as perfect of a day as you could expect in late December. Tomorrow might be ever so slightly warmer. I think our high today hit 71 but has dropped already since then.

Larry, The honeybees are out this afternoon!

Dawn

I saw a honey bee yesterday, while I stopped on a bike ride, to take a picture of a neat gate. My friend Esther got her phone out, and snapped this:

It's Christmas Morning... and I want to wish all of you, a Merry Christmas.

Moni

So last week my husband finally got around to ordering my Christmas gifts. Looks like he just went down my Amazon wishlist and picked the first few listed. He did a good job though. I got a bunch of small pots that will go to work (soon as I buy enough plants to fill them, that is). And the best one: a roomba! I am so tired of sweeping every day. I just have to figure out timing so I can get everyone outside when it's time to run it. Otherwise I'm sure someone will think it's a toy to chase.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’m beat. Between finishing up the Christmas baking, to work, family, and Audrey’s emergency surgery, it’s been crazy. But, it was good. I spent last night at my mom’s house, to be there for Christmas morning with the family. They went to see Star Wars tonight, except mom and my niece. I came home this afternoon for a nap and to see how Audrey is doing. She’s doing so well. Not feeling like playing yet, but snuggling and being her normal self.

I ended up making soft molasses ginger cookies, jam filled shortbread, Polish kolacky, Italian almond cookies, turtles, peanut butter balls, marshmallows (vanilla bean, coffee, orange vanilla, nutella, apple cider, and chai spice.) Mom is grateful to give up the baking side of the holiday stuff. I’m glad I can take it from her.

One more celebration with mom’s family on Saturday. We promised to schedule it around the OU game. Then, garden planning. And kitchen cleaning. And playing with my new air fryer.

Moni, I'm glad you saw the bees out too. I love seeing them in winter. We have some dandelions in bloom for them. We have tons of cardinals here, likely because we put out sunflower seeds for them. I love seeing them in the winter time.

I hope your Christmas was merry.

The weather here was pretty gorgeous---sunny and 72 degrees. Today it is foggy early and we are under a Fog Advisory but I believe we'll be sunny again after the fog burns off later this morning. We aren't going to be quite as warm as we were yesterday and the day before. While some people had near-record high temperatures here in OK, our high temp wasn't even close to our warmest Christmas high temperature, which was 80 degrees.

Jacob, We went through a baking-our-own-bread stage maybe a decade ago, but the two of us no longer eat much bread so we certainly don't bake it any more. I do agree a good dough scraper is essential.

Jen, I saw your photo of your new pots on FB--they are so cute. Now that you know he'll follow your wish list, you know you have a greater chance of getting what you actually want.

Let us know how you like your robot vac. Our son and daughter in law got one recently and seem to like it, but they don't have dogs or cats...only tropical birds. I cannot imagine one working well in our house with our cats. I'm afraid they'd be riding around on it all the time, or that the big dogs might decide it was a toy and pick it up and chew on it. In fact, I am 110% positive that Jesse would pick it up, chew it up and destroy it. Nothing is safe from him. Absolutely nothing. I figure I'm stuck with old-fashioned sweeping and mopping by hand for the foreseeable future since we'll likely always have cats and dogs.

Rebecca, I'm glad to hear that Audrey is doing so well following her emergency surgery, and also that you had a great time with your family despite being so worn out from the last few hectic days.

We had a very quiet Christmas Day here at our house because Chris was working and both the girls were with their dads for Christmas Day. Tim and I, both having recently had the flu, needed that nice quiet day! It was fun and relaxing, though I still spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen cooking turkey and all the side dishes for our Christmas dinner. Tim spent some time putting together the girls' main Christmas gifts, which are large, and then he managed to wrap them so you cannot tell what they are even though they are assembled. This took quite a bit of work and creativity. Since we weren't having a big Christmas gathering, the highlight of the day was watching the 4 kittens race around the house like maniacs. They are at such a cute, playful stage now, and also are eating cat food like maniacs. They are bottomless pits of hunger....and just so stinking cute. This afternoon and evening we'll be having Christmas here at our house with Chris, Jana and the girls. Since everyone likely had the traditional turkey dinner with all the fixings wherever they were yesterday, we're having Mexican food---tamales, tacos, sour cream chicken enchiladas and all the side dishes....plus our favorite deserts for dinner this evening. Usually we have Italian food, but wanted to change things up and do something different this year. As fun as the holidays are, I'm glad they're almost over and am ready to take down all the holiday decorations and get the house back to normal. As soon as Christmas is over each year (or even before it is over), my mind already is looking ahead to the upcoming gardening year.

