1. Feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash. 2. Use the statement "sun break" and know what it means. 3. Know more than 10 ways to order coffee. 4. Know more people who own boats than air conditioners. 5. Feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant. 6. Stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the "Walk" signal. 7. Consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it's not a real mountain. 8. Can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle's Best Coffee, and Veneto's (and you're never more than 2 blocks from one when in town.) 9. Know the difference between Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon. 10. Know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, and Willamette. 11. Consider swimming an indoor sport, or is not a sport but a survival skill to prevent boating deaths. 12. Can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai food. 13. In winter, go to work in the dark and come home in the dark-while only working eight-hour days. 14. Never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho. 15. Are not fazed by "Today's forecast: showers followed by rain," and "Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers." 16. You can't wait for a day with "showers and sun breaks." 17. Have no concept of humidity without precipitation. 18. Know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of mind. 19. Can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you can't see through the cloud cover. 20. Say "the mountain is out" when it's a pretty day and you can actually see it. 21. Put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking boots and parka. 22. Switch to your sandals when it gets above 60, but keep the socks on. 23. Have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain. 24. Think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists. 25. Knew immediately that the view out Frasier's window was fake. 26. Buy new sunglasses every year, because you can't find the old ones after such a long time. 27. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway. 28. "Vacation" means going to Portland for the weekend. 29. You measure distance in hours. 30. Know at least eight people who work for companies that manufacture computer parts, airplanes, or athletic shoes. 31. Return from a California vacation depressed because "all the grass was dead." 32. Take a half day every July 1 to find your sunglasses and sunscreen. 33. Remember the date, severity, time of day, where you were, and how long you were out of power and phone service for every winter-weather event in the last five years. 34. Have ever called your insurance agent to ask if your homeowners policy covers falling trees, flooding, or mud slides or if the number of your favorite roofing company is on your phoneÂs "speed-dial" list. 35. Find a wallet with $500 in it, return it all to the owner and refuse a reward. 36. Used to live somewhere else. 37. Own more than 10 articles of clothing that have the names of microbrewries/brewpubs printed on them. Bonus for embroidery. 38. Wave at people who drive Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles like yours. Basically, you just drive down the road waving. 39. Think downtown is "scary" because you were panhandled there once. 40. You are sitting at a downtown red light. The light turns green and the car in front of you does not move. You do not honk. After two more light changes, you approach the driver to ask if they need any assistance. 41. You look in your closet to get dressed and you are stumped on whether to put on your fleece vest, fleece pants, or just go for the fleece jacket. Then youÂre stuck when you decide for the jacket and are confused on which of your six colors you should choose. 42. You use a down comforter in the summer. 43. Your grandparents drive 65 mph through 2 feet of water during a raging rainstorm without flinching. 44. You see people wearing camouflage at social events. 45. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked. 46. You think of the major food groups as elk meat, deer, fish, and berries. 47. You carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them. 48. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the BiMart store at any given time. 49. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat. 50. Driving is better in the winter because almost everybody stays home. 51. You know all the important seasons: Almost winter, Winter, Still raining, Road construction, Deer season, and Elk season.

Well what a great report from you, pitimpinai!! The last I heard you were still very low in energy and still on a ton of medication and little appetite, and listen to you, helping the neighbor till up a lawn! LOL What a nice neighbor you were to plant tomatoes and Dahlias. :-) I am happy to hear that you've also benefited from a shorter work day. Great that you had all that time off saved up. I bet you really needed it to get your energy back. We have gotten pretty much back to what is normal for us here. The weather has been stupendous in the past month! I have never seen the cover crop in the veggie beds so high. We've also gotten all the leaves mowed and collected in bins, ours and three neighbors. [g] We have gotten somewhat cleaned up for the year in the garden, but I keep adding to my list of what I want to get done before the weather turns. Still have a small amount of bulbs to plant and three shrubs to get in the ground, some pots to clean and put away and that will just about do it. I am actually looking forward to a break from the garden. Not that we don't get outside and enjoy it, but it's nice this time of year, to focus on other things. During the gardening season, the garden seems to push out other priorities. [g] I enjoy the winter garden and by the time spring comes, I am just itching to get back to a new growing season. Glad you are able to enjoy gardening again and hope you stay well this winter! :-)

Brock, if anybody is guilty of writing too much, it is I, appreciate your input on the matter. I believe you are correct, it's Chinese or Japanese roof iris aka crested iris (did some googline). I did see zone 5b somewhere which is the colder limit for them, and I definitely think there is a difference b/t 5a and 5b, but I might be able to squeak some things through anyway. Now that is distressing that they may not survive the winter. I just set them out this afternoon, new area where there is no protection, and will have to mulch (or something) for the winter and expect to lose them. There are too many similar in this class to know exactly what to expect. If they make it through the summer, I could pot a few up and bring them inside, but that defeats my purpose as I have enough already to winter inside. They look so nice with that pretty foliage. Yes, I could move some, but I've got scads more plants waiting to be set out. Yes, I agree that some, not all, mail-order retailers exaggerate the zone business because they would lose sales. A topic for another time, tired after setting out 24 plants, used my bulb planter which made things go a little faster. I think I had my tiller set to till and not cultivate, oh well, it had gotten so bad so fast, it needed the extra power, but I'm worried if I could have compromised the roots forming on the Austins I set in there ealier. They should recover.

Hi gang. My move is finally over. Unpacking starts now. (whew.) So this means I can turn my attentions back to this and celebrate being back in civilization. I've also been given the green light to work on the yard. (muahaha) So far, planted herbs in the front flowerbed along with a variety of caladiums and installed some solar LED accent lights. Also got the DBF to buy a bagging mower and we built a compost bin. Started a vermiculture bin this weekend. Also planted strawberry plants in the kitchen windowbox 2 months ago. Wow, people, you are an industrious lot! I really love reading this stuff. But I'd /really/ like to know what some of these things you are doing are. Like, Eric what is a Three Sisters Garden? It might be very nice to have a post from each of you detailing what exactly you are doing in these projects for people who show up who are more wet behind the ears than we are, and believe me I'm still damp. Hope all of you and your environments are thriving. (sure sounds like you are) esho funi, (life and it's environment are 2 but not 2) ana Here is a link that might be useful: Check this out...