Shirley--No...no sun here. Gray and cold. Yesterday was sunny and warm(er).

I did a swap with a FB group last year. I'm not a big fan of FB so I haven't signed up for any of those. I would say I "tolerate" FB! I sound pretty cynical. I love the swap part and the seed part, though! Heidi

HAHA...Nov 15 is Clean Out Your Fridge day.....I did not know about that holiday!!

Today, I saw the SS swap and signed up. I do love that swap.

Beautiful weather out here....low70's, sunny! I am ready for Winter...not that we ever experience a true Winter....I will probably be decorating my Christmas tree in mid December with shorts and a tank top on.....that does not seem right!

Happy Evening!

Annie

Well, I guess I can wait until the 15th to clean out my frig. Seems funny to have a day specifically for that! On the other hand, I celebrated "Please, Shirley, clear out that hall closet" Day, today. Quite the chore, most of the stuff got pitched. What does that tell anyone?!

It might not seem right, Annie, but I think it's the norm for our members who live in CA! Love to see a pic of you and your tree!

No games tonight, at least that I can watch, my Pistons are #2 in the East!! Whoo Hoo!

Have a great day, tomorrow!

Shirley!

Shirley...does your closet cleaning have anything to do with your winning team? My mother vacuums and irons during the game. Ironing while they do well, vacuuming when they pull a dumb play or let their quarterback get sacked. I've got a closet that needs help. I got my car cleaned out for Trunk or Treat, though!

My 17-yr-old daughter already announced she wants to decorate for Christmas. I said, "Go for it!" I "get" to decorate at work for Christmas. Maybe I'll try it in a tank top and see how that affects the mood! Silver Bells and flip flops! Here we come!

Us creative types are going to love the next November holiday I found! Both creative and serves a purpose.

Heidi, NO, it had nothing to do with the team. And everything to do with nothing to watch on the Telly! Same thing tonight, gloom and despair! Worked on my two dormer attics today, not much to clear out, but did need some reorganizing. Can't wait for the games to start again.

Hope everyone is having a great Tuesday! Anyone already getting things ready for Thanksgiving? I have decided to go to my son's house. We will go to his wife's family! I love them all so will be good. Gonna spend whole week with my dgt-in-law. Will be lots of fun! Going to the Chihuly exhibit, movies, lunch out and lots of girl time with my only granddaughter! So not a lot of work for me! What does everyone else plan?

Oh, I love Chihuly! Saw it a couple years ago at the Desert Botanical garden. Well worth the trip

Anybody have a favorite button? I love the one above, "Sarcastic comment loading..." That would be mine! I also had one once that read, "For God so loved the world He didn't send a committee." LOL Heidi

Morning, All!

Well, the only button I ever had was a political one, waaaayyy back when Geraldine Ferraro was running for VP.

I did have a bumper sticker that read - "Life is too short to dance with ugly men". I was so young.

Have a great day,

Shirley!

Favorite button (that I've also lost) "Get Even Give Fruitcake" Ok, hate it myself but my mom and her sis loved it and they'd buy it from the monks in Missouri every year. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/12/20/506180471/for-cash-strapped-monks-selling-fruitcakes-is-a-saving-grace

Thanks, I enjoyed reading that and I love fruitcake. I want the good stuff, soaked in brandy for a couple months

Fruit cake was always a favorite of my Grandmother - my brothers and I didn't care for it, but we always ate a slice, just for Grandma!

cold here, supposed to be up in the 50s tomorrow! Window washing weather!

Shirley!

My dad likes fruitcake. He makes it about every other year, treasures it and slices it off very carefully. It always looked so good and so pretty, but when I tasted it I said, "Um...no thank you."

Shirley--I think it will warm up for you. Today is about 45 degrees and it started 20. I hope the warm front keeps coming. They say tomorrow might get to 55 out here. Heidi

My husband officially starts his own business on Monday full-time. He's been building it up. He will be teaching CDL--how to get your CDL to drive semis, tankers, all those things I just call "trucks". It's book-learning and driving experience. When they're ready they take the test to get their license and start driving and making money. He works with a lot of young guys.

Our family is changing. We used to have 3 branches of the family get together for Thanksgiving (25-30 people), but only 1 branch is around now. Two couples become snow birds and are down south by the time Thanksgiving comes and they were the 2 that traded off having Thanksgiving at their homes. This year my college girl is having Thanksgiving with her boyfriend's family and my other girl was asked to work--at the pizza place. I thought that was silly, but the managers told her they are usually busy with people on the road. Interesting. Maybe I'll stay in bed and eat Cheetos! (It won't be fruitcake!)