Our Christmas gifts to one another were practical ones. I got new clothes and a few gardening books that will be valuable resources for us as we renovate our yard's landscape around the house in 2020. Tim got a new chain saw, which is what he really wanted and needed.

I need to get busy. I have stockings to stuff before everyone gets here, a little cleaning to do (with indoor pets, it is never-ending) and food to prepare for later today. After today, I plan to sort of coast through the rest of the year, other than spending time taking down and putting away all the holiday decorations. I'll be relieved to no longer have a tree for the kittens to climb. It isn't the climbing itself, of course, that is a problem. It is all the ornaments they knock off the tree while climbing. I like decorating the Christmas tree one time when I initially put it up, but don't like having to redecorate and repair it daily after the cats get through with it.

Dawn

We did see Frozen II yesterday. I liked the horse. I only vaguely remember the first Frozen. Ron slept through it and the boys did the typical can't sit still little boy thing. We always sit so they're against a wall on one side and hopefully no people close to us to disturb.

We had a nice morning gift opening and muffins or biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Everyone was able to attend. We traded off the boys with their other grandma and went to IHOP for dinner. After that we collapsed in front of the TV. I hope he doesn't want me to do too much today. I need to veg. And maybe order seeds...

I need Select Seeds to open their 2020 catalog for ordering. I'll likely only order a few perennials, did big seeding for last several years, so likely to be 'rest on laurels' mostly this year. I will of course succumb to spontaneous buying.

Hope everyone had good holiday meals and gatherings. I can't believe it's over already. I know it always goes fast, but this year it really went fast. I use certain holiday soaps that normally run out by now/I'm on the second bottle...they are still half full. It's just weird.

It was nice to walk the dogs this afternoon. I was able to look at the garden in back. A lot of clover is coming up even with the heavy mulch. The garlic is coming up too. That garden will be planted first. Onions.

We fired up the burn pile this afternoon. I smell like smoke now.

In exciting news...or should I say eggciting, one of the babies laid her first egg Christmas day. I suspect it was Eve. She is the one I thought was a boy because of her developed comb and wattles. Also, Jean Luc Picard has sorta taken notice of her. He mostly ignores the babies. It's like he somehow sensed she is mature now. She hatched from a white egg. Her egg (if it was her) was a very, very light brown...almost cream. She is the oldest of the babies and was 24 weeks on Sunday.

Jacob, thanks for the link! I made this Amish Friendship bread many, many years ago when my babies were babies--probably 18 years ago. I didn't keep up with it and remember very little about it. I like bread a lot, but don't eat tons of it. However, homemade bread is so very good...and tempting.

I left the house early this morning to go to Hobby Lobby and Target. I didn't buy much Christmas stuff at Hobby Lobby. A lot of people were, though. The stuff that was left wasn't really my style...although very pretty. This is house is small, so it can only hold so many decorations anyway. I did buy a cute Christmas dog kitchen towel. Mason's boyfriend is a dog person and I think they will be married next year. My Mom couldn't find her glass rings for her goblets. HL had some beautiful ones, so I'll give those to her. I really missed not having those rings at lunch yesterday. When everyone's goblets match, it's hard to keep up with your drink. I also bought a metal "JOY" sign.

However, they--Hobby Lobby--were marking some other things way down. Stuff that I have had my eye on. I just happened to walk in as they were placing it on the discount aisle. I'm talking $3 to $6 for stuff. I loaded up. CUTE!

Target was great. I bought a few rolls of wrapping paper (in my style) for next year. Found an adorable little tree that lights up and some white trees that glow and flicker. LOVE them.

I'm glad our decorations are staying up for another week. Ethan wants to leave them up until Epiphany, but I'll need to get them down before then. I'll be back at both jobs on the 8th and would like the house back to normal. Also, I'll be starting seed that week.

Does anyone have gut feelings about the upcoming spring?

