YEAH!!! "Houston,...the box has landed!" Ummm,...yesterday, actually. - Profuse apologies to all, particularly Sakura and Dan! Meant to get this posted at least by yesterday evening, but,...I fell asleep again. Been waaayyy busy, today, as well, but this is gettin' posted no matter what! Therefore,... What a *wonderful* thing, when most of the rest of our mail otherwise basically sucked-scissors (bills and junk)! From the fabulous Sakura_Komichi (aka Cheryl) I/we received a totally jam-packed box full of wonderful goodies galore! I Told Elly "Geez, it feels like there's a brick in here! If it *is*, I hope it's gold!" While there was no *brick*, of course, it was still *gold* all the same! :) Sakura,...Way big *WOW*! - Thanks so much for the deliciously scented "Dewberry Dreams" candle-in-a-tin! Scented candles are always wonderful and can even go a long way toward making a moderate power outage less stressful. The only scented candles Elly and I have purchased within the last year or so were given as gifts, making this one that you sent the only one of its kind in our home! The large and smaller size peat pellets will *absolutely* come in handy for Winter Sowing! The smaller ones we've always called "dirt cookies" LOL! Used to use `em all the time years ago, but then, I dunno why, we just sorta stopped. Perhaps, at the time, it was simply cheaper t'go with potting soil and good ol' yard dirt. The mini-blind plant-label stakes (bundled together with a *gold* twist tie) are sheer *genius*!! What a brilliant usage!! Beats the mahoogies out of popscicle sticks every which-a-way! Thanks majorly, also, for the blue paint-pen marker with which to label them puppies! Then, there's that big ol' stack o' *gummed*, manilla seed envelopes;...kewl-kewl-kewl! No glue stick required! :) And what a great, frameable card you scribed your communication into, with that water-color-wash beach scene! Super nice! Boy do we ever love the coast! September we *finally* made it back to the beach after not being able to do so for six frustrating years. First time there with our digital camera and you bet I took loads of pictures! Now,...for the seeds: -Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate' - "OOOooo! Pretty!" -Cypress Vine - Pretty as heck! Trellis time! -Japanese Morning Glory - Mt Fuji 'Pink' - Japanese Morning Glories always rock! Thanks loads! -Aster - novae-anglae - Alma Potschke' - *Really* pretty! -Conoclinum coelestinum - Mist Flower; hardy Ageratum - Again, *Really* pretty! -Asclepias tuberosa - Orange Butterfly Weed - Why is this called a "weed"? Lotsa purdy flowers! -Orange Cosmos - Never knew there were so many fab color variations of this! -Purple Coneflower - Allow its prettiness to grow for 2 years and ta-daa, the roots are a medicinal! Thank *you*! -Blackberry Lily - Been wanting this! Never had the temerity to actually suggest a trade for same. -Spaghetti Squash - Called "Silly Squash" by my MIL. Love it, particularly since I'm diabetic! Non-pasta *pasta*! -Swamp Milkweed - Quite pretty, with a pleasing scent. This has its own beetle species? -Shasta Daisy - Ahhh yes! The lovely backdrop! -Echinacea 'White Swan' - Wrongly never thought I would ever be fortunate enough to receive any of this in a trade, round robin or newbie offer, so, I caved and bought a packet of seeds at a local nursery. Forgive me for having so little faith! Be it known, however, what I purchased is what I *share*, whereas what I have been gifted with or otherwise received in trade is what I will actually sow. Same for "Rudbeckia - 'Cherry Brandy'! -Swamp Milkweed - Pretty and butterfly attractive! -Jackson Wonder Butter Bean - Wonderful, glorious Foooooood! Yeah!! -Rose of Sharon 'Purple' - Fantabulous! Really wanted! Thank you so much! :) Overall I just can't say "Thank you!" enough! This is a way kewl package/gift exchange that Elly & I totally appreciate and have had fun with every step of the way! - Rippin' rox! Definitely gotta do this again! :) - Thanks again, Cheryl, Dan and everyone else! - Cryptid (Darrin)

