Am I grateful today?? About a year ago I had an incident on the highway - hit in the rear by a gravel truck, resulting in the scrapping of the recently acquired '93 Taurus wagon (whimper, whimper). No injury to anyone. Insurance paid about what I'd paid. And about 7 mos. ago ... another. Resulting in substantial damage to my reasonably recently purchased '88 Mazda 323 hatchback. It appeared that I'd run a red light on that one. Again, fortunately, no one injured. My fault, got a ticket - no insurance (I don't carry "Collision" on my old cars). Though it cost more than I'd paid, the Mazda appeared to be well preserved, and in the light of the expense energy-wise, and pollution-wise, plus global warming-wise, of building (20%??) of a new car to replace (20%??) of the life of this car that would be lost were I to have scrapped it, it seemed the responsible thing to do to repair it. A couple of months ago I received a message from the Ministry of Transport informing me that, since I'm over 70 and had been involved in a chargeable accident ... they wanted me to take a vision, written and road test to evaluate my driving capabilities. When I had my physical exam, I noted some difficulty in reading some writing on billboards, so an appointment was made to see the optometrist. Borrowed "Driver's Handbook" explaining driving rules from the library. I checked with the driver test centre, asking about making an appointment for a driving test. Don't do it that way - take vision test, written test, then take driving test ... usually soon after the others. I took vision test ... she asked about my seeing one item ... she said I'd passed. But - I don't have a regular licence, I have one for driving a large, straight truck ... didn't pass that. When I saw optometrist, figured he could give me glasses to enable me to pass. I have cataracts, need to have surgery to replace lenses, can see well then. Cataracts can grow at varying speeds, no earlier test to compare, not sure how long glasses useful, and in any case can't give me any to enable me to pass "D" licence test! So ... setting up evaluation by specialist, optometrist to call me. Thought I'd re-try vision test, using old uncle's glasses - no dice ... must be own prescription. If I pass vision test within a year, can regain my "D" rating licence. And - I've looked high and low ... but can't find "Driver's Handbook"! I have an important trip to make this Sunday, so had decided not take written test yet, as if I fail driving test (assuming I could do it right away after ... maybe same or next day) ... they'd warned me to bring licensed driver with me to test, in case I failed. That would mean no driving anywhere on Sunday. Then ... when I asked how long interval between other tests and driving .. it's a lot quicker in winter, because few want to be tested then ... probably only a couple of weeks wait!!! WHAT??? Deadline when they're to lift my licence is ...Saturday Jan. 19. Yesterday I borrowed a *new* - I'm first borrower - "Driver's Handbook" from County library (it's a reference book - borrowing deadline 7 days). I've thought that I can live here on the farm, 8 miles from village, 15 miles from city, as long as I can drive. Likely just 8 more days to drive! Though it's mild just now, that's January thaw: it's soon going to be cold again. Not good weather for hitch-hiking! I have quite a lot of food here, and may be able to manage till spring, with minimal travel, but ... ... if they cancel my licence next Saturday ... will I be able to drive to take test, a week or so later? This morning the minister at the church where the Romeos (Old Farts' Coffee Hour) meet called to say that they'd found my "Driver's Handbook" in the computer room. I called the Ministry to see whether I can maybe have my licence suspended rather than cancelled, and permission to take driving test ... The guy said that they'll give me an extension to March! I am GRATEFUL!!! I am GRATEFUL today!! How much we depend on the car!!! How much we take our licence for granted!! ole joyful (still joyful ... but sweating rather copiously [even in winter!] for a while, there)

