Carol, During the Red River flooding of 2007, parts of our Mesonet station were disabled for days and days. I think the issue lasted until the worst of the flooding subsided. At some point they went back and manually corrected what records they could, but much data for the Burneyville station for that month is incomplete and considered somewhat unreliable. It drove me nuts. I had to rely only on my own observations! LOL I need a rain gauge that measures 10 or 12" of rain. I don't need it often (hee hee) but once every 2 or 3 years we get 25-35% of our annual rainfall in one day. When that happens, depending on how fast the rain is falling, I have to put on my muck boots, grab an umbrella and run outside and empty the rain gauge when it gets close to the 6" mark so it won't overflow and give an incorrect measurement. In April 2006, we had 9.25" in one day and most of that fell in about 4 hours. I went out and emptied out the gauge when it hit 5", and then I went out and emptied it out again when it hit 4". Shortly after that, the rain pretty much stopped. This year, the 12.4" fell over a longer period of time--maybe 8 hours or so--and I dumped the rain gauge 2 or 3 times so it wouldn't overflow. Based on statistics, we shouldn't have a massive rainfall for another 2 or 3 years, but sometimes statistics lie. "Christmas Day maybe?" LOL LOL LOL Here is what I am thinking. I am about to catch up and I will have one of those days really, really soon. I have two large bowls of tomatoes on my counter to process, so I think I'll roast them and a few other veggies at the same time and maybe make roasted tomato-garlic soup. That takes care of them. Then, I'll pick tiny tomatoes this evening (too hot already this a.m.) and dehydrate them. Then, I shouldn't have to process tomatoes again for 2 to 4 days, although I pick daily. I'll pick okra at the same time I pick little tomatoes, add it to what I picked yesterday, and blanch and freeze that. That's another veggie I shouldn't have to harvest again until tomorrow evening then, and I usually wait until I have two days' worth before I blanch/freeze. I also should have enough purple hull pinkeyes tonight to either cook a batch or freeze one, and then I should be able to skip picking for a day or two because they are slowing down. So, if I can get black-eyed pes, okra and tomatoes all done today/this evening, I shouldn't have to process them again for about three days. LOL It isn't much, but it is the best I can do. That only leaves hot peppers and sweet peppers. OK, so I have a lot of sweet peppers coloring up and I can pick them and freeze them for future use any time. I might do that tomorrow. If I do, it will take me just a couple of hours to pick 'em, wash 'em, slice 'em or chop 'em and get them into the freezer. That, then would leave only hot peppers. I've done a very heavy picking of hot peppers at least every other week since mid-July. At the present time, it has been about 10 days since I did a heavy picking, although I run out to the garden and pick as needed for cooking or canning recipes. So, I might be able to go 5-7 days before I pick hots again since rainfall is low and growth is relatively slow. So, where this is leading to is here: if I pick and process okra, peas and tomatoes tonight (Thurs.) and sweet peppers on Friday, and postpone hots until Mon. or Tues., then I should have Saturday off! Well, I'll have to pick okra, but I can stick it in the fridge and blanch/freeze it on Sunday. So, you see, I might get a day off. Unfortunately, Saturday is our best chance of rain here (about a 70% chance of rain and they are saying it may be heavy) so it probably would be a good day to be inside canning. It is hard to make the 'day off' fall where you want it to fall. I might do all I can on Saturday if it is raining, and try to make Sunday the day off because I love to cook a big family lunch and spend the afternoon watching NFL football. We still need and want rain here, and I think that by the end of the weekend, maybe I'll be able to say we finally got some. And, all my food processing predictions assume the plants will ripen produce as I expect it to. Every now and then, you walk out in to the garden and discover that blackeyed peas are suddenly purple earlier than expected, or the okra grew especially fast overnight or whatever. At this point, I'm just grateful the fall beans, corn, cukes and peas aren't producing finished products yet. As long as I keep up with the still-producing summer plants, I will be putting up a little food regularly, but not huge amounts on any given day. I will have a big green bean and big corn day or two in October if all goes well. I really think the heavy food processing load is lessening though. I'm still doing frequent batches, but smaller ones. When the fall broccoli is ready, that will be a big day or two, but that's some time off. Dawn

