Well we couldn't wait and went the weekend before last. It was a beautiful Sunday and we spent nearly three hours strolling through the aisles with our little red wagons. We filled up three of them, plus a flat cart with 6 bags of grapeseed compost. By the time we got everything home, it was too late to plant. No matter, I had carved out this past weekend to get everything in the ground. But in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I woke to an aggravating tickle in the back of my throat. By noon I could barely swallow. I've been flat on my back with the flu since. I did manage to scrape myself out of bed and go to work this morning. I had to walk past my Annie's planties to get to the garage. You can't imagine the guilt, the way they looked at me! I coughed an apology in their direction. I suppose they'll be okay until next weekend. They are in dappled shade and being kept well-watered. But what frustration! Steven Is anyone planning on going to the party? Steven

Thanks for the advice - drywall is not an option right now with this timeframe...our son is in college and our daughter is a junior in high school so at this point, we won't be finishing the basement. We do have a bonus media/pool table room on the first floor so this is the usual teen hangout --it's just not big enough for dancing. I did buy some silver tarps and some beige drop cloths to see which one will work better. I was planning on stapling them to the floor joists above. There are some hvac ducts and pipes that we will have to work around so we would need to cut the material to fit around these. I was thinking of trimming this out with duct tape if we use the tarps and with patterned burlap ribbon if we use the drop cloths. Are we safe to have the tarps or fabric next to the hvac ducts? Found a cool large silver ornament that looks like a disco ball on sale at Hobby Lobby and bought 5 strings of white lights so far. The main problem is hiding the storage area. This post was edited by baseballmom94 on Tue, Dec 10, 13 at 11:27

Thanks, ladies. Yes, it's a lot of fun and it seems like the ladies are really outdoing themselves every year. I do have an idea for next years ornie, in fact I have almost everything I need to make them. I saw on FlickR some ornaments that look like those candied fruit slices, you know the ones you see in the nice candy stores, they look like a slice of orange, or lemon, lime, etc. They make them in citrus colors and red.... well, these were felt, 2 colors in each one, like dark green/lime green or dark yellow/bright yellow, etc, and covered with "sugar", which was a square crystal glitter. Simple, but VERY CUTE. I was thinking of making a set of 3 for each lady. I bought all the stuff to make them in case my ships didn't turn out. So I'll be making those, and I won't wait until early December, either! lol bRAT Kat- those are his little mittened hands you're seeing, ya perv! lol It's not a good photo, I realize that. He is absolutely the most charming, old-fashioned little guy, we all flipped over him. The 2 girls on either side of me, their guys had glittery felt shoes- mine has plain. I told them their little guys were gay. lolol And their little scarves are so cute, a tiny button holds it in place. He is perfection. I recommend these kinds of parties to everyone. What a great way to get together, have lots of fun and good food and be creative AND get a huge assortment of ornies. Oh. I don't do a tree anymore, I'm sad to say. Too many cheesy cats in this house that would tear it up. I keep some of the ornaments and share some with friends. I have a lovely assortment in boxes! lol Thanks, WC, about the cat. I hope to hear from the vet this morning that I can pick him up. Fingers crossed!

I had another Dr. appoint today and on the way home I had Madge stop at the Poteau Farmers Co-op. I can hardly drive through Poteau without stopping to check on their seed supply. I bought an ounce ea. of three different cucumber seeds ( just what I need, more seeds ). I also bought a 50# bag of 13-13-13. This will give me more than enough fertilizer for my two house gardens, and the wildlife garden. I use mostly compost in the house gardens. The fertilizer $24.08 with tax. The seeds were $1.00 a pack. The fertilizer was a little more than I have been paying, the seeds are the same price. I guess I may be hording, but I want to make sure I have fertilizer and seeds on hand just in case the supply chain messes up. Of course all of you know that fuel has gone up, and expected to even go higher, but groceries are going up also, which makes it worse on the ones that try to live on a fixed income. Madge just told me that someone was calling me ( it's the donkeys ). I can hardly hear, but the donkeys tell Madge, knowing that she will tell me. Yesterday when I went out into the pasture to find the stock to feed them a little. The donkeys were across the creek, about 3 or 400 yards from the house just running like crazy ( you don't see donkeys run like that often ). When I got back to the house, Madge ask me what was wrong with the donkeys? I told her that they were telling you that the weather is changing, she had never heard that, but when I was a kid, we never had a tv, and sometimes we did not have a radio. When the hoses were running like that, my dad would always say that, it seemed to have some truth to it. Dad would also say that a horse would turn its butt to the wind if it could not find cover. I never did pay much attention to that one, if the weather was that bad, I had already found cover and the horses were the last thing on my mind. All I had to worry about was having plenty of coal busted up and in the house, or by the door so we could easily carry a bucket in to keep the fire going. Well I am rambling and the donkeys are telling on me.