I took advantage of the great weather today. It is a bit breezy and not as warm as yesterday but I opened up any milk jug that had sprouts so they could "harden up" and I took some of the ones that had just a few seedlings showing and transplanted them into 4 in. nursery pots. I've gathered what I have left to plant out and if temperatures drop tonight, I'll put them in the garage and bring them back out tomorrow. We have had so much rain that so many of them look so spindley. I pinched the blue flax back and that about killed me to do that. If weather is again nice like 60 and above, I'll work on planting some more out tomorrow. Can the wintersown seedlings survive 44-47 degrees?

We're in Week 9 of no Kitchen and have only had a Temporary Sink in our Powder Room for one week now (last week Friday it was installed)--until then we had to use an upstairs bathroom for doing dishes. For the first 8 weeks we had no water at all on the first floor (PR is part of the remodel). Our layout, like others has the kitchen in the middle of the back of the house w/the FR & Garage on one side, DR on the other side, and the LR/Den/Upstairs in the front. To get to the FR from any part of the house, you MUST go through the kitchen (ditto for getting to the basement). Our Temporary Kitchen is located in the FR. We put up a set of metal shelves and stored the most commonly used items on those shelves (bread on top so the dogs couldn't get to it!) Our refrigerator & MW were moved into the FR and I purchased a one-burner hot plate and Toaster Oven (convection) that was big enough to bake a 12" square pizza. Our kitchen table was also moved into the FR and we put our measuring cups, spoons, etc. as well as some prep tools and glass casserole dishes on the back of the table, stored our smaller pots & pans in a box under the table, and in another box the rest of our prep tools....also under the table. I also used 2 of our TV tables b/w the wall & refrigerator to store paper plates, bowls, napkins and plastic cups & flatware. [BTW...if you have those rattan paper plate holders, get them out...they make eating off paper plates much easier!] We use mostly paper, plastic, and foil items (paper plates/bowls/napkins, plastic cups/flatware, and foil pans). While we use paper/plastic/foil for most things, cooking and serving are often done w/glass or metal pans/bowls. We purchased 2 inexpensive dishpans and use one to collect dirty dishes to take upstairs and later be washed in, and one to rinse out & bring back down the clean dishes. [We still use the dishpans, but now we can use them in the PR downstairs...it may not have a toilet, but at least it has a sink!] FR Access: We had a tile floor put down in the Foyer, PR, & Kitchen. To accommodate us, the "tile guy" put the floor down in phases so that we always had a path from the FR to the Foyer, at least. He was very understanding of the situation and it worked out very well (of course, it helped that he had plenty of time to do the floor since nothing else was going on at that time!) Now that work has restarted, the contractor moves the plastic out of the way in the Kitchen/Foyer/FR doorway so we can access the FR w/o going outside. We do, however, use the outside route while they're working now that the weather has gotten better. And yes, shoes/flip flops are required at all times...as I constantly have to remind our children!!! I cannot wait for our kitchen to be done!!!!

I love Matelasse, I have several coverlets and bedspreads in various colors and prints of Matelasse. I will add a light weight fleece blanket in the winter. I don't like a lot of covers, I generally am not under the covers much. I will have the cleaning lady take the blanket off this week. Might change to a new pretty summery print Matelasse I bought but have never used yet. I currently have my favorite one which is raspberry color on the bed. I find one of those with the sheets is just right, I prefer a very cool room. The ceiling fan is on high all year, plus I have a 10" fan that is aimed at my head on all the time, we have a good size metal antique style fan on a stand that I have on a fair amount of time. I must have lots of air movement on me, my Dad was the same way. I feel like I can't breathe if I don't. I really think that we could have gone with out the blanket this winter since it never got very cold.