When I was in school too far away to come home Thanksgiving was the worst. I was so homesick, everyone around me was making plans and leaving. Nobody was around. It wasn't just Thanksgiving day--it was the entire weekend. I didn't realize 4 days could feel that long! So I tell people who live in a college town to look around and see if there's anyone who might be feeling lonely and invite them over...unless your family runs out of food. (Right! My family could eat off Thanksgiving leftovers until Christmas.) Heidi

The church that I belonged to for about 30 years had one special couple who sorta collected up anyone who lived alone to have Thanksgiving at their house. I went a couple times after my husband died. They did a nice job and it was much better than being alone. Last year we volunteered to help with dinner at the American Legion. This year we have decided to just stay home. Quite a difference from the old days of having a 25# turkey.

Heidi ,you will be in my thoughts. Too bad it's too early to start planting the winter sow seeds. Maybe I'll just start the Christmas cookies

Beth, I'm planning on working on my Christmas cards! All the kids are coming for Christmas, so Thanksgiving is going to be kind of quiet; good day to spread all that stuff out and finish those cards! Or try to!

Heidi, much luck to your husband, hope he does well!

Well, it's sort of warm out there, but rainy. Can't win!

Have a great day,

Shirley!

Heidi, good luck to your husband and his new business....Exciting!!

And regarding the fruit cake, all I can say is "PASS"......There are those who love their fruitcake......food is so personal. One person likes something (like fruitcake), 100 hundred people can not stand it.......

Happy Saturday!!

Annie

Heidi -- Best of luck to your hubby. Hope all goes well!

Morning, All! Hope you all have a great Sunday! Still working on my cards, wish I could settle on JUST ONE idea.

Shirley!

Heidi, I am sure your hubby will do great at his new business! I never had any buttons except ones they gave us at work.worked as nurse at Washington Regional for many years.

As for fruitcake discussion I do love fruitcake! But no one else did! So found a recipe for orange slices fruitcake which is soaked in orange juice. Now my family loves it! Has orange slices, coconut, walnuts, dates and not sure what else. But so moist and wonderful!

I hope all had a great weekend and may this week bring many blessings!

P.S. Our plans changed again. We're all headed to Aunt Mary's house for Thanksgiving. My youngest said, "But none of the fun people are going to be there." Who are the fun people? We had to review the family tree--and Uncle Rick (#1 party guy) and 7 cousins are coming so she's flipped her no vote to a yes! I'm thinking tongue twisters might be a good challenge for the cousins, ages 10 months to 17 years.

Hey, All! Is everyone ready for Turkey Day!?

Heidi, sounds like a good time to be had by all!

Sunny and, would you believe, warm here today. Not sure what's going on! Beautiful day out there!

Have a great day,

Shirley!

Heidi - Good Luck to your husband!

I know we have some morning glory fans here - Pinetree Garden Seeds just sent their 15% off total order Black Friday Preview sale and they have a lovely highly ruffled pink morning glory (just $1.50 before discount, shipping there is only $3.95 which I love) https://www.superseeds.com/collections/new-for-2018/products/ruffled-pink-morning-glory. I'm going to have to pass on that one as it was just too hot for most of mine this past season.

Yep! I sent my order to Pinetree while the coffee was brewing this AM.

MAggie did you get to plant the Jarrradale seeds this year??? Wondering what you think of them

Beth - that early then consistent excess heat just about killed pollination on ALL my squash (even the summer squash crop was negligable). I have one Jarradale green trying to ripen now (yea, it's Nov). I will try it again next year. Hoping to get another bed built with shade cloth for 2018. Never got the shade cloth up last season - it was a mistake but it was just too hot for excess work outside. I LOVED that Purity Cosmos you'd sent and I grew the Cucumber Space Master you sent in a pot with morning sun only. One of the tricks we were taught for drought gardening is to use the veggies for pots/small places as there's less plant to suck up water.

Beth - forgot to say - How was your Jarradale?

thanks for the tip on pots. My soil in MO does not seen to agree with either potatoes or tomatoes so I'll try pots.

The jarrdale that I'm working on seems tasty enough but quite "Moist". I'll save the others for a couple months and see if they get dryer.

Sorry for your weather but it seems we always have too much or too little of something for the perfect garden. Some years we get too much rain sometimes too little I try to roll with it but Jack complains about the weather, bugs and varmints all summer long. In spite of that, he keeps gardening LOL.

Here inAZ I can't grow diddly squat except for Rosemary. I just keep buying more new types and sticking them on the bank. Even cactus, the javelinas eat if it starts to grow. Good thing we gardeners enjoy a challenge.

