Kim, I was watching reporters from The Weather Channel reporting on your snow this morning as it was still falling, and it was so pretty. I'm glad you have the weekend off so you don't have to go out and drive in it, especially after the roads refreeze tonight. When our local TV met told us on Wed or Thurs that the models were trending further south, I started wondering who would get the snow----and it never occurred to me that it would be Lubbock. Nancy, Lately the problem cat has been Lucky. She got stuck in the garage one day and I finally found her around 9 pm when I had walked the property calling her and was getting no response. Tim and I both had checked the garage for her previously and not found her, so I'm guessing she was either asleep or ignoring us. Maybe she just was tired of toying with us that last time so she decided to pop up near the garage door, looking at us as if to say "Me? Are you looking for me?" A couple of nights later, she still was missing at bedtime. We found her in the chicken coop. At least when she goes missing, she has found a way to get shut up securely inside a building so she's safe from the roaming wildlife even if I don't know it at the time. The other cats all come in before dark, but she was feral to semi-feral when she found us and came to live here and there's still a lot of the wild, roaming instinct in her. Jennifer, I am so glad you found Finbar. I hate it when any of the furbabies wander off and cannot be found. I understand your happiness that your son still wants something that could be considered a toy. You know, there is that old saying that the only difference in men and boys is the price of their toys..... Tell us what some of your favorite tomatoes are and we can suggest varieties with a similar flavor profile. Our Wal-mart is already pushing holiday stuff together and consolidating it on fewer and fewer aisles in order to free up space for lawn and garden stuff on at least one or two aisles. I noticed this only this morning and was glad to see it. This is the earliest I can remember them doing that. They also just this week put out a rack of children's swim suits, which we saw while shopping for hard-to-find coats and winter hats. Nowadays, American retailers seem to operate under the axiom that the early bird gets the worm. Bruce, I'm glad you found the pork fat and hope the making of summer sausage is going well. It rained on and off for the last 24 hours---never very heavily, but it also never really stopped. We had everything from light mist to light drizzle to light rainfall. Cold rainfall. Our low temperature this morning was 36, our high temperature this afternoon was 37 and right now it has dropped to a new low of 35. How's that for very little variation? At least the thermometers didn't have to work very hard today. We never got cold enough for snow, sleet or freezing rain, which probably was a good thing. We have about an inch of rain in the rain gauge, so we're back to muddy paw prints on the floor. Oh well, that's why God gave us mops. We got most of our Christmas shopping done today, and basically will focus on finding stocking stuffers for everyone tomorrow. I'm relieved to be this far along in the process so early in the month. No new gardening catalogs came in the mail today. Bummer! Speaking of gardening activity, I saw a commercial on TV today for Golden Girl chia pets. Oh, and Bob Ross too. I might have laughed at this commercial. I am almost starved enough to be growing something that I considered buying one. lol lol lol The yard was really pretty today. I put out lots of bird seed for all the birds (and deer and squirrels as well, apparently) and the yard was full of all kinds of birds, but especially doves, blue jays (the largest number of them I've ever seen here at one time) and cardinals. If the old southern belief that cardinals are the souls of dearly departed relatives come back to visit you is really true, then we were having a huge family reunion in our yard today. I have noticed that our sole gingerbread house makes the kitchen smell delicious, so today I baked more gingerbread. The whole house smelled great while it was baking. I then did the only thing a bored woman could do on a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon. I ate some of the gingerbread. It tasted as good as it smelled. That's all the news from here, and tomorrow starts a new week. It sure seems like December is flying by. Dawn

Nancy, I knew y'all would be amused by my decision to make salsa. It isn't making it that I find so difficult---it is the struggle to get all the canning done in addition to all the summertime gardening chores, all in the endless summer heat---especially since my kitchen faces the west. Being able to make the salsa in autumn or winter is so much nicer. Also, it comes down to quantity. I made only about a third of what I used to make, so before I had time to get tired and burned out, I already was done. Anyway, it just didn't feel like Christmas without counters and tables covered with gift bags containing jars of salsa. So, now that I have cluttered up the house with gift bags (we buy them in lots of 100 online from U-line) and jars of salsa, it feels like Christmas. Like it or not, and on hot summer days I kinda hate it, this has become our tradition. I honestly did miss canning this summer, and I miss having lots of jars of pickles and canned tomatoes and such, but I put up enough tomatoes in the freezer to get us through the winter, and now we have enough salsa too, even after we give away a lot of it. Tim gave me a stripped down list containing how much salsa he needed for work and it was so short I told him he could add more names, so he added about 10 more. I'm glad he didn't go too wild adding more names to the list, or I'd be making more salsa. It helps that his current work group is about 1/4 the size of the work group he had back when he was a lieutenant. It sounds like you got into the spirit and are creating Christmas joy everywhere. I did decorate