OMG Vic!!!!!!! Its early and no one else in the house is up....I am tryin soooooo hard not to bust about buying plants and replanting in the milk jugs! Silly silly girl! It will work I know. I have wintersowed for 3 yrs now. The first year DH would roll his eyes every time he saw a milk jug go out the door. So when they started to sprout...I made him go out and look at each one! lol I would wait a couple weeks yet on sowing the veggies and annuals till mid/late March. When is your last frost date? Here it is in mid May. It won't take long for them to pop up when the time is right. I have the day off too and our cold change is coming Saturday. Just keep the snow there please. Have a great day off and Friday everyone!!! hugsssssss, Dee

My box from Melissa arrived today! Inside was a very nice basket full of great stuff! Lots of chocolate goodies, which the kids immediately tried to talk me out of ... don't think so, LOL! Lilac and lavender scented candle Sharpie marker (thank you, thank you, my old one was just about dried up, and I use them for labeling my wintersown containers) Cute little notepad that says "If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud." (Love it!) Green metal turtle windchimes (very cute) Pair of heavy duty leather palm gloves (Boy did I need some of these! My husband's work gloves are way too big, and regular canvas or cloth garden gloves just aren't tough enough for some jobs.) In addition to all of these goodies, there were tons of seeds in the basket too: Greencrop bush beans Henderson bush lima beans Early Sunglow corn Parade cucumber (can't believe you found one I didn't already have) Poona Kheera cucumber (grew it for the first time last year. They were very large, and crisp, almost melon-like, and a very good producer.) Sakata's Sweet melon (Can't wait to try this one!) Orangeglo watermelon (on my wishlist) Louisiana Green Velvet okra (our nights might be too cool, but I'm going to try it anyway - I miss fried okra!) Burgess Buttercup squash Cocozelle squash (I almost sent this one to you too, LOL) Mini Bell Yellow pepper (Would you believe I grew a Mini-Belle Mix last year, and only got red and chocolate, no yellow, so thank you!) Czech's Excellent tomato (new to me, yippee!) Nature's Riddle tomato (also new to me!) Emerald Evergreen tomato (yep, didn't have that one either) Wow!!! I am so pleased and thankful for the wonderful box of goodies you sent. Thank you very much, Melissa! Bonnie (who plans on keeping those chocolates for herself!)

