I just saw the funniest meme on Facebook that had me in tears and wanting to share it with this group, but the privacy settings aren't allowing me to grab a link to it. Person A says that "people say they hope their deceased dogs are in heaven chasing squirrels, but what did the squirrels do to deserve to be tormented in the afterlife." Person B responds with "Dog heaven is squirrel hell. It's a very efficient system." That kind of logic laced with sarcasm is something I can really get behind!

Fair warning everyone - Dawn is leading you into a minefield. Heritage Seed Market is where I got into trouble with all the dwarf tomato varieties, so proceed with caution. A pop-up should appear when you arrive at their site that is a spider's picture with a comment bubble reading, "Come inside..."

Rebecca, there is a Container Store in OKC now. I realize that is still a drive but if you're more likely to be in OKC than DFW metro, you can pick up one of your containers. I spent over $100 the last time I set foot in there - which isn't much especially for that store but I'm a tightwad so it's mucho much for me. However, that container looks a lot better than the heaping mess I currently have, so I might have to bite the bullet.

I'm so glad to see the posts from everyone and to see that Lee popped in. I was thinking the other day that since we haven't heard much we better be ready to hold onto our behinds when he does pop in. Sounds like that might ring true. I was thinking of going to the Chinese New Year celebration at the Myriad Gardens on Feb. 8 but now I know to pay close attention to the weather before making a commitment. Thankfully, tickets aren't required so I can wait until just before to decide.

Larry - I try to live by the idea that if you want to be blessed, be a blessing. I hope you are so, so very blessed because you are obviously a blessing to many. I try hard, but I know I don't compare to what you're doing. Maybe I will when I grow up.

My only gardening project this week is testing the soil from the molasses tubs I grew my sweet potatoes in last year for herbicide carryover. I added containers last year and created a mix to fill them. It was comprised of mostly materials I had that haven't caused trouble anywhere else, but I made up for what lacked with a bagged compost/peat mix. I decided for peace of mind that I would test the soil to make sure that some herbicides didn't come over in the bagged mix. I feel pretty confident that it was the result of the conditions last year because I know others, including some small farmers near me, had similarly disappointing sweet potato crops. Good news is that the soil is in containers so if it does end up being contaminated, I can move it.

I was out-of-town this past weekend for a girls weekend - leaving Friday evening and getting back yesterday afternoon but thankfully next weekend looks just as lovely. It was slower to warm up where we were - on a river about halfway between Grand Lake and Lake Hudson. While I was gone, my husband showed how much he loves me by picking up roughly 2 yards of mulched Christmas trees from the local park so next weekend's projects will be to move that mulch from the driveway to the back yard. I'll add a layer to my hugelkulturs, then pile the rest to be used as mulch once the rain garden is dug out. Any warnings or advice about the Christmas tree mulch before I use it? This is the first time I've had the chance to take advantage of this.

If BIL's truck is available, we'll also pick up a pallet of flagstone to build a path for our dog to get to/from the doggy door to the backyard without tracking in so much mud. We have long-range plans to put in a dry creekbed so we figure this is an investment in the rock we'll eventually need for that.

Kitazawa's catalog came today. I told myself I'm not ordering from them this year, I just don't NEED anything. All I have left are live plant orders at Almost Eden and Companion Plants. I'm waiting till after the Feb cold spell to order those. Almost Eden has hoyas, y'all. I love hoyas. I have a $5 gift certificate at Pinetree, so I have a few things planned for them and I'm holding that order for all the stuff I've forgotten, LOL. Oh, and Sand Hill Preservation. That one is a maybe.

Dawn, REALLY, another new one? Heritage Seed Market? 20 varieties of Okra. I DID NOT look at tomatoes. Well, I LOOKED at the micro dwarfs. But I was strong today.

Wasn't planning to order from Uprising Seeds, but then there was THIS: https://uprisingorganics.com/new-in-2019/nicotiana-peach-screamer.html

A different nicotiana bloom AND PEACH and a name like Peach Screamer? Take my money! Only thing that could have been better was if they named it Amy's Peach Screamer, LOL.

My spreadsheet said I had ordered 215,000.00 in seeds. If you put a date in the same column as the totals you're in big trouble.

Dawn, I certainly hope you haven't got another cougar.

Went into the bank, it was nice. Came out and it was like a cartoon with my hair blowing straight out behind me and my face distorted. Holy Toledo! COLD north wind. It's coming.

Wow. A person's gone for just one day and WOW there was a lot of reading catch-up. It was so good to read that the cancer is stable, Larry. And SO glad you're feeling better and getting around better. Blessings to Madge and you!

And sorry about your issues, Rebecca--did you get to the rheumatologist yet? Get better.

You sound better, Amy--is Ron good now, too? Too funny about the unknown cucumbers! It appears our seed lists are growing. I know that shocks everyone. I am not even a teensy bit tempted to go check out Heritage Seed Market at this time. Amy keeps getting me into trouble with flowers.

