Hello, I've been lurking for a while and only recently became a member. Since it seems like everyone knows everyone on this forum here, I decided it might be good to introduce myself. I'm a university student living in British Columbia, Canada. My grandfather passed his love for plants on to me by letting me tag along as a little kid while he tended to his garden. My love for Hippeastrums began early on. One day my grandfather took me to a garden center (I think - it's been a while) and I saw one of those boxes with dry bulbs in them. I could not believe that the spectacular flowers shown on the box really could come out of the onion looking things, so of course I had to have one. Sadly, everything went downhill from there. As you all know, it's impossibly easy to get a newly bought bulb to bloom. Getting a bulb to maintain condition and rebloom was another matter. I could not keep a single bulb in good shape. At first I was too impatient and kept disturbing the plants and checking on the roots (mind you, I was 12 or so back then) and of course, amaryllis resent disturbance. Later, as I familiarized myself with Hippeastrum care, it turned into a tragic-comedic sort of affair. Every summer I'd put my bulbs out in the sun with high hopes, and every summer I'd end up disappointed. On several years it was devastating hailstorms. One summer the plant sitter just didn't water them at all while I was on vacation. I couldn't keep them indoors because I didn't have windows that got any meaningful amount of direct sun. Sometimes they just didn't thrive for reasons unknown (in retrospect, I suspect inappropriate drainage). One time it seemed like I was guaranteed to succeed. I had a large, healthy-looking bulb by the end of august that naturally (I thought) dropped it's leaves for dormancy. Then I lifted it for cleaning and found a strange, soft hole at the base of the basal plate. You all can probably fill in the rest of that story yourselves. This year it seems like I have finally succeeded. The two Mont Blancs I rescued last year are still plump and healthy more than a year later. One of them went dormant in december, while the other dropped a few leaves but still seems active. Their roots are extensive enough that I could lift the entire 5 gallon pot by the necks of the bulbs if I wanted to. Here they are enjoying the sun. My recent success also gave me confidence to order from Royal Colors this year. My order of two bulbs seems quite measly, but I don't have much space in the current apartment. Flamenco queen Samba

Using a baseball bat ends up bruising the meat something awful! So does using the car or truck. Trip wires kinda work and the only thing that really does the job is properly installed deer fencing. Deer evidentally have an underground newsletter where they fill each other in on which yard has which plant and which human has the best aim... So, you may think you can outsmart them but it seems that nature always gets the prize. I have connections to some elder hippies that moved to the country to organically grow produce and herbs. When they first moved to the wilderness they were total peace-niks, blessing their newly planted trees with pyramids, smudge smoke, and rythmic beatings on a tom-tom. Nowadays their conversations have an entirely different flavor. They are advanced marksmen and giggle with glee while they chase wildlife into corners or up a tree to blast away at them. One most disturbing story is when they were both driving down the gravel driveway and came upon a young buck. The wife (who was driving) pulled the truck off the road and rammed the deer up into the pasture fence where it got its hooves and antlers entangled. She jumped out and started wrestling with the beast while her husband stood by the vehicle with his jaw agape. The true sign that things had changed for these two was when she immobilized the traumatized deer with her bare hands by wrapping his back legs around each other and yelled back over her shoulder for a something to bash its head in with - a hammer! a shovel! anything!!! I'm not that coarse. And I like venison, but for some reason they haven't found my unfenced backyard.

I don't think I can recall an 'untraditional' Thanksgiving actually. Pretty boring, huh? For as long as I can remember when I was growing up and until my grandparents passed away, we were at my paternal grandmother's house for T'giving. It was a big group with a bunch of aunts, uncles and cousins, all great cooks. Then my maternal grandparents retired and moved back to Alabama from Texas in the 70's so we were at their house or at my parents. We're talking some good, old-fashioned country cooks here (including my DM) who would have totally turned up their noses if someone had brought in something bought at a store. After my mother passed away, T'giving was either at my house or my brother's house (we rotated for a while) and then we pretty much picked it up because we had most of our kids and grandkids to host and my brother and SIL have no kids. But we have to share with the other sets of parents, so we truly mix it up from year to year. A few years ago I realized I was stressing way too much over the menu. We pretty much have the same basic things every year, lol. We all do try something new now and then and I don't do it all myself, as my kids and in-law kids bring dishes so it's really not bad. My guys even do the clean-up most of the time, so how lucky is that!

Thank you everyone. Tomorrow will be interesting to say the least. Only our contractor/carpenter crew were here today clearing out their stuff, wiping things down for tomorrow's move in. They ran out of time to move the appliances in the house. And they know they have to be here before the movers because their open trailer is still in front of the house - blocking the mover truck... But after all this, tomorrow all I need is a winter coat, comfy shoes and wave my arms around in different directions. I also have a clip board with our packing sheets so I can mark off the boxes on my copy as they come in. DH is having major joint problems today with the weather. I'm quite happy to leave him in the trailer with the cat tomorrow. He can make the coffee. So I'm heading to bed early tonight. Tomorrow night our own beds will be set up! Yippy!