Megan, To list something as "Has," one should have enough for at least four full samples. A full sample of seeds is 25 seeds. A full sample of sweet potato slips is 3-4 slips. I more often try to send a small sweet potato, and let the person sprout their own, and get more that way. I do get more than 4 requests for some things. Been receiving several requests a day, for a couple weeks now, and joked with my wife, yesterday, "Wow! Here's a request which doesn't ask for Red Wine Velvet Sweet Potato!" (Slight exageration) I believe four samples is the guideline for offering as "Has." Less should be offered as Limited Quantity. If you have something really rare, and in need of propagation you label it as "Must Reoffer." That cuts way down on the requests. I respect all the opinions expressed above. Each is making some good points. Dawn, I am completely uninformed about whatever Amy Goldman may or may not have done. Nor do I know why George DeVault left. Actually, I don't read the other yearbooks very much; just the winter yearbook. There are some good articles in them all. I just get busy and don't get around to it." Perhaps they have mentioned something in one of these. While we're on the subject, I'd also like to add another disclaimer. The SSE has been a little, ... well, I don't know just how to describe it,... liberal, or "left leaning," as an organization; and that, for as long as I've been a member. That is not my personal leaning/persuasion. I just live and let live. But as a member, I hope no one every things I simply believe everything the organization puts out ;) George

I thought I'd write an update since a lot has happened since I posted just the other day. Studying Ellie's test results and everything online about it, the finger pointed directly at FIP. I'm guessing the "dry" variety since the doctor didn't see any fluid accumulation in Ellie. About the time I came to this sad conclusion, Anne-Marie read this post and emailed me directly, reminding me of the helpful Yahoo communities, of which they had an FIP group. Once there, I read an update by a woman named Karin whose kitty, Gracie, was diagnosed with dry FIP 26 months ago. She was enrolled in a Univ. of Tenn. study for a new drug, and today the kitty is free of FIP! Anyway, from her I got the contact information for the study director and the drug mfg. Finally, I called my vet who admitted he thought it was FIP. Since he knows it to be a death sentence, he hadn't wanted to leave me with no hope, so he just said FIP could be one of the reasons for her test results. I was initially upset that he could've told me this a month ago, but if he had, I'd have probably accepted his prognosis (since I've read enough about FIP in the past on this board) and not gone searching on my own, which led me to the drug, a polyprenyl immunostimulant (PI). Anyway, I've contacted the study leader and am trying to obtain the drug for my kitty. This evening, my vet contacted him also to see what was needed (by the way of further testing) to get her considered. It's a long-shot, I know--but it's the only one we have. My vet hadn't even heard of the study, much less the drug's potential. Heck, he obviously didn't even know much about FIP (which I guess is good--not many kitties around here having it hopefully). Here's something about it: "Recently, a new drug tested in three cats with the dry form of FIP demonstrated efficacy in prolonging life and alleviating signs.38 The drug, a polyprenyl immunostimulant, is an investigatory veterinary biologic that upregulates mRNA expression of T helper lymphocytes responsible for effective cell-mediated immunity. In this study, two cats with FIP were still alive two years after diagnosis, while one cat survived 14 months. Further studies are under way to assess this drug's potential for FIP treatment.38" So, there IS hope for some kitties.....and my prayers are that there is hope for Ellie, too. Tracey

Now, see, Paula, I would be putting a big heart emoji here now. You guys are the best, and all of us can easily see why you do it; and when you pass the baton, all of the rest of us would love to take it up. As much as I'd like to have it here, I must admit, you are the perfect place, and even Kim can make it that far. Jack, Jay, Jacob, and the rest of you who are in the netherlands, you should try it just once. (Hmmm, is there something about J's?) You do it because you have a big heart, and you love your fellow members, and because your place is perfect. I don't see most of you as often as I'd like. . . which would be 6 blocks away, max and with 10 minutes notice for visiting. Okay half an hour away. Like many of the rest of you, the LAST thing I want to do is to leave my gardens and the property. I'd be a lot more engaged with groups and folks and clubs if I could do it at MY home. :) I HAVE gone out on