Good morning! Happy Anniversary Mary and Dan! I hope Dan is feeling better...having wisdom teeth out can be brutal. Honey, it sounds like you are doing everything possible for Bullet. I hope you are able to have more quality time with your beautiful boy. Jerri, it sounds like you are up to your eyeballs in puppies. I hope you are able to find good homes for all of your little furry charges. I've been reading along....just don't have anything to add to the conversations. I've tried to write but everything sounds either boring or whiney and I'm not willing to subject everyone to my grumblings. :oD I've enjoyed seeing the birthday cards, the bird photos and all of the other photos. Right now everything here is a bit drab and doesn't entice me to pull out the camera. We got two more goats over the weekend. We usually would not be interested in bringing a couple of adult goats into our little 'herd', especially this time of year but the owners needed to find a good home for them as the husband was very recently given the diagnosis of ALS/Lou Gerhigs disease. They are having to sell their home & acreage so that they can move closer to family for help & support as the disease progresses. They are having to rehome most of their pets since they will be moving to urban southern California. I had a friend, that I spent a lot of time with, who died from ALS, so meeting these people and hearing of their devastation in getting this diagnosis has been difficult. I can visualize much of what they may encounter in the near future and it dredges up memories that make me incredibly sad. Well.....anyway. I wasn't going to be anything but upbeat. So....the new goats' names were difficult for us to remember so we've renamed them and now they are Tall and Wide. The male is very........well, he is very Tall and the female is very, very, very Wide. We thought the g'kids would find the names easy and they are fitting. They have always been confined to a barn and smallish paddock area unless they were taken out for a walk by the owners. They aren't sure at all about the wide open expanse of our pasture. We've been keeping them separated from the others during the night, they are in an enclosure that allows them to see the others, but keeps them from being bullied throughout the night hours so they can relax, let their guard down and get use to being around our 'critters'. Finally yesterday they went out to graze with Boo so that was a very positive step towards becoming part of the 'herd'. Our other 3 goats have not given them much notice other than to butt them to establish the pecking order. To see the jockeying for herd position has always been a bit sad in my eyes as I feel for the underdog (undergoat? lol)....but under these circumstances, knowing that they are frightened and probably a bit overwhelmed, I feel even more badly when I see that they are still not accepted by the others. I know time will make it better....but I want it to happen in hours instead of days/week(s). The previous owners were visibly upset (teary eyed) when we loaded the goats to take them home. They had raised these goats from kids, bottle fed them and the goats were considered comical pets that gave them much enjoyment to watch them kick up their heels, play and interact together. To have to find homes for your beloved pets (whether they be cats, dogs or even goats) when you don't want to give them up, nor do you want to give up your home, acreage and way of living because your world has been turned upside down.......it is awful. Okay, so I didn't stop...and that is where my mind is right now. Being an empathetic person is a good thing....having sympathy for others is a good thing.....compassion is very good......but it all has a tendency to hurt deeply. I guess I'd rather hurt then to not care, I just wish I dealt with it a little better. So.....anyway.....the twins are 4 months old already, finally not being bobble heads all of the time and they are cooing, squealing and generally being darn cute! Jamie is 3 and acting like it more often than not. His mom isn't letting him get away with much so hopefully he'll get through this stage --- soon?! LOL Guess that is it for here.... Hello to all.......hope it is a good day!

Up here in the mild PNW we can usually stretch the bloom period quite a bit on both ends...it's not the cold that stops it but the wet springs and late falls that tend to batter the plants into submission. That said, I usually get great results with my sedums...they are the first to re-appear in healthy clumps by the end of Jan, and I usually don't cut the seedheads until Jan when I see the new growth appearing. They look good in an architectural way all winter, and the birds love them. Another great plant for me is the cardoon...I can usually get 11 months of something out of it. The only time it's down and dormant is September, when I cut the huge flowers off and bring them inside so they don't seed all over the place. I cut the 7 foot tall plant down to the ground with a hacksaw, then by October it's sprouting new leaves and by Nov it's about a foot tall again. I've got lot's of herbs interspersed all over the place, and they do very well here, staying evergreen most of the year. Even the more tender ones will keep their leaves longer into the fall/winter as long as they don't get too wet feet. For blooms, my cape fuschias go pretty much for about 10 months of the year. My Bonica rose is the first to bloom in early March, and the last to stop in November, then it sets gorgeous bright red hips for Christmas. And it's completely no-care...I water it once or twice in the dead of summer, never prune it, never fertilize it, except for some compost, and it sits facing dead west getting blasted with full sun. This year I had purple wallflower blooming non-stop from early spring until Thanksgiving. As long as I kept trimming the spent flower shoots, it kept going. I was able to nurse a huge pineapple sage plant for 4 years...it never even showed a leaf until June, then in Oct when everything else quieted down, it took off, becoming a huge 4-5 foot tall/wide shrub. It would bloom in late Nov and all December, and the hummingbirds that stuck around loved it. It became my Christmas plant, with all the tiny red flowers. We then had a really bad wet winter last year, and that pretty much killed it off. I've also had great luck with a type of geranium...can't remember what it was, I think it's from South Africa. Produces huge 3-4 foot wide clumps, loves the hot dry sun, I water it once a month in the summer, and it's still covered with beautiful purple flowers as I write this in December. I filled in a particularly nasty dry spot between us and our neighbors, next to an evergreen hedge that sucks up every drop of water in the ground...not even weeds grow there. But those 3 geranium plants love it. I just cut it back to 6" in Feb when I do the other roses, and it takes off after the haircut. By combining plants, I'm able to have something blooming every month of the year here, even the dead of winter. In Jan, it's the osmanthum, by Feb/Mar the Korean spice dogwood kicks in, in Mar/Apr the Spring bouquet viburnum and the Bonica rose, and by April on the perennials start to bloom. We dug up the lawn, so it's all plants, and the neighbors in our fussy neighborhood love it...I'm weeding only once a week, while they're struggling with their lawns. For me, it's been learning to edit, remove plants, simplify, stick with multiple plants of the same kind rather than a patchwork of sorts. And as I get older, I can see myself replacing the perennials with more evergreen shrubs.