But I'm quite happy with my selection of tomatoes and it's enough for this first go-round this year. You ALL are a bad bunch of enablers! Hahaha guess what song just came to mind. . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbhk2RtvNI

Container Store sounds dangerous. Would be dangerous for people AND cats. Very very funny meme, I agree, Meghan.

Well, BRRR. We went to town early today. It was 46, climbed to 48 and now is 39 and cold and windy! The nandina berries are the only color outside right now other than a kind of brown. Not true. The parsley, nandina, and Minstead scotch broom are all very green.

I just remembered the gorgeous Dwarf tatarian aster from last summer that I wanted the burnweed to be. Whew--they were hard to find online, but got 'er done. Yes, my plant list is growing.

Keep us posted, Kim. Best of luck! And HJ, take pictures of furniture!

Dawn life/death animal struggles are painful to hear! And yes, I need to plant some seeds, too. Maybe I'll start some that take a really long time to grow big. :)

Amy, Almost Eden may run out by the time you order. It has happened to me before. So now I order them earlier; they'll ask you when you want them shipped. You are so funny! Amy's Peach Screamer! YES! I KNEW you were buying a lot of seeds. LOL

So, I had a killer asthma flare today at work, and ended up at urgent care when my oxygen tanked. So, I have steroids in multiple forms, inhalers, and breathing treatments piled up all around me lol. So I guess that was what was brewing over the weekend. I’m going to take a hot shower and get in bed with the iPad and check out Heritage Seed. I should be back to myself real soon.

ReBECCA. I guess I'm gonna have to come up and check up on you every once in a while. This is totally unacceptable. I love you and am praying for you.

ELIZABETH!!! Welcome!!

Elizabeth knows more than many of us, but is new to OK. But I'm sure it's not your first rodeo, Elizabeth!

She's a botanist! LOLOL

I gave her notice that Dawn wrote the Bible on OK gardening. Welcome, Elizabeth.

I probably embarrassed her now. LOL

Haha, Nancy!

Welcome, Elizabeth.

It is cold. That is all.

Kim, Oh, I thought you and I had figured out that you and I were growing in about the same conditions. I didn't realize you were in 6b because you often were planting out about the same time I was. Of course, despite being in 7b, I have a cold microclimate in winter and spring so can be pretty conservative about planting dates of cold-season plants if the cold nights are hanging on endlessly. (Sadly, the microclimate doesn't seem to run cold in summer.)

Bruce, That's why I try to order my seeds sort of all at once and the stay away from the websites, or I'll just keep ordering and ordering and ordering. I might order some seeds this morning. It is very cold for as far south as I am (20 degrees, wind chill of 9) and I do not, not, not, not, not want to go outside and feed the birds, but I will anyway. I have a bucket of sunflower seeds right here in the house so I can go put them out quickly without lingering long in the cold once the sun is up.

Megan, Leading people into seed company minefields is one of the things I do best. Who among us hasn't stumbled into seed minefields pretty much every winter?

Lee does a great job of keeping us out of trouble when it comes to the weather, doesn't he?

I've never heard of any issues with Christmas tree mulch.

Amy, You know that I have a seed company for every occasion and, as far as I am concerned, every winter day is a good occasion to unleash a 'new to us' seed company on everyone. Have I mentioned Knapp's Fresh Veggies? She saves her own seed, including saving seed from hybrids that may not come true from seed, but I have had good luck with her seeds in the past. I ordered some tomato varieties from Knapp's this year.

I'm laughing at your 215,000,00 in seed purchases. See there, that's why I don't do spreadsheets---why cause myself more grief? I'm glad you figured out it was a data entry issue and not that you had spent a bit too much on seeds.

I don't "think" it is a cougar, but I feel somewhat uneasy about that. One was spotted a couple of miles north of us a couple of months ago, but after that one night, as far as I know, it hasn't been seen since so I assumed it was just passing through the area. Last night I could hear screaming, as in wild animal type screaming, but it wasn't the traditional cougar sound. It also wasn't the usual bobcat type noises or fox noises, but it did sound cat-like......and not domestic pet cat. It was much louder, but also very distant....probably down in the river bottoms right around sunset. The sound, which I heard several times, really puzzled me. I guess I need to find a sound file and see what ring-tailed cats sound like when they make noise. I see them here (though only rarely) but never have heard them make a sound. They just slip in and out of the area very quietly and don't seem aggressive at all, except towards poultry. Whatever the wild animal fight was about the other night, our pet cats can tell something happened. They are weirded out and don't stay outside long. They spend a lot of time sniffing around and then when they really hit the scent, they freak out and come indoors in a sort of semi-hysterical type way, which then freaks me out. Something is out during the daylight passing through our woodland. It makes the dogs bark like crazy, but I stand and stare right into the area they're barking towards, and I cannot see a single thing. Of course, there's heavy underbrush in our woodland and sometimes I cannot see coyotes until they are pretty close to the house because they blend in so well at this time of the year.

Rebecca, I hope you feel better soon and heal quickly so you'll feel well for the trip down to the DFW metro.

It sounds like y'all had the cold blowing through yesterday. It didn't arrive here until fairly late in the afternoon and, even then, the temperature dropped fairly slowly although the wind was pretty gusty until after the front had passed through. The temperature really didn't start falling more quickly until well after dark, but it is bitterly cold out there this morning.

