Its probably just a pipe dream, but here it goes. WeÂve been talking and dreaming about buying a house ever since the hullabaloo began with the boys next door. They smoke (putting out cigarettes on our brand-new-paid-for-out-of-our-pockets swing and throw the butts all of the walkway and yard), party way too loud and generally disrupt our lives in very disrespectful ways. Plus, we get robbed once a year when the kids let out for school and are totally bored. I also miss my gardens that I canÂt have because the yard guy cuts down my beautiesÂand and and and and the list goes on. The two sides of the camp are, Ed wants to live in some suburb that is at least a thirty minute drive away from where I work so that we can get a bigger, nicer house for a smaller amount of money. I, on the other hand, would love to NEVER ever commute again, would pay dearly to stay where I am and have LF go to the best schools in Nashville. No compromise could be found. To top it all off, we ruined our credit a few years ago. Admittedly, weÂve been working on getting it straight for at least 18 months now (evidently it worked). Ed took it upon himself to ask about a house loan while at the bank one day a few weeks ago. We fought about it pretty hard because I really wanted to wait until the first of 2008 so that weÂd ironed out some of the wrinkles (like getting debt free, yes, weÂre that close again) and he didn't talk to me before he did it. I finally calmed down, did the math (including the taxes and insurance) and figured out we could afford a $XX house. IÂd decided that was my compromise. Talking to Ed, I agreed that I would move (even as early as tomorrow) if he could: A) find a house close to where we already lived, B) it was $X or less (but we could go higher if needed, IÂd just be happier if it was less), and C) did the legwork. Amazingly, the loan officer called and said that was the amount we were approved for a $XX, the exact amount I thought we could handle. I took it to be a sign. Last week, Ed was driving LF to camp through a territory close to work and saw a house for auction. He wanted to go badly. I encouraged him to go, warning, "You donÂt get to pay more than $XX". It sold for $X+70,000. BUT... he talked to the loan officer about what we could do since he's getting anxious, telling him we wanted a house that someone was dying to unload, could even be in bad shape (remember, we can do electricity (brother), plumbing (Ed), carpentry (Ed), carpeting (brother in law), landscaping (Robin)), but needed to be over on this side of town. The loan officer said he knew of a house in our price range, exactly as we described. We went to see the house all together after work last evening. When I met up with LF I told him what we'd been talking about, telling him it wasn't real, more like pretend playing and if he had a house what would like for it to be. He wanted a tree house and a club house. All boy. I told him I envisioned a covered back patio which attached the kitchen on the back of the house. I didn't tell him, I also envisioned a sunken patio that was also in the back yard because it was just plain weird. I couldn't explain why I thought it or have ever wanted something like that. It is in bad shape. You can tell no one has been there in a very long time. It is overgrown with shrubs and vines. There are cracks in the glass on the windows. Every window has a covering pulled completely down. The garage is filled to the ceiling with an old Cadillac sitting on flat tires, cases of bottles, junk in general. This appraisal site says Davidson County appraises its current worth at $XXX. I imagine we can get it for $XX if there's nothing too wrong with it. We can promise to take it as is for less and they won't have the headache, and we'll get to finish it like we want. When we rounded the back of the house, there was a screened in porch, covered with a roof, attached to the back door. How much you wanna bet it's the door to the kitchen? And, it had a smaller patio right next to it, with a 1 1/2 foot high wall around it. Not sunken, but felt that way. I was dumbfounded, but pleased to see that it fits even my imaginary ideas of what it should be. And it's on a road that has Robin in its name. Wonder what that means? It's all coming together, I hope!