a limb and connected with Amy and Eileen in the Tulsa vicinity since I have willingly foregone time away from home for that. And now, having forged a bond there, I'd probably even make up an excuse to see those two characters. AND even their hubbies! I miss George, and think of them often. I think about Jay and Jack, and Carol and so many others who don't check in often. And now Jacob. As you all have noticed, I check in here often. I moved down here four years ago. Didn't know a soul. Have many dear friends in Wyoming and Minnesota. Miss all of them so much. I pretty much know this is what drives my fondness for OKGW--I have found a community of like-minded souls that has filled the emptiness in my heart for my other friends (many of whom I still visit, virtually, or because they come visit, or because I make trips and see them.) But it came about because every time I had a gardening question to figure out, 9 times out of 10, the Google results pointed me here. And rightly so. Speaking of that, I am going to Minnesota in June. I haven't been back for nearly 2 years now. I am so excited. We had two very important life events come up in Dec. 2017. One granddaughter graduating June 7, another getting married on June 9. What were the chances. I didn't even realized it until about 2 months ago. When it finally hit me, I talked it out with GDW. As we saw it, the only option was for me to go to Mpls, and for him to go to the wedding near here. It's good, in that he'll be here to take care of the cats and dog and garden. It'll be good for me, as I'll be visiting many close friends up there. AND I get to see my revered and precious beauticians, who will fix my hair! (LOL, they have become very close friends of mine outside of the hair stuff.) Nevertheless, I'm kind of sad about it. I would so much prefer that he and I were there for both. This is certainly not a post before driving to OKC to see all of you. Well, maybe it is. I have so loved getting to know you all better, even if not in person, and will be so tickled to see you all.

Nancy, I saw where they were advising some folks in Wagoner to evacuate, and that kind of surprised me, but then when you look at the rainfall map for the month of May, maybe the big surprise is that the whole northeastern quarter of OK isn't evacuated already. Yes, there's so many good people doing so many things to help the people, livestock, pets, wildlife, etc. It is touching....like fire stations offering their use of their 1 or 2 showers to people whose homes have lost power and/or water....and people who are just showing up with cases of bottled water, figuring somebody needs it for drinking water. Shelters popping up, volunteers coming to staff them, restaurants feeding the first responders, and on and on and on. That's the Oklahoma Standard, isn't it? Like you, we're on high ground, so while the Red River is on three sides of us, it never could flood enough to reach us. I had a few doubts in 2015 when we got 80" of rainfall and the river seriously flooded (including washing away two homes not that far from us--but at a much lower elevation--but water never got close to us. We could drive a couple of miles and sit in the parking lot of the McGeehee Catfish Restaurant and watch the incredibly high water go by, but then we drove back uphill to get back home. Everyone said the creeks might back up because they couldn't drain into the river, but they really didn't. They ran high after heavy rainfall, but they always do, and even then, the water would have had to rise 12-15' to make it up the hill to our yard. There was never any chance of that happening. Our road never has flooded at the creek, but there's been flooding to our south and to our north, so we might temporarily be trapped at home for merely a few hours. We almost bought riverside land at a much lower elevation, and I am so grateful we didn't---although we would have had incredible neighbors. (We also have incredibly wonderful neighbors here.) I paint that way....forgetting myself and ending up with a new set of painting clothes too. I don't think it is that I don't know I'll get paint on me, just that in my excitement about getting it done, I forget to go put on clothes that already are dotted with paint. Thanks for sharing the story about Russ. I'm glad he had the chance to get to know his father better. Jennifer, First, congrats on Ethan's high school graduation! That's such a monumental point in a young adult's life (and in the parents' lives as well). Everything eats seedlings. Caterpillars, snails, slugs, flea beetles, army worms, pill bugs and sow bugs (they are decomposers but I find them eating plenty of green plants as well), and I could go on and on and on. Most plants outgrow it, but the brassica family plants need to be treated or the cabbage loopers and cabbage worms will destroy