Nancy, I don't see anything written by anyone named Elizabeth. Did you scare her off? I hope she comes back.

I bet being a botanist is an interesting career. I don't have that sort of botanical knowledge. I'm just an old dirt gardener, and that's okay.

It is too, too cold to do anything this morning. Cold days like this are the days when I get in trouble ordering seeds because it is, obviously, a blatant attempt to make myself feel like spring and warm weather are closer by ordering more seeds. I don't need more seeds, but I bet I can talk myself into believing that I do.

Dawn

Its a beautiful morning here, the ground is still frozen and frost is on the dead grass, so I am burning trash and brush. I will try to complete the job before the wind get up and the sun dries the grass.

I went to Mean Ar. yesterday and bought more seed, that I don't need.

Ha Dawn that was because I was in a hurry or late depending on the season. I remember planning to plant 2 to 3 weeks after you in spring and 2 to 3 weeks earlier in fall.

But when I move :)

Then I wont have anyone to follow uh that does sound as good as the moving part.

Larry, Buying seeds we don't need is what we do. Then we try to figure out how to carve out space to grow all those excess seeds.

Kim, Oh, well that explains how our planting often was pretty closely in sync. If you move to Bowie, I think we will be planting at almost the same time, but I'm not sure because it is quite a bit further south and west. If you move to Sanger, I think you'll be slightly ahead of me by about a half-zone or about 40 miles.

Of course, much depends on the weather in any given year and about all we know about our weather is that we seldom get the same weather two years in a row, which keeps us all guessing.

Dawn

Dawn, your critter story reminds me of a few years back. More like a few decades, I was just out of high school.

Anyway, I heard our dogs engaged with a creature that sounded like it was from the depths of hell! The awfullest growling almost squalling sounding I ever remember hearing! I grabbed a flashlight and a shotgun and away my brothers and I went. We started out running across the back yard and then figured we better slow up and approach this thing a little less recklessly. When we finally got up the nerve to shine the light and see what was surely ripping our dogs apart, it turned to be an O'possum!

It took several minutes of shining the light to convince ourselves all that racket was coming from a normally docile creature. When we stopped laughing, we pulled the dogs off and let the poor guy ramble off.

It does make ones skin crawl when your pet can see or smell or hear something that you can't. Especially when it's dark and you're standing outside. Josi is a "hunting" dog. (although we always say she wouldn't make a pimple on a hunting dog's rear-end) She is probably a Brittany/Pointer mix. She can smell/see/hear things that no one else, even other animals. It's a bit unsettling when I'm walking her around the property in the dark and she "hits" on something.

Here's a picture of the hunting dog taken a few years ago. I had forgotten that my bedroom used to look like that.

I really want to start lettuce seed tonight, but must stay focused on painting the bedroom.

What has anyone started yet? (talking about seeds of course)

I'm catching up on last week's posts and saw Patti Johnston that you have a rain garden and would answer some questions. I've sent you a PM through Houzz. Thanks so much!

Hey Megan and Patti. Maybe start a rain garden thread so the rest of us can follow along in your discussion, ask questions, etc.

She's a pretty thing, Jennifer, isn't she?

She is a pretty dog, Nancy. She isn't feeling so well tonight. She escaped and ran around like an idiot (you can't catch her. she's too fast.) and ate something. SO, I had a vomit mess to clean up when she finally came home. I hope it is the only one...and it won't last all night.

I put some daylily seeds in the fridge to stratify a few weeks ago, and when they sprouted I went ahead & planted them. They're currently hanging out in the spare bedroom closet, which is the only place I can put anything that the critters can't get to. Then this weekend I did a bunch for wintersowing. Other than that, I'm trying to hold off.

Cute puppy! (all dogs are puppy in my eyes).

I'm gonna do it. I'm going through seeds to see which ones to start. Oh yeah, I can start a whole bunch. I've got 7 that can take quite a while to germinate so can start those. Gonna start tomorrow. Meanwhile. MY FB obsession. Any great music lovers out here? Nessum Dorma,

My dog story for the day. Not even a Honey story. My son's dog Buddy came to live with us when he got divorced. Buddy IS an escape artist. He and Honey have had their adventures, but he can't follow her newest route. Honey was outside the fence, he was in. I brought Trouble in the front door and tried to get him to come in the back. Nope. Sat his butt down and looked at me. Fine. A bit later I was looking at the bird feeders. One of the new suet cakes was missing. I knew the cage didn't seem secure. So Buddy didn't want to come in because he had a block of fat he wanted to devour all by himself. I've watched him, doesn't seem to have been any ill effects. Dogs, they're as bad as kids.

Good Morning All — I had to go rescue Larry yesterday out in the oilfield and while waiting I noticed a small shrub growing in the ditch. I tromped thru the ditch and filled my coat pocket with these berries. Anyone know what they are and if I could grow them from seed?? I’m thinking they might be the red berries you see in Christmas wreaths....maybe????

i will start a rain garden thread tonight. I’ve got a MastER Gardener committee mtg to get ready for.