well, we are 'told' that the crowns shouls be divided and even replaced every few years....and, when the rhubarb is forced, that crown cannot be forced again, it is usually discarded. My crown is over 30 years old and is more then 4feet wide so I put a cover over a portion of the crown and pick the first pale pink shoots (we don't eat the leaves as they contain oxalic acid, a poison - but the victorians used to make insecticides from the stewed leaves). After picking, we leave the cover off and the plant keeps growing but the leaves get huge and the stems get much thicker and coarser. The following year, I will put a cover on a different section of the crown. I do remove the flowers (although they wouldn't really seem to seed and spread) but by May, the first strawbs are coming in, then the early gooseberries (we have the red Hinnomaeki too, Mariannese, along with a couple of very old cooking varieties), then the redcurrants, blackcurrants, first raspberries. Cherries in July (then again in September), nectarines and peaches, finally, blackberries, plums and apples and nuts (I don't have pears -yet and blueberries are still young). Last year, my grand-daughter was picking fruit straight into her mouth and my elderly collie will also help herself to raspberries off the canes. I am waiting for the first blossom of the year (almond, then peaches) as this, along with tulips, supplies a floral extravaganza until the roses and sweet peas come on song. By July, I barely see the plot since I spend months on my kneeler, picking berries, hardly raising my head over the canopy (and sweltering in the kitchen doing evening jamming). Every year, I swear it will be my last.....and then every spring, all those bad thoughts vapourise with the first pink blossoms. By mid May, the entire plot is a mass of blossom and rampant cow parsley, a sort of sherbert-y frothing sea of petals - will have my camera on hand to record it for the first time ever.

Whew! It has been a while since I've updated! It has been a rather bad year, in my personal life, so I haven't kept up with many of the plans I had, and even abandoned some that I had started. For example, the broccoli and brussels sprout seedlings I had started, well, they never got planted. I didn't do a fall crop for lettuce, and I didn't remember to get my sugar snap peas in, either. Tomato Lane caught the blight, but I just figured out what it was, so I was unable to treat it early. It really didn't look like the pictures of blight, until this week. So, I'll be going to get something to treat it with tomorrow. It'll be late, but it's too late to pull up the plants to stop the spread, as the whole row has it. Thankfully, the blight has not made it onto the fruit, so I'm still bringing in a harvest. Also, the weather is dipping back down below 90, so the plants are starting to set flowers again. The trellises, by the way, are phenomenal. The plants are nearing the arch, and it's so cool to not have to worry about the plants falling over due to their height. Production has been awesome, and I've canned several jars of stewed tomatoes, and I've given a few of the tomatoes away to friends as well. This fall I plan to build boxes around each of the trellises. This will serve to both help in the eventual winter conversion to a greenhouse, and to keep a deep layer of mulch on the plants, and to help contain the soil. I'll also continue to treat for blight throughout the rest of this season, and all of next year, even if no symptoms are present. I'd like to try to get this stuff killed off. The marigolds went absolutely bonkers. I've never seen such huge marigold plants in my life! They are really doing their job, too. Hardly any of the tomato plants have been chewed on by bugs since the marigolds really took hold. The wheat aisle experiment was a success, even if I didn't bring in the crop. I didn't take enough time and care to prepare the bed, so weeds overtook my wheat and made it impossible to harvest with any reasonable effort. So, I mowed the whole thing down and covered it with black plastic. This fall, I'll take the plastic up, build boxes over the entire row, and set fire to the interior. Then, I'll scrape it up, and set fire to it again. After that, I'll re-cover it with plastic until next spring. At that time I'll put down new dirt at a depth of 6 inches, and hope that the grass doesn't come back. So, no crop, but I learned a lot. Success! The Bee's Friend flowers didn't attract very many bees. It may have been that the flowers weren't planted with enough density to attract them, but I don't know. I'm planning on replanting them next year, and making them more plentiful. Perhaps I'll throw them out in the surrounding field instead of the garden, though. In any event, that patch was mowed down and covered in black plastic as well. It will be developed in the same manner as the wheat row, with the exception that part of it will get turned into walkway. The Emerald Gem muskmelons only produced one fruit per plant (user error?), and did not sprawl very much. I think they could be planted in the garden proper next year. Of course, they all ripened while I was out of town on business, so I did not get to try any of them. However, a friend of mine harvested