Hey all! I am liking this tablet but am missing a key board and mouse. I must be old fashioned, lol. I am trying to stir up a twitter hashtag for us #gwroses but I'm not sure it'll work. I hope it does I really miss the old days here. Y'all became such great friends. I do get free books with kindle, but no free rose dictionary yet...here's hoping. Florence, each day has been a struggle but my family and roses are my reason d'etre. How are you feeling???? I truly hope all is well! Rosy hugs, carlota or @HobbesCarlota on twitter.

Not to get political, but the title of my post makes me sound like John McCain. All you guys who say you look like sh!t too are full of it. You're all beautiful. The puppy (Toto) is doing very well. She's housebroken (at least when I'm home). Mackenzie is looking forward to Halloween, since she will dress up as Dorothy and take Toto with us. Of course, I'll be the wicked witch. Mackenzie says I'm not a witch - "Witches are grouchy and old and ugly. You're not old and ugly." Eh...two out of three...LOL I went to the one-on-one counseling and I really don't think it's for me. Maybe it just wasn't a good match, but she kept just staring at me, waiting for me to talk. I'd talk for 10 minutes, then stop. I figured she'd ask the, "and how does that make you feel" questions, but there was just this silence. So I'd talk about something else again and she wouldn't say a word. By the end of the appointment it was more like a staring contest. I'm going next week just to say I gave it a fair shot, but...nah. I can do the same thing in my car when I'm alone. The group counseling with the widow support group - now that's good. They can relate to the littlest things. That's what I need. Every single thing I've felt, somebody has been through the same thing. I also feel like I'm helping somebody else in some way, and that's important to me. Laurie, if I had connections, yes, I'd love to write a book -- if not just for my own sanity. Lyra, yet another thing Marilyn Monroe and I have in common...who knew?! ;) I don't think I have Menieres Disease. I think I have stress. In the last week or two I've controlled it much better and I'm feeling much better, although not 100% I'll get there. Today happens to be a good day. Dlynn, yes, I believe I still have the link on my laptop at home. If I remember right, her husband's name was also Bob, but he had an illness?? I will check back in with it. Yes, Maria, let's get together soon...please! I hope all of you are doing well. I miss you all and want to post more.

AM, I have an Excalibur, it's a great machine. I use mine for jerky, for dehydrating garlic, chopped onions and herbs, for apple slices, for making "gummy worms" out of zucchini. I dehydrate zucchini for soup too, and Elery dries a lot of hot peppers. We used a mix of dried peppers and herbs and made our own chili powder this year and if I get a bunch of morel mushrooms or even find mushrooms on sale, I'll stick them into the dehydrator to keep on hand. I threw some morels into the food processor after they were dried, ground them to powder and added salt for a "morel salt". It added a nice flavor when I didn't really have enough mushrooms to make anything else. I've not been happy with a couple of items. Like you, I've found that bananas just stay chewy and sticky and no one in my family will eat them, the consistency is just bad. I've dried tomatoes for tomato powder but they never seem to get crisp enough to powder. If I put them in the food processor and "powder" them, they just solidify into one giant brick. Ugh. A waste of time and product for me. Dried watermelon wasn't exactly my best idea either, LOL. The kids love this "zucchini candy", though, and no one ever knows that it's zucchini. I got the recipe from Linda Lou at Harvest and it's not exactly healthy with sugar and koolaid, but it's probably better than gummy worms. BASIC ZUCCHINI CANDY FRUIT 10 cups peeled diced zucchini 1/2 inch cubes or "worms" 3 cups water 2 pkgs. unsweetened Koolaid 2 1/2 cups sugar Peel zucchini,cut in half, removing seeds. Dice in cubes. Mix the liquid syrup together. Add zucchini. Bring to a boil and them simmer for 25 min. Drain. Put on dehydrator trays. Dry 14 hours at 125 degrees. Turn pieces over and dry another 4 hours. This will feel dry and not sticky when done. Store in jars or other tightly sealed containers.If you dip in sugar when you turn them, they will be more like "gum drops" on the outside. PINEAPPLE CANDY FRUIT You can do the same thing with the zucchini but use : 48 oz. pineapple juice 2 T. pineapple extract 2 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 cup lemon juice BLUEBERRY CANDY FRUIT 10 cups peeled, cut zucchini, about 1/2 inch cubes 1 -16 oz. can wild blueberries ( mashed and strained through cheese cloth) 1 qt. fresh blueberries ( mashed and strained through cheese cloth) 1 cup water 2 cups sugar 1/2 cup lemon juice ( optional) Follow the directions for basic recipe. HINTS: When turning your zucchini, dip in sugar to coat them, making them more like "gumdrops". Or you could make fruit leather, kids always seem to like those. Annie This post was edited by annie1992 on Sun, Jan 26, 14 at 19:23

Kee Thirteen if you PM me your address (continental US I hope!) I will mail you a few things that I had waiting for a seed exchange this spring that has been cancelled. No need for an exchange.