Patti

Bruce, I love possums. I just think they are the cutest things and, yes, they are fierce. I appreciate them 1000% because they eat venomous snakes. We usually have 1 or 2 hanging around all the time, and I will put out food on the compost pile I know they'll eat in hot, dry weather because I want for them to stick around. Our dog, Sam, used to engage possums in warfare when he was younger, but they always won because they'd just "drop dead" and play possum until he got bored and wandered off. Once we built the dogs a fenced-in dog yard, they couldn't harass the possums any more and the skunks couldn't harass them (which didn't stop rabid skunks from trying to come through the fence after them occasionally).

Jennifer, Jet was very, very sensitive to wildlife scents and he always knew when something was outside. It drove us mad. He'd howl or bark and we'd look and look and couldn't find a thing, but I knew there was something in the woods making him crazy. He also could remember, seemingly forever, the scent of a dead animal. So, we'd go out for a walk and would come across a place in the road where some animal must have died at some point in time and he'd sit down and balk and refuse to take another step. He would not budge. We joked about it and said "he sees dead people (animals)" and would laugh, but it did make him hard to walk. Sometimes I could get him off the road and into the bar ditch on the other side of the road and could get him to walk on, but other times I had to turn around and walk another route or just take him home. When he hit a spot where there was a scent he didn't like, he turned from an enthusiastic, walk-loving dog to the most stubborn dog statue on earth. Your dog is so pretty and sort of matched the decor in your bedroom!

The wildlife battle I heard the other night was not, by far, the only one we've ever heard here, only the most recent one. It is one of the downsides of living surrounded by wildlife. I have saved our dogs from coyote battles before by running hysterically through our property calling their name, which pulled them back from the coyotes and got them back to us so we could get them indoors. I have to make my voice pretty shrill and frantic, which in turn scares the dogs into thinking I am in trouble so they come running back to me. We have had friends whose animals came home a lot more torn up by the coyotes than ours did. Of course, once our dogs got too old to run off into the woods, we didn't have to worry. We never yet (knock on wood) have had a coyote come into the dog yard to engage the dogs there. The coyotes prefer to call to the dogs from the woods and lead them off away from people.

Jen, I refer to all dogs as puppies too, which confuses our granddaughters. When I say "let's see what the puppies are doing" they get excited for a second, thinking we have gotten new puppies. Then they realize it is just me referring to older dogs as puppies.

Amy, Buddy was a bad dog. I think all good dogs do have those bad dog moments. I'm glad that eating the suet did not make him sick.

Patti, Were the berries on a small shrub that had pale grayish twiggy bark/branches? In that case, perhaps they are from possumhaw hollies (Ilex decidua), which are native here in OK. We have a lot of them on our property. Usually the cedar waxwings clean up all the possumhaw berries as they migrate north in late winter and early Spring---probably in February down here. By then the berries are fermented and the birds get sort of silly....like halfway drunk from eating them.

There's nothing new to report here today. We're just hanging out indoors staying warm and watching the one million and one gold finches fighting over the finch feeders. It is fairly overcast today and very slow to warm up this morning. After hearing about the insanely cold weather in some parts of the USA and Canada, I feel like we all are very lucky that this latest cold front just barely brushed by us, giving us a couple of cold nights. If that front had dove further north while here, we could have been much colder. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather over the weekend, if the forecast doesn't change and take away that warmth.

Dawn

Yes, this polar vortex was less worse than the last one I remember (up in the NE corner of Oklahoma, I hit -27F 9 or 10 yrs ago during one). I took some time wistfully looking at the long range forecast and it looks much better in February. If the long range is accurate (hah), we should see maybe the earliest daffodils and crocus springing into bloom. Maples and elms blooming, etc. Ie hints that spring may eventually come.

HJ - great idea on the thread. Patti - I've started it with an overview of my project. Otherwise, I was just popping by to see what everyone had been up to and to share this - which should be on my front door, just so everyone's expectations are appropriate before they walk in.

Nothing here either. . . . brrr. I've got a bunch of stuff stratifying in damp paper towels and freezer bags. It is a mystery to me how I ever found time to hold down a job! SO busy with stuff.

I've got asparagus fern seeds soaking. And will experiment with this packet of sedum mix seeds from Pinetree--oops, says to stratify. Okay, back to the drawing board for them. Have any of you grown sedum from seed? I'm not wildly optimistic. :)

And then I'm going to ease into planting everything else, beginning Feb. 1.

I love the sign, Megan.

I'm not at all looking forward to painting the deck and the porch pillars out front this spring, but should go get the stain so I can be ready.

Meanwhile, like you, Dawn, we're hanging out indoors.

I got another order of seeds. I've not been ordering any large quantities. Just like 5-6 at a time every week or two to get me through the winter. Hahaha. Today we got short zinnias, Crackerjack Mix marigold, Red Corn poppy and Liatris.

Stay warm all, I gotta go read bout rain gardens.

