Letting you all know that I am obtaining some nice quantities of seed for the Following Assam Bhut Jolokia, Chocolate Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich, Trinidad 7 Pot, Trinidad Scorpion and the rare Malaysian Habanero Goronong. Contact me through my website and I will send you a word doc that will give you all the information. I am paying quite a bit to get pure seeds but may re-sell to make a little profit. Yes my seed is from overseas and just let me point out that all overseas seed can be confiscated if you do not have the necessary customs paperwork. So I am taking that risk until I get paperwork done which takes forever. Now heres other good news. I will be selling some plants. You do know these plants do not germinate well. So think about plants as an option to seed. Also I have the ability to create plants from cuttings. So as long as I get a few going I will have plants. Now if you are willing to wait I will have fresh chiles too. Then you can just take out your own seeds. So you can buy seeds from fatalii.net or UKchile seeds and take a risk or let me take the risk for you. By the way Reimers seeds resells for UK and I will not charge what they charge. You can contact me at jpdherb@cox.net or go to my site. God Bless! Jim Here is a link that might be useful: Refining Fire Chiles

People out at Palo Duro Canyon State Park report the mesquites are budding. Usually a sign spring is here. We are supposed to be over 90 tomorrow. But, this year, I'm not buying it. I'm gonna say we have another hard freeze or two coming. Here is a little garden story line ya'll can help me keep an eye on. 10 years ago, I began what has been, so far, a fool's errand. I've been trying to grow pomegranate fruit in Amarillo. I bought what they billed as Russian hardy pomegranates. Kept them in pots the first two years/winters. Most years since they have been in the ground they have either had their blooms frozen, or died back to the ground from hard winters and so had to start over on getting wood that would fruit. At least they are hardy enough to come back. Three "Wonderful" standard poms totally froze out. This year, they didn't get frozen back to the ground. So... so far, especially with the early spring we are having, they might be able to fruit and make fruit. A wiser and/or more practical gardener would have given up on them and taken them out years ago (or never tried). We'll see if "zone creep" has krept what probably needs to be a zone 8 length season this far.

Barker_Tx, we are in Austin, Tx and if you have any suggestions, please email me at bevangel_72(at)yahoo.com. A big problem we're having is the cost of all the facilities in Austin. MIL gets about $1100/mo social security and about $900/mo investment income. All of her money is invested in CDs however and none of those mature until next March, so even though know she needs to start spending down the principal, we'd very much like to wait to cash one out to avoid the early withdrawal penalties. In the interim, DH and I are supplementing her living expenses. But, both our jobs are currently "shaky" so we really can't afford to supplement more than about $1000/mo and even that is a MAJOR stretch. If either of us actually loses our jobs, we're going to eat through our own financial cushion very very fast! In Amarillo, MIL's social security and investment income came really close to covering her expenses and she would cash out a CD about once a year to put enough in the bank to cover the rest of her expenses for the year. The only thing we were supplementing was her medication management at about $400/mo. Moving her down here and paying the $3000 non-refundable move-in fee to the Meridian ate thru pretty much all the extra cash she had on hand. So, until next March, we're going to have to supplement every penny above about $2000/mo that it costs her to live. As for the Meridian... I have talked to the administrators until I am blue in the face. They just keep shifting their stories to cover their a**es. First they claimed that they intended for another resident who attends almost all the activities in the main area to go and get MIL and befriend her... but that that resident moved out shortly after MIL moved in. When I pointed out that 1) they never TOLD us the volunteer resident had moved out and 2) THEY were the ones who made the promise and, if they couldn't find a volunteer to fulfill the promise, they should have assigned a staff member to do it, they changed their story. They NOW claim that the only activities they EVER promised to take MIL to were the ones in the Platinum Plus wing and that, if we understood anything else, it was just a misunderstanding on our part! They won't respond to the fact that we talked repeatedly about how much MIL enjoyed playing the dominoes game called Forty-two, which was shown on the MAIN schedule 3x per week and is NEVER shown on the Platinum Plus schedule, and which they very specifically stated they would make sure she got to play. They also ignore the fact that we talked very specifically about my concern that she would get lost trying to get all the way down to the main activity room by herself and discussed the need for her to have a scooter because it was too far for her to walk. The area where they hold their once daily platinum plus activity is right around the corner from MIL's apartment. She can find her own way there quite easily and doesn't need a scooter to go that far. But, "we only said we'd get her to the Platinum Plus activities" is now their story and they are sticking to it. As for the non-events on the health center calendar: According to the administrator, the "current events" activity on the health center calendar would have happened except that the volunteer that leads current events on the weekend was unexpectedly called out of town. The "worship services" on that calendar was a reference to the worship services happening in the Platinum Plus area (as if any one living in the Health Center could POSSIBLY have made it up there since it is at least a 5 minute walk by a healthy person!) The "social hour" was a reference to the fact that, about 3PM the nurse came around and gave each resident a cookie and some cranberry juice! As for the non-events on the Main Calendar: their story now is that "our independent residents lead most of the events that are scheduled and, if they decide not to hold them, we ask them to let us know so we can revise the calendar but, if they don't, that is nothing the Meridian can do." And, as for scheduled afternoon game time that didn't happen in the Platinum Plus wing: "our staff member was there at the scheduled time to lead the activity but none of the residents showed up, so after a few minutes, she left and went to take care of other duties." As I said, they're covering their a**es! As the situation now stands, MIL is back in her apartment and we have been told that they will "remind her of all activities, including those in the main building, when they go in to give her medications." They will also tell her where the activity is happening (as if she can possibly find it on her own) and that, IF a staff member "has time", one will walk her down to occasional activities in the main building. I would bet a million bucks that no staff member will ever have time!!!! Bottom line, she will be left to vegetate in her room until we can move her out. The only reason we even looked in Temple was that Austin seemed so expensive and, as one went further out from Austin the prices seemed to drop. We figured we could afford the time and gas to drive 50 miles to/from Temple once or twice a week more easily than the prices of similar places in Austin. BAD PLAN! Obviously the staff at these places need to know that family members can and will drop in at any time of the day or night! Otherwise some of them are going to take advantage of the fact that they can pretty much lie to you with impunity. I don't want to file a lawsuit or bring other legal action against the Meridian as long as MIL is still basically in their control. No telling how they might take it out on her! Further, a legal action would probably be unavailing because all the promises were made verbally --- nothing in the written contract about them. Once MIL is out though, I intend to sic the state on them for running an unlicensed assisted living facility and also to post bad reviews at every location I can find. Meantime, we're still looking for a good situation for MIL in or near Austin that is somewhere within reach of our budget.

Good morning Moni. I heard you hollering helloooo from the kitchen. LOL Sorry, I've been busy trying to get ready to meet some friends for an early lunch today and then an afternoon of wig shopping. My dear friend was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma lung cancer about 5 weeks ago. She's only had one chemo treatment and is already losing her hair and wanted some company in trying to pick out a wig. I don't know how much help I can be, but I'm there. Problem is her 3 DDs and their families are due in town tomorrow and I'm helping her get prepared for her company's arrival. They all want to be here for her 2nd chemo treatment Monday. When will you be headed back home? Maybe we can catch a bite or a cup of coffee on your return trip. Let me know.