I hit Hobby Lobby today and it's pretty well picked clean. Their entire christmas section filled a single row. And they were still consolidating it. Michaels has a few things I've been eyeing, up to 80% off plus an additional 20% off if you buy online & pick up in store. So a $100 purchase would be just under $20 after taxes.

I ran the vac yesterday when everyone was outside, and will have to ask Cliff to run it tomorrow when he chases everyone out. When it's just our 3 we can shut the baby gates and have it run overnight. But with this many we leave the house open so they have more room to spread out.

So, here we are....it is the day after the day after Christmas and we're all still alive. We survived.

Amy, I never thought about whether can't sit still little boys could sit through a movie, perhaps because we have granddaughters and not a grandson. The girls have no trouble sitting still and, in fact, Aurora often doses off if there's a quieter part in the movie that sort of loses her attention. Then, she'll wake back up and start watching again and insist she never was asleep, even though we know she was.

Since we had Christmas at our house yesterday, today is the day I'd like to veg out and do nothing, but instead I have an ambitious plan to take down and put away all the indoor decorations, which will take all day if I actually manage to do it. I'll start with the big Christmas tree in the living room since the cats will take it down for me if I don't beat them to it. I'm hoping tomorrow can be my lazy day, but Lillie is spending the weekend with us, so we'll see how lazy we get to be. She likes to stay busy, which usually keeps me busy with her.

dbarron, I simply adore Select Seeds and have ordered from them forever and forever. I'm sure they'll open the website for 2020 sales soon. I have, for many years, been frustrated that they operate on their own timing and not on the timing I'd prefer, but I just have to remind myself that they are in a different climate and don't wake up as early in winter/spring as we do.

Jennifer, Ditto on not believing how quickly it all flew by. We still have holiday soap dispensers half full too, but they are snowmen, so technically we can use them throughout the winter (or, throughout whatever passes for winter in OK this year) since they are more seasonal than just Christmasy.

Everyone was firing up the burn piles yesterday. In our county, you're supposed to call in your burning to the county dispatcher so that they know what is "innocent" smoke from a controlled burn pile versus an uncontrolled fire (very helpful info for Dispatch and for all firefighters). This helps Dispatch avoid dispatching firefighters on controlled burn piles, but they send us the info on each controlled burn to an App on our phones so we are aware too....and that app was buzzing all day long yesterday. people still were starting fires at dinner time. Our sky was incredibly smoky.

I do not have a particular feel for what Spring 2020 will be like, which is interesting because usually I'm pretty in touch with that. I will say that, based on the experience of living and gardening here since 1999, whenever we have a warm December, it seems like we get late cold weather in the spring time when we should be planting. So, I'm always a bit hesitant to get into much of a hurry in January or February if December was warm.

I'm glad that those of you who hit the after-Christmas sales had fun. I always have enjoyed doing that, but we have amassed so much Christmas stuff now that I really cannot justify buying any more. I also no longer care for the big crowds out hitting the post-holiday sales, but at least we don't have to go to any stores and exchange anything, which always is the biggest pain in the neck.

It is foggy and icky here today, and rain is coming. Otherwise, I might be out in the garden this weekend, if not today, digging out Bermuda grass around the fence line. I want to dig it out and sink a barrier into the ground there to try to keep it out. Well, maybe next week will work for doing that....after the rain has fallen this weekend and softened up the ground a bit. There's wicked clay outside the fence where the Bermuda and Johnson grass both are such a problem along the garden's eastern fence line and it is hard to dig out the stuff there unless the soil is at the exact perfect moisture level.

Chris definitely is my son and has gardening in his blood. Yesterday after all the Christmas activity was over, he was looking ahead and asking to borrow our Mantis cultivator so he can remove his front lawn (ALL of it), add compost, and put in formal beds and pathways that will be filled with small shrubs and perennials. Now that Christmas is over, he is itching to get started on that project...and he needs to get started ASAP because he has tons of chilling tulip bulbs to plant. His front lawn will be easy to remove as it is mostly fescue with a little patchy Bermuda that gets just enough shade that it isn't very aggressive. After the front yard project is done, they'll start on the back yard, where Lillie and Jana are planning to grow an herb garden. I believe herbs will work in the back yard, but it probably is too shady for veggies or fruit. While large shade trees are lovely, when you live in a neighborhood where the first house was built in the 1870s, you might have too many gigantic trees all around you....and gardening in heavier shade can be challenging. I don't even think they have a single tree in their own back yard, but it is shaded by everybody else's huge trees.

