Jeff, Y'all have had too much shakin' and quakin' going on there in 2009 and 2010. I can see Jones making lemons from lemonade....they could come up with a new slogan like "Jones, Oklahoma.....We really rock!" Melissia, Just stay tuned. I'll post when I start planting. Diane, Your situation is one of the reasons I post weather extremes when they are in the forecast. And, by the way, if I know a really severe T-storm or tornado is headed your way, I will e-mail you in addition to posting. I worry about y'all when I see red on the radar heading towards you. Hopefully any warning I could send you would reach you ahead of the storm and before the satellites shut down. Jay, Our forecast has changed twice today already and I haven't looked at it since I started this thread, so I'm almost afraid to go look and see what it says now. Undoubtedly it has changed. I think originally we were expecting rain and snow (only rain this far south) on Friday, but then they moved it to Thursday as Paula noted above. For our area, El Nino usually means extra rain and I'm about sick of rain. We haven't has a lot in 'inches' this month, but the ground is so saturated from the fall rains and the earlier snowfall that it just never dries up. Paula, KFOR's forecast matches what the NWS was saying this morning, although I do think that pretty much all the media outlets hype the weather to some extent and scare people into expecting something worse than what is really expected. I "think" the increased bird activity occurred because the weather was so nice, but then I also think I'm seeing a lot of 'new' birds coming in from the south and west. I do start seeing additional robins in late January of most years and they may be more or less migrating through. Some of the robins stay all winter, but then all of a sudden, it seems like we have 4 times as many as we had before. I hope the Purple Martins are still hanging out down along the Texas coast. We wouldn't want them flying too far north too early. If anyone wants to look at their long-term forecast, you can go to the websites for Accuweather for a 15-day forecast or to the website for the Weather Underground (Wunderground.com) for similar info. I look at both of them, our local TV station's website and the NWS websites and then try to make sense of what all 4 sources are saying....and, often, they are not in total agreement so then you don't know who to believe. Dawn

As is so often the case, the arctic air is going to come very close to us but it's too early to tell whether it will move over us or not, which of course is the difference between 10 degrees and 28 degrees. I am taking no chances - even if it doesn't materialize the potential for a serious arctic blast is there and I am going to spend all weekend getting everything ready. Here's the latest from the Seattle National Weather Service office. Showers will persist Friday night into Sat with colder air still working into the area. Both the GFS/NAM have trended lower on thicknesses by 12z Sat...1000-500mb below 5200m...1000-850mb below 1290m and 850 mb temperatures -8c Seattle northward. With pscz activity expected...things could get interesting Sat. Have lowered snow levels to near 1k feet...as low as I can go without introducing at least a mix of snow/rain in the lowland zones. However...this is not out of the question...especially north of Seattle if convergence activity gets going. Given this is still day 3...will hold off on mentioning any mix over The Lowlands as models often back off cold air. Long term...the extended continues to get more interesting with each run of the GFS and European model (ecmwf). Models develop a deep closed upper low over southern British Columbia with a high amplitude ridge at 150 west. This allows cold air from the Yukon to slip southward along the Canadian rockies. The both the GFS/European model (ecmwf) have trended colder with this airmass and now indicate a near 1050mb high sliding sliding southward. The main system of interest is a low that sneaks under the ridge and develops as it moves into either Washington or Oregon Sat night or sun. Depending on the exact track...its not out of the question that there could be a lowland snow event. The NAM-12 is going gangbusters with the low...deepening and tracking it into southern Washington sun...a near perfect trajectory for lowland snow. However...the GFS tracks the main low and moisture a little further south into central Oregon. The European model (ecmwf) is close the NAM-12/previous GFS runs that bring the low across southern Washington. Basically...the usual uncertainties exist as to weather the cold air and moisture will meet up perfectly. Not going to venture a guess at this point...but this system bears watching. Things do not get any less interesting after the possible Sunday system as very cold air remains banked up near the Canadian border. The GFS now drives a modified Arctic front southward into the the area Sun night/Monday with a closed upper low right over the area. Again...models like to do this in the extended and rarely pans out but the long wave pattern is favorable and things definitely are trending towards colder. For now...will keep with the highs in the upper 30s/near 40 early next week with lows near freezing...implying a threat of snow or mixed precipitation with the mention of showers.

