Paula, I worry about you and Ken and all that high water. Y'all be extra careful! After all these years of fearing that wildfire would burn us all out of our homes, now we are at the other end of the spectrum. It hasn't even taken hail to knock fruit off our plum trees. Every time we have had really high wind and heavy rain together, the ground is covered with fruit. I still hope to get enough plums to make some jelly, but that looks more and more iffy every day. My garden is the same as yours---without raised beds, there simply would be no garden left to produce anything. This week I yanked out the snap peas----the plants, though heavily loaded with peas and still in bloom, were rotting off at the ground, and they are in raised beds. I harvested all I could find as I pulled out each plant and put it on the compost pile. I'm not going to plant anything else in the ground where they were growing until we have had a few days of sunshine to dry out the waterlogged soil in those raised beds. I fear that any seed sowed there now would just rot or wash away anyhow. Robert, What is a sunny day? (grin) I feel like we have become obsessed with mowing and edging the property, precisely because we cannot do it. On the first sunny, dry-ish day we get, Tim will be mowing, and I'll be out there with the string trimmer tidying up the edges, and along fence lines and such. Tim did mow the other day, so at least the grass in the area closest to the house, garden and outbuildings is low, but the roadside and the pastures are high. You know, that snakey sort of high. I can't wait for us to at least be able to mow pathways through the fields. After Tim mowed the other day, he had just parked the riding mower in the garage when gas became pouring out from underneath it. As he was pushing it back out of the garage, I was running to the house to grab cat litter to absorb the spilled gasoline. He eventually found a hose loose and then two parts on the ground that surely must have had something to do with the loose hose, which I assume was a fuel line. So, before he can mow again, he'll have to fix the mower again. It is always something, isn't it? We've never had to work so hard just to mow the grass. Larry, Thanks for the laugh! You always say something that puts a smile on my face. I like the idea of a boat delivered by a drone. Yesterday when I heard the UPS truck coming down the road (you can hear it from a long way off once you are used to what it sounds like) I went down the driveway to meet the driver down at the road. I wouldn't have wanted for him to bring that big old truck up our flooded driveway as he might have gotten stuck in the mud. Has anyone here been counting days and nights of rain? Is anyone approaching 40 days and 40 nights? It might be time to start building an ark, and if I was building that ark, it would have two sections---one for two of each kind of animal and the other for two of each kind of plant. Oh, who am I kidding? It would have a third section for 100 tomato plants. Dawn

NW Arkansas. it never got above freezing yesterday and then it started to snow last night, which wouldn't of bothered me, we'd just stay home, except my husband has a trip to Kansas today and I don't know what the roads are going to be like between here and there. I'm supposed to be driving a friend to the big city for a dental appointment and I'm not looking forward to it at all, since we live in the hills and they don't take real good care of the roads around here. Fortunately I have four-wheel-drive but even that is not enough. I kind of wish her dentist would call and cancel her appointment before we head out. Of all times for it to snow. Unpredicted, too.

I have heard from Macmex and they are fine and had minimal damage. Still wondering about Mulberryknob. The only thing this has to do with gardening is the fact that it involves seeds, but it was kind of funny. A few years ago George shared some hot pepper seeds with me and I plant them almost every year because Al likes for me to dry them and grind them into flakes and he sprinkles them on his food but a bottle will last him a long time. Last year in late Fall I picked several branches of these little bright red peppers and just stuck them in a glass to dry. Al still had pepper flakes so I just never got around to grinding that bunch and thought I would probably just keep them for seeds. This weekend George sent me a message and asked me if I had some of those pepper seeds because his didn't germinate this year. I didn't see the msg until yesterday, but as soon as I saw it, I cut the stems off of some peppers and stuck them down in a little plastic jewelry size bag, and put that bag inside a bubble wrap type mailer and took it to the post office. It was super light, and the envelope probably weighed more than the contents but it puffed up a little because the seeds were whole and the plastic bag probably had a little air in it. I had to wait in line for awhile, and when I gave the lady the package to weigh, she said, "That will be $2.45." I gave her a questioning look and said, "Really?" She said, "If you can make it thinner, it won't cost as much". Without a pause, I made a fist, reached across the counter to the envelope and gave it three quick hits with the side of my folded fist. She pulled back a little and gave a little giggle, and said, "That will be 94 cents". The woman at the counter beside me laughed and said, "That would make a good commercial". It was not my intent to entertain the Post Office patrons, but it seems I did. George said he received the package today, but I didn't ask him if the pods remained in the plastic bag, or if I blew them all out into the inside of the mailing envelope. I have now been educated by USPS and realize that although you are light weight, it will still cost more if you look fat. LOL

Congratulations on your retirement!! My Mother In Law just turned 80 and retired this year after working the same job for almost 60 years. She was a micro biologist and molecular biologist at a hospital and had only worked that one job. Like other hospital employees she had to work whether it snowed, was a holiday or they needed extra staff on her days off. She loved her job but sadly they restructured at her hospital and the new management worked daily to try and push her out because of her age and the fact that she was one of the highest paid people in her position because of all of her years. She finally decided enough was enough and retired though she probably could have worked another few more years she is in excellent health and you would never know her age if she didn't tell you. I understand about needing the house cold. I have a neurological issue that makes it difficult to regulate my temperature. I keep my house at 68 during the day and 65 at night. If it isn't low enough I over heat and I can not cool down. I sleep in a tank top and shorts and my poor housemates wear sweatshirts and socks. I feel bad but it is so hard for me to cool down. I live in Florida now but when I lived in Mass I would leave the windows cracked at night in the winter time even when the nights were in the 20s and 30s it was perfect for me. Right now here in Florida our nights have been in the upper 60s and days are still in the 80s. I wish we would get some rain. My grass misses those summer storms we get and is looking a little dry even with running the sprinklers 2xs a week.