Yes, it was great to finally see the sun, at least some of the time this weekend. What's up with all those maple seedlings this year? I'm a newbie, and I don't remember those last year, at least in this year's quantity. I had a productive weekend, also. I transplanted pieces of hosta that were missed when I transplanted them last year. I've transplanted them every year, so I hope that this is their final location. I also went into the neighbor's woods and helped myself to some daffodils and transplanted them, along with pieces left over from two years ago when I transplanted all the daffodils from the back yard to the front. They pouted on me last year and didn't bloom, but this year they were beautiful! Too bad the deer at some of them before I could get a picture. I also transplanted a crocus that popped up under the spruce tree out back and put it in the front. I re-potted my asparagus fern and Wandering Jew, as well as my two geraniums which I overwinter. I started dumping some dirt on the recessed area in the front where the sewer line was dug up last year. I'll have to plant some grass there. I weedwacked most of the back yard, which of course got away from me again, and got too high to mow (I have a reel mower because there's no way to get a regular lawn mower from my shed to the front yard due to the change in elevation). I took my mother out to get annuals Saturday and planted mine yesterday. And, of course, I weeded. I started digging a hole for the hydrangea I bought, but I haven't decided where to plant the rose campion I bought.

Carol, I'm glad y'all are getting a safe room built. I don't mind the storm cellar and its' steep steps now, but I bet I won't like it much in 15 or 20 years. I suppose one of these days we'll build an above-ground safe room too. I am afraid of fire too and Thursday it got way too close to us. We had taken dinner (chicken enchilada casserole!), snacks, water and Gatorade to a small (about 15) group of firefighters at the far western end of the wildfire and found them (and us) almost totally surrounded by flames on all sides. It was scarey for a few minutes. A fire chief from one of the local depts. tried to lead us back east but we got to where visibility was zero and fire was on both sides of the road. It was nerve-wracking and I'll never go into such poor visibility in a fire again. Finally, we turned around and headed back west on Pike Rd., then came back south on Hwy. 76 until we hit Hwy 32 at Leon and could safely go back to town that way. Then we reloaded and took meals to the firefighters at the east end of the fire. Usually we stay at the Incident Command Post where the Incident Commander and tankers are staged. Thursday's fire moved too fast, though, and the firefighters were constantly running from one fire to another, so we chased them down and gave them meals, snacks and drinks. It was insane. Sally, I am a registered, insured member of the fire department but I do not fight fires. I am the support person who does what is known as "Fire Rehab" which basically means making sure the firefighters have water, Gatorade or Powerade, snacks and meals. It also means watching them medically and having the Incident Commander or medics pull them out of a fire scene if they are developing heat exhaustion or smoke inhalation issues, or other medical issues. I always try to carry a bucket of wet towels to cool them down. Fire Rehab is essential and, yet, most "civilians" don't even know it exists as an official function. Firefighters burn huge amounts of calories and also sweat out a lot of water. It takes a lot of drinks and food to keep them functioning, especially if a grass fire or wild fires last for hours and even days. Our firefighters have been out every day since about April 2nd, I think, and our county's rehab personnel have stayed busy just trying to keep them fed and hydrated. I follow both the fire weather forecasts, via several fire-related websites, and the fire activity in our county very carefully and prepare accordingly. Most days, if I think fires are going to happen, I start the firefighter's meals around 8 a.m., often baking cookies, muffins, coffee cake, cobblers, etc. in the morning and then starting a pot of soup or stew or chili around 11 a.m. so I can take them lunch, or pour it into a crockpot to keep it warm for dinner. Sometimes I make them non-crockpot meals like chicken or sausage balls or whatever. On days that an unexpected fire pops up and I haven't been cooking, they get cold cut sandwiches or hot dogs or hamburgers--whatever is quickest. This week their favorite meals were Chicken Tortilla Soup, which was their Sunday night dinner, and 15-bean soup with sausage which was their Monday night dinner. They are smart firefighters, though, and eat and drink whatever they are given and are happy to have it--even if it is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I do kind of spoil them with the home-baked goodies, but they are worth it. On Thursday morning, my friend Fran who does Fire Rehab for our dept. along with me, made Chicken Enchilada and Beef Enchilada casseroles, and I made taco soup and three kinds of cookies. When the fires broke out and our pagers went off, we already had 4 coolers of iced-down bottled water and Gatorade on the truck, 10 additional cases stacked up beside the coolers to refill them as we used up the cold drinks, a 5-gallon jug of sweet tea, and 6 cases of snacks. Then we threw our prepared meals into the truck and left. When we arrived at the staging center at our local elecric co-op building, the co-op employees who'd opened up their community room to serve as a Rehab Room were confused about how we already had that much food and drinks ready seemingly instantly. We just said "We knew this was going to happen today, so we got up and starting cooking about 8 a.m." They looked at us questioningly like "Are you psychic?" but we didn't have time to explain. If we'd had time, I would have told them that, after a week of non-stop fire, and with a Red Flag Fire Warning issued by the NWS, and with steady wind in the upper 30s and gusts forecast to be in the 40s to upper 50s, it was clear fire would happen in our county and it would be catastrophic. My husband is a professional law enforcement officer/firefighter (in his dept. everyone used to be cross-trained to do both, although budget cuts don't allow that any more) and my son is a professional firefighter. My hubby also is the chief of our local volunteer fire department and our son is a volunteer firefighter with the same dept. If I didn't do Fire Rehab, I'd never even see DH or DS during fire season. : ) In our county, there's a very dedicated group of about 15 people who do Fire Rehab for every fire of any duration, and there are additional people who help out with the really big fires. The largest group of people we generally feed is maybe 50 to 75 firefighters and other personnel like police and medics. This year, though, we've had several bigger-than-average fires that required a bigger-than-average response. I am tired and ready for it all to be over. Fire season normally runs thru May though, so we may not be finished yet. Today's rains have really helped though. I hate fire and it scares me, but the thought of our firefighters being out there all day without drinks and food is unacceptable, so I almost always end up out there with them. Dawn