My Seeds N Such order came today, last one from earlier this month. I have my list of a few things to grab locally. Jugs are ready to winter sow the first cool spring things this weekend, and I’ll grab potting mix for the first greens box. They sent 2 sample packets - Butter Belly squash and Tonopah tomatoes. Anyone familiar?

I also just just found a handful of seed packs under a pile of random stuff in the kitchen.

Thinking about the greens boxes, maybe I can start beets and carrots in them and actually get them to germinate, then uncover them so they can grow in cool air. Hmm.

I‘m on prednisone and a Z-pack, so things are looking up on that front.

dbarron, The last couple of years, maybe the last three years, everything was early here, so now this year, with everything possibly on time, it seems late. Dandelions are blooming already, but daffodils and henbit are not.

Megan, I should just have that thing tattooed on my forehead! I won't do it though. (grin) Everybody who knows me already knows the garden gets all the attention during the gardening season and the house gets whatever energy I have left over. However, I have gotten better over the years at staying caught up on house cleaning and laundry, but not so good on cooking. I simply forget to go indoors and eat or to fix food for anyone else to eat. Tim's really good at checking with me on his way home from work the height of the gardening season to see if he needs to pick up dinner on the way home. Of course, he probably does this so that he won't starve to death. For many years he worked evenings or midnights as a patrol lieutenant, so he wasn't home for dinner and I didn't have to make dinner for anyone but myself once Chris was out of school. I got used to not making dinner during those years. Now that he works more normal daytime business hours I do try harder to notice that the sun is sinking lower in the western sky and I should be indoors cooking dinner. I'm not always successful. Sometimes I lose track of time and don't notice it is dinner time until I see his car coming up the driveway. At that point I cannot even pretend that I have any sort of dinner planned. Well, unless we have ripe tomatoes. In that case, BLTs are quick to make fresh and he always loves BLTs. He adds onion and calls them BOLTs and could eat them 7 days a week. During the height of planting season I often do put dinner in the crockpot before I go outdoors in the morning, or I cook every other day....making planned overs, i.e. left overs that technically were planned in advance, so aren't truly left over.

Nancy, That is the fun part of this stage of life though---you have time to do all the things you love to do. All my retired friends say the same thing---they don't know how they had time to work before they retired as they are so very busy now.

When I gave up my career in 1993 to be a full-time stay-at-home mom, my friends at work teased me that I was retiring early. lol. I didn't consider it retirement because I was far too young to actually draw retirement benefits. I told them I had to "retire" in order to be able to do the things that mattered to me. Except for the hardship of abruptly going from two salaries to one, it wasn't too bad, and it was after this point that my gardening really took off because I had more time to do things.

Rebecca, I haven't grown either of the two freebies you received. The Tonopah tomato is supposed to have been developed by the same breeder as Mountain Merit per Seeds N Such's own description, so that would be either NCSU's now-retired (but still doing private tomato breeding) Dr. Randy Gardner, or possibly his successor at NCSU. If you like Mountain Merit and similar hybrid tomatoes, this probably is very similar and I bet it has good disease tolerance. It is a mid-season variety, producing about 10 oz. round globes on determinate plants per Rutgers.

I have grown quite a few of Dr. Gardner's Mountain series and they all are about the same to me....round, red hybrid tomatoes that produce well for a short period of time if they're determinates. I have no problem with them. It is just that I much prefer the thinner skin and softer textures of open-pollinated varieties to pretty much all red hybrids, so I don't usually eat red hybrid tomatoes fresh---either they end up in salsa or I give them away to non-gardeners who like them just fine. I am still waiting (and likely will be waiting for the rest of my life) for professional tomato breeders to give us red hybrid tomatoes that match the OP ones in flavor, texture and thinner skin. It likely won't happen in my lifetime because hybrids are developed for commercial growers who need thick skin and firm fruit for shipping purposes, and flavor never is as big of a priority for them as disease tolerance and shipping quality.

I always find seed packets here and there despite my best efforts to put all of them away properly. Lately, when I find them, I scoop them up and throw them into a ziplock bag I have sitting on a console table. When I think of it, I take them upstairs and throw the ziplock bag into the seed box.

I'm glad you got some good medication and hope you're feeling well quickly.

It is cold again this morning. Why, oh why? Where is the sunshine? Why did it cloud up again? Where is the warmth? January weather is nothing to get excited about. We had blue sky for a half-minute this morning and then it disappeared. We might be about the same temperature today as yesterday, but it feels a lot colder thanks to the wind. I guess it is another good day to stay indoors. So far this week I have avoided ordering any more seeds, but at some point, that will change.

Dawn

My first batch of seeds came in! Peppers, kale, and beans.

I'm not getting excited about it. I'm putting them away while I work on the bedroom. First coat of paint on the walls. Will definitely need a second coat.

I'm tired. Had to leave the house early to get to the dentist on time. Had a temp crown put on. Both jobs done. Took some soup to my Mom who is sick and visited with her for an hour or so. Luckily had leftovers and everyone was good with that. Then painted. Tucked animal care in. I wish I wasn't tired. I would like to stay up and put a second coat on the walls, but I'm tired.

