Fruitnut, We have several complete thaws throughout the winter. In some locations in the world they have freeze ups where snow is on the ground September- April. It's not unusual for us to be in the 80's this time of year or the 30's. The area around Kansas City can have wide fluctuations in weather (eg. Dec may be as cold as -19 or as hot as 73). Use the "Weather" link below and select lows and highs and you will get an idea of our climate. Remember -19 is not really just -19 it's more like -45 f in Kansas or colder. So our coldest day in the last 25 or so years was -19 but I suspect the wind speed was at least 17 so that's -45 f. See the links below http://www.usairnet.com/weather/maps/current/kansas/wind-speed/ http://www.douglastwitchell.com/wind_chill.php Spring is typically very wet but moisture fluctuates a great deal. For example look at the difference between 1988 and 1993 in this link http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/localclimate/seasrank/annualpcpn.php The ground is typically frozen and wet without vegetation alive and then it rains on top of that so it's a bad time for erosion. Typically the rain fills the ponds during early spring and they remain full until July when another drought begins and lasts through the 1st of September. Rains start again and there is rain in September, October, November , December. This is why the old timers always told me to plant grass is any month that ends in "R" because the grass needs that rain to get started as does other members of the grass family such as wheat. Kansas is the best wheat growing state for all those reasons because you plow in July and August during the drought and plant seed and then wait for September. The wheat grows because the rain starts it and then rain turns to snow and blankets the wheat. Snow fence would work as good and maybe better but grass is free and a great make shift snow fence because it accumulates a several foot high upside down v that melts and waters trees. Here is a link that might be useful: Weather

Multi tool systems are a fantastic concept. I've looked into them a little, but always stopped when I got into the $$ for a "name brand," e.g. Stihl. I guess the advantage would be only one two cycle engine to keep happy, the disadvantage would be if that engine gets cranky.....:-( I was looking for a leaf blower/vac a while back and was also thinking of replacing the weed eater (Stihl). After looking around, ended up spending a few bucks on the weedeater and purchased a blower/vac (reconditioned full warranty) from Amazon for something like $70 deivered. That was 4 years ago, the reconditioned machine runs great, both my brother and I use it and no problems. Guess there's also the question of how much you'll use the device? Two cycle engines like to be run, and are not as happy sitting idle. Multi tool machine you'd use all spring, summer and fall, where a leaf blower would have limited use and sit idle. Small tillers/cultivators are used in the spring and then sit idle. I've decided to stay with "pupose built" tools as opposed to "one size fits all." Good luck, Ev

Wish I had some fun or dramatic story about the thumb, but the truth is that I was just reaching towards a cabinet to catch a platter that was falling out and jammed my thumb right into the edge of the cabinet. Hard. Really hard. My acrylic nail popped off and hit me in the forehead with enough force to leave a little red mark! Thumb started to swell and turn colors immediately. There was a LOT of colorful and fairly creative cursing and swearing. I didn't want to admit it was probably cracked but had to give in and get an xray the next day. Fractured it right across the bottom of the joint and had to wear a splint for two weeks, then tape for a couple more weeks. Right hand, of course. I did it the Friday before Christmas so had a little trouble cooking over the Holidays! The worst part was that it's my 'texting thumb' so using the cell phone was tough.

I'm very impressed with the Open My Eyes clump. Gorgeous! It looks like Born in California is doing well for you too. I love that one! I saw a rebloom scape poking out of one of my fans this morning and was excited about that. Rock Candy has fabulous color contrast, and Charlie's Dream is pretty in a group. The Dominator fell down on the job here too. But at least yours is blooming. Neither of my two fans scaped. All American Chief and Art Attack are stunning clumps. I very much enjoyed seeing all your photos! Debra