Go for it, Meldy! Just three days ago, I grabbed my spade and dug enough carrots to roast around a big chunk of beef. They had endured many 20s nights, none the worse for wear. I didn't cover anything......harvested my fall cabbages the same day and dug up half a dozen celery plants to grow on in my g'houses. If I'd have hayed up the rest of the veggies out there, I'd have been able to squeeze through to January, most likely. I was telling some friends, I had inadvertently stuck a bunch of eggs in my coat my hens had left me, forgot about them when I started to spade up veggies, and proceeded to make scrambled eggs inside my pockets. It's a really gross feeling when egg yolks bleed through to your skin and drip downward toward your knees at twenty degrees. LOL.

Good morning. It's already 72 degrees here and heading up to 85. Sunny, too! Welcome, Dody and Groomingal! This is a great place to come for support, for weight loss and other things. I'm heading out in a few minutes to do my weekly grocery shopping. I keep a running list all week on my computer, so that by Friday morning, I'm ready to print it and go. I never used to be quite this organized until I started on Weight Watchers this time. It really keeps me in line to know exactly what there is to fix and eat. I'm still cooking every evening, and so far, most of the recent attempts have been successful! QOD: No plans so far. We did so much running around last weekend, and hubby is taking it easy this week but still going in to work after having a heart cath on Monday. So, he'll probably just want to lie around and watch tv. Thanks for the good thoughts for Aubrie. I'm really proud of my Dson and DDIL for remaining so calm about things so far. That's also the reason I was so happy to keep the girls for them Easter weekend while they go visit my other son and DDIL for a nice distraction. And, it has nothing to do with the fact that I LOVE being with my granddaughters! LOL McPeg, I had cabin fever yesterday, too. It was very overcast here and it just made me feel so gloomy. I'm thankful for the sun today! Have a great weekend, everyone!

newbuyer2007, you're correct. Homebuyers often look at the tax assessment when deciding what to offer on a home. They erroneously believe that is what the property is worth. If they work with a Realtor, hopefully the Realtor has disabused them of that notion. There may be some states that are close in their tax assessment to the value of the property, but markets fluctuate and like everyone else has said, Market Value has nothing to do with the Tax Assessment. Home buyers and sellers should know that the fair market value of how much your home may sell for is generally based on comps of properties sold in the area, usually within the past 3 months or so. That also doesn't mean anything either. Buyers and agents often look at the price per sq foot of comps sold in area. I sold a house last year that I totally updated - new roof, a/c, bathrooms down to studs, new appliances, carpet. Home was practically a rebuild. My price for my home was in keeping with prices of homes for sale in the neighborhood, but my price per sq foot was higher than all the comps by $10-12 per sq foot. The other homes on the market helped sell my house. The other homes on the market were in bad shape, outdated, some filthy, but in a nice neighborhood and a coveted school district. My home with everything practically new sold in 8 days. The value of your property is what a buyer is willing to pay. With the current economy, there may be additional challenges with selling. I would suggest Vetting that you not remodel your home out of neighborhood and check out your competition. Depending on the market in your area, it may be best to wait out the market.

Jennifer, For your sake, I wish the weather would hold off one more day. Unfortunately it won't. As someone who has spent tons of time freezing to death at winter fires, you have my sympathy. My only suggestions are thermal undergarments, and I like to use those little Hot Hands hand warmers that you buy in the sporting goods section of stores like Wal-Mart. I keep an activated Hot Hands in each coat pocket and, if I am wearing boots, I drop one into each boot. They have special ones made to keep your toes warm, but those didn't work nearly as well as the Hot Hands do. Oh, and I have awkward battery-powered socks that run off a D-cell battery that fits in a pocket near the top of the sock. They aren't very comfortable to wear because of the wires in them, but they help keep your feet warm. I think wearing good SmartWool socks keeps my feet as warm as the battery-powered socks do. Kim, Tell her to shut up and go away! Did we ask for a winter opera in October? lol. Snow flurries? Now, I like winter as much as anyone and I love snow, but October is too early for that nonsense. The wind is going to be brutal too. For us, the brutal wind is tonight. I don't know if it will hit your area earlier than it hits ours, but I'm dreading that wind. There was a bad wildfire north of Marietta last night and this community does not need for the strong wind expected tonight to stir up hot spots and embers from the acres that burned and send them flying into new, unburned areas. I looked at the weather maps this morning and they are a rainbow of warnings and watches for all kinds of stuff. Old Man Winter is sending the first big cold front down with huge amounts of energy, cold, wind, etc. I cannot believe that earlier this month we had heat indices above 100 and now we are expecting temperatures in the 20s and 30s with colder wind chills. I wonder if this cold front will blow all the way down to the Texas Gulf Coast? My plan for today is to wander around my garden, save anything left worth saving, and tell everything else good-bye. My double purple datura still is in bloom and I hate to see its season end prematurely. I might take cuttings from my two favorite ornamental sweet potato vines---Margarita and Guacamole (I am not making up those crazy names! They are real names.) I guess I'll have to pick my green tomatoes green. I was hoping I could cover them with frost blankets, but with the strong winds expected, I doubt it will work....the frost blankets likely would just go flying away. Oddly, we are supposed to hit 83-85 here this afternoon before the cold front arrives, so I need to be out in the garden first thing while it still is too cool for snakes to be out. I imagine they'll be out this afternoon trying to soak up sun and the heat from pavement and roadways and such. That is common here in October. I still haven't finished picking Lima beans. There's just so many of them. That's a chore for today as well. We still have mosquitoes, flies and grasshoppers everywhere here in huge numbers. Maybe the wind and cold over the next 2 or 3 days will take care of them. Dawn