So many of our cities are busting at the seams - population density growing and land fills long gone in and around urban areas. Lets make more garbage - lets buy it at the box and we can change it in two years when we are making more money. Why do we live this way? Why are we all so concerned for our planet and so many people just do nothing? I am a father of 3 beautiful girls. My eldest is 8 and in grade 3. In grade one they teach you about power smart - eco options and what to do if there is an earthquake or fire. When your 6 year old (now 8) starts on you for not powering down the Mac Book you know the schooling is working. Then you think??? How can I make this little girl so proud of her Daddy? Daddy changes. Daddy is a builder. Daddy starts learning how to be a better builder and to build more green. Now this same little one is 7 and we are renovating our home. What can I do to be greener? How much of my home can I save? Answer: A-lot. A year goes by your middle one is 6 your house isn't finished because you won't settle - you had to keep everything and build it right. More talk about the Hydro and more talk about our fish, our recycling and starving kids in Africa. Their is terrible loss in Haiti - this saddens my eldest to a level I was unaware she could feel. My heart breaks - what can I do. Do more. Do it today. Make a difference. I ramped up my recycling, saved everything I could and those scraps - that garbage. Why throw it out? I can take 10 minutes; I have the skill and the tools - why not chop up these bits and bites and given them to my 4 year olds preschool. This is a Montessori program and the teacher is passionate about crafts, visual learning. Crafts are expensive. What does it cost me? An hour (there is always chit chat at drop off) nothing. Easy. Now there is a new University program in need of garbage for an arts course. New art. Green art. I build luxury bathrooms and work with beautiful tile and product. I always have waste. Why dump. The kids can glue it. I have spoken with my suppliers and they are going to save for me - crap, junk, and garbage. Maybe a can or two a month - not much. But one more step forward. How can I do more? Think. Think. Why not help online. Save people from making mistakes and then save a little more garbage in 3-7 years time. This has been my last year. Helping, Building, Recycling, Saving. Now today Im a better man, I do more - but I push myself. What else? It pains me to overhear bad advice in our "Box" stores. They give it out every day. Many unskilled kids and weekend warriors working part time. I went under cover and disguised myself as overweight, father of 3 and hit the "Box Stores" for some advice. I visited them all in Vancouver, North Vancouver and West Vancouver - many of these stores more than once. This took me three days to complete over our Canadian long weekend. I visited 2 of my tile suppliers and also 2 building yards more geared to contractor business than every day retail. The results where mind blowing. The advice so bad it enraged me. I ask you this. "How can these stores endorsed by our celebrity builders dispense advice that can make a home sick - make a home unsafe. A home that leaks. A home that is unsafe because of unapproved non-fire rated wire. Why can I go into a store and buy flashing for a window in a city infested with leaky condos and the flashing does not meet current code??? Is it right that these same stores then profit from the looming rebuild. And a round and around you go. In the end more waste and this waste is the bad kind, old insulation, drywall, concrete board etc." We have codes here in our town and you have yours. Should it not be some sort of company policy that an employee actually reads the instructions on a product label before dispensing advice as an "expert" or "flooring associate"? Can an employee who helps sell products to build my bathroom at my box store tell me that it is OK to use drywall and mastic for my tub shower? This is one of the most known no no's - yet this advice was given to me by 3 of 10 "Experts". So when your busy trying to clean up the dishes, answer your emails and you let your kids play in the bath for an extra half hour (it's great to hear them laugh at bath time) - think about who built this shower, how it was built and it if the backside of those shower walls are covered in mold? Why are our kids so sick all the time? These new products are incredible. There is no reason for kids to get sick, homes to rot or a house to burn to the ground. Stores should point out product, stock shelves - but if they want to tell you how to do something they better dam well know what they are talking about. Another question for you to ponder; "Why is it that when I go into my plumbing and electrical wholesalers the staff are not allowed to tell you what to buy. You have to ask for it by name? Think about it???" But at the Box they can advertise that they can help but in fact send you out the door with a weekend project that no pro could do in 4 days. I'm going to change this - myself. Right now. I started on Friday and hope to have solid progress to report by weeks end. I'll be contacting Rona tomorrow and will share my insight in their staffs training. Look Girls! Look at what we did as a family and for whom we did it for. Our friends. Their friends. The planet. Because it's the right thing to do and to not turn a blind eye. Look how one little bathroom contractor can change a multi million-dollar company(s). Makes me proud to see my daughter well up when I shared the good news today that Home Depot is going to change. And not just in my town. But Canada wide! I was contacted by Tiziana Baccega Manager, Public Relations & External Affairs The Home Depot Tel:416-412-6570 Fax: 416-412-6792 and she thanked me for my insight and made me fill quite confident that this retraining will happen and will happen soon. I will keep you posted. It is wrong that the retailers profit and while they wait for the rebuild we get sick - breathe mold and we send our kids to this very spot every day to breathe more. No No No. It is not right - and I am going to stop it. "Waterproofing a shower is not something you can almost do perfect. When it's perfect. It's good enough." - John Whipple __________________ .

NHSuzanne - Those pictures are postcard perfect. What a beautiful sky. I may make those mugs for my college age nieces. Thanks for posting. Raeanne and Patti - The 3 of us should just exchange among ourselves. Patti, I don't have an ornament from you, so maybe you could send to me. I'll send to Raeanne an Raeanne can send to you. How does that sound? My job is sucking the life right out of me, but I have managed to get in the Christmas spirit this week. I am working on Holiday recipe boxes for all the cooks in my family. I found a great site called Shabby Princess with a free download for Christmas recipe cards. I spent most of yesterday (after attending a beautiful Christmas wedding) typing the recipes. Now I need to upload the recipes to Costco, print out the Recipe boxes and put them all together. I posted a link below for anyone who is interested. My house is decorated and most of my shopping is done. I just have some on-line shopping to do for my DS and figure out what DH wants. I bought myself my Christmas present yesterday......a Kitchen Aid mixer. I was using my parent's old mixer, which was a wedding present, 61 years ago. Let's just say it was time to upgrade. LOL I also bought a new lens for my Nikon SLR. DH will be retiring next summer and who knows what the money situation will be, so I treated myself while I still could. I will try to post more often. I have been going into work early, working thru lunch, staying late and bringing work home. Like I said, it is sucking the life out of me. I already wrote my letter of resignation and will turn it in in February. I am ready to quit today, but I know that isn't the right thing for the kids, so I will tough it out until May. Then I can decide what I want to do for the next 2 years until I can retire for good. Who knows, maybe I will find a job that I love and I won't want to retire at all! LOL Later, Marci Here is a link that might be useful: Holiday Recipe Cards