the house more this year than I have done in the last decade, purely because the girls love it so much. To me, there's something that is just so nice and cozy about spending chilly, cloudy, rainy winter days indoors in the kitchen, cooking or baking with Christmas lights twinkling on the tree, and elsewhere. Even when the dogs are grabbing ball-shaped Christmas ornaments and running off with them, and the cats are attacking everything on the tree, it still just.....feels like Christmas. Oh, and when I was making salsa all day, I didn't even have to run the furnace because the hot, steamy kitchen was heating up the whole house. I didn't even realize how hot and steamy the house was until I went outside around 5 pm to feed the deer and birds (and squirrels and coons and possums and whoever else shows up....) their dinner. It was windy and chilly, but not rainy that day, and I did wear a coat. When I walked back into the house, I was stunned at how hot and steamy it was just from the day-long salsa canning operation. The difference between the indoor air and outdoor air reminded me why summer canning is so miserable.... Rain makes our cats and dogs crazy. It is almost like they want to go out even more than usual because it is raining and they can't. They drive me crazy with whining and fussing and sitting at the door and wanting to go out into pouring rain. We had mostly light bands of the rain, not the heavier ones that hit y'all, so we only have about 1.6" in our rain gauge, which is plenty since we just had good rainfall last week as well. We have nothing but mud again. I guess winter mud season has begun. The wind has been pretty rough. I think our highest recorded wind gust was only about 41 mph or something, so we never got the drastically higher wind, but even wind speeds in the 30s and 40s create quite a brutal wind chill. Jen, Our dogs are the worst beggars when I'm baking. I guess the aromas drifting out of the kitchen fire up their appetites. I bet you will be busy with extra dogs during the holiday season. There's a pet boarding facility in our county and two of my friends used to work there. They always were insanely busy during holiday periods. It is so nice of you to make puppy gift bags. Jennifer, I'm glad y'all were able to cross getting Ethan a replacement vehicle off your list and now have one less thing to worry about. Traffic was brutal here too. We got paged out to a couple of wrecks yesterday, but the worst wrecks were well north of us, including a double-fatality crash in the evening where 3 VFDs had to extricate two people, both in critical condition, from the wrecked vehicles in addition to the one who didn't survive the impact. It was so horrible, and to think that two families lost loved ones this close to the holidays is just so sad. Hopefully the other patients recover well from their injuries. It is astonishing how many more car wrecks there are when it rains, and a crash like that can change families' lives in an instant. Chris just drove in from Dallas this morning, and told me a few minutes ago that he was battling strong winds in the rain all the way home, so the highways must have had one of those strong bands of wind and rain over them at the time he was driving. It doesn't seem that bad here at the house, but we are in a low-lying area and have acres and acres of trees serving as wind blocks, so I think we don't feel the wind as much here at home, at least sometimes. We did have thunderstorms, which seems odd for December, but our weather is nuts so that doesn't even surprise me that much. I'd say name the chicken whatever makes you happy. But.....sometimes pet names can sound ridiculous to other people. We once had a dog named Biscuit (Chris names him after Limp Bizket) and then got another dog named Honey. When they were out running on the property and I was out calling their names wanting them to come home, it sounded like I was calling my breakfast to come in, i. e. "Honey! Biscuit!" Both are long gone now, and since then I've been more careful about giving animals names that sound like food. Well, except for Pumpkin. He was orange so that name was just a natural for him. Your young roo will realize he is in charge in late winter or early spring when it is time for him to fertilize the girls' eggs so y'all can have chicks if you choose to let the hens set on eggs and hatch them. It is a hormone thing. I am sure it must be triggered by daylength or something once a rooster reaches a certain age. Trust me, he'll turn into Mr. Macho Man when he realizes he rules the roost and that the rest of the chickens are his harem. From that point forward, he'll have an attitude and he will be so proud to show off his boss-man attitude. He might develop a lot of swagger that borders on being obnoxious. We'd had a few roosters over the years who thought they'd spur every human who walked into the coop or the chicken run once the spring season had begun. Generally I could put a halt to the constant spurring by whacking a rooster once or twice (not hard, just enough to get its attention) with the broom. Once you establish that the rooster is not allowed to spur people, life gets much easier. It's all good, though, because once he reaches that point, he'll be a rock-solid protector of his girls, herding them together underneath shrubs or trees, for example, when hawks are flying over. He'll also fight fiercely to protect them. I agree that it can be hard to keep things looking nice when you have indoor pets. It is a constant struggle, but one that we willingly endure because we love both our home and our animals. I feel like I'm constant mopping up pet paw prints, wiping up assorted messes (we should own stock in Chlorox Wipes), and sweeping up/vacuuming up pet hair. It is never-ending. For as much hair as the cats and dogs shed constantly, I have no idea why they are not bald. I have nothing gardening-related, other than that first bloom on the first amaryllis has opened and it is solid white and so very pretty. I placed