Hi Julie, I'm a pretty new arrival too, and never really introduced myself- so hi everybody! I've been fairly active in the hydrangea forum, but not really anywhere else. It's awesome to have access to such great local gardening knowledge, which can be hard to come by online. I split my time between my home in Decatur and nursery in Palmetto- it's great to meet some neighbors! Porter

Hi idabean! You hosted a wonderful swap ;ast year. If you've got more hakonechloa to spare this year, put some aside for me. Depending on what happens with construction on our barn, I would love to host this year. Also, I went to Annie's last year and I won't miss that swap again. It was wonderful!

Hi G.M.! It has been crazy-busy and I cannot believe it is the 8th already! Seems like it was just New Year's Day yesterday or the day before. We had a lovely holiday as well. I cleaned up and reorganized my large kitchen pantry (it is a walk-in pantry located under the staircase) on the 26th but haven't tackled cabinets and drawers yet, although I need to! I am glad your mom made it through the mini crisis. I hope your son is feeling better. DS and I both came down with that virus about Thursday of last week and it was a MISERABLE experience. The virus is making the rounds here in Love County. Some of Sheriff Burkhart's extended family here in Love County are very good friends of ours, and we have spent a lot of time with them following his surgery on Dec. 26th and all the subsequent events. It has been such a hard time for them and we have just tried to help them in any way we can. So, I haven't really had a lot of time to think about tomatoes yet....although I keep trying! Honestly, I have so many tomato seeds that I don't "need" to order any more, but am sure I will find at least six or eight new (to me) varieties that I MUST try. I do have a big stack of gardening catalogs, but every time I try to sit down and look at them, something happens. With the U.S. being in the midst of an El Nino weather pattern, I do not expect for it to be a good spring, since El Nino usually brings us excess moisture. Wasn't last year punishment enough? The "predators" are VERY BAD here this year. We have so many hawks that my poor little chickens and guineas have to stay in their fenced-in pen (it has a fence over the top of it as well) instead of being able to roam about freely and the poultry are VERY CRANKY. One day, DH rescued a guinea from the clutches of a hawk and the guinea survived, so we've been keeping them put up and they don't like it. The coyotes are also very, very abundant, and they don't seem as easy to "scare off" as they have been in the past. They like to sit outside our garage/barn at night and howl at the dogs that sleep in the garage/barn. We also have big cats prowling, so all the animals are a nervous wreck. I hope to finalize my 2008 tomato grow list in the next couple of days. When I do, I'll post it. I cannot believe it is almost time to start seeds! Dawn

Roxanne, I wrote back to you, did you get it? Hi Tracy, Beth, Dienne. It is so good to hear from you.. I am hoping to get Don to Maine this May. We havn't been up to Boston t see my family in 2 years now. So we are planning a big trip for May. I havn't been to Maine in about 10-15 years, I am going to start at one end and work my way to other eating lobster the whole way! Roxanne let me know if you got my note if not please email me directly from my page and I will write back again. I was giving you some asparagus tips, well not my asparagus tips, I eat all them but some asparagus advice! LOL Beth I went to the West back in '98 and saw all the places you mentioned, it was pretty cool. I wouldn't go again, too much driving, but at least I can say I saw the highlights. Mt. Rushmore is much smaller taht I expected when I was standing right in front of it. :) It has poured here all day, I spent the entire day making Christmas crafts, it was so fun! Talk to you all soon, Susan