Hello G. M.,

Welcome home! I was wondering if y'all were going to make it home before Thanksgiving! You'll have to fill us in on where you spent those 8 weeks.

The weather here in Love County has been very similar to Carter County's this fall.....abnormally hot and dry. Steve LaNore (and Megan and Tom) keep saying that we are runing 10 to 15 degrees higher than normal, but I like it most of the time. All too soon it will be cooler, and even cold......so I guess we should enjoy the pleasant weather while it lasts. There are days that I am in a sweater or sweatshirt mood, but it isn't that cold here yet.

My roses are blooming too despite a few nights in the lower 30s. The deer are making the rounds and nibbling on things, though, so I have been leaving the garden gate open for them, figuring they may as well eat what they want before it freezes. We have 6 or 8 deer wander through the yard every evening, nibbling on whatever suits their fancy.

The leaves are really coloring up here.....especially the Shumards, which are just now turning red.

I'm glad your volunteer tomatoes are still producing. Once the cold weather hits, then it's 'no more fresh tomatoes' until spring, so you gotta enjoy 'em while you've got 'em.

Once again, welcome back!

Dawn

Just thought about all of you and wanted to say a quick hello. Gosh it is hard to believe it is January 8th already. Where does time go?
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We did. We have stayed unbelievably busy with all kinds of things since fall. Nornally I would say it is slowing down some now that the holidays are over but that has not been the case so far. As soon as Christmas was over I started going through all the cupboards, drawers and pantry in my kitchen for new paper and a total re-organizing. Also I just had to add a few little red things for some pops of cheerful color through the winter...lol. I am hoping to go through my entire house and get rid of a lot of excess stuff then have a huge garage sale this spring. SIMPLIFY is the key word here.
Mom had a mini crisis which we tended to on Sunday and the past couple of days I have been tending to my sick son...he has had a bad stomach virus. Ya'll be sure and watch out for this one! It is a bad one. Keep washing those hands...you don't want to have to encounter this bug. I finally had to take him to the doc today...poor kid.
Tomorrow we will celebrate my oldest sister's birthday. So we keep finding things to keep us busy.
The warmer temps we had the last few days have been GREAT to me. Of course I feel it is perfect when it is 85 degrees out. So a VERY MILD winter is just my cup of tea. No winter at all would be even better...lol.
Hope you are all doing well.
Dawn have you been stocking up on tomato seeds?
G.M.

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