the amaryllis pot on a shelf in front of a black chalkboard today so the white flower stands out like crazy in front of the chalkboard. That plant has two blooming stalks, each of which normally produces 3 or 4 flowers over a period of weeks, and now a third stalk is arising from the bulb and will produce at least one flower bud. It is an oddly shaped bud, like someone sliced the top off (though it is intact) and gave it a flat-top haircut, so to speak. It will be interesting to see if that bud produces a normal flower. The next plant to bloom is one that has produced only one flower stalk so far. I had the four year old this morning while Chris went to Dallas and back again, and beginning tonight, we'll have both girls for the weekend while Chris and his girlfriend both work. We have lots of fun holiday activities planned and they are excited. It is hard for the little one to understand how much longer she has to wait for Christmas to get here. Every time she comes into the house, she asks if today is the day to open presents. By now, she should know that the answer is 'No'. Today she informed me that she needs a new baby doll because the two dolls she has here at the house "need" a little sister. I personally feel two baby dolls underfoot are plenty. Anyhow, our holiday shopping for her is all done already and I have no desire to fight the crowds to do more shopping. I'm grateful it rained. There were some pretty big fires (800+ acres) yesterday in parts of western OK that had the wind gusts in the upper 50s but no rain. Those of us who received rain could have had the same wildfire issues if we had remained dry. As annoying as the constant rain can be while it is falling (I feel like those rain bands have been circulating over us for days and days, and it really has been only two days), it is good to get the rain after the plants have frozen and are brown, crispy and ready to burn. After today/tonight, we get some better weather for a few days so that will be nice. I miss the sun when it is not shining and visible. Dawn

Bob, don't you just hate the sound of that furnace going on every 5 minutes and still seeing the temperature in the room below the target set? I hate it. The only thing I like about the furnace running is that it's working. I am going through oil which is at 2.69 a gallon! It cost me 524 dollars to fill 160 gallons and it only lasted 2 and a half months! Now this last fill at which I could only afford 150 gallons at a modest 400 and something dollars will surely last less than that. Really frustrating. I have a question for you all. I just saw some LED lights, T12 cool white shop lights at a store. Would I be smarter to use those or should I stick with my 100 watt CFL dyalight bulbs? I am so confused about lights. I even bought thse listed below and have no idea which is better or is less expensive too run( Are any of these better than any other? What would you use? Would you even use any for any amount of time or how long if all your orchids had the oppurtunity to face south facing windows in a very warm room like mines do? and skip lights all together? I bought all of the lights you see except the long shop lights. https://www.oceanstatejoblot.com/searchresults?Ntt=shop%20light&Nty=1&No=0&Nrpp=12&Rdm=945&searchType=simple&type=search https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSMKBG3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N48PJIF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NISDNU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok first off the enabling part of this conversation lol. There are a few varieties of seedless excellent flavored mandarins that are currently being tested in Florida. Bingo , US Early Pride which is a seedless Fallglo, Seedless snack , Marathon and the low seeded Roe Tangerine and Aroema tangerine the list goes on and on lol . Something to look really forward to in the future definitely!!!! Amy I love the retirement thing , so looking forward to the gardening season . I love not having to go out early in the morning fighting the snow and rush hour traffic!!! . Amy I'm with you I would love to get my hands on a Daisy, who knows we might be taking a trip to Toronto in the spring. Amy I know you've always been interested with the Valentine but were you not interested in the Hirado Buntan Pommelo lol? Amy I've been battling Aphids off and on for the last month and a half . I've been spraying them with neem also when I water I spray the tree's down . I must admit even with the aphid problems my tree's have never looked so good thank goodness. How have your tree's been doing ? Your Moro and Shiranui look so nice !!! So Amy lol do you still have room for any new varieties ? I so don't lol . Jan the pictures of your Greenhouse would easily make it on to a cover of a gardening magazine, its such a lovely peaceful space !!!! Jan lol no flip flops and shorts yet, another month maybe . The maximum high temperature in the GH when the sun is on it has been running 70 to 73 F very comfortable. The night time lows in there have been running 44 to 45 F very cool , its just been so darn cold outside !!! Sugar loves it in there but when it hits around 70 he wants out , he's not to fussy about the heat . Jan lol I'm not going to enable you , I would not want to see you loose all that beautiful space for your table and chairs. Jan it's like I have two little guys sitting on my shoulders , one saying don't buy anymore and the other saying go for it which varieties are you still looking for lol? Jan there are so many that I feel the need to get from Brugmansia Quebec ---Ponkan , sanguinelli, Xie-Shan, Hirado Buntan not to mention the Nordman seedless kumquat from Phoenix, its killing me . Jan the next time you water give those tree's a good hose down that might help with the aphids and all that sticky stuff . Jan ain't it therapeutic lol, I know exactly that same feeling . Well tomorrow is the 1st of March which climatically is the first day of spring we are almost there Yippee!!!! Brian