Gracias amigos. Thank you friends. And Feliz cumpleaños is the right way to say Happy birthday in spanish Alfonso And Manuel, if you are interested, there is a biologhyst from the IPN that has a genoma reproduction lab in Reynosa

Have a great one; buy yourself some succulents (or better yet, get someone else to buy you some!)

Keith, The cold held on here just a couple of days longer than it did there. I covered up everything with row cover about 2 days a week (I would leave it covered for 2 days and nights without uncovering it) for about 6 or 7 ridiculous weeks. What was the option though? To let it all freeze? Not if I could help it. Unfortunately, even while we were having nights in the 30s we were having occasional days in the 80s and 90s, so some of the cool-season stuff starting bolting, in some cases, about the same time the cold nights stopped. The onions and taters are fine, the broccoli is okay but slow to form heads (at least it hasn't bolted or formed button heads), the cabbage is right on schedule, the onions may be a bit smaller than usual because I didn't water them much and we're still in drought (though we clawed our way back from severe to moderate drought on the latest monitor) but they haven't bolted...and the garlic looks great. The cauliflower and snap peas produced fine, but I harvested the last of them and took out the plants this week. The brussels sprouts are forming sprouts but they need to hurry up before the heat gets them. The lettuce and other greens have been bolting, and I've been pulling them out almost daily and feeding them to the chickens. There's still a few heads of summercrisp varieties not bolting yet, but I don't think they'll last much longer. The only radishes left are the rat-tail radishes grown for their pods. I just pulled the last of the Swiss chard from last year as it has begun bolting, but have new young seedlings to put into the ground as replacements. I planted okra almost late---holding off and waiting forever for the cold nights to go away. When okra volunteers began sprouting in the area where I've grown okra the last two years, I decided it was warm enough to sow seeds. Now I need to go back and dig out the little seedlings that volunteered and move them someplace where there is room for them to grow. The tomatoes are happy and loaded with fruit, but it won't be as big of an early harvest as last year. I'm okay with that. I am so burnt out on canning, drying and freezing tomatoes that I am pretty much hoping for a late harvest of the paste tomatoes so that I don't have to spend the entire summer canning. I've got three ripe tomatoes, all from Bush Early Girl, sitting on the kitchen counter. I think I'll make BLT sandwiches for dinner tonight. The only other ripe tomatoes so far are from the other plants in containers, but the BEG is in the ground. Oh, the cherries in the ground are producing an occasional ripe one. I don't think the big harvest will start until about mid-June. That isn't surprising considering how odd our weather has been. I think last year's early warm-up just made this year's late cold so much harder to bear. I kept looking at plants covered up in row cover and thinking to myself they looked two months behind last years plants....and they were! They are catching up now that the cold weather is gone. I only planted about 1/4 as many tomato plants as last year. Since the tomato harvest will be manageable, I planted tons of cukes, melons, taters, onions and garlic. I knew I needed something to fill up the garden so I wouldn't just keep sticking tomato plants in every empty spot. I would love a late spring. One year we hardly broke 100 degrees at all. Maybe it was 2002? 2004? Whenever it was.....it was an awesome year. The tomatoes never slowed down and I didn't get all tired and burnt out and let the weeding get away from me. In more recent years, I have just let the weeds win the battle in July and August, and then when it cools off in September I try to get rid of them. It is a real good garden year so far....I've only had two snakes in the garden. The turtle who comes and patrols the rows of potatoes for bugs just showed up the week, so things are starting to feel kinda normal---finally. Dawn

Larry glad your day went well overall. Mine did also. I hauled another load of alfalfa today. Hauled a load of small wheat straw bales yesterday. Replaced the hydraulic cylinders on one tractor earlier in the week so been cleaning up loose alfalfa and manure and stacking it in piles to compost. I will run some of the alfalfa through the shredder after I finish shredding the leaves. Will add some to the garden and let some compost. Hopefully if we continue to get some moisture I won't have to soak the piles so they will compost. Also letting the manure set in piles for a while will let some of the salt leach out. Tomorrow should be warm and windy. After that may not get a lot done outside. Did get my washer backs, unloaded, hooked up and washing. So overall has been a good day. Jay