The NWS has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for overnight Thursday that includes the Oklahoma panhandle. Carol, I suppose the snow has reached you by now? It is nice and wet here, so we are very happy. No snow or sleet is expected here but we might get some more rain after midnight. There's 1.5" of rain in the rain gauge from yesterday and today, so I'm pretty happy about that. At least the cool season crops will have a chance to grow. It is hard to plant in dry soil with no rain falling and have high expectations, so the rain is a blessing. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Weather Advisory For The Panhandle

Hi guys! Does cotton root rot effect milkweed? If not then bring on the Monrachs! Maybe I can grow milkweed in this MESS I have for soil. Yikes! Okiedawn I had never even heard of cotton root rot until your post today! Oh dread dread...it sure sounds like a possibility for me! I am here picturing my 4 year old apple tree dead with leaves still attached..and the apples still attached. The leaves turned reddish...I saw it happening and was panicked...watered it really good, worried and prayed but it was totally dead very quickly. From a thriving, bearing apple tree to dead in a very short time...I am guessing less than one month and maybe even only a couple of weeks. And I know when one of the peach trees died.....oh gosh I hate admitting this but when we went to dig it up there were almost no roots at all and I remember some weird "stuff" like strands of an old rotted rug or something hanging from them. I showed DH and we were both really puzzled and kept wondering how in the world pieces of an old rug got in there with the tree!!!!! We for sure know we didn't do it. Oh no! I didn't know that might be a clue to why it suddenly died. I still have trouble remembering all the specifics on all the other trees and plants. It could be the fig trees just didn't like it here? Neither of them lasted long but I keep thinking they must have made it longer than a year or I would have gone for REFUNDS.....lol. Gosh you get tired of paying so much money just to have it die. In talking about all this with DH he has helped me remember trees I had forgotten....we did have two apple trees....one died sooner than the other but even it lived until at least the third season and was growing and doing well. We have just lost a wisteria too. It is trying to come back from roots now but it SUDDENLY died and it had been here for 8 years as long as we have lived here. And over the past 3 years all of my English Ivy has slowly all died....but I only say slowly died as it all died suddenly which was planted in one area, then next year all of it died which was in another area...and last year got the last of it which was growing in yet another area. All these deaths of trees, plants and all ornamental bushes have been such a puzzle to us for SO LONG now. We would assume we didn't take care of it right but I know I have had the same kinds of trees and plants to thrive even with my occasional neglect at the place we used to live. I finally told DH it is nothing we are doing wrong we KNOW how to grow things...there is something terribly wrong with this ground...this soil. Still I just thought it was because of it being such mucky hard poor draing stuff. sigh...this is just SAD. But if this is really what is wrong then I am so thankful to find out so at least I can STOP buying plants and trees and just save the money for my bigger new 5th wheel which I will have when I sell this place and forget it all....lol lol. I wonder how I could find out for sure? Perhaps talk to someone at the Noble Foundation do you think? Oh my....and nothing can be done about this cotton root rot. How horrible! Anyone want to buy a nice home with lots of extras? Including fungus in the soil? lol lol Yikes! Many times I have thought that my trees must have lived long enough to have grown out of the nice clean fill dirt we put in when we plant them and thought it was when they hit the 'muckity muck crap' as I call it, then they die. And wondered why they were not strong enough to stand it by then? This is just great....NOT! Did I mention however that two houses from us the street ends at a large field which is farmed every year? also behind the houses right across the street are some of the same fields farmed yearly. They have raised wheat some years and hay some years. The info I found said alfalfa couldn't grow where this fungus was in the soil. I guess there are other types of hay though....hey I am not a farmer I have no idea....lol. Also crops or things which doesn't grow deep enough into the soil will perhaps make it? So Dawn what have you done about living where this stuff is? Tell me your experiences. Thank you so much for this info. I would never in a million years come up with this as I didn't even know anything about it. And have not really tried hard to find out what was actually wrong I just kept buying and planting and wasting money. But that will now STOP unless someone can tell me a way to keep it all from dying. Now I worry about my roses... will their roots eventually go down far enough to get into this tainted soil and I will lose them too? Oh God I do pray NOT! That is just painful to think of. Thank you so much for taking so much time and trouble to help me out. I appreciate it so much! Just sign me SAD HEART tonight.

Hiya, I'm sorry I've been missing - I am home. :o) I feel pretty yukky (I think the hotel recirc air messed up my lungs), and I've been trying to get the quilts done. I haven't read all the threads yet, but will do so in the next few days hopefully and post there. Looks like lots of people have been posting - nice to see. :o) bre, thanks for the info on your deer. It's neat that they are so tame. Do you ever worry about hunters? Chris, thanks for the update on your paint, and the pic. :o) It looks GREAT!! It looks lighter than what's on my walls. Perhaps you have more light there ... I am so glad that you're happy with the colour! It's always a bonus when DH likes it too! lol I haven't gone through all our pics yet, but here's one that I took on the way to the wedding this weekend (picture on the fly so not great quality, sorry). The trip was great - roads dry and mostly clear (thankfully). Had to stop while one small avalanche was cleared, as well as where they were doing some avalanche control by blasting (what an awesome sound that was). ~Missy

Wow, what a difference the weather makes! I’d expect some variation in color, but from snow white to true pink is amazing. I like these “variable color roses”. It’s like getting more than one rose bush for the same amount of space and water. It’s very lovely. 27 buds, Jin!?!? That’s impressive on a young rose. Your roses must be enjoying the cooler temperatures. I’m sure you are, too! Your roses must be growing by leaps and bounds. I’ll look forward to seeing some pictures, when they open. Lisa