Shellva, I just found this thread and after seeing the photo of your "sick" tomato of a couple years ago scanned down through to see if you reported on the results of your soil test. To my eye that tomato showed nutrient deficencies. There seemed to be a purplish cast to the stem--not enough phosphorous maybe. The growing tip was pale green--not enough nitrogen. The dried leaf margin so early in the season may have been a potassium lack. And those cupped leaves are indicative of a nutrient lack too but I don't remember what. And as some have said, pH is critical. Here in eastern Okla our soils are too acid to grow many crops well, beans and peas especially, also asparagus. So we amend our soils with woodashes as well as lots of organic stuff. And I am in total agreement with those who say it takes 3-5 years to get good results. Aeration is also critical. Our first garden at this location--on heavy clay--was built by hand, because we didn't own a tiller. My husband and I turned the soil with shovels, our two oldest children beat it up with rakes and hoes. That was 24 years ago. Then we got a soil test and for a couple years used a bit of chemical fertilizer while we built up the soil. Have been organic now for 20 years. We still till twice a year--the garden is 5000 sq ft, too big not to, although we tried one year. Once in the late fall we turn under the chickenmanure/woodchip litter from the chicken house and again in late winter we have to till to get rid of the darn winter weeds. We don't till to "cultivate", but use a hoe early in the season. Then we mulch with oak leaves that have decomposed some over the winter and grass clippings and rotten sawdust from a sawmill when we can get it. And we provide veggies for 4 familes all summer and a good part of the winter. So I hope you come back and let us know what that soil test showed. It is a very handy tool to use. Knowledge is power. It is also very handy to study the photos of nutrient deficiency in plants. Wish I could remember the name of the book that I first saw them in but I gave the thing away to a neophyte gardener. Maybe someone knows of a link that shows them. I would like to refresh my memory.

"I really love this guy." We always do. Men are addictive. like drugs. The longer we're around a man, the less it matters if he's a decent person or not: the longer we're around him, the more we will accept the unacceptable & believe the unbelieveable, *& it's always disastrous for us*. Had someone walked up to you & said, "Hi, there, you seem like a nice person. I've been married twice & I have 3 children & one of my wives took out a restraining order against me. Wanna go out?" you'd have picked up your jaw off the sidewalk, laughed hysterically, & sent him on his way. & your smarter self realizes this. To think clearly, unfogged by love & all its trickery & your boyfriend & all his trickery, you need to "get clean". Call a timeout for *at least* a month. no visits, no calls, no presents, no emails, nothing. Don't go to the places you 2 went, don't stop at the fragrance counter & sniff his cologne, don't listen to "our song". The guy misled you until he figured you're so smitten that he can tell you the truth now & you'll stay with thim anyway. He's shown bad faith from the time he met you; he conned you, he fooled you, & *it never was about caring for you or loving you; it was about how he could get you to act in his best interests & against yours*. I wish you the best.

Renovation Sanity Recipe: 100 lbs of HUMOR, 50 lbs of SELF DEPRECATION (to ignite more humor) 20 cups of EXAGGERATION his helps the humor to be funny to others. a tablespoon of BAD TEMPER. I know it is easy to dumb all the bad temper in but use no more than a teaspoon with loved ones. I speak from doing this recipe BAD TEMPER almost ruined my reno. Too much can burn the entire recipe. 4 cups of MAKE IT EASY for yourself. Dinners out, easy meals, visit friends for dinner stop the hunger. Hungry people can be mean!!! 200 lbs of FANTASY, imagination or creative dreaming This helps to bond the other ingredients into a visual plan) Dream about what it will look like with your eyes closed while sitting in bed. Dream before bed and when you wake. 50 lbs of GW Kitchens. This is the place to find encouragement. Ecouragement is a huge ingredient often over looked. You can dump in 1000 lbs. It will only help. 100 lbs of BE GOOD TO YOU. This is hard to find. You might have to shop around or look high and love. You might need to visit Sephora for perfume, a new lipstick or maybe a kitchen store to buy a trinket. Bubble baths if you have running water, a nice walk, yoga, medidate, hug your dog, paint your toenails, take a nap, put your feet up... Keep looking you will find BE GOOD TO YOU. It comes in various shapes and sizes. 1 adult BEVERAGE to easy those vicious moments and put a smile on your face. Okay maybe three but more than 3 and you might find the reno gets worked on and things are not measured correctly. A handful of MUSIC. Whatever makes you smile Dave Matthews, B52s, Blk Eyed peas, Outkast, Rollingstones, Taylor Swift... Doesn't matter just so long as you play some. Music truly soothes my beast side. 100 SMILES a day Even if you have to force them. Especially to children who are sort of lost in the dust a smile helps them see you are not the mean reno lady. 1000 lbs of PATIENCE. I know this to is truly hard to come by. And for me this was the most expensive part of my reno recipe. I found myself running out of it all the time. I lost patience even after I got some. It would disappear when I saw the dent in the wall, the range sticking out too far, the floor restaind for the 3rd time, the unbalanced shelves, the cabinets, the refrig, the wires getting stuck, the .....AHHHH I had better stop or I'll run out of the patience I just got. Don't want to looooose it. Anyway, You are not alone. Maybe this recipe can help you. ~boxerpups

Saw this on FB today. "Sen. Dianne Feinstein wants to hear from YOU. She has gotten a week's delay of the Jeff Sessions confirmation vote. FEINSTEIN WANTS 2-4 SENTENCES FROM MARCHERS EXPLAINING WHY YOU MARCHED AND WHAT IT MEANT. She will be incorporating messages AND most likely the sheer NUMBER of emails she gets, in her opening statement at the Sessions hearing for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Send emails to: Sean_Elsbernd@feinstein.senate.gov, Caitlin_Meyer@feinstein.senate.gov Subject line: WHY I MARCHED Please copy, paste and share this message widely. Thank you!" The person posting followed with this: "This is what I wrote to Feinstein: I marched because I have 2 kids under 2 and I stay awake at night worrying that they will grow up without the inalienable rights that have been promised to us as a democratic nation. I oppose everything that the Trump administration stands for, especially when it comes to defunding Planned Parenthood and taking away a woman's right to choose. Trump is terrifying with his malignant narcissism, but those whom he has chosen to advise him in his inner circle--specifically Mike Pence and Steve Bannon--are even more frightening to me, and I feel that if Jeff Sessions is confirmed as AG our civil liberties will be even more compromised."