Yes, it's been an uphill battle here. Three years of drought - with my adjacent neighbor's well going dry (if that happens you have to truck in water for flushing toilets, washing, everything) and then my scare of my well failing (turning out to be a controller, but that was the Butte fire year (so 500 homes needing well work) and every well company said "it sounds like it went dry, can't get there for 2 weeks to a month", showering with 4 buckets on the shower floor, hand washing clothes in buckets to save the water, dishes capture and drag water out to the few plants I kept alive those years. Finally, last year - water, drought broken - planted everything I could get my hands on and we get months of endless 112 to 116 (unheard of here - usually high 90s to 105 is bad). Add to that the bumper crop of voles and pocket gophers mowing through everything that did manage to live (including drip lines - only PVC stands up to them) - even the news were reporting on it - and it's been one trial after another. Yet, every year I think "this year will be better" (kinda like Charlie Brown and Lucy with her football!). Spring always looks good - I always say after spring I should just mow everything down, cover with mulch and hunker down for the summer. Lately I've been telling myself to throw myself more into sewing. But, I just can't give up, not yet. Focus on the positive - I still got a good crop of cherry tomatoes, looks like I'll have my chard, kale and pak choi growing over the winter, although the beds didn't look good, managed enough flowering plants to always hear the buzz of bees in the mornings and keep some butterflies fluttering about plus my hoardes of hummingbirds.

Do any of you like sunflowers? I love them. By the end of the summer I say, "Not next year." But, I've already got 10 kinds of sunflower seed stored away. I can't give up on them! I know the birds helped me out this year. I had sunflowers in places I've never planted. Many of them looked nice, but I had hoped the ones planted along the fence would look like a natural fenceline. It looked more like sunflowers that tried to salsa dance, shook their booty, then just gave up. What did you say...you just can't give up? Here was our excitement last night--

Yogurt: Dump It or Take It!

A truck driver arrived to pick up his load on Tuesday
night, Nov. 21. It was 20 degrees, the
sun was long gone and people wrapped up in insulated coats, gloves and hats
started to arrive, shivering and happy.

Texts and calls had gone out to churches, food pantries
and local organizations. This wasn’t the usual 9-5 work day, but volunteers
came and loaded up cars and pickups.

“They had two full pallets stacked all the way to the
ceiling of the truck,” said an onlooker. It’s difficult to describe how much a
pallet holds. The base of the pallet is approximately 4 feet square. Now start
stacking cardboard cases of yogurt. Keep stacking. Keep stacking until it’s 8
feet tall wrapped in plastic. That’s a mountain of yogurt. Now take it times
two!

There were 12-packs of individual yogurt cups and cases
of 32-oz containers in 3 flavors. “What flavor is this?” asked a volunteer
beginning to pick through the boxes. “Just take it!” came the muffled answer
from the three men who had climbed into the semi and were bringing the boxes
forward.

On Wednesday yogurt was being distributed
everywhere—preschools, churches, food pantry, homes. By the time you read this
you’ll probably have been offered some. It’s that Thank-ful time of year! (And
it wasn’t a semi of liver and onions).

That's what I call a real blessing, Heidi, "it wasn't a semi of liver and onions!"

It's such a beautiful day here, but I've spent most of it inside. I sure hope we get another one like this. We set up to have work done on a bathroom about 4 weeks ago and they didn't start until Monday (for some reason it took almost that long for the flooring to come in - have no idea why; it's the same flooring we used in the other bathroom and that arrived in about a week and a half when we had that one worked on- seasonal thing, I guess) so we've been here while the work is going on. It's finally finished so we can have a quiet Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I initially wanted to invite 2 friends over to have dinner with us, but when the work started on Monday I wasn't sure where we would be with the house as the week went on so it's just me and my husband tomorrow, but we'll have leftovers (which we love!) It seemed by the time we saw the work would be completed yesterday (they finished at 7 p.m.) it was too late in the game to be inviting someone. They likely had their turkey thawing or made other plans!

Is anyone heading to the stores tomorrow or Friday? My daughter and I tried Black Friday once and we headed out super early and came home super early, too. It's just not my thing. With the early sales this year, I've been doing online shopping. I don't like that you don't get to see (or feel) the thing you select, but I tend to find that if I stick with stores I'm familiar with, it's pretty successful. It's with mixed feelings because I know the local stores need our business, too.

Jeanne

Heidi I loved the yogurt story. Hope it gets used/ eaten. Sometimes people are reluctant to try new/strange foods. Everyone in my family loves it.

And< I LOVE sunflowers. I always have at least a few different ones and a list of ones I hope to try.

Jeanne My hat is off to you for the decorating. For a variety of reasons, I gradually gave it up. Just a very small tree and a few village pieces is it these days. I enjoy seeing the decorations but don't take time to do it for just the two of us.