Hi Suzanne, Your dinner sounds yummy. I have not planned anything, so I guess I'll go freezer diving today! As far as advice regarding the DS#1 drinking, if I was you, I would talk too DS#1 FIRST, before talking to your DH. Get some info..: How often is he drinking? How much is he drinking? Is he still attending his follow-up support meetings and how often is he attending the meetings (once a week for a year is considered very important, but the more often , the better). Then ask DS#1 if he thinks he should maybe share this part of his life with his dad. Ask him how he feels about you sharing it with his dad. DS#1 is a grown-up person, and is holding a job, paying his rent, etc. I feel like we can't intrude on our kids or family's lives forever---sooner or later, they will do what they will do, and there is not much we can do about it. So, the short of it is, I'd ask DS#1 how much he feels comfortable with you sharing with your DH and DS#1 needs to share whatever he feels comfortable sharing---soon. I feel rather close to this, as I have an extremely successful, professional, highly productive sister who, unfortunately, is what the medical community calls a "functioning alchohlic". She has several glasses of red wine nearly every night and continues (for years) to own her own business, hold high offices in the community and in volunteer organizations, and apparently copes with the stress through wine therapy. No one can stop her as she puts up the argument of her maintenance of success for years on end, believes she is handling and compartmentalizing her drinking, and she says she is hurting no one, as she never leaves the house and drives or interferes in anyone's business when having wine. What can I say? I love spending time with her and admire her work. And I no longer try to talk to her about the way she's running her life---I gave up about 2 years ago. Just food for thought. Eventually, the heartache heals and fate takes over. We can't help everyone! ouch! Having shared that very personal moment, I will sign off, and wish you all a happy holiday! Peace on earth.

Rebecca, I am happy your drought is gone too, but sorry this dreary weather contributes to your aches and pains. I am hoping for warmer, drier weather for all of us, but not sure when we are going to get it. January always seems like the dreariest month to me. Stock will grow here, but it is pretty picky, and I have better results from it when I plant it in October or November which is the same time here in my area that you can plant pansies, flowering kale, flowering cabbage, dianthus, and snapdragons. Stock is not only a cool-season plant, but it is a bit pickier about the cool weather than some other cool-season plants seem to be. For example, dianthus goes in and out of bloom cycles here pretty much year-round, whether the temperatures are high are low. Stock doesn't do that. Stock blooms when the weather is cool, period. I believe it has to have temperatures in the 60s in order to set flowers and bloom. Once your temperatures are hotter, then it is pretty much done. If you can find some transplants in flower or ready to flower and plant them in early Spring, you can get a few weeks to a few months of bloom from it if the weather cooperates. I like stock but don't plant it often in Spring as we get too hot too early down here most years. It also tolerates cold less well than the other plants I mentioned above, so may need to be covered up in the winter and early spring on nights going very far below 32 degrees. It will tolerate some light frosts but not real heavy ones. Lupines? I haven't tried the ones that grow in northern parts of the country as I don't think they'd do well in our hot summers but I grow the kind of lupines that God gave us....Lupinus texensis, aka Texas bluebonnets. They either are perennial here or reseed in our clay, and some years we get big stands of them and other years we have smaller stands. Our clay really is too dense for them here at our house and I knew that when I planted them, but I figured that maybe if I was foolish enough to sow the seeds and plant them here, then maybe they would be foolish enough to grow and bloom at least a little bit....and they do. I also have grown the red-flowered variety of Lupinus texensis called Alamo Fire and it does pretty well here. In our area, all kinds of Texas bluebonnets do better from seed sown in the fall than in the spring. The bluebonnet seeds have a hard shell and sprout sporadically over a period of a couple of years. I do see fairly large (maybe one gallon, maybe two gallon) pots of Russell hybrid type lupines in stores each spring. They have them around the same time they have delphiniums in bloom in large pots, so maybe in April. To me, these are the kinds of things you buy, bring home and plant for instant impact, and you do so knowing they are likely to be relatively short-lived in our heat. If you don't expect them to thrive and flourish in our heat and can be content just to enjoy them while they last, I don't see anything wrong with buying them and planting them. I suppose they could be a big disappointment if a person bought them thinking they would bloom all summer. Yet, you never know---what if we had a cooler than average summer and they did bloom and survive? Cool summers aren't common here, but we had one in 2015. Nancy, I've grown Drummond's Phlox here and it did okay, but not well enough that I continued