Jen, I just read a cute story this morning about a couple awakened by a banging/bumping sound downstairs. Fearing someone had broken into their house, they called 9-1-1 and stayed in their room, armed and ready in case the intruder came up the stairs and into the bedroom. Police arrived, made entry (I'm wondering if the house wasn't locked???) and hollered to let the couple know they were inside. The homeowner met the cops on the staircase, only to be asked if they realized they had a Roomba.....yep, the intruder was the Roomba, trapped in a hallway directly beneath the master bedroom, and the Roomba was not scheduled to clean during the night but apparently decided to do so anyway. Everyone, cops and homeowners alike, had a good laugh as the cops reassured the homeowners that this sort of intruder call is very common at this time of the year when lots of people have new Roomba vacs. Of course, in our house the dogs would have been barking at it and at least one cat would have been riding around on it too and we probably would have figured out it was the Roomba without calling the cops.

I've been awake a couple of hours and just cannot get up and get moving, but I sure need to. The natives (cats and dogs) are restless and hungry.

Have a great day everybody!

Dawn

Lol Dawn, I can imagine! Almost everyone was outside this morning while I was getting ready for work so I turned it on. Our older boy "met" it and wasn't too impressed.

Ok, does anyone need tomato seeds? I did the christmas card swap over in the round robin group, and someone took my comment that "I've never met a tomato I didn't like" as a challenge & sent me over 100 varieties! Add to all the rest I already have and the fact that I have space for maybe a dozen, and, well, I have way more than I can possibly use. So I thought I'd offer to share.

I woke up at 4:30, not unusual, have to go to the bathroom at least once a night. But laying in bed after, just about to fall asleep, I thought I heard a thump. It was probably a dog, and surely they would bark if some one came in, but then I was on alert waiting for more noises. When you talked about running the roomba at night I remembered how ONE thump made me feel. Dawn's story was hysterical. And I could picture a Disney cartoon with a cat riding the roomba around while the dogs barked.

My 2 year old grandson slept through part of the Lion King, but when he got bored in Frozen, he crawled around on the floor (eww) harassed his brother (who can't sit still either) climbed on Poppop and peeked between the seats at the screen.

I only got my decorations up Christmas Eve, I think that is a record late event, and the stockings came down Christmas morning. All but one have been put back in storage. (Why do you always find ONE thing that got missed?)

Ron worked in the garden yesterday. The brown asparagus stalks offended him so he cut them off and spread more mulch. He is so OCD about neat beds. I need to give him the Tallamy book to read. Maybe he'll believe me then.

Time to get moving. Have a nice, calm, low stress weekend

We had company last night--a delightful dinner and conversation. They were here nearly four hours. We had lots to talk and laugh about. And getting ready to head out today for the day. I got to read your posts, which I always enjoy, but no time to write. Have a good day!

Amy, I have a story from childhood to tell, that relates to the Roomba (before there WERE Roombas).

When I was a child on one Christmas, I got an Evil Knevil motorbike that you wound up on a 'charger' and then released and it would scream/stream through the house. Well, the cat was apparently fascinated and hopped on board, and went tearing through the house (funniest thing..wish we had a video, my telling of it doesn't do it justice at all). The cat was very confused at the end of it.

Jen, I think those are great vacs if a person either doesn't have pets or can protect them from the pets. Obviously we'll never have one because we have too many animals. Even if the dogs would leave a robot vac alone, I don't think the cats would. It probably is a good thing your dog is not impressed---maybe he won't bother it.

Amy, I hate those bumps and thumps in the middle of the night, and when you have dogs and cats in the house, you're always going to have them. The two smaller dogs, Ace and Princess, sleep downstairs and bark at any perceived threat, so I feel like if someone or something was trying to break into the house, they'd bark enough to wake us up. They already bark at trains and at the sounds of sirens at night, but I think we've mostly developed the ability to sleep through that sort of brief barking. If there is a coyote or bobcat on the porch or near the house, they bark as if an Army platoon is preparing to break into the house though, and that wakes us up. I usually will go downstairs, turn on the porch light and look out the window and will see a bobcat, coyote, fox, possum, skunk or whatever....and will go right back to bed. Tim sleeps through it all.

