When I was in my first year of school, the (spinster) teacher took the whole class on a walk to pick violets from yards to bring back to school so we could fashion nosegays to give our mothers. I don't think one Mother's Day has gone by I have ever forgotten that. We ventured up into the yards of private residences to pick them. We were a large class, perhaps twenty five to thirty students and there were no aides or parent volunteers to go along and nobody wandered off. All of the teachers in our school were female and none were married but one, and she had to leave when she became pregnant before she was 'showing'. Thinking back on that now, surely she had gotten prior consent for our trespassing. I also am amazed that classes this size now require more than one adult to function and remain under control. Miss Daniels kept our class in line without ever raising her voice above a library level. However, I can't even fathom how archaic it was to think children should not be exposed to a pregnant woman. What were they thinking? Yes, holidays and days with special recognitions do flip triggers in people and are their reason d'etre. My mother and her younger brother were given up by their mother, my maternal grandmother. When she remarried, they were evidently in the way and they were raised by her grandparents. In my mind and her's she got the better deal and led a better life. Motherhood is not created equal, obviously. However it is a special vocation and responsibility, as is fatherhood. Not to be glorified for the physical act of reproduction, but the willing acceptance of the responsibilities and nurturing involved so basic and univeral when done as it should be done. On Mother' Day, I think of one of her friends Bette who was childess and my spinster teachers and all the other women who made my growing-up years happy and special, even though some wanted kids and couldn't have them, or chose not to have them. Mothering and nuturing is a state of the heart and procreation isn't a necessary part of it. I agree about the commercial aspect of Mother's Day. It grates on me and is unneccesary. Ditto for weddings and any other holiday or celebration. My children are my reward, as our my step children, and the differences I may have made in my foster children's lives. They are my reward as they are also the rewards in people like Bette and those teachers.

No I do not have any belief that abuse happened. My dad has always been like this with my sister for two reasons. 1-her mom died when she was young and he thinks that he is doing her good by always letting her do what she wants. 2-he likes drama and wants to be in the middle of everything! Today my dad "attempted" to make up with me in time to come to my house for Thanksgiving. He had my sm call me and tell me that if I just let this go and never speak of it again it can end! LMFAO I told her that I am unable to accept that whenever my sister is mad that my dad feels the need to jump in the problem and get involved. I said that I asked him to stay out of it and instead he was nasty to me and would only listen to my sisters side of it all. And when my sister went overboard and I tried to talk to him he told me to leave him out of it. And from the very beginning he said he was not coming to my home to celebrate my youngest sisters bday as a way of proving his loyalty to my other sister or something! I said that I could not let these things go without an apology. My dad told her to tell me that I had a choice....either be right or be happy. I said that I am sick of the way he always jumps on my sisters side and tries to play hero for her. And he was dead wrong in deciding not to celebrate my youngest sisters bday with me and my kids because my other sister was mad at me. And I said I can not just let it go and pretend it did not happen. She repeated it all to my dad who then told her to tell me to "go to he77"

These stories are hilarious. Razor blades??? Shovels??? Better than my father-in-law; he had 5 boys and didn't teach a one of them to buy a gift or card for their mother. My dh said his mother never got any Mother's Day gifts till I came in the picture. :( He said the only birthday gift he remembers her getting was a washing machine...complete with a big bow. Wow....thanks! Not!

Yes, Albert, that was my point. If you want to get to harvest fast, get a plant that has a smaller DTM. That is, a longer DTM plant planted next to a shorter DTM plant wlll probably take longer to produce. But if you want tomatoes on July 15, and you have a plant with a DTM of 90 days, planting on April 15 may or may not do it for you. Given variability of weather, climate, and planting dates, as well as soil nutrients, you decide when to harvest by looking at the stuff and seeing if it is ready to harvest. Not by when the calendar and the DTM tells you it is ready to harvest. So calendar-wise, DTM is indeed a pretty useless bit of information.