Annie, I actually don't have a problem with Sebastian choosing to socialize rather then eat, well not with Sebastian anyway. I feel that part of why he is going to school is for the social part. I hate the way the schools devalue eating and socialization. The other problem is the cafeteria, actually it is a cafe-gym-atorium and it is loud and awful. All the kids prefer it when they have lunch in their classroom, at least according to my informal poll. lol, I have often had much with them in the cafeteria and once in the classroom. They were much better at eating while socializing in the classroom. The problem is lunch is when the teachers get a break. I would like teachers to eat with them and have their break during recess. My felling about food is make sure to feel good about everything you serve so it does not matter what they make a meal of. I told a friend of mine when we had 1 year olds, serve them good food and don't pay attention to what is on the floor or still on the tray. So long as you served it it counts. I don't even make my kids take a bite. I tried that once and the gaging etc was not worth it. Plus he had built up that he would not like it. I have told them if it is on their plate and they don't want it, don't talk about it. If they say something is disgusting I will require a bite, ignore it and I am fine. I just hate to have my food insulted ;-) Also they will need these manners for other peoples homes. My kids can have problems in the house of some peers as they are used to a certain level of food. They will not eat frozen pizza, super market rotisserie chicken ... We have friends who eat frozen pizza, when we go over to their house for pizza we bring dough, sauce etc. -Robin

My husband and I got rid of our TV about 5 years ago and do not regret the decision at all. We got tired of the media tainting, and in many cases, lying about most of what comes out of their mouths. We also got sick and tired of the poor quality of the shows and all the ads. We would rather spend time conversing with each other or just relax reading good books, or having a nice glass of wine on our porch. That said, we don't live in a bubble and do know what is going on around us. I feel this whole Paula Deen thing is a circus and totally ridiculous, as most of these type of things are. I've never watched her shows, or looked at any of her recipes, simply because I am not interested. I'd rather be cooking my own meals or gardening than sitting in front of a T.V. In other words, I consider life too short to care about Paula Deen. We now live in a society where people want to lynch someone on hearsay, which is exactly what the media coverage is causing and doing, or ancient history, yet politicians do not pay much price for some pretty disgusting behavior. The fact is, I'm betting that despite the fact that most people here are caring, non racist people, not one of us can claim to NEVER having made a less than nice remark, calling someone else a name, or done something unkind. And that goes for the people that are the first to complain they are being slurred. Just because someone makes an accusation does not make it fact. I guess this country hasn't grasped the whole innocent till proven guilty thing. I believe we should still have the right in this country to speak and say whatever we want, (but not abuse someone) particularly in the privacy of our homes. If someone says something nasty then that is a reflection on them, and upon hearing such things one can choose to walk away from that person, or can say something to them about it. Life moves on. Saying a nasty thing 30 years ago and being penalized for it now is just ridiculous. Give me a break. There are worse things to deal with these days, and wasting court time on something said in the past is absolutely ridiculous. Food Network has a right to fire anyone they choose to, and Smithfield and Walmart can do business as they wish as well. Frankly, I don't do business with any of the above anyway, and all they are showing is that they don't grasp the concept of innocent till proven guilty either. It does not make me admire them. As far as Paula Deen saying the thing about a "plantation wedding", has it ever crossed anyone's minds that it might have been a compliment rather than a slur? Maybe it was a slur, but maybe it wasn't. I will tell you that "white" people are slurred just as much these days. Why isn't someone getting worked up over that? Choosing to not watch Paula Deen because she is irritating, or you don't like her recipes is fine. However, judging her without really knowing the facts, or having heard in person the context of how something was actually said, is the only way to make a fair judgement. I also question why a former employee would wait so long to make a complaint about Paula Deen. Normal people do something immediately. It is not O.K. to bully, hurt, or discriminate against someone else. Ever. Period. But what someone chooses to say or discuss with a spouse, a family member, or a friend is no one else's business. Maybe Paula Deen isn't a nice person, or she may truly be a wonderful person....I have no way of knowing that as I have never had any contact with her. Either way, it does not belong in court as a court case. I am also wondering what all the demonizing of certain foods is all about in this country. Does everyone really blindly believe everything they are told, just because it was said? I guess so. Real farm butter, lard, grass fed beef, and free range pork, celtic sea salt, and whole milk from organically and locally raised farms is extremely healthy. It's all about feeling satisfied with your food, and therefore naturally practice portion control without thinking about it. My husband and I are "older" and we eat this way after obtaining the book "Nourishing Traditions", and also looking into what the Weston Price Foundation has to offer. We are both fit, healthy, and on NO medications whatsoever. And we eat grass fed raw butter lavishly, particularly on a nice grass fed steak or whole grain bread that I make from grain I grind myself. Consider maybe it's not the food itself causing the problems, but rather what "they" are doing to it before it hits the grocery shelves? I haven't bought a mix or anything processed in years. My husband and I have noticed that on the rare instance we eat out that we feel ill afterwards now. Blaming Paula Deen for obesity is absurd. No one is forcing anyone to eat her food in her restaurant. It is not the restaurant, or even butter that is making these people overweight. It's their whole lifestyle. I usually don't respond to threads like this, but this time it got my dander up a bit. Maybe people should spend more time on important things, like the relationships in their lives and their hobbies, and less time on Paula Deen.