Nancy, Y'all have had quite a bit of cool weather already, and I think that helps the rosemary because the cooler weather has hardened off the rosemary to gradually cooler weather (or, at least, this is how it is supposed to work). The years in which I've lost rosemary were ones where the autumn stayed flat out hot forever, and then the first cold spell hit hard in December like a tornado flying across the plains, and the rosemary could not take the sudden change from very warm weather to intensely cold weather....like, 70 degrees one day and then 18 degrees the next night, with worse temperatures following after the 18 degree night. The only other time I've lost rosemary was in a winter that was very cold/very wet and the soil just stayed too wet for the rosemary for months. That's why I now have one rosemary plant in a bed raised 18" above grade level and the other one in a large urn that's a couple of feet tall---if the rosemary is not in well-drained soil now (the urn has a cactus soil blend to which I added extra decomposed granite), then I'll never have anything in well-drained soil because I don't think I can make anything drain better than that tall bed and that urn. I hope you have fun painting the furniture and making decorating decisions. I enjoy doing things like that so much. I don't know if 4 cold days will faze the bugs at all. It is so complicated. Some insects have anti-freeze type substance in them that helps them survive winter, so I think it just depends on what insect you're talking about. Time will tell. This morning Tim removed a very, very large leaf-footed bug from his car that we assume got into the car trunk at the police station. It was hideous-looking. I told him to not bring home ugly bugs like that. It was a good 50% bigger than any leaf-footed bug I've ever seen here, and maybe even more than 50% bigger. It possibly wasn't a leaf-footed bug (I didn't go over and observe it that closely) and might have been a kissing bug, which I don't think normally could take our cold weather up here. Regardless, except for that hideous thing, I haven't seen many insects lately and take that as a good sign. Possibly they all are just hibernating, as they tend to do, in mulch, beneath leaves, etc. We need a really cold, prolonged spell that lasts weeks to knock back the insect population significantly and I doubt we'll get that, but constant recurring cold spells, with warm days in between, could help kill insects. One thing to do is to rototill the garden soil in cold weather, so you stir up bugs underground and expose them to colder air surfaces at the ground level. That exposure helps them freeze to death. Rebecca, While they may prefer well-drained soil, I grew calendula in the ground in beds with barely amended clay for several years after we moved here and they did fine. Granted, it was one drought year after another, except for 2004, so they might have done better in the clay in dry weather than they would have in wet weather, but they also did well in 2004 when it was pretty wet in the spring. You can find southern peas dried, canned, frozen or (at some stores) freshly shelled and sold in plastic containers or bags in the fresh produce section, ready for cooking, usually with an expiration date of about 7 days. I don't know if you'll find any specifically labeled PEPH--but you might if your local stores carry one of the brands of vegetables produced in the south. Margaret Holmes' veggies include canned White Acre peas, but I'm pretty sure all their other southern peas are listed on the label as Field Peas or Blackeye Peas (either of which might/might not include PEPH types) and I think Glory Foods' peas also are only listed as Blackeyed Peas on the label. I'm pretty sure I've seen PEPH sold canned before, but don't remember where or which brand it was. Keep in mind that the average consumer calls all southern peas (whether they are PEPH, black eyed, green eyed, crowder, zipper, lady or cream peas) black-eyed peas and it generally is only gardeners or southern chefs who would refer to different kinds of southern peas, like PEPHs, with their proper name. If you want southern peas in what might be a more palatable dish, you can buy (or make) a traditional southern dish called Hoppin' John. Some Hoppin' John recipes are basically just peas, onions and peppers along with a few spices and others also include tomatoes or other ingredients. Here's one example: Margaret Holmes' Canned Hoppin' John When I make Hoppin' John, I usually use a lot of jalpenos so ours is pretty hot. Our PEPHs are shelled, frozen, and ready to cook along with our New Year's weekend ham, but when I want them fresh and have run out of frozen ones, Central Market has them freshly shelled, sold in plastic containers, for a very reasonable price almost year-round. I believe theirs generally are raised in far south Texas. Nancy, Canned southern peas are nowhere near as good as fresh or frozen, but they'll serve the purpose for observing the southern tradition of eating southern peas, preferably on New Year's Eve at midnight as the new year begins, for good luck. We just wait and have ours at noon and at dinner on New Year's Day since we aren't going to be awake and eating peas at midnight. Keep in mind I am anti-canned veggies because my taste buds prefer the flavor and texture of either fresh veggies or frozen veggies. That doesn't mean all canned veggies are bad, but just that I find the other forms preferable. They are people, I am sure, who hate the frozen version and prefer the canned one too. Kim, I'm sorry you're ill for the holiday weekend. Please stay put and take care of yourself and get well. Flu is running rampant right now. The linked map shows how widespread the flu is, as of last week: Weekly Flu Map for W/E 12/23/2017 It probably is wise to stay there in Denton until the weather settles down since all sorts of light winter precip are possible over the next few days. We're under a Winter Weather Advisory here through 6 a.m. tomorrow (and y'all are under one in Denton until midnight) but nothing really is happening here yet. I'm hoping nothing falls from the sky. We had drizzle before we reached freezing temperatures, but by the time the temperature dropped to freezing this afternoon, the drizzle had ended, so I think we're lucky so far. Jennifer, All southern peas count towards fulfilling the Good Luck requirement. I've lived in the south all my life, and it never has matter which southern peas you ate for good luck, as long as you ate southern peas. When we lived in Fort Worth, our next-door neighbor, a lovely woman in her 70s/80s got together with a bunch of people from her church every New Year's Eve and they ate southern peas right at midnight for good luck. They said if you weren't eating them at midnight to welcome the new year, you wouldn't have good luck. We've always just waited and had ours at noon on the 1st. It probably is a silly custom, but it doesn't hurt to eat the peas, so why not do it? Amy, Uggh. I wouldn't have been able to eat oyster stew again either after finding that big wad of hair...and I don't want to think about where the hair might have come from. Tim is outside making a shelter for a feral kitty who's been hanging around, and we've been feeding it this week and trying to tame it. Feral cats here usually will not survive all the predators wondering around in the winter, so I'd like to bring him or her indoors to stay safe from the predators and the cold weather, but most feral kitties won't let you pick them up and bring them in, so a big box with a fluffy old comforter on the covered patio will have to suffice. I might take a heated throw blanket out there, plug it into an outlet in the garage, and try to keep the kitty warmer on Sun and Mon nights if I cannot get it to come in tomorrow. (Most cats like me better, by far, but this one prefers Tim, so he might have better luck trying to pick it up and bring it in. We do always wear thick leather gloves when attempting a feral cat rescue.) It is cold and cloudy here, but otherwise quiet. Our VFD/PD/EMS GroupMe mermbers are giving us constant updates from all over the county and beyond (if they are traveling), and even though there's been drizzle and there's been freezing temperatures, there hasn't been freezing drizzle yet. We're keeping our fingers crossed. Dawn