them. There's just too many of the little caterpillars and they munch until they become big caterpillars. Bt 'kurstaki' is the answer. Many of the pests that will eat kale, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower really, really prefer collard greens or mustard greens, so often I grow those on the edge of the garden so the pests will flock to them and not bother my other crops so much. That works pretty well. The non-organic gardeners spray with synthetic pesticides. I have friends who do that. Their plants always look perfect. They use stuff like Bug-B-Gone and Liquid Sevin, and in the olden days used all sorts of heavy-duty stuff like organophosphates like diazinon and malathion. I'd probably give up gardening before I'd ever use those, but using them doesn't bother some people. Guess what is missing from their gardens though? Lady bugs, green lacewings, butterflies, dragonflies, hover flies, flower flies, bees, and often....anything that anyone would consider a pollinator, so they end up having pollination issues. The organic gardeners often spray with organic broad-spectrum pesticides too. I'm not going to fault people for doing that because it is their garden and their choice, but I just do not like spraying a broad spectrum pesticide all over everything. I feel like it isn't worth (to me) the risk of running off or killing all the beneficial insects. Still, I'll never say that I absolutely, positively never would use these products because some day something might happen that pushes me to that point. There are many broad-spectrum organic pesticides available---Spinosad, Neem, Organocide (soybean extract, fish oil and sesame oil), PyGanic (pyrethrins, so can be deadly to felines), Safer Insecticidal Soap (Potassium Salts of Fatty Acids), Safer Tomato and Vegetable Spray (Potassium Salts of Fatty Acids + botanical pyrethrins), Take Down spray (Pyrethrins and canola oil), Hot Pepper Wax (more of a repellent) and Garlic Barrier (also a repellent), Zero Tolerance (herbal oils like rosemary, thyme, cinnamon and other oils), and Beauveria Bassiana (when you need to bring in the big guns---it is a mycoinsecticide that is a fungus in a Liquid Emulsifiable Suspension used to kill soft bodied insects and a few hard-bodies ones as well). I bought Beauveria bassiana last year when I felt like the grasshoppers were winning the war over who was going to harvest from the garden, but then they disappeared (I think birds were eating them) and I never used it. I probably wouldn't have sprayed it on my garden plants but was going to spray it in a 10-12' wide band all around the exterior of the garden fence in the hopes that the grasshoppers would make contact with it there and would get sick and die. Every time that I think that I could and would and will and am going to use a broad-spectrum pesticide to combat some horrible thing in my garden (hmmm....leaf footed bugs or squash bugs or stink bugs, for example), I think about all the living creatures in my garden that I like seeing there, and I just cannot do it. I guess I am a total failure as an organic pesticide user because I cannot use the above products. I will use some narrow-spectrum ones---like sometimes Bt on the brassicas or Semaspore for grasshoppers (it is a bait) or Slug-Go/Slug-Go Plus (a life saver when you have a heavily-mulched garden full of pill bugs and sow bugs), but cannot bring myself to use the broad-spectrum ones. If holes in your kale or cabbage or whatever do bother you that much, then why not find the right product and spray them? Bt should take care of most. Little tiny grasshoppers are just now beginning to hatch out here, though I have not yet seen that many, and they eat holes in everything. I don't think I'm seeing enough of them to make me worry though. Not yet. I usually have a bottle of Take Down spray in my shed so I can spray it directly on hard to catch things like leaf-footed bugs, but I've been out for a couple of years and just haven't bought another bottle yet. It is your garden. If the thought of holes in things bother you, spray with whatever pesticide you're comfortable using. I've just gotten away from doing that and hardly notice the holes in leaves any more. dbarron, Ha! I have had to water my containers the last 4 days. That's what we get for having a combination of strong winds all day long and temperatures in the upper 80s, sunshine (finally) and no rain (oddly). I won't complain and say the rain is missing us, but we aren't getting anything close to what everyone else is getting and May is barely above average rainfall at all compared to other months over the last year. Our ground is starting to dry up some (woo hoo!) and there's no rain in our forecast until Tuesday. I'm glad you're safe from flooding. That's one less thing to worry about anyhow. Eileen, With regards to your pepper