So far we win the prize.....and it is not a prize I want to win. Nineteen degrees here and I suspect my onions are probably dead even though I covered them up with hay quickly last night as I was leaving to take dinner to the firefighters. I didn't cover up anything else but all my tender seedlings and potted plants were either in the house or in the well-insulated barn/garage. I hope to carry the plants back out at mid-morning after it warms up, but whether or not I manage to depends on the fire activity. Before I can spend time gardening, gotta run outside and feed all the animals, and then make a run to Sam's in Sherman to get several dozen cases of water and Gatorade and tons of food. It is taking a lot to keep our firefighters, now in their 8th day on this brushfire, fed and well-hydrated. Mitch, usually potatoes will regrow from the tubers even if all the foliage is blackened and frozen. After last year's late freeze in May, it took mine at least 2 weeks to put out any new growth though, so you may have to wait a while to see the recovery. I hope all the plants that were covered up made it through the cold in everyone's yards the last couple of nights. Jay, if y'all are "late" with the corn that far north, imagine how my "old farmer" buddies who normally plant corn in March are feeling now.....everyone's going nuts! Now that a rapid warm-up is expected, let the planting games begin! Scott, I'm not optimistic either. Know I'll lose the remaining fruit at 19 degrees. The native pecan trees haven't leafed out yet, but I bet they will soon. I'm ready to plant anytime after today but the ongoing wildfire issues will dictate my schedule, unfortunately. I'm running out of creative cooking ideas for large crowds, too! On the other hand, hungry firefighters will eat anything you cook for them. Yesterday, I made 15-bean soup, cornbread muffins and mixed berry cobbler. Today I am so tired that they may get hot dogs and chips. :) I think one of the other wives is going to make chicken spaghetti today in anticipation of the FFs needing to be fed tonight, so that takes some of the workload off of me. So far, our evil little fire has burned an area almost 6 miles long and 4 miles wide, but we've only lost a couple of houses and a few outbuildings. I need for these wildfires to stop so I can get back to my gardening. At least with a hard frost on the ground, we shouldn't have fire issues until the morning sun burns the frost off the grass. Dawn

I walked through the veggie garden today to see what, if anything, survived the 24 degree temperatures Monday night/Tuesday morning. (Yesterday, I just stood and looked through the fence.) The basils froze, but the catnip, catmint, lemon balm and parsley look fine. Most of the warm-season flowers froze, but some of the "Laura Bush Pink" petunias (a very drought-tolerant wild petunia native to Texas) survived and are still blooming. The "Laura Bush Purple" petunias did not survive. Malva 'Zebrina' not only survived, but showed absolutely no freeze or frost damage at all on the foliage or flowers. All the peppers and tomatoes froze with the following exceptions: On the Poinsettia ornamental peppers, the top foot of the plant froze--both foliage and peppers, but the bottom two feet, both foliage and peppers, are fine. Two 'Black Pearl' ornamental pepper plants in pots that were in the garage are fine. Two tomatoes--one is Red Grape and the other is Husky Red--in large containers on the garage patio survived. They were on the concrete slab, right up against the building, but in an area where there is no overhang, so I thought they'd freeze. The foliage shows moderate damage, but the tomatoes look fine. All the brugmansias in pots survived in the garage and are now back out in the sunshine enjoying the warm, mild weather. They should be fine for a while longer as we're going to be up near 80 degrees for the rest of the week and in the 40s and 50s at night. One coleus survived in a pot in the garage, and several of the ones in the ground froze back to within 6" of the ground, but the lowest part of the plants survived. The cannas on the south side of the house have damage on the foliage at the top of the plants, but the blooms are fine and so is the lower foliage. Cannas in more exposed locations frozed to the ground. The same is true of the 4 o'clocks--only the ones on the south side of the house survived the 24 degree night. Water lilies in the pond show no damage and are, in fact, still blooming. Most years we have water lilies in bloom from late March through late November to late December depending on how many hard freezes occur. The lilies usually bloom until the pond itself freezes, and that usually happens only if we go into the upper teens. (The lilies survive a thin skin of ice on top of the pond, but die if the ice gets an inch or so thick.) It is scarey to see how quickly most of the grass that was still green has already turned brown, although most people's bermuda grass still has a little green. At the fire association meeting Monday night, the fire chiefs from our county's 14 departments seemed to be in agreement that they are expecting a very bad fall/winter fire season because of our ongoing drought here. That is not good news. Many of our trees still have most of their leaves, although a lot of the persimmons, winged elms, pecans and cedar elms have lost most of their leaves now. Considering it went to 24 degrees, our yard and garden actually don't look as bad as I thought they would. Dawn

QOD - no summer vacation for us. We may go to a wedding in San Jose in July - not sure of the date yet - but it will a quick visit. A friend is having an art show in Manhattan, so I am heading there on Monday for 1 night - it should be a fun packed day - we are meeting up with a very eclectic group of people and that always makes for an interesting time. I did my paddling this morning and may hike a piece of property this afternoon that someone is interested in selling. DH's customers invited us over for a BBQ tonight in their new home - so I have to find time to pick up some flowers or something to bring there. I've been thinking of DeeMarie - hope all is well with her and that she is feeling strong. BESH and ADAM ((((((HUGS))))) My eyes teared up reading that WOW. Besh you are so fortunate and Adam must feel that he is too! I'm with you Maddie - I would've panicked. My DD was about 3 years old and she was choking. I picked her up and headed to my next door neighbors house LOL. The motion of me grabbing her - dislodged the food. But I was a total wreck. BJ - I wasn't about to ask what job you were looking into - I wasn't sure if I could handle the answer LOL. I know you can do anything you set your mind too and I know that anyone that would have you working for them would be very fortunate. Marci - You are going into this vacation with a very good attitude - I love it. Congrats on the 5 pounds. NH Suzanne - glad your deadline is nearly over. When you were 8-10 years old what did you like to play with or do? They say that your grown-up job should reflect that. I better get busy, have to make the most of my day off. I saw Monster In-Law last night with a couple girlfriends - we enjoyed it, very cute, romantic and a few good laughs.

I remember reading that...but it's still just as funny.... I am completely surprised that I didn't find a post from me on there...My DH has done a few things during our 42 years that I tell on him every now and then. patti