I am new to starting my own seeds, and I agonized for hours over supply catalogs and articles on the internet before deciding to bite the bullet and use the top of my freezer and refrigerator to germinate my seeds. Boy am I glad I didn't spend a pile of money buying mats. I germinated about 96 seeds in damp paper towels in ziploc baggies on top of my stand-up freezer. Just be sure to check the germination process frequently - several seed packs said they would take @ 10 days to germinate, but when I checked at day 6, they were already sprouted and had their cotyledonary leaves. The roots tend to grow into the paper towel if you let them go too long - I just cut the paper towel apart and buried it with the root in order to avoid disturbing the roots. I had about a 95% germination rate, and the plants seem to be healthy and happy now that I have transplanted them to a growing mixture. I did another 72 plants in a Jiffy peat pellet greenhouse the same way (on top of the freezer), and have had overwhelming success. The freezer is your friend.

OK it's past by bedtime but let's see what I can do Before you is a picture of when you boys were small So young and full of promise my sons, my heart, my all Now that you all have grown into handsome, fine, young men you can look back at this gift from me and remember when Your life, so full of promise and spread out at your feet I am so proud of the three of you finer men you could never meet So on this Merry Christmas I want to say to you A prouder mom there never was and that I love you too

The poem needs to include horses. Wonderful, tho!

Vee, how involved were your parents with your and your brothers' schoolwork? I assume because you went to boarding schools, they must have approved of the curricula. But if ever they didn't approve of something, when they got wind of it would they have said, "What is this you are spouting? Where did you learn that?" Say, suddenly some member of the faculty decided to enlighten the pupils about the differences between and relative merits of communism, totalitarianism, socialism, and fascism (perhaps unlikely but I'm using something extreme as illustration), would they have demanded an explanation from the teacher and/or the administration? I ask because my parents were pretty much hands-off in their attitude toward what we were taught in our State of Iowa-run public education. The state had a good reputation in education with high graduation/low drop-out rates and the number of students who went on to colleges and universities. In fact, the Iowa education standard was used as an exemplar and adopted by other states. For many years the 'Iowa Achievement Test' was given to students every year to see how much they have learned since they were last tested. Most normal kids loathed the achievement tests, but I adored them because to me it was like solving a very detailed puzzle. In other words, I wasn't normal; but I was a dandy test-taker. :-) Anyway, getting back to the point I'm trying to make: My parents left it to the state as to what we were taught in school, which they supplemented at home and in church, etc. But if we came home and started talking about weird things, they would say that sounded like a lot of baloney, yet they probably wouldn't have been bothered enough to confront the powers that be. They probably went years without having a thing to do with any of our instructors. Now jump forward two, three, and four decades: One of the biggest complaints in U.S. education is uninvolved parents. When my sons were in school, their teachers nearly drove me crazy by keeping me informed of everything -- and I mean everything -- the boys were learning and doing. They wanted me to attend weekly conferences, which I did because I didn't want to be accused of being uninvolved. But I didn't understand the fuss if the boys were behaving, doing their work, and learning something. Because of my laidback attitude, the teachers disapprovingly wrote me off eventually. Recently some parents in the U.S. have become very vocal about their dissatisfaction with their kids' schooling. What was your parents' reaction to your marks? Did they give you the third-degree if you didn't get what you should? Anyone else who wants to weigh in, please do!