I thought it over, here is what I said on Figs4fun forum I hope I don't get in trouble for saying a few things, it was all in fun.Here it is! Hi Guy's Well we got up even before bright & early yesterday to go see Mr. James Robin.We got there about 10Am, JR was still in his pajamas, now that was a sight.....HEHE, I had saw a picture of hin on the Web, it musta bee doctored (sorry about that Leon)but I thought JR was taller, heck he has to use a step ladder to pick strawberrys! First rattle out of the bag at JR's house was meeting "Bob" now that was an experiance, Bob is a beautiful brown & white dog, that just lives to bite ya, Well I think I got my bluff in on him so I made it to JR door, knocked on it JR came and said hello Cecil, now I have never met him that I know of, I asked him how did he know it was me, he said he could smell a Texan for a mile, mind ya we wore a nice brand new shower to our visit with him, We met Ms Betty she is a super nice lady, to bad she has that terrible Alzheimer's disease, when she saw Fig picker she got a million dollar size on her pretty face, they did the hugging thing and She was really happy, which made Dorcas just as happy! Ol Bob came in the house when Dorcas came in, she loves every dog she meets, she reached down to pet him, he started growling, James jumped up and put a muzzle on him, he got no aurgument out of us on that one, well we sat in JR'S little office and told lies to each other for about an hour, it was a tossup on who won the B/S session, but I really think the Cajun won that one(imagine that)A coon ass and a horses ass in a B/S contest! Speaking of coon asses & horses's asses do yaw know the difference?........answer, the Sabine River, look it up! James got dressed and we went out to look his place over, now mind ya bob was right on our trail, well I bent over to look at my little O'Rourke plant and Bob nudged me on the back of my leg, I'm here to tell ya, that wasn't the only thing I thought was on the back of my leg(it could have been a messy situation there if ya know what I'm talking about! As Martin sez, anyhoot, we pulled the plants out of their pots and looked for RKN, none was visible than goodness! I was going to put the plants inside our truck when JR spotted our little Yorkie, missy hot wheels, he fell in love with her, and started petting her, I told him to watch her she might try to bite him, it was too late she was about to kiss him to death......silly Dawg, Bob wanted a closer look but JR grabbed him before he could jump up on our truck which would have gave me a heart attack, not because of the dog, but I wasn't goofy about our truck getting all scratched up. Well we visited some more, and told James we were fixin to head back west, he invited us to have lunch with him but we had Cajun food on our minds, the crawfish kind, he was having roast which is fine with us most times, but not when yer in Cajun country, we head out looking for good Cajun food, in no time we found it, pigged out on it and headed for Merrysville La. to Almost Eden's nursery to meet another very nice Cajun Gent. Mr. John McMillian he gave us directions to his place and didn't miss one detail, we went straight past him and called him, we had overshot his runway bt two mailboxes....HEHE, we had a very nice visit with John and he showed us his operation like JR had did, both men had some very nice plants, both of them had a lot of plants that had figs on them I might add, anyhow Dorcas was walking Missy, and John pulled a leaf off one plant and told me to sniff that, I did, ya ain't gonna believe this it was what he called a popcorn plant, it smelled just like popcorn, doggone est thing I have ever sniffed of.....well maybe not...HAHA We told John that I had trucked through Merrysville in the 60's to go around the Louisiana State scales(did I just say that?) I told John that the bridge crossing the Sabine River at Merrysville use to be so narrow two cars could barely meet each other safely on it and no way two trucks could meet and still have their mirrors on the trucks, When we got to the river I'm here to tell ya, dem cajuns done got downtown yeah, that bridge is a nice un! Well before i I close this B/S session, JR said to tell George, Herman and Fignut hello as well as you Mike in Fla.And anyone else he forgot. We will update ya'll on the O'Rourke fig as time goes by. Regards Cecil

Howdy! I did a year at U.C. Davis....the pollen and the humidity were intense ;-) The farmer's market should have a nice selection of plants. During the Summer, the temps range between 85F and 95F for the most part here, but we always have a couple weeks of 100F+ weather....those weeks are awful. I'm at 1600 feet elevation, so I don't quite get the higher elevation cooling effect. You guessed it - containers are moved into shade (mosaic sun) during the hot spells. I find that peppers don't really need full, unobstructed sun - just a few hours direct. I don't actually use any peat moss in my mixes - I use pumice and turface, which maintain structure far better. I'd rather water more often than have collapsing soil in the root-zone. I agree that it's great to have some "local" growers, so that we can compare notes and increase the knowledge base for others in our dry climate. Josh

We grew them this year. OMG. They are very very hot. When I first used them in the beginning of August, they were not too bad, but suddenly they became very hot. They stay on my fingers and will burn the skin. Tried to make pepper jelly and these are as hot as the hottest serranos I have had- way different than expected. Having said that, I do like them. They are great peppers. Stuffed they are nice, but be ready for a bite. We also had a very hot dry year. All of our peppers are very hot- hotter than usual.

Sorry that you have this loss, Linda, my condolences to you and family. I'm regretful that your mom's life was less than pleasant near the end. You'd be disappointed in her being aloof when you visited ... yet she complained of boredom. Age and infirmity often brings substantial changes in our lifestyle and attitudes. Sometimes we can recover a number of the things that we enjoyed in earlier days ... but sometimes that's not possible, and it takes a person of great spirit to adjust accordingly, accepting that yesterday had gone and can't be recovered, that we need to deal with the realities of our lives today, dealing with restrictions and finding new interests and joys, even friends, as are required in the new scenario. May your Mom rest in peace, and those of you who loved her find peace in your hearts. ole joyful