Yesterday was my father's 83rd bday. One year ago on his bday, our ice storm hit and by this time of the day, hundreds of limbs were down,(One through the thin tin of our mobile into the living room), the electricity was out and a huge limb bigger than my waist fell into the field where we had parked the cars, just brushing the rear bumper of our son's van. This year it can't possibly be as bad for us as we had a metal roof built over the trailer and a carport built, and there just aren't that many limbs left to fall. We also bought a generator and a couple battery operated lanterns to go with the candles and oil lamp. We survived 9 days in our home because we have a wood stove and propane cookstove, but no electricity because the small generator that we borrowed was only big enough to keep the freezers cold, although DH did disconnect the freezers each evening long enough to pump hot water into the house for showers. I've prepared though. Filled several gallon jugs full of drinking water and brought in 2 five gallon buckets of rainwater to flush toilets if need be. Done laundry, charged cell phone, filled woodboxes. Now need to take a shower and I'll be prepared. Right now here in extreme eastern Ok, it is either 27, 30 or 33 depending on which of the outdoor thermometers is right. There is a thin coating of ice on the porch railing and 3" icicles hanging from the roof, although the sidewalk is still just wet. So far we have only had light rain and right now it has stopped. I pray it stays stopped until DH gets home this evening. George, we also cook on our woodstove a lot in the winter, soups, stews and beans mostly. Thanks for the idea of making bread. I ground the last of my wheat yesterday and will make 18 hr no-knead bread for tomorrow. The recipe is simplicity itself. 4 cups flour (I use a mix of whole wheat, 7 grain, and unbleached white) 1 & 1/2 cups warm water 2 tsp salt 1/3 tsp yeast Mix everything briskly in a glass or crockery bowl, cover with a towel and set on the counter overnight. The next morning beat it down and let it rise again--twice. Then oil your hands good and form it into a loaf and allow to rise for the final time. Cook at 375 til done. Great stuff. Develops a bit of a sourdough taste. The 18 hours is an estimate. How soon it will be ready will depend on the room temp. Everybody stay safe.

Ginny, there was much more unusual stuff the previous week at Gore Place Plant sale. In both sales they did import plants from outside growers. Gore Place definitely had the better prices than Lyman Estates but Lyman Estates had a discount for members so may be this was why the prices were higher. The Gore Plant sale had a list of the plants on their website they offered at the sale so this was a nice feature to see if there was anything you wanted. To give you an idea, here is what I got at Gore Place: Albutilon 'melon sorbet' Sage 'Pineapple' Begonia 'Baby Wing Pink' Begonia hiemalis 'Solenia' Begonia tuberhybrida 'Illumination Apricot' Coleus saber Cuphea ignea 'Firecracker plant' Ipomea batatas (light green shade of potato vine) Dahlia Variabilis 'Redskin' Craspedia globosa 'Drumstick' And 2 other plants. All for $40. The plants were all healthy and most in 3 or 4" round pots. At the Lyman Estates I bought a Stars and Strips Penta, an unusual heuchera (1 Gallon) and a mint herb for $18. I was happy with these prices since I had been looking for that variety of Penta and haven't seen any of these except through mail order. In both cases the plant sales support the non profit causes that I am happy to support and the plants I got were healthy and well cared for. Sue

Suzie, I was wondering where you were! It sounds like a lovely visit to Beavers Bend. I have uneven damage on some of our surviving planta similar to what you described, but with mine in almost every case, the surviving and undamaged (or mostly undamaged) plant or plant portion was somewhat sheltered by a nearby plant that was taller, or a nearby tree or wall or something. Since we stayed below freezing for 7 hours, I'm surprised anything remained undamaged. We have a forest of beautyberry bushes here, scattered around the approximately 10 acres of our land that are wooded, where the beautyberries and black cherries are the main understory plants. I would guess there's probably a couple hundred of them, and I love them. Mine are growing in clay soil, with a few inches of nice forest soil on top of the clay and are mostly in full shade or heavily dappled shade and they reach a decent size and spread. Of course they have to survive on whatever rainfall they get, and some years that isn't much, but I think it limits their growth a bit. We spent two days down on the Red River Labor Day weekend on a fire call, and I saw beautyberry bushes there in very light shade and sugar sand that were twice the size of mine and twice as lovely. I had no idea they'd get that tall or spread that wide since mine don't. Beautyberries are one of my favorite native shrubs. The berries are so unique and you don't see berries of that color on anything else that I can think of. Dawn

Wonderful pictures. Too funny, Jasdip! lol Gazania. . . those are amazing! cool! just a lily in the front yard...