YAY!! Its a pond family reunion! I'm sure we all have other things to deal with, other interests that distract us from this forum. But it sure is nice when everyone occasionally pops in! Sometimes I spend time on a chicken forum, a vegetable forum, a car-fixing forum, a food preservation forum, an "I've-fallen and I can't get up" forum (health), and now I'm visiting a plumbing forum, since our pressure tank is acting up. haha I know the internet can be a bad place sometimes, but its sure great for getting educated on various things, and meeting new, good people. My stocktank ponds are fairly hidden in weeds these days! We're best at growing weeds around here! I need to learn which ones are edible. One neat thing next to my pond is that a blue lobelia has grown on its own! I'm really trying to grow things that attract butterflies........butterfly bushes, butterfly weed, conflowers, pipevine, etc., etc. (oh yeah, I spend time on the butterfly forum too). I've been sad that we didn't have but a couple frogs this year and they probably got eaten by our snakes. Thank heavens for the tree frogs that can probably stay away from the snakes. This year I finally spread out my water lilies so there was only 1 in each 300 gallon stocktank, and they're all much happier. Sort of had a weird/creepy occurrence this year. At one point this spring, we had thousands of millipedes hatch in the back yard. AAAAAACCCCCHHHH! Don't know what that means, but hope the "circle of life" takes care of them. haha Hopefully snakes like millipedes. Okay.....I've rambled too much. Can you tell I just had caffeine? haha Great to see all of you! Don't be strangers!

Carol, For every smidgen of time and effort we give to our community, we get so much in return. It truly is a priviledge to work as a community volunteer here. It's just been crazy since the train wreck with one 'bad thing' after another, but in the midst of all those tragedies, you also witness so much caring and kindness. Love County truly lives up to being the county of "love". Now that I've had practically a whole night's sleep, I feel more ready for the holidays! Susan, You can freeze them as Dorothy stated, but when you thaw them, the texture is not the same as fresh tomatoes. That's why I dehydrate them. Then it is my option whether to toss handfuls of them into salads in their dehydrated state, or to soak them in a cup of warm water for a little while and then toss them into salads. We like the texture of dehydrated/rehydrated bite-sized tomatoes better than frozen tomatoes if we're throwing tomatoes into our salads. You also could toss your excess cherry tomatoes into the food processor with a few other ingredients and make salsa! George, Your mention of mint/lemon balm reminded me that I do cook with herbs from the garden all the time...some dried and some fresh. We still have green, fresh lemon balm, mint, rosemary, lavender and sage. Sage is certainly associated with Thanksgiving. Dorothy, We haven't had much rain lately. Earlier this month our mesonet station had 0.85" but we had barely a trace that day. With early freezing nights, everything is dry/dormant enough to burn, and so it has been. It isn't that there's been so many fires, but just that they've occurred so closely together. We were out all night Sunday so I was worthless on Monday because apparently I don't function very well on almost no sleep. It seems like we always have a really awful 8-10 days before Thanksgiving, and I think it is a combination of things....frost-induced dormancy of thousands of acres of grassland, stiff winds, the start of the hunting season, and lots of holiday travelers which tends to lead to highway accidents. Today, knock on wood, has been pretty quiet and I hope it lasta. Keith, That recipe sounds marvelous. I'll have to hang onto it so I can try it sometime. I hope everyone does have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and y'all be careful at those Black Friday sales if you go. I'm staying home and shopping online! There is nothing I want to buy badly enough that I'll go anywhere near a store for the next few days. We went to Wal-mart this morning and I hope I can manage to not step foot in a store again for another 5-7 days. Dawn

Good morning! I too try to visualize people and it rarely, if ever, works out. it is nice to put faces to names. Shirley, still thinking of you and keeping you in my prayers. i know that's your daughter, brittney and dawson -- who are the others (inquiring nosey minds want to know) and as for your mom, you never know what the next roommate may be, perhaps you can hold off on the move until you see what comes in LOL, however, I think I'd want to be with my own and her secrets kept!!!! annie your dogs are beautiful, as are you. my aunt and uncle, for as long as i can remember, were the first home for service dogs until they were ready to go into training. they had several different dogs from what i recall. sorry about your lizzie...i know how hard it is to lose a beloved pet. my next dog is going to be a shepherd, but it's been decided that we will only have one dog at a time now, so I have to wait my turn. (we'll see) i made an anniversary cake for a group i belong to, it was our 7 year anniversary so i made this massive cake. i filled it with alternating layers of buttercream and lemon curd, and dang, if it was not tasty. I was able to take a slice home for the family to taste and seriously wish there had been more leftover, would have made a nice breakfast!!!! a real nice combination, even though it started out that i was going to use raspberry as well...i just couldn't get enough to cook them down to make a nice sauce/filling. it's still so cold and seems to be staying that way until at least next week, when it's supposed to go to the high 40's, with rain. by then, i'll think it's summer. this cold is bone chilling and of course, they are calling for more snow. we haven't got much of it, but.....this year it is bothering me like mad! i shouldn't complain, there are parts of the country that are in the negatives, so i'll just keep my mouth shut on this subject any further! so whose left to post their pic? come out. come out whereever you are! speaking of which, jeanne, how are those triplets of late? is mary ellen still a part of this group? i feel like i haven't seen her in a long time...maybe since she became a grandmom, or right before that? hae a nice thursday! maryanne

I do a daily cryptic crossword with my morning coffee. The constructors are English, so I have had to learn some of the “tricks” of English cryptics (like when the clue mentions the Queen, they mean the letters ER, for Elizabeth Regina, will appear in the answer). and am learning terms about cricket!