The only thing I grow in a high tunnel are my early girl tomatoes. I plant them a month early, and get my first harvest in June rather than July. The photo of the single okra plant inside the hoop house was one taken as a freak storm was approaching. I threw that hoop house together with scraps of sheet metal, black plastic, old vis-queen, and what ever I could find, in an attempt to save this plant's germplasm from the freezing temperatures that were approaching. Unfortunately, high winds that night prevailed, and I lost the battle. Only 5 pods were saved to full maturity. These were distributed among friends at the Department of Agriculture, and a few OSU professors I knew. The dusty ground in that photo will attest to the drought conditions in which that plant prospered. I was only able to water it sparingly, as our well was close to going dry. The photo was taken in October of 2011 after a Summer of record heat. August 2, 2011 reached 115 degrees.

Well Good Afternoon All; I was outside working on a project when the mailman came and delivered a bunch of bills. Thanks alot. Then he stopped on his way back down the street because he had forgotten a box (how many times do you think that goes back to the PO with him?) Anyway, I am humbled by what I received from Jessica. I had mentioned that Shadymeadow sent me a wonderful loose leaf binder with info about her and her part of the world and that I used it to this day. Jessica made me a book!! The book starts off with a detailed description of the plants she sent. They were beautifully packed and traveled well. One even had a flower already, how cool is that? But then she told me about her and where she is from. I am busy reading it and we are getting an electrical storm so I will have to finish this later but I am amazed and embarassed because my box lacked the time and effort "livingdedgirl" put into mine. diene

Hi everyone, Just had to pop in and make sure our hostess knew I finally sent the box to Becky (ramazz) and I sent lots o' goodies along w/ the plants too :) Becky sent me a lovely box a few weeks ago absolutely full to the brim of plants and a GORGEOUS copperwired butterfly windchime.. I collect these so this was a lovely bonus! So thanks Becky :) Just wanted to sorta apologize too for not being too 'chatty' this RR, as some of you know my mom has cancer. Well she has been getting weaker and weaker the past few weeks so I find myself at her house daily doing whatever needs to be done or just holding her hand.. We found out on Tuesday that her liver is now 80% covered with cancer and she is literally a bright yellow color (like a jaundiced baby..) She is growing a new tumor in her belly (she just had 2 removed in March that weighed over 12lbs all together..) and the cancer is spreading to her interior stomach lining and up to her lungs.. We got her to a cancer center in Mexico this past week that does things a lil bit differently than they do here in the U.S. They focus more on herbal healing, and positive thinking. There's no guarantees of course, but since her oncologist basically wrote her off, this was her last hope. Please keep her in your prayers, her name is Janice. All this cancer started initially as cervical cancer.. so all you gals go get your yearly screenings.. this is NOT something to play around with! :( I'll probably be away more than here on GW for awhile, just wanted you all to know I appreciate your kind words and thoughts and I'll pop back in when I can. Hugs, Wendy / sassybutterfly_2008

Howdy! If anyone has used one of the cheap-looking, buy pretty neat idea systems, how did you halt the grill top from swaying while one took the food off? Thanks! Happy Cooking!