Normally on January 31, I work on a Brigid cross, but I'm going to use mine from last year. I've had one in the coop all year with one of Jolene's feathers tucked in. She died a year ago yesterday. I dislike that I'm sort of ignoring one of my favorite days.

So much to do. So little time.

Anyone start seed yet?

Jennifer,

Of course you are tired---you are busy all the time! I hope your mom feels better soon. Being sick is no fun.

Down here, so many kids and teachers were sick and absent from school that Lone Grove schools in Carter County canceled classes for yesterday and today. From what I gather, it isn't just the flu (though there are plenty of people with it) but also strep throat, bronchitis and other stuff also going around locally in south-central OK. At the present time, knock on wood, our family is healthy.

I have started seeds of brassicas and greens. Super Bowl Sunday is my traditional day to start seeds of tomatoes and peppers. I'm not in any big hurry to do any seed-starting this year because I feel like the cold is going to hang on longer than usual and I'm not going to push to get plants into the ground too early.

I plan to work out in the garden on the upcoming days with highs in the 70s. Ironically, that warmth means I'll have to watch for snakes as they've already come out on some warm days in January. Today we have fog, currently a Dense Fog Advisory, and it is supposed to be sort of misty or rainy today, although only light drizzle is expected, and that might carry over to tomorrow as well. After that, we're expecting at least 3 great weather days with highs in the mid to lower 70s.

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day....not that it really matters. We still will have 6 more weeks of winter no matter what the groundhog does or doesn't see.

Dawn

Dawn, sounds like you need to jump on the instapot craze. Several friends have them and rave about how quick & easy they are.

I realized I said I was tired 3 times in the last post. Sorry for the whining. lol

I guess I was really tired last night. haha.

I'm sort of the same with supper during the warm months, Dawn. Particularly because the shade reaches my garden in the later afternoon (when I should be starting supper). It's actually caused a little strife in my home. Even if Tom cooks, he wants me to come in with him. BUT, that is getting better, I think. He understands now. Obviously it's much more pleasant working in the garden during the summer heat when you have shade. In fact, if I have shade, I can take almost any summer temperature. The goal for this year is to have dinner made early--while the garden is still in the sun, and then warm up the food as needed--if needed. Also, he's found things to do outdoors as well, while I work in the garden. We eat dinner late in the summer.

Can't stop thinking about my new seed packets sitting on the counter so prettily. Must. Stay. Focused. Stay focused on painting. And my job. I'm so far behind on things at work. Other than checking in here right now, I'll make myself stay focused on work today and put a couple of irritants to the side until I can address them later. I just sat and fretted about a dumb video yesterday when I should have been working on other things. This video is awful. In so many ways. I don't want to release it yet, but my editor is a volunteer, so it's not like I can demand stuff. Ugh! It's so awful, though. Okay...focus.

Have a good day everyone.

I need to catch up on posts but wanted to drop in and say...

CONGRATULATIONS!!! WE MADE IT! IT'S FINALLY NOT JANUARY!!!

Dawn - I didn't get to read in a lot of detail, but saw that the expected El Nino now appears to be waining. Curious what your thoughts are on that.

I found some dwarf gladiolas that I pounced on. They should be good in containers!

Territorial Seed and Seeds and Such came today, and Kitazawa came a couple days ago. I haven't saved very many of the catalogs this year--but like Kitazawa for the recipes!

I got out seed starting stuff today. I'll need to go get a mini-blind and little cups. I have seed starting mix and potting soil.

Yes, Megan--congratulations to us all!

HJ, hurry with the painting! Get it done. Gardening time is nearly here!

Jen, Amy and I were just discussing Instapots. I think we agreed that we're old dogs, hard to teach us new tricks. LOL We both got one last year. I have yet to use mine as a pressure cooker. Can't think of anything I'm needing to pressure cook. Might be good for making yogurt, though, right? I'll have to do that one of these days. My SIL, who is older than I am loves hers--and DOES make yogurt in it.

I'm going to start greens this weekend.

Jen, Thanks for the suggestion but I do not want an Instapot. They just do not appeal to me at all and never have. (shrug) Different strokes for different folks and all that. I have very specific reasons though: When we redesigned and remodeled our kitchen in 2016, we created a specific place for everything to be stored and this system works perfectly for us because everything always is in its place. We got rid of all of those extra little kitchen appliances that just fill up cabinets and take up space but do not get used all that often, and I am not going to buy anything like that and start cluttering up our cabinets again. We got rid of the George Foreman grill, waffle maker, deep fryer, popcorn popper, etc. and I do not miss any of them. Heck, if we'd had an Instapot at that point in time, I am sure I would have gotten rid of it at the same time. We kept one crock pot (had three or four), coffeemaker, toaster, blender, Kitchen Aid mixer, Iced Tea Maker (use it almost daily) and food processor. We are at the Konmari stage of our lives and I don't intend to regress backwards.