for me while I was away, and he said they were wonderful. I'll plant some more next year! The Criss Cross watermelons are doing fine, but have not yet ripened. The Blacktail Mountain watermelons are also doing well, but have not yet ripened. A volunteer squash plant came up by the back door, and it went nuts. I need to figure out what it is! Next year, I think I'll plant the watermelons up there, instead of on the trellises. I like the trellis, but it is a lot of work to keep the weeds out from it. Perhaps if I planted them in a box, rather than straight in the ground it would have been easier, but I think I prefer to not have to coax a plant to grow somewhere it really doesn't want to go. The tomatoes go wherever you push them, but the melons really do seem to have an opinion about where they want to be. The zucchini did not do well at all. I thought they were a vine variety, but they weren't. So, they were immensely crowded, and did not yield much. To make things worse, I had several power failures this summer, so the crop that I had harvested, blanched, and frozen were all lost when the deep freeze defrosted. The corn was planted too closely together. SFG says that you can put 4 per square, but I think that is too close. Perhaps two, but not four. The crop was dismal. The beans are still growing, so it is unknown how the final result will be. I remain hopeful. The eggplants have only set one fruit so far, and I am very excited to harvest it. I hope that the plants will set some more fruit, though. Its lack of production could probably be link directly to the soil. They are growing in the box where I got the soil mix wrong. The carrots did great, and I have planted again for a fall crop. They are all coming up nicely. The beets are planted for a fall crop, and they too look good. The lettuce did great, but I did not replant for a fall crop. The cucumbers are awesome. We've been making dill pickles 1-2 times a week, and have over a dozen jars now. It was my first attempt at pickles, and they turned out great! I will definitely keep this variety of cucumber in my garden. As you can see, the cucumbers did not need the entire trellis to grow upon, so next year I am going to put some beans on the other side. I'll probably also interplant some peas in early fall, before the beans are ready to be planted. At the trellis by the corn and squash, I will also plant beans next year. I'll probably just build little 1x4ft boxes around base not in the garden, rather than a full 4x4 box. I may expand in that direction eventually, but I doubt that I will next year. For the wheat aisle and the Bee's Friend spaces, I'm not sure what will go there next year. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun dreaming up the schematic as the cold wind starts blowing and we get snowed in week after week!

Kim, Prayers for fast healing for you. Bon, Where would we be without our beloved OK Mesonet? It has all the most helpful info in so many different formats. I just love it. I'm glad Bill made it home in time to chop wood. Hopefully that wood will keep the stove fed and keep you all toasty warm. Maybe you coulda/woulda/shoulda been chopping wood, but we know that it wouldn't feed your soul the way that gardening does, so we totally get it. Your wind chill was bad and it was bad so much earlier than ours. The cold front didn't make it this far south until tonight, but we're plenty chilly now. Megan, If you need some time to just chill, then allow yourself to do that. I think when our bodies are telling us what it needs, we need to listen. With a three day weekend, you should have adequate time for chilling and seed starting. Enjoy your holiday weekend. dbarron, Maybe the cat and dog were just playing and neither is too much of a fraidy cat? I'm glad you got the car into the garage so you won't have to chisel ice off the windshield later. The plants don't seem as bothered by the cold as we do. I guess that's because they are out in it 24/7 and are somewhat better adapted to it perhaps. Rebecca, I hope the procedure went well and that you and your mom made it home just fine. Y'all, the models look like somebody is going to get some snow next week, but I do not necessarily think it will hit many of us unless something changes. We have an unexpected, last-minute bonus weekend with the older granddaughter this week as her dad is unavailable for his weekend with her. Well, his loss is our gain and we're going to enjoy having her here with us, though she might climb the walls a little bit without her little sis around to play with. Of course, we can do things we don't do when little sis is here, like maybe go to a more mature movie (something not G-rated) or to a restaurant that little sis doesn't like. Tomorrow will be just her day and she's already voiced her opinion on where we should eat lunch. : ) Before they called to see if she could come stay with us, I had thought I might do a little plant shopping or something tomorrow but I think instead we'll do something she'll enjoy. It still is pretty chilly to be buying plants, especially since the cold weather doesn't want to go away. I'm ready to do some gardening, but the weather isn't really right for it yet, especially with the persistently soggy soil. Dawn