Hope everyone has a pleasant Thanksgiving

bethb

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! I hope you all have a great day! Safe Journeys to all that are traveling this day. And please remember all that you have to be thankful for, I'm counting my blessings as we speak!

Shirley!

Hey Friends! Happy Thanksgiving everyone and may you all enjoy your day with all your love ones!! I am thankful for our group!!

Take care!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Hope everyone has a blessed day! Be thankful for what we have!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my FOTESS friends! Thank you for your friendship, your garden expertise, your happiness!

Be safe....have fun...be happy! Enjoy your friends and family!

Annie

Wishing you all a Peaceful Joyous day of Thanks!

Morning, Is everyone sleeping in/still cleaning the kitchen, from Turkey Day, or are you out there shopping like mad? Have a great day, regardless!

Shirley!

Shirley.....I would not go near a store today. I have never done the Black Friday thing....never will! I don't care to use the "never" word but I am safe in this case.

Record breaking heat (they say) out here....shorts and flip flops for Thanksgiving yesterday and today. Not miserable heat!! Actually it is really nice!! Our gauge shows it hit 98 yesterday. I need to put in more Sugar Peas, Fava Beans, lettuce, carrots and radishes ect today and tomorrow.

Happy Friday kids...

Annie

hot here too and dry. TV says no rain for 90 days. We are still going out hiking but I have not done any planting. Even the cacti are still waiting patiently in their pots. Thanksgiving was great relaxed but good food and lots of leftovers. My kind of day.

Warm here. Got up to 70 today. Everyone has been outside the last two days and probably all weekend.

Ever notice I have a lot of crazy stories? We went to visit family for Thanksgiving and it was great fun. My daughter came home with a rabbit. Of course the cousins who gave it to her said she had to ask me...the mom. I said yes and they all said they would have lost a bet. Later I found out the REST of the plan. My daughter has the rabbit in the living room in the dog kennel. She's read and listened to hours of YouTube videos on how to care for rabbits. It's a lop-eared, gray and white mottled girl. There is one very good thing--rabbit fertilizer!!! My Aussie Hound, smaller than a German Shepherd but certainly quite large--is afraid of the rabbit. He has always slept on the couch, but last night he wouldn't stay in the living room. He came UPSTAIRS! In fact, Thomas (the dog) wanted to sleep in my bed. Today the rabbit and the dog seemed to have a conversation. I certainly hope my dog can sleep downstairs!!

On the way home from Thanksgiving we stopped at WalMart to get some rabbit supplies. We arrived at 5:40 p.m. and could tell we were in the middle of something. The Black Friday Sales started at 6 p.m. So we wound our way around plastic-wrapped skyscraper-shaped stacks. It was almost impossible to find the checkout...but we did it. We got out at 5:52 and met a stream of cars coming from the highway.

I'm going to be a great-aunt! My nephew and wife are expecting in May. They announced the news this weekend.

Have any of you grown ornamental kale? My aunt has a beautiful flowerbed. The kale was the only thing still green and the tops were pink. She said they are perennial in our area. It's so pretty and about 2.5 feet high.

Heidi

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Morning, All! Erica, my Thanksgiving was quiet, got some cards and gifts done. Christmas should be a tad bit different, with all the kids coming here!

Heidi, how is the Thanksgiving Rabbit doing?

I'll be posting December's Swap next week, no surprises, same old swap we've done for 6 years! Can scarcely believe that!

Have a great day

Shirley!

Good Morning! Up a little bit earlier than usual, going to help set up our Potter Cemetery Christmas tree this morning, over at the Museum. Looks like it might be a sunny day, hope you all have a great one!

PS - Heidi, I like "Flopsy" too!

Shirley!

Flopsy is doing well. My husband let the dog out at 3 a.m. and there was a cat perched on the fencepost checking out Flopsy. I would guess the cat was checking to see if there was anything to eat. My daughter was worried, but I said if any cat was crazy enough to get close to the rabbit, the rabbit would show off her sharp teeth!

My sister is going to be a grandma! I think she's still in shock. She found out at Thanksgiving. I asked her if she preferred Grandmother, Grandma, Grammy, Grams, Nana--or what. She hasn't texted back. The baby is coming in May!

This is my last crazy November holiday! Get your head on straight before the December swap is posted! (Couldn't resist that.) Heidi

Good Morning! Just wanted to thank Heidi for doing the November Swap for us. It is greatly appreciated, Heidi - Thank you!

I'll be posting the December Swap in a day or two, hope to see bunches of you all joining in!

Have a great day,

Shirley!

Shirley, looking forward to your December swap....a tradition!

Heidi, thanks for filling in for the month of November!!

Happy Wednesday!

Annie