growing it. Drummond's Phlox is one of the smaller varieties and it needs well-drained sandy soil (which I really cannot give it). As for the taller garden type phlox, there's a handful of heirloom types that thrive here---we had someone in our neighborhood in Ft Worth whose home was just surrounded by the old magenta-flowering one grown back in the 1960s and prior. I don't know the name of it. There's a few of the taller garden phlox, like the variety "David", bred to be mildew-tolerant, but I haven't grown any of those. Jennifer, We have a fenced chicken run. We always have had one. I wouldn't have a chicken coop without one. I believe our run with the only coop now in use (we have four coops, and each has a fully enclosed chicken run) is 10' x 20' and it is fully covered in sturdy fencing, including a fence type roof. The chickens are fine when they are in it, but they hate being confined because they are used to free-ranging. I think that if they never were allowed to free-range, they wouldn't know what they were missing and they'd be content to be in the chicken run. We have lost more chickens to predators in the last 5 years than we did in the first 15 years, and I'm just done with that. If we buy more chickens, they are not going to be allowed to free range because it really is just setting them up to eventually become some predator's meal. Our predator problem probably is 20 times worse now than it was when we moved here. As land a few miles from us continues to develop, the wildlife gets pushed upriver to us. We have to change how we manage our chickens, or there's no point in having them any more. Tim is gone from home roughly 14 hours a day on work days, so he barely sees the chickens except on weekends and he is out of touch with our current reality with regards to the predator issues. I wish we were in a nice, quiet semi-rural neighborhood where chickens can free range and be relatively safe within their own yard, but we live in a wildlife jungle. It would help if I could convince him to fence our entire yard, but he hates fences with a passion. I don't know how to have chickens any more without an 8' tall fence around the whole yard. Dawn

Larry, I love your heart for animals. I would be the same way. When the neighbors' animals come up to our fence (or our backdoor) even if I'm running late to work, I'll stop to give them treats and/or feed them. And I also LOVE that Madge started music lessons at 80. She is quite the woman. Very inspiring. Amy, I'm glad you're home and hope you're feeling better too. I don't like a lot of clutter, so don't save everything BUT there's certain things that I do tend to hoard--weird things. It does feel good to clean out doesn't it, Kim? Feels fresh and ready for something new. Again, congrats on your job. (I know we talked on messenger, but I feel like saying it here too!) I'm glad you'll get a day of cuddles with your grandkids on your day off. Nancy, I don't even know what a Rocketbook is. haha. Jen, can't wait to see this tractor. I'm still absolutely excited for you...for your property and tractor and new adventures. Megan, love it when you check in here. I like reading about your garden plans. I'll have to research peasant gardens. I can't store sweet potatoes in the bathtub. I use my bathtub every night. We got a new soaker tub last year and love it so much. I know a lot of people aren't soakers and a bathtub is just wasted space. Glad that it's being used for something productive. Moni, did you ever find a place for your sweet potatoes? I've been around, just busy with life. I was sick a couple of weeks ago. Everyone around me had the virus, so there's no reason to think that I didn't have it. Not bad. Just fever for a couple of days and fatigue. Not much gardening really. Just harvesting from the greens bed for daily salads. Rick is still puling turnips and rutabaga from the SG. We had a bit of broccoli to harvest and I'm still eating on it. Usually put it on the salads. The turnips too. The sauerkraut turned out lovely. I didn't get much, but I'm happy to have what we got. I just put cucumbers in the crock today to practice with fermenting pickles. Obviously, I purchased these cukes. Oh! I saw a seed rack at Walmart. They are beginning to get their seed starting stuff in. I bought a new seed tray with peat pellets. It holds 72, so I'll do half cabbage/broccoli and half lettuce/kale. That's probably all I'll do for the spring,, other than onions (and Rick will do potatoes and peas in the SG). Last night, I got all my seeds ordered for the year. Our budget is really tight right now, so I had to wait. Seems like the cost of everything went up last year. I am excited to get those seeds ordered, though. It's only 6. I should get those greens and brassicas started!