I got about 80% of our Christmas stuff taken down. I still have the skinny tree up in the mudroom, the garland around the French door in the mudroom, and the mantel decorated inside the house, but will take care of that tomorrow. Oh, and Tim's office still is decorated too, so I need to take that stuff down. Then, before we move the big bins of Christmas stuff to storage, I'll wait a day or two to see if anything that I missed does pop up (it always does, and I don't know why). I do sometimes think that we get so used to looking at holiday decorations that we'll miss one or two items because they seem like they belong. The kittens had a field day while I was taking down the artificial tree. It is one of the old ones where you have to take out every branch individually. Luckily they are color coded at the tips, so easy to reassemble. For as much as the kittens loved climbing the tree, they loved playing in the piles of limbs even more. The older cats just sat and stared at them like they were crazy. Kittens will play with anything though. If we ever buy another artificial tree, I want one of the newer styles where you do not remove each and every individual branch.

I am longing to work in the garden, and my asparagus finally has turned brown, but I'll save cutting it back for another day. The skies are drippy here this morning with heavier rain expected later. This is our last day of the warm Christmas weather, and we are going to miss it as temperatures drop back closer to December norms.

We had a couple of pretty bad grass fires yesterday, and it was at a time when OK FIRE showed our current fire danger as Low. I hate to think what they would have been like if Fire Danger had been High or Extreme. So, even though I don't like misty, drizzly weather, the bits of moisture it provides on top of dormant vegetation is useful for cutting back on how quickly fires will spread.

Nancy, Hope your day was a great one as well yesterday.

dbarron, That is just hysterical! Cats can get themselves into such messes sometimes.

Are y'all watching your weather. Some parts of the state are in the Marginal and Slight risk areas for Severe Weather, including a low possibility of tornadoes. Other risks include strong wind gusts. Remember, tornadoes can and do occur in every single calendar month. You can view your area's severe weather risk in the graphics posted on the NWS office website for the office that covers your specific region. Here's the two main ones for OK:

NWS-Tulsa

and

NWS-Norman

If you checked your severe weather risk earlier today, you might want to look at it again to see if it has changed. They only upgraded my county's risk from Marginal to Slight about a half-hour ago, though some of you have been under a Slight risk all day already.

Dawn

Select seeds decided it could sell 'most' of it's 2020 catalogue contents as of last night. I went through and found only 8 things (two of which were plants)..so I felt I should wait and maybe want more things, nothing requiring stratification. Or maybe look at another seed source, felt that I would do better looking at a wildflower seed source? Dunno.

That's hilarious, dbarron (about the Evil Knievel toy)!

We got rain. Less than an inch, but we sorta needed it. Not desperately, but it was time for some rain. It makes such a mess of everything, but that's okay.

We've been busy, but that is okay. The house is a bit of a mess. Even though I'm leaving my Christmas stuff up until maybe Thursday, I did switch out a few things. I have "winter" wreaths that I put up after Christmas. Also, keeping up with the dishes. I still had casserole dishes and such on the drain rack from Christmas day. Cookie baking stuff and just all those odds and ends the season brings. You know what I mean. I worked yesterday until 5. Tom and I then went on a date. Dinner and shopping for him, since I didn't get him any gifts. He got up early to put meat on the smoker (for a friend who is celebrating the holiday tomorrow with his family) and then went to Mason's to finish up a small "fix up" of her bathroom. She will probably put her house up for sale in a few months. It's a small older house, but super cute. Only the bathroom needed some sprucing up. We came home and Tom finished up his smoking and I made the Friendship bread. It's good, but I'm not bothering people with passing it on. I made 4 loaves and then froze the rest of the starter. Some day I would like to make real sourdough bread, but haven't even been able to keep up with my kombucha.

Dealing with animals in the rain always adds a little extra work.

Both Tom and I work tomorrow. Luckily I only work until noon so will come home and finish the clean up. I'm trying to get everything organized so I can bring out the seed box. I'm not allowing myself to do that until I get the chores done. It might be next Friday...possibly Thursday night. The catalogs continue to roll in. I have them stacked and ready to look though.

