I don't imagine she would mind me sharing her email of what she has been up to. Here it is... "we are fine, LOL yes, been crazy busy here, as usual LOL my 2 are growing like crazy!! LOL i started winter sowing late, so i "winter sowing" them in the house!! it started out as an accident! Imagine that!! LOL and i have some tomato sprouts and a bell pepper sprout so far! LOL boy am i late this year!! LOL still home schooling the kids, and we got a new puppy, she's a yorkie, she won't get any bigger than 4 lbs. funny thing about that, we have a samoyed husky, a chihuahua (we rescued from a puppy mill) and now her, all different sizes!@! LOL and they all 3 play together well. **big smile** How has this winter been treating you? i hope well!! **big smile** has spring shown any signs of showing up in your neck of the woods?? i sure hope so :') it sure was nice to hear from you, that's for sure!! **big smile** i'll have to check in at the conversation side sometime. once in a great while i do LOL and sometimes just as a lurker LOL seeing if there's anything new going on. LOL Hugz ~medo" Hopefully she can and will check in here herself sometime a little later. I can't imagine her being a lurker and not posting. She is usually pretty wordy and adds a lot here, always in a nice way. Sue

Karl was the one who told me about using black plastic mulch film sold at Menards for $5 to kill grass over the winter to make rose beds. That was back in 2011. Before Karl told me about it, I spent 4+ hours digging out deep-rooted grass by hands until my hands hurt. Karl saved me lots of time in growing roses. He's in zone 5a, same as mine and he advised me on how to winterize roses in pots in my unheated & dark garage, even tiny rootings survive winter thanks to his advice. Another tip that Karl told which I treasure forever is NEVER dumping fertilizer directly on the crown of roses in spring, that hurts the tender feeder roots. So always mix Rose Tone with bagged soil & alfafa meal before topping roses in the spring. Every year I think about Karl and how much he helped me. He had his rose-blog site which folks can ask any questions about roses. He also shared his long list of roses that can survive zone 5a winter.

Here I am. Thank-you Nancy for giving me a pointer in this direction. I'm fine and I'm not. Off work at the moment with health issues. Hopefully nothing but I'm having problems. Doc found my thyroid out of whack a few months back and that was a major stride forward. Mostly healthy enough to make it to work and have a drink after work. Work is half the problem. Mostly stress issues that I suspect are not helping my personal health. Telling myself that I'm strong enough to beat the stress. Expected blow-back from my getting control of the chemicals situation. I think I have control... or more so then in the past. Some new issues but all I've had to do is e-mail and things get taken care of. That is all I ask as a safety person is that things get looked at and a rational decision made. Some recent personal attacks that I have weathered fairly well so far. Ahh... work place drama! Some serious consideration to going off on disability. Almost enough to live on... almost. Kitties are all fine. Favorite moved to the garage and has pet door access to the great outdoors. She turned into a world-class mouser... pity the small rodents in her sights. Leelee moved in and her former owner was a young girl. Leelee has this whole surrogate baby syndrome going on so she sleeps with her head on my pillow and lays on her back in the crook of my arm. Impossible not to love her. Yoko is getting old and spends more time sleeping in warm spots then I care for. Annie and Jessy remain litter mate close and are seldom apart from each other. Three watermelons on the vine in my garden this week! : ) lyra

Lorrain, Krislrob and Sierra. Thanks guys for thinking about me. I posted on Lorrain's other thread tonight that we're ok. We're on the south mountain of the inland fires. So long as the winds continue to go west and die down we'll be ok. So long as there are no more idiots out there or the winds don't head east then we'll be just fine. Lorrain, PLEASE let us know how you're doing.... Krislrob, I have friends I believe are in your area that were really worried yesterday. Today things are looking better for them. I hope you're fine too. Another couple who had their 2nd baby on Saturday live out by you (know that I'm really praying hard here for you!) Anyway, these friends are around the Lawerence Welk resort. They got to go home last night. Still, I'm a bit worried because their newborn isn't eating and it's only a week old. I heard that the smoke is ten fold worse for new borns. AND... my friend said his home smells horrible of smoke. God, I HATE Santa Ana's...... and weirdo's!!!!