Yep. IKEA is saving us money all over the place ;) With the cabs, counters and install of both, it is coming to under $10k. The cheapest cab estimate without installation was $17k elsewhere and we had a high of $35k. I think I got 5 prices all together. We are going with white slab front cabs, so it is not like I have a color or design issue to force me to one line or another. I just called the Corian/Dupont people and was assured that the brown will never show at the top. I guess something about it makes it show up on the back side. As for the flecks, the lady sounded surprised that I saw them in our sample so prominently. I want to go back to IKEA to see if they were as big or is it because it is on such a small size that they are more noticable. I will try to post pics of our sample later on. I am not super talented at drawing or playing an instrument, but I sure can find a deal or bargain. I do put the effort in to do so, but it is a well honed skill by now that comes naturally. We live way better than we would if I did not have this "talent", lol. Our kitchen is part of a renovation and extension so I don't have hard numbers on kitchen alone, but the materials so far are: Cabs, counters and install - IKEA with tax, approx $10k (btw - no tax on the counters through IKEA since they install those themselves) Appliances - separate Whirlpool fridge and freezer set , 30" wide each, $2k total (a few dollars under with purchase and shipping), bought for new kitchen 3 years ago and using in our garage for now Chambers Stove - $600 plus gas/tolls to pick up in NJ Monogram wall oven - CL, brand new, for $700 plus $50 to have electrician test it, just in case DW - Bosch, top of line model bought at PC Richard scratch and dent outlet $325 plus tax and $70 to Bosch for new kickplate, cutlery basket and manual Vent - island chimney style $1,000 (a few dollars less, inc tax) at Sears scratch and dent, forget the brand but I know it retailed for $2,400 3 years ago, stored in our garage since buying Sink - Kohler with built in sideboard and backsplash, from 1940, on freecycle - FREE, like new condition from someone's bsmt Faucet - wall mount, chrome, Chicago $150 (forget exact number) Floor - Marmoleum - to be determined, approx $3k for kitchen part BS - still working on - approx $500 (our biggest "splurge") handles and knobs approx $100, ebay, 2 sources, the majority are brand new vintage in original packages Vertex bottless water cooler/instant hot approx $500 Paper towel/foil/wax paper holder, vintage, wall mount, ebay, $30 canister set - chrome, vintage, ebay $20 Decorative white board for family messages - Walmart $14 plus tax total so far: just over $19k plus hook ups (not sure if we should count the new construction part, i.e. walls, ceiling, skylights and floors being built in our total number). The kitchen is being moved and extended. It is an L shape and fairly good sized, approx 11 x 5 and 16 x 9.

Lily, there I thought I miss a thread about your second pregnancy...lol. Silly me ! I can imagine your day being so memorable. She will grow up very well Bec of you. You are a great mom as you already miss her when she is asleep and looking at her pics. You are very loving and that loves goes a long way. I love all her pics..she is beautiful !! My husband is keeping my daughter in closet till she turns 30. We are getting too many calls from boys for her......lol jin

Tulsa Rose that is so cute. I am determined to try to keep my sense of humor. If that's gone I am going to be much more of a detriment to myself and my husband. Now for the next chapter of the never ending horror story Days of our lives after the flood. . Remember that the night of the flood storm we were also hit by lightning which knocked down the entire tops of 2 of my big oak trees. We had our garden guy come cut those big limbs up and hauled away. Apparently unknown to anyone one of the biggest branches actually plunged into the ground and penetrated the ground several inches. Don't you know with our luck it penetrated the ground directly into one of our septic systems lines! Since no one has been using the bathrooms in the house it was not noticeable. However yesterday my husband did have to use the back bathroom that is still functioning. Shortly after that he had to go around the back of the house to the electric panel and he sees water shooting out of the ground. We have a pump in the septic tank that pumps out the liquid when it gets to a certain level to trip the pump. Normally this pushes the liquid out to the lateral lines. (tmi I know the solids sink and are taken care of by the bacteria in the tank). That's how it's supposed to work. But now there's a big hole in the pipe leading from the tank to the lateral lines. They are coming today to dig up the back yard and replace pipes. Lord only knows what this is going to cost. I swear before this is over with we will be living under a bridge in the rv if we can keep it and the truck. You think you have planned for your retirement then a disaster like this hits you and you realize you are seriously at risk. How could anyone anticipate these kinds of things. I think of people who have lost everything in a fire, or their home exploded due to a gas leak. I don't know that everyone can recover from them. I am hoping and praying that we can but every time another big hit happens the bank account takes a hit too. So many people have set up go fund me accounts and I see why especially those with children. Donations have been made by the thousands but we never see a dime of it. At least those that set up the accounts are actually getting the help directly. There's a big concert happening to benefit the people affected by the flood, how much do you think I will get? ZERO. Anyone affected? Zero. I am not laughing about that that's seriously wrong. But the fact that in our entire big yard which is around an acre that dang tree limb hit a bullseye on the septic line that's pretty funny, I mean what are the odds. I know it could have been much worse it could have fallen on the bedroom and killed us, so thank you Lord for that. By the way it's raining and the weather man promised sunshine today! I am hopeful the sun shows up. Thanks you all for your continued support! Personally if I was following this ongoing saga of someone I would find it hard to believe. I truly wish I was just making it up lol!