Dawn, do you follow Drinking with Chickens? She had a funny (all of hers are funny) Instagram story of her cats in the tree as she was taking it down. I'm not sure how her house always looks so clean and tidy. She has 3 dogs, 2 or 3 cats, a parrot, and chickens.

Jen, keep us updated on your robot vacuum and animals!

Amy, for whatever reason my kids have always been able to sit through movies. Sometimes they would fall asleep when they were toddlers. They were also kids who liked to read books even as babies. I always say the Creator gave me the "right" kids. haha. I'm sure they would be the "wrong" kids for more active people who like to play active games, sports and all.

I'm trying not to think too much about the garden until next week, but it's hard. Without meaning to, I start making plans in my head.

That was a funny funny story, dbarron! Loved it. I still want a roomba to see if the cats would ride it.

The only non-native flowers I know I'll be growing are tithonia, nasturtiums, zinnias, and alyssum. Not even petunias. Those that self-seed may stay. LOL I never DID see ANY pollinators on the petunias last year. And I suppose I'll be ordering a few veggies. My Select Seeds and Territorial Seeds catalogs came today, but I haven't even looked.

Last year, when my cilantro overwintered so beautifully, I let it go to seed (I think April-ish), and it was one of the earliest flowers for pollinators--they loved it. Was a large swatch about 3x3 feet. I'm not sure it'll be like that this year. There's quite a bit of it, but it's tiny. . . we'll see how much and fast it grows in the next couple months.

I

To my consternation, my very short list from Select Seeds was thus (Lobelia 'Starship deep rose' (probably short lived perennial, but both native lobelias (parents I think?) do well here), lantana 'Miss Huff' (lost mine since moving from Oklahoma), Runner bean 'Sunset', hyacinth bean 'Ruby Moon', and Malva 'Mystic Merlin' (possibly perennial..but likely not due to lack of drainage).
For me, it's very very strange that I don't want at least $100 worth of seed in the first cut. I usually have to cut 2 to 3 times to get a reasonable amount of things. Maybe apathy this year?
I went to my go to (even though it's international which is a pita) plant-world-seeds. Cart first run total is $76...that's more like it, maybe I'll live after all, even if it is less than my usual :)

I will of course have to prune the cart somewhat with reasonability (making sure things will take my growing conditions mainly..though I tried to weed as I looked).

dbarron, Maybe you're running out of space for more plants? Or perhaps you grow so many different things that it is just harder to find anything else that is unique enough to interest you? Honestly, I feel like Select Seeds is changing over the last decade and has less and less unique offerings every year, while adding more of the same-old-same-old stuff that everyone else carries, like some of the newer zinnia seeds you can get anywhere. It dismays be to see this because they've been my go-to for the more rare seeds and plants for such a long time. I've noticed that I don't order as much from them as I once did and in my case it is because they offer less unique seeds that will grow in our climate than they once did. I see it with other 'niche' seed companies too---a growing reliance on modern-day hybrids where they once carried many more heirloom open-pollinated seeds. I suppose they all are trying to compete and increase market share, but I liked it more when the unusual seed companies truly offered unusual seeds. Have you ever killed a few hours looking at the seeds offered by J. L. Hudson? I have to admit that even their seed offerings seem to be veering a bit more mainstream too, but they still have lots of seeds that are more unique and harder to find.

Nancy, Often, I don't see pollinators as much within the fenced garden at certain times of the year, but they are abundant in the wildflower meadows, which contain both natives and non-natives. Once the summer drought sets in and the wildflower meadows pretty much dry up and go to seed, the plants in the garden, native and non-native alike, become immensely popular again. I suppose if I stopped irrigating the fenced garden, the flowers in there would dry up and wither and the pollinators would have to go elsewhere to look for food, so I always try to at least keep the herbs and flowers going in the fenced garden, even if I stop watering the veggies in drought and let them go. Nothing attracts more bees and other pollinators nearly so much as any/every herb when in bloom, so I mostly grow the herbs for the butterflies, bees and pollinators and let them all bloom and go to seed. At times the fenced garden is simply overrun with herbs in bloom taking over everything else, but I let them all stay because the little wild things need them. The comfrey, though it is immensely popular with the bumblebees, is pushing its luck by invading pathways and other beds. I'll never get rid of it, but am seriously considering digging up all of it and moving it outside the fenced garden. Maybe it could shade out the Bermuda and Johnson grass outside the fenceline since it spreads so thickly. Comfrey has been invading the asparagus bed for three or four years now and I've been letting them slug it out. I think the comfrey is winning in that corner of the asparagus bed.