I'm right behind you, Pam. That picture reminds me so much of central Florida. Yes, welcome Lukkiirish! Do we call you Lukk, or Irish? Or something else? Temps are in the 90s today, so to cool off I thought I'd sneak in a creek:

Kim, Sophie has my sympathy. Our dogs hate it too when the neighbors are shooting. I usually let them stay in, but sometimes they just have to go out at least for a couple of minutes, and then they are at the back door barking and carrying on and wanting back in within 60 seconds. I'm glad Sophie did so well getting her pins out. Nice score on all the seeds! You CAN teach a class. Just pretend you are talking to Ryder or to any of us instead of a larger crowd. You can do this! Sorry about the wind. I wish it would blow hard here---it would help dry up some of this excess moisture, but I know you don't need it there. March is coming and you live in a very windy part of Texas, so I'm guessing the wind is going to be an issue for quite a while yet. Is there any sort of windbreak anywhere near your new garden plot? Nancy, That sounds like a wedding miracle to me! Of course you cried---seeing one of your kids so happy on their special day is going to lead to tears, and rightfully so. Kim, Most of the seeds you got should do just fine with direct sowing. I am a little worried about the wind, but we have wind here too (usually not quite on the scale you have it there) and it doesn't seem to blow away my seeds. Everything you listed except ice plant and delphinium should be fine from seed sown directly in the ground. Ice plant---it might do okay. Do you have clay there? It needs well-drained sand or sandy loam and it does not tolerate staying overly wet for long periods of time. Delphinium is very iffy. They are beautiful flowers but they like prolonged, cool weather so your luck with them in any given year will depend more on the weather than anything else. Think of them as something that would like the weather in the cool, wet parts of the Pacific Northwest more than the west Texas plains, and don't get your hopes up too high. I simply grow the closely-related larkspur instead, and even the larkspur sometimes rots off at the ground when we are too wet for too long, but it tolerates the heat a lot better than delphiniums do. I have had the best luck with delphiniums when sowing them in the fall. They will germinate and remain as small plants down close to the ground all winter, but then when it warms up they'll grow pretty quickly. Sometimes I have managed to get blooms before the heat kills them, and sometimes not. Our Spring weather is so variable that the results were all over the place when I tried to grow them here. Whenever I see them in bloom in gallon pots in the stores in the Spring, I want to buy them and bring them home and plant them....but I don't.....because they'd basically be expensive annuals here in our hot climate. Jennifer, Three sounds like a nice number. Another 100 might be a bit much, you know, and that's doubly true of the straight runs, which tend to lean very heavily towards being roosters and not pullets. It sounds like yesterday was fun, and I hope you're outdoors enjoying your free afternoon now. Nancy, Well, 10 minutes of plant shopping squeezed in at the end of a day with the girls was enough to hold me another week. We saw ladybugs all over the garden center flying around, and then saw some outside Wal-mart so they certainly are swarming and enjoying this lovely day too. Rudbeckia is a large family with many members and some do great here for me, and others do not. I think some are more finicky about drainage (and powdery mildew) than others, but they're not the hardest things to grow if you choose the right ones. In my garden, most rudbeckias are happier with morning sun/afternoon shade than with full sun all day long. Kim, That's crazy about your friend's Dodge pickup. Try explaining that one to your insurance agent! We do try to be careful which way we park on really windy days, but it is more to keep the wind from slamming the car or truck door shut on someone who's attempting to get in or out in strong wind. I never once thought about the wind being able to break a door off a vehicle. It still is sunny and warm outside, so Tim's got ribeye steaks (our standard Sunday dinner) cooking on the grill and I have everything else cooking indoors. I suspect he'd have been out there grilling even if rain was pouring down, but I'm grateful he didn't have to do that. It only took one week of nonstop rain and cloudy skies to make us tired of the rain. I'm not wishing for another month or two with no rain, but I'm hoping whatever rain we get over the next couple of weeks at least will come in smaller, more manageable amounts. Dawn