(Passing Linda a towel to dab behind her ears)Hey sweetie, my first year winter sowing was last winter. I was very pessimistic about the whole thing but between Trudi's WS site and the WS forum I made it through with great results. I loved it so much and am doing it again this year. The only little tidbit of advice that I would like to offer before you start is to make sure that you have at least 3 inches of potting soil in your containers because it does compact and the containers that were deeper last year did much better than the more shallow ones. Proper drainage is key along with having the tops off to keep the airflow moving, totally eliminates that whole damping off issue that you get with indoor sowing. I started with milk jugs and then moved on to 2 liter pop bottles when I ran out. I like the results with the pop bottles better, they're easier to split without that handle being in the way and I left a tiny portion uncut so I could just flip them open when they needed to be open for a hot day, flipped them down when it got too cold again, and finally snipped them off when the temps were consistently above freezing/frost. I used bread racks to hold my containers and it worked great. Kept the jugs from blowing around the yard and allowed for the containers to drain nicely too. Karen/Kalena was my mentor and gave me all the tips I could handle. She was the best tutor and helped make it a blast for me! Hey Miss Pix! All good points darlin! Missed you! Hugs, Tracy

Woo hoo! I have the mailing order all worked out, and have started an update thread for the first round, see the link below =) Now, we need another 20 or so traders to start round #2 of this crazy road trip! Please post below if you are interested, the guidelines above will apply to round #2 as well =) Shannon Here is a link that might be useful: Update post for round #1

get out your atlases for this one. Or just dial up google maps-that's what I do. Friday night the newlyweds spent in Mitchell, OR. Saturday, they rode to Redmond. We decided that on Sunday, DH and I would drive down from Portland to Sisters and meet them there, because they were planning on climbing the McKenzie Pass-5325 feet-and a lot of tight switchbacks on the way up and even tighter on the way down. The trailer would not only be a weight, but a safety hazard on the tight, steep climb and descent. Portland to Sisters is about 2.5 hours, the second part mostly through the Willamette State Forest. As DH said, it was a 70 mile calendar shot. Absolutely stunning scenery. Sisters is an arty little town-reminds me of Cape May, NJ-lots of cute little shops in a cute little town with cute buildings in a pretty setting. (Cynical R Us-but I'd move there in a heartbeat.) We met the kids right outside of town, driving past them one way, then the other, then finally seeing them on the opposite side of the road waving and yelling. (I hadn't had any tea.) We loaded the trailer into the rental SUV, fed them a quick breakfast from the cute little bakery, and off they rode. Although the Appalachians had steeper slopes, and the Rockies were longer sustained climbs resulting in much higher altitudes, this would probably be their most challenging individual climb due to the switchbacks and the lack of shoulder--cyclists (and there are lots of them) ride in the car lane because the roadside edges end in nothingness and a straight shot down. The plan was we would follow in a couple hours and find them on the way up, give them water and food, then continue up and over and wait for them at the bottom. DH and I perused the cute little town for a while, hit the used book shop (two Elizabethan-era mysteries from a new-to-me author) had lunch, bought the water, gator ade and sandwiches as requested, succumbed to the cute little ice cream shoppe, then set off on our climb up the pass. It was tough to drive, much less pedal. DH complained that he wasn't seeing any of the scenery because he daren't take his eyes off the road for a second. I was busy watching the road ahead for the kids, with the occasional glance down over the cliffs........ We got to the summit without having seen them. As we pulled into the parking area, I heard "what kept you, you with 4 wheels and a motor?" They had made amazing time without the 70 pounds dragging them down and achieved their goal of beating us to the summit. There is an observatory at the top which looks out over the scenery, including the lava fields, many mountains with famous names, and a lake. Breathtaking. After visual appreciation time and a tailgate for the kids, DH and I took off down the mountain ahead of them. it was harder than going up-a route drawn by Zorro. Speed limits of 20 mph that drivers actually respected. No passing. We got to the pull-over at the bottom and pulled over (natch) to...