When we first moved here, I spent 2 or 3 years walking around our almost 15 acres with guide books and a notebook in hand, trying first just to ID all the existing plants, and then after that was done, removing some non-native, highly invasive stuff while trying to leave the natives or the well-adapted but non-invasive plants alone. It took me years to ID it all. It was a very instructive exercise because I was able to see what thrived under different conditions and in different soils, and it gave me a great understanding of what we had here that would feed everything....not just pollinators, butterflies and birds, but also all the animals, whether mammals, reptiles, amphibians or marsupials. (I didn't even know possums were marsupials before we moved here!) In my quest to figure out all the plants, I learned a lot about our wildlife as I worked my way along--for example, when we moved here, I didn't know we had ring-tailed cats here, or beavers either, though we do have both (the beavers come and go---last spring they were here, but I don't think we've seen them this winter). Poor Tim suffered through it all, with me telling him he could not mow this or that or prune this or that because it was useful to some living creature for food or shelter. His lawn mowing dreams suffered terribly because I didn't want him taking out anything that was useful to something living. Of course, we have to mow the grass around the house to keep snakes away...or at least visible....but the abandoned pastures, which I should more correctly call meadows now since no animals are pastured on them and have not been since 1998, don't get mowed much at all any more...once or twice a year, with the timing orchestrated to allow plants to self-seed before we mow. Maintaining your property for the benefit of wildlife is a wonderful thing to do, but it is hard on a man who likes everything mowed all neat and tidy.

Jennifer, I do not follow Drinking With Chickens but her account of taking down the tree sounds hilarious.

You're so busy! We've been the opposite this weekend---just hanging out with Lillie, enjoying her company, chilling and taking it easy. Of course, that did involve watching football, so we suffered through the LSU-OU game, and rooted for Clemson to beat Ohio State. At least we were happy with the outcome of one game, and Lillie learned a lot about football. She goes back home today so she can spend quality time with Chris and her mom.

There's nothing wrong with thinking about your garden and planning it in your head. I think it is natural for our minds to turn to gardening after the holidays since the planting season does start so early here in Oklahoma.

Here we are---the last few days of 2019 are winding down and we're looking ahead to 2020, and I think that is exactly how it ought to be, and of course our gardens are a huge part of that.

Dawn

Dawn, I think I'm jaded and yes, I have most things, so want less (thank goodness for the budget), plus you're right, spaces are filling up..and only new spaces is take over more lawn (doing that) and replace when something perishes.

I bemoan the fact that I'm going to have to stratify stuff in the fridge and hope I can get it out fast enough to germinate in spring while temps are still cool. I am kinda thinking it may be 100F by mid March :) (remember that year, March 1, about 15 years back?)

I do remember that March! It was horrible. Completely and totally horrible for the rest of the year. Let's hope we never see that again. That year is one of the reasons I am obsessed with planting tomato plants in the ground as early as possible, because in a year like that, if you don't plant early, you get nothing....and, even when you do plant early, you may not get much. In years when early heat arrives, having a productive garden and beautiful flowers is so incredibly challenging.

Whew, well I managed to get my order in...this year (barely, only two more days left, right?) to Plant-World-Seeds. Every time I order from there (6 years running?) I tell myself I need to find a local supplier with this variety of goods, but I can't :(

The thing that surprises me is when I'm ordering seeds of NA natives that I can't find in NA. This time only three north american natives were procured, others are mostly our geographic analogs (China/Japan) which tend to do well (or too well....can we say invasive). I don't believe I ordered anything that will take over the world, though the lathyrus sylvestris could try.

And virtually everything I ordered needs stratification, so I guess in late January (when I get seeds), I'll be putting baggies in the fridge till March and hoping it's enough.

I may gripe about it...but part of the fun is making a spreadsheet with stratification plans, sowing time/timings, germination expectations, and where they are to be planted when they get large enough to do so (usually in fall for me, when things cool down and rains start). Gardening keeps me busy.