Rained overnight, but so far, just gray and damp today. Up early, e-mailing my RE agent with a few questions. Cleaned out the remaining kitchen cabinets, bathroom closet. Met the inspectors who came out to check the heater/ac we had installed last year. Called town hall to alert them we'd be moving (for water/sewer bills); called township garage to arrange a final water meter reading. Called Inheritance tax office to change my address on the estate I'm executrix for; wrote the necessary letter for the Inher. tax address change. Spent the last hour plowing through DH's retirement package--he has a phone interview re: our choices scheduled for tomorrow. Somewhere in there I ate a biscuit, and a few slices of cheese and called it lunch.

Oh, gosh, Anj, I can only imagine how worried you must have been about your DD. In her mind, she probably thought it was "no big deal" how long she took, and that she was doing something nice walking her brothers home. Hopefully, you will be able to explain to her that you hear about bad things happening all the time, and you NEED to know where she is at all times for your peace of mind and her security. So I've never dehydrated anything? Do you then just add them to soups and sauces when you cook things later? You are such a hard worker and so good about providing good healthy food for your family. I had an email from my middle sister, and she had been canning tomatoes, and making some salsa too. She usually does that every year. She had canned lots of green beans earlier in the season too. DH just reminded me that we will be heading out on our trip in a week. I know it will be fun when we get going, but I'm just not that excited about it yet. Guess I'd better get my lists started and decide what foods I can make up ahead so they are ready to take. I'll have my computer along, so will still be in touch as we travel. We are headed for Iowa to a factory for an installation that will give us a smoother ride and make it easier on the driver too. Then we will drop down into Mo. to visit the relatives. Might go by Silver Dollar City in So. Mo. before we head back. I need to try to come up with some other places to stop along the route home so we won't drive too much everyday! Gets boring to me if we drive eight hours or more in a day--usually good with about six at the most. I feel a little better today, just blowing my nose allot. Hope it goes away soon so I can enjoy little GD on Sunday. Then she will be coming on Tues. to spend four days with us while her folks do the seminar. Since she now goes to school three days a week, I'll get to see what it's like getting up early to get her to school! LOL I've done a little painting today,but not on a Fall item. Just decided to work on a few yard signs to take along on the trip with us. Will use them for gifts as we visit the relatives--they always like that. These are real simple ones with just a couple of little snowmen on them, so I'm doing four at once. LOL Guess I'd better go figure out what's for dinner. I'll catch you later. Hope you have a much more "boring" day tomorrow! ;o) Luvs