My idea of fresh meal prep in the summer is throw together dinner from whatever fresh produce I harvested that morning, plus a meat dish. It is perfectly doable very quickly (even if Tim already is driving up the driveway, ha ha) although it is less hectic if I start dinner before he gets home at 7 or so. If the sun would go down at 6 pm and the darkness came early to drive me indoors, then I'd always have dinner ready and on the table when he gets home. One good thing about his eventual retirement is he loves to cook and probably will take over a lot of that, if not all of it, during gardening season because he is not a gardener....and I am. To be fair to myself, I usually do have dinner ready except during the height of the planting season, and the more I get into using deep mulch, the better I am getting at not staying out in the garden too late because I don't spend nearly as much time weeding any more.

I was just strolling through the garden this afternoon and marveling at how few winter weeds there are in there because in most areas the mulch is too thick for them to sprout. By contrast, the yard and pastures are very green with winter weeds and winter wildflowers. This tells me that I put down the right amount of mulch in those areas of the garden last year (about 90% of them are in great shape) because it did not decompose so much that new weeds could sprout. I actually intend to work on the remaining 10% (those weedy areas) this coming week---weeding them and cleaning them out, then putting down thick layers of cardboard I've been saving for months, and covering them with mulch. I need to do that before snake season starts because I know I won't do it afterwards.

Jennifer, I fixed that whole 'come in and eat with me' thing just by putting two Adirondack chairs and a metal bistro table between them in the garden. The seating area is right beside the garden shed. There's a sun umbrella we can put up for shade if needed. So, if Tim wants me to come indoors and eat with him, I can say "well, come out to the garden and let's eat dinner out there at the table....." lol. It doesn't always work, but if he doesn't want to come out and eat out there, he also doesn't object to me doing so. That's about the only time I ever sit down in the garden and am not working, so I have come to love having those chairs and the table out there. During planting season, I walk out the door with breakfast in my hands and eat at that table. When I remember to stop and eat lunch, I make lunch and take it back out and eat in the garden. So, why not have dinner there as well? I could practically live in the garden, except after dark when all the critters come out.

You are allowed to whine. We all need to whine at times. No apologies necessary.

There's no point in fretting about things you cannot change, as you well know. Especially when working with volunteers.

Megan, Yes, CONGRATS TO US ALL. You made a really good point there! Now we are in February, the shortest month of the year, and I hope it flies by so warmer March weather can arrive. Well, except for that whole March wind thing. It drives me crazy.

I don't know what to make of El Nino. What we saw happen was that the Sea Surface Temperatures rose to the correct levels for the correct amount of time in the El Nino region and this led everyone to expect an El Nino pattern to develop. However, the atmosphere failed to respond to those SSTs for certain reasons, and when this occurs, El Nino technically is not occurring and an El Nino never is declared. I believe there's a lot we don't know yet about why the atmospheric response to the SSTs sometimes does not occur. And, in my book, it felt like we had El Nino from September through January anyway---we had plenty of warmth (on and off) and tons of rain. Thus, I feel like we more or less had El Nino conditions here in our region even though an official El Nino was not declared.

I am watching Australia very, very intently and worried about the folks, the animals and the plants there. They are having incredible, often record-breaking summer heat, and just so much misery and death of animals and plants (and probably people too) as well as terrible bushfires/wildfires. Often, when they have an awful summer, we have one too, so that does worry me a little. Still, at this point I am concerned about them and not about whatever may or may not happen here in a few months. They need a break. They need cooler temperatures and some relief. I hope they get it.

Nancy, I suppose with the instapots, it depends on whether any of us old dogs want to learn new tricks. I suppose I do not. We have lived through so many kitchen appliance fads in our lifetimes that I think we are less likely to fall for them now. I love our kitchen just the way it is and hell will freeze over before I bring in some new little appliance thing to take up more space. Now that Tim and I finally are well-organized, I ain't giving that up!

Shockingly I got rid of 85%-90% of my large cookbook collection when we redid the kitchen, and I don't miss those either. I mostly kept the ones that are related to canning and food processing because I don't want to rely on my memory in those cases. Anything else I prepare is either committed to my memory, or easily accessible on the internet. We have been on this decluttering, purging and organizing binge for 3 or 4 years now and I love it. It really makes me think twice about buying anything and bringing it home because I always ask myself if I need it, if I'll really use it and if I have space for it. It is amazing how many things I haven't purchased because the answer to all three of those questions was not a firm yes. This rule, of course, does not apply to anything gardening related.

It is so gorgeous here this afternoon for a day that started out with dense fog and misty stuff and heavy, heavy clouds until almost noon. If this is an indication of what the next few days will be like, the I am excited about that. It is 64 degrees, partly sunny and feels like Spring. I'm not stupid enough to think it is Spring because I know it is not, but I'll enjoy the Spring-like weather while it lasts. Oh, and because Tim and I have been dreading the windier, warmer weather this weekend because of the wildfires we're likely to have, (I already have snacks for the firefighters so I am prepared), we had a wildfire about a quarter mile from our house a couple of hours ago. It wasn't big--about a quarter-acre, it wasn't fast moving since the wind is low today, and the firefighters put it out very quickly, but when those pagers went off, I just flinched and thought oh no, I don't want for this crap to start up so soon. I hate it when wildfires start interfering in my opportunities to play in the dirt in mild winter weather.

