Athenainwi, it never gets old :) I am amazed every spring when I see how the roses came through winter. I make sure the ultra tender ones get lots of snow piled on them. Thank goodness for the white stuff. Good luck with MM. She almost came home with us a few years ago. Peachiekean, Deb is absolutely crazy about CM. I'm beginning to like it too. The foliage impresses me as much as the blooms. Mike, I take the mounding off every year in mid March if the snow has melted. The winter of 98/99 was the first I protected roses. I waited until April to remove it. Mold had formed on many of the roses by then. The next winter was a record setter here. Zero was the lowest temperature that winter. The roses only had tip damage the next spring. That convinced me the roses only needed protection from subzero weather. We don't have much chance of getting subzero stuff after mid March. I know the mulch has been helping keep the ground cool and, hopefully, the roses dormant. New growth is starting to show anyway so the mulch comes off. New growth will have to deal with teens and 20s.... occasionally single digits. Our roses always manage to get through low temperatures better than having mulch piled on them and getting moldy. Our normal mid May freeze is the key to how the roses do each year. If it gets to the low teens (like in 2005) the roses will be all season recovering. It is kind of funny... I just shake my head when I read of people protecting roses from temperatures in the 20s. It is hard for me to imagine them doing more good than harm :) I try to wait until mid December to mound the roses. Deciding when to cover them is much iffyer than when to take the mulch off (for me). I want as much frost in the ground as possible but don't to lose cane to subzero stuff. The bottom can drop out here without much warning in November and December. By the way, the roses are looking incredible. The spring of 2000 was the only one when we had more live cane on them. Looks like I am going to have to relearn how to prune roses. Thanks Donna :) Our CM is grafted. I prefer starting with grafted rather than own root. I always hope they will eventually develop their own roots. Hey Leslie :) LOL, though Gemini will always have a home here.... it gives me the creeps just thinking about how old blooms on it look. What a bloom factory! Brigadoon and Color Magic are similar and very different at the same time. I know that doesn't make sense. I like Brigadoon much more. Brigadoon is a better bloomer and a more vigorous bush for us. I like the darker color and shape of the older, open blooms on it. Blooms last a little longer too. Brigadoon is not a stinker but is more fragrant than CM. Neither one browns like Gemini does :)

Our 48X32 ft hoop house is up and the tomatoes are flowering amid cold weather. Our experience with the USDA people in North Little Rock, AR was great. They were helpful, knew what they were doing and were more like neighbors than bureaucrats. If they are going to help pay for it, they don't want to pay for trash that is going to blow away. We have been able to extend our tomato harvest and we will be able to plant lettuce for market all winter. They said this was a test to see if the value of an extended season would be worth the expense of the hoop house. In addition, they noticed that we were starting to build a sheep herd and told us about a pasture rotation program that would cut down parasite damage to our animals. They paid for the materials for building electric fenced paddocks that were secure and would enable us to move the animals every week, breaking the parasite cycle. We paid for or did the labor.I know all the arguments against letting the government help, but I see the government spending money on stuff I disapprove of and in this case, I appreciate the knowledge and financial help the guys at USDA provided locally.

I've just updated the list above. Also, I've sent directions to most people I thought would need them. If you haven't recieved directions and you still need them, just shoot me a quick email and I will get them out to you. Just be sure to know appx. where you are coming from. I'm still waiting to hear from some people as to what they are bringing for the pot luck as well, so be sure to send me an email if you still have a ??? by your name! Just a few days till the swap!!!!!! YAY!!!!! And it looks as if the weather's going to be perfect. Mid 70's and sunny! The pool is open if anyone wants to take a swim! See everyone Sunday! Tara

BJ--thank you for those updates. I have to admit I've felt a little blue ever since reading them, though. I'm sorry to have not been here when happyto lost her husband. I remember that he was struggling with his health. And yes, "yummers." I remember your airplanes, too, and Michelle and I had once exchanged Christmas cards before losing touch. I still remember what her family looked like. I hope everything worked out OK for them. Time really flies. I know your heart is breaking over Baby V. I have a good friend who fostered a baby from the time he was just a couple of weeks old until he was 16 months. She was single, so we (her girlfriends) all pitched in and he was almost as much a part of our family as one could ever imagine. She thought she was on a track to adopt him, but in the very week that the parental rights were to be officially terminated (after which my friend could begin the adoption process formally), his grandmother from 800 miles away applied to foster him. (Not adopt him.) I couldn't believe she would leave him in foster care that long and then just pop in at the last possible moment. My friend tried to make an appeal through the court system at the parents' termination hearing, but she was told foster parents don't have any rights in the relationship. She had to just sit silently, and then hand him over at the end. She was the only mom he had known at that point, and it was devastating for all of us. It could only get harder the more time you have with him, I imagine. But knowing he would be going to a loving home where he would be a priority helps so much. Not the same when he's obviously someone's afterthought. That hurts.