I figured out how some of the plants got lifted. I pulled a chamaecyparis out of the ground today. It was ugly... got lifted... most of it was brown. I never really cared to look at this thing. Anyhow, the ground around this plant was frozen. Inside the planting hole was a cup of water. You could literally put your hand down into the water and feel the ice on the rim and bottom of the hole. The ground is frozen, the plant is warm enough to melt the ice which filled the hole with water. that's surprising in that particular location because it's on a slight hill. I don't think my clay was the issue here. Out in the field it drains well... even after a hard rain you can walk on it hours later and you won't get your feet wet. The snow melted a week ago and it's been good the last week with no wet weather. But the field remains soggy. I got my shovel out and went poking around. In spots you cant dig anymore than 3-4" deep because the ground is frozen causing the water to sit on top. There are spots in my field where I have puddles which is very unusual. The shovel can't even break the ground in these spots. I took another look at the two pungens I planted last October and they are browning up pretty fast. I'm going to consider those gone, even though they have green buds. I don't know if these pungens are sitting in a bowl of water or not... but I'm not going to pull them out of the ground to see just in case. I tried digging down the side of one just to see, but it was frozen solid. All my older plants look to be ok... It looks like I'm going to only be planting in spring and praying that the first winter for these plants will be mild. Once the roots get into the surrounding soil they will be ok, it's just a matter of getting them established and through the first winter so this won't happen again.

Hi Folks, Everything is fine, no power loss or anything. I'm just in a bad mood with all this %$#? snow piled up. I haven't driven anywhere yet but have an appointment at 10:30 so hopefully I won't have any problems getting there. I should have had DH leave me the Explorer (4WD) but didn't think of it but my van usually does alright in snow. We didn't even bother digging out the honda. lol DH tried to cheer me up by bringing me home a case of assorted hoyas. You can't get near a shopping center during normal business hours. Malls are unbelieveably packed so many are staying open 24/7 until Christmas eve. They lost so much business by being closed last weekend. Maybe I'll go shopping late tonight to cheer myself up. Such a big snowfall was a novelty for the first 2 days, now it just sucks! Oh yeah the weather service is saying that more snow or maybe rain is a possibility for Fri!

True! Never thought about that! "Back ordered" is much better than "out of stock". I should have saved some seed last year but I fear I got my Cherokee Trail of Tears mixed with my Ideal Market. They are so similar I can't tell. This year the only black bean I am growing is Cherokee Trail of Tears... at least I hoped it would be. I did send customer service an email but haven't heard back yet.

Our dog Bailey is like this. She would live off of treats if we would let her! We have limited the amount she gets, but when we tell her 'no', oh my! You would think that we had just beat her within an inch of her life!! She sadly retreats to her bedroom(a dog kennel made out of nylon and we have a dog bed in it)! If we don't say 'NO' harshly enough though, she is back within a few minutes trying again, like maybe we weren't really sure of our decision the first time!!! LOL! Now the cats(we have 2)are smart whippersnappers!!! They live on our screened in porch from sun up til the time we go to bed(I don't allow the door open when we go to bed, mainly because I am afraid if a bat were to get in the porch, it could get in the house)! All we have to do is go out and say 'Kitties in' and they both come into the house! Some nights we need to remind them, though as some nights I think they think we are kidding!!