Beth, by the great people, you must be talking about me, and the corn must be Jeanette. Right?!?!? I live about 3 1/2 hours drive from Council Bluffs. From Des Moines, I live 50 miles north on I35 and 15 miles east. Yes, our state is larger than you would think. And not really as flat as most people think, either. Yes, there are flat places around the state, but also many nice, small rolling hills. Plus some of the best dirt in the whole world. Oh, by the way, I received the squirrel box today. Just thought I'd bring that up here. :) Jeanette, thanks for the squirrel. Gee, I hope you got one, too. My friend, where DO you find these treasures? I do love it because it came from you! Jeanette also sent the following nuts still in the shell: Brazil, almond, English walnut, pecan, and hazelnut. She also included more peanuts--except these are the larger orange candy ones that are shaped like peanuts plus more Reese's PB cups. Besides all of this, she sent Hershey's n' more creamy fudge, caramel, and marshmallow cookie bars. Yummmm mmmmmmmmmm.....Thanks so much, number 1 angel. I won't be able to get this box out til Thursday, but I will let you know when it goes. Thanks for a VERY fun swap, Beth, Jeanette, and everyone! Mellen

Thanks nullzero. It's an emperor lychee. Can't wait until it is big enough to support fruit! It bloomed like crazy this year, but I didn't let it set. I'm very impressed with it. Have heard that lychees can be sensitive. I'm going easy on the fertilizer - 1 handful per month of Don's "Going Bananas" banana fertilizer as he recommended. And it is in a spot that gets quite a lot of wind. Didn't really know to protect it from wind, so I just let it be to see what happened. So far, doesn't seem at all sensitive to the wind. Fingers crossed it will continue on being nice and healthy=) MangoDog - Yep, I do very few things spur of the moment. I'm all about researching stuff first. There are some nice charts that show disease resistance, fruit size & pit clingyness. IFAS Chart Info on Tropic Sweet Tropic Sweet is listed as freestone. I bought mine from Mickey at Plant-o-gram. He recommended it as a healthy variety with tasty fruit, but said that while the pit was "freeish" in his opinion it was more of a semi-cling. Like you, I wanted freestone too, but decided I'd accept clingstone in exchange for excellent flavor. For a 1 1/2 year old tree 8 peaches seems pretty good. I bet when your tree gets a bit bigger you'll get bigger fruit, especially if you thin them when they are small. How do you like the 4 & 5 in one type trees? I considered multi-graft trees, but decided it sounded like too much work to keep all the varieties balanced. How old are your trees? I'm curious if the low production is because they are still young trees, or if it has to do with the multi-grafting? Dianne - sure are right about that! I love wandering about my garden after a long work day of staring at a monitor=)

First of all, Merry Christmas to all and a big thank you to Kelli. In Kelli's Christmas package there were two things that were not wrapped so I enjoyed them right away and put the other things under the tree - opened them today and loved everything! Kelli sent the cutest Snowman's Garden sign, a Maxine Calendar (her sayings are so funny!), chocolate walnut fudge (yum!), brown sugar & fig shower gel (that sounds kind of "yum" as well...LOL), a lovely book called Country Living Seasons that has holiday ideas, garden information, and crafts (just my kind of book!), and a gift card from Lowe's (you can bet I will visit the garden center once it warms up...) I hope I didn't forget to list anything. There were so many packages - my family kept wondering how many more when I was opening them. Anyway, Kelli, you have been an absolutely fantastic pal all year. I don't even know how to express my thanks for all that you sent. Beth, you are welcome for the gifts I sent. We had a short year together, but it definitely was fun. (...and Jan, if you are still reading the Round Robins, it was fun sending to you as well.) I also want to thank everyone who participated in the Circle this year. So many of you remained for the whole year and were so wonderful in all that you did for your pal. We missed those who had to drop out, but certainly understand that things happen. Enjoy the remainder of the holiday season! Jeanne

I think a lot of things are being recalled, they aren't necessarily tainted but I think it's wise to not take a chance on them. That's why Kellogg's recalled their Keebler crackers and cookies before any product was found that was a problem. I know they found a package of the Austin brand peanut butter and cheese crackers with that strain of salmonella here in Michigan in Kalamazoo. My own favorite, Peter Pan Honey Roasted was the subject of a salmonella recall a couple of years ago, but Peter Pan has issued a press release stating that they don't get any of their peanut products from the company in question, so I'm happily eating that. I don't know about Jif, Skippy, etc. I very seldom buy the prepackaged cookies, crackers, etc., but I bought some of the Keelber cheese crackers with peanut butter for Bud and Makayla and called Amanda and told her to throw them away. I'll replace them with just plain cheese crackers or something, they were for Makayla's lunches at school. Annie