Dawn

Dawn, I use my instantpot at least twice a week. I made possibly the best pot roast that I have ever made this past weekend with a 50 minute cook...so tender, so moist, so flavorful, because it basically stewed in it's own juice with little added liquid. I also love it for chicken gizzards (25 minutes makes them too tender...almost like butter).

It makes excellent bone broth too with leftover bones. I've certainly enjoyed that this winter. Also nice to dump frozen ingredients in it and set timer and forget it. A nice pot of ham and dried beans to excellent soft doneness in 45 minutes. Red beans and rice..

I got mine on Black Friday a year ago. Have used it nearly constantly since. So for me, it was an excellent addition.

I like my Instant Pot too. I don’t use it for everything, but it’s just really handy for me sometimes. Makes split pea soup in 30 minutes. Steel cut oatmeal in bulk for the freezer. Risotto in a flash. Bean soup so fast. Any tough cheap cut of meat to falling apart tender. Poached chicken that isn’t waterlogged and flavorless.

Yay February!!!

I hear you Rebecca, I don't use it for oatmeal, but the rest of that..yep, loved my first split pea soup from it.

That’s great, Kim!

Which youTuber? Root and Refuge?

haha, Nancy! I’m trying to get the painting done. Walls are finished! Your comment made me laugh. What the heck was I doing all of January??? Why wasn't this done already?

More thoughts to share but I gotta go.

Kim! That is SO wonderful!!! Tickled pink for you! Woo-hoo! Good!

Dawn, I got rid of most of my cookbooks when GDW and I moved me down here. I don't regret it. I DO have 22 left. Most of those are by chefs whose cooking I greatly admire (although not all of them are very nice people. LOL) And many of them are written in an almost book form, or with memories or stories about the recipes. I am the same way you are about gadgets. We don't have very much counter space and I am reluctant to give any of it up. And while we SEEM to have a lot of cupboard space; it has all been claimed. It's probably time to re-do them. And be even more ruthless now than I was when I first came in and fixed them all to my liking.

I was out spray-painting cat litter buckets. I'm glad to have them (I have 8), but they're not as big as I wish they were. Still. Good to have em.

Although I whined about it still being winter, it actually is quite a nice warm "winter day," at 62! And no breeze. No sun, but 62 an no breeze.

I was very upset for Australia, too. It's not good!

TMD has her grow list out. Tried to link you but it’s being dumb tonight. I’ll probably pick up a couple Porters and a couple Creole from her, and all my peppers. Looks like a good list. We should schedule a Traveling Plants date around a trip there.

dbarron, I am glad you are liking your Instapot. Still, for me, it always will be a no go. I have lived through 4+ adult decades of all the latest kitchen appliance-type things that have come and gone, and I'm over it. (grin) Now, show me a nice garden gadget and I might have to have it because my garden shed isn't full yet.

Rebecca, Ditto on the Instapot. Glad it works for you and I'm just not interested in it for us. Neither is Tim, although if he wanted to get one, I guess I couldn't object since it is his kitchen too. We have a pressure cooker and pressure canner that we haven't used in years, but I certainly used them in the past. They are put away in storage in case I ever need to pressure can again, but I don't know why I hang on to them because I only do BWB canning nowadays.

Getting rid of 'stuff' is contagious. The more I purge unused, unwanted or unneeded items from our home, the calmer and happier I feel mentally. I cannot explain it, but it is real. Of course, all the purging only works if you aren't buying a ton of new stuff to replace the old stuff.

Kim, Congrats! That is a nice thing to win.

Nancy, I am sure that the few non-canning cookbooks I have left were kept mostly for nostalgic reasons, though I do still use Fannie Flagg's Original Whistlestop Cafe Cookbook as everything in it is exactly the same kind of meals my grandparents, parents, and aunts and uncles prepared---just good old southern cooking. Nothing fancy at all. I also use Tim's cookbook (a gift from mme to him decades ago) for Helpful Cooking Hints for Househusbands of Uppity Women sometimes too. It has simple, tasty recipes in it. Most of the others I never open any more.

The weather down here stayed between sort of foggy/misty and then just south of us it cranked up to almost drizzly on the Texas side of the river. The sun finally came out in late afternoon and burned off most of the clouds and fog/mist. I think from this point forward we just have gorgeous weather until the cold front comes through around Thursday.

Rebecca, I saw that on FB earlier today and went over and clicked on it to at least view her top ten. Let me see if I can link it. I wonder if the problem is that it is a PDF? Let's find out:

Tomatoman's Daughter 2019 Plant List

Well, I can see it here. I don't know if it will stay or disappear when I click 'submit', but if y'all cannot see it, then we'll know it didn't stick around.

Okay, I am going to go start next week's thread now because tomorrow is seed-starting day and I hope to be busy with all that.

Dawn

Thanks Dawn, it came right up from your link.

Rebecca, You're welcome. I am glad it worked. I wasn't sure if it would since you'd had trouble earlier. I like her top ten list this year.

Dawn