seedlings, yes, birds will do that sometimes. Usually it is mockingbirds and they do it only to tomatoes and peppers. I have no idea why. They don't eat them. They just cut them off and leave them lying on the ground. It could be something else---there are some climbing cutworms that will climb a plant stem a couple of inches and then cut it off. I have no idea why. They always seem worse in wet years. I hope your house will be okay. There are some limited 100-year flood zones directly alongside some of the creeks in our neighborhood, but I've only ever seen the creek come up into the yard of one house on our street, and it sits quite a bit lower than us---I think they are actually in the 100-year flood plain while we're well above it. Of course, we had the good sense to build on the highest point of our land, not down in a low area beside the creek, and that helps too. Out closest neighbor to the north put a mobile home way back in the woods right beside the creek. Perhaps they should have taken a clue from the fact that the old farmhouse on that property was built on its highest point of ground but apparently they did not. Still, that house didn't flood in 2015 either. I am sure that if I lived up there in your general area, I'd be feeling anxious about all the rain too. The images of all that water everywhere is mind-boggling. So is the forecast. Rain keeps falling and falling and falling, mostly over the watersheds that can least handle more rain. I feel pretty good about the Red River near us and Lake Texoma right now. They've been releasing water from Texoma for several weeks now, and it is to the point where they're finally releasing water from it faster then new inflow is coming in, so the lake held steady yesterday and should be dropping beginning today. The Red River is high and running fast, and absolutely wall-to-wall (i.e. bank to bank is full) which is not all that common here, where it often is so low you can pretty much walk across it---and, sometimes, in the summer you can walk across it without touching water, but as of this morning, it still was within its banks. We had the unexpected pleasure of a weekend with our oldest granddaughter, so today was kid stuff--shopping for summer clothes, going to the playground, to the movies (Aladdin) and then home for pizza night, playing games and watching some TV. We tortured her by forcing her to watch two episodes of Gunsmoke (in black and white) with us. She thought it was funny---especially because it was in black and white. One guest star was Kurt Russell, playing a kid about 12-13 years old, and she asked me if he was Elvis. I told her no, but that later on, after he grew up, Kurt Russell played Elvis in a movie about his life. She thought it was cool that she picked up on his resemblance to The King. Everyone has gone to bed now except me and one cat, and she's lying here beside me trying to sleep. The house is quiet. It is a nice time to reflect, and Nancy's beautiful description of how Russ reconnected with his dad has me thinking about cancer. A few weeks ago we lost one of our neighbors to stage 4 cancer of the nervous system. He went so quickly after his diagnosis that it was mind-blowing. Today, we found out that a family member of his to whom we are quite close was diagnosed with stage four cancer in his spine. This is such devastating news. He soon will begin a very long chemo regimen. It is hard to understand, sometimes, why some families get hit again and again by diseases like cancer. I didn't work in the garden today, but expect to be able to do a little work out there tomorrow afternoon, and possibly on Monday. It has been so wet that I've largely stayed out of there, except to water stuff in containers. I did a little deadheading and weeding the other day, but not nearly enough. I am keeping up on harvesting. We are very far behind on mowing. Neil Sperry had a great reminder in his newsletter this week that it is chigger time. I'm glad he reminded me. I've been walking through the taller grass in the yard without insect repellent on (I hate spraying it on my skin!) and am sort of surprised the chiggers haven't gotten me already. Am I the only one wondering what happens to the insects in the heavily flooded areas? Like the areas along the Arkansas River where floodwaters are 3 or 4 or 5' deep in neighborhoods, cities and homes? Do the insects get swept away in the floodwaters? Do they die? Do they fly away or crawl up high into trees and survive? What about the earthworms? How about the crawdads? Did they get enough warning to flee to higher ground like they did here in 2015? I mean, I have no idea what does or doesn't survive in this sort of flooding. I do know that mosquitoes become a huge problem even before all the water recedes, but what about everything else? It is something to ponder, is it not? Dawn