Soultan, You are a HOOT! Indeed! When I received the small piece of plant from my Mom, she told me it was an umbrella palm. I had no clue other than that as to the name of the plant. Then, there was a disabled person in NC that wrote me and told me the actual name. I lost my hard drive and lost those emails, and I hated it that I did not record the name somewhere. I believe it is actually 'Cyperus involucratus'. Every winter, it is a chore to cut the deciduous branches and haul them to the back of the acre to be burned. The 'bed' has gotten too large. I have removed some and given them to friends, but it is quite a chore because the roots are like ginger roots, only bigger and thicker. You really need strong arms and an axe to cut off sections. I must do that this year because they are taking over other plants in the area. Oh! I learned at Master Gardener training about growing the seeds by placing them upside down in water, but I never tried that because they multiply so well on their own. Cindee, I have the gigantic version of yours in a huge pot in my greenhouse. Next year, I plan to try to move it to my gardens. It is so much more delicate. I had a miniature one, but I lost it. One day, I will get another... They are all very fascinating!

Tim - I have really enjoyed Margaret Laurence's works so far, and do enjoy this Prairie type of writing. I live on the South Plains - wide open spaces, few trees, big sky... Love it. Some call it barren, but I think it's gorgeous and it's tough to leave for big cities sometimes (claustrophobic with all the high buildings and not enough sky)... :-) Finished up a fun read about U.S. women's history called "America's Women" by Gail Collins. Collins is a big wig at the NYT so is a great writer. A nice extra was that she has a great sense of humor which is slipped in every now and then.... Hilarious at times. Now reading something by Madeleine Wickham, a UK writer who wrotes the kind of domestic dramas as Joanna Trollope et al. Nothing mind-blowing, but just a nice read. Plus it keeps referencing all sorts of very English words which I rarely hear here nowadays. (Perhaps they're not said any more in UK, but they bring back memories to me): dotty, stroppy, grotty, ring road, indicate (as in turning signal on car) etc... AND - big news: we had a blizzard yesterday here in Texas and we had a SNOW DAY. Unheard of, and very enjoyable. Most of the snow is gone now though. It was a bit weird: we were in the park on Sunday afternoon in t-shirts (70's); 24 hours, we're in 70 mph winds and snow; 24 hours later, we're back in the 50's and bright sunshine. We only had about 3 inches in snow (which is not bad for here), but Amarillo (just north of us 120 mi) had 19 inches of snow. Wow.... (Again - these totals may not be that impressive to those in the northern states. But it's a lot here and caused city-wide closing of almost everything official yesterday... Yeah! Free day off!)

Patti, yes, I guess a leaky heart should be looked into. And loved your approach to the doctor! Way to go! You must be SO proud of your SIL and that whole family! That's doggoned impressive! And thrilled for your son and getting his bride-to-be back here, a little nervous about her getting in without any glitches. Exciting times for you! Does she speak Mandarin?? What part of China is she from? I just did cart seeds inside for the first time last year. It was surprisingly easy with the good help of all our smart friends here. They were even more help advising where and when and what to plant and filling the raised beds. Last year, I had no idea how to tell what I wanted in a tomato or pepper (or anything else--I'm sure you all remember my ignorance); I have learned so much from you all in the past year; and I had to laugh at Rebecca saying that she bet I wouldn't buy seed from (I don't know who it was, some big box company). And it IS true that I've become very uppity about seed companies--but it's all y'all's fault! You know it is. I didn't get started on seed-planting today, Dawn. Maybe tomorrow. We are still staying away from: church, and schools. So maybe I'll get up and begin tending the garden for God. :) I'm a little bit freaked about IT, too. I bet all of you who have only recently started all the seed-growing stuff are feeling about like I am. . . So technically, this is only my second year. But it was so easy last year, I'm not too freaked out. Mostly by the nightmares of potting up, the taking all those flats out every morning, bringing them all back in in the evenings. Too funny. It's like running an orphanage, pet shelter, daycare. Constant attention, right? I'm thrilled that in what is going into my 4th year here, I have SO many perennials, self-seeding annuals, and shrubs going. SO appreciated the additional info on drip irrigation tubing. I'm still on the edge, there. I think I will maybe NOT do it in the flower beds, cept for the cement block raised one, and the raised veggie beds. Maybe soaker hoses, though. I really don't much care about the worry over sprinklers getting leaves wet, when I remember the 20" of rain we got May into July for two years in a row. The saving money part, sure. But I have those oscillating sprinklers, so can narrow down the watering to the immediate bed being watered. That's gotta help some. HJ and Dawn both posted while I was starting on this, so had to change windows to see what they had to say. lol Liked the way you tied Rh into gardening, HJ. Very creative. And now, HJ, and I am very worried about your babies since dogs seem to be about. (Which is one of the two main reasons we won't have them--the other being times we have to go to Wy or Mn.) Amy, I had to google the car accident you mentioned. How very sad. They still haven't released the names. We only go to Wahoo Bay occasionally, because you know my distaste for traveling. It's probably 25-30 miles from our house--as you know, we're north and east of Wagoner by 10 miles; Wahoo is south and east of Wagoner by about 15. We go down there a couple times each summer. Actually, that's where GDW is going to crappie fish--a nice heated dock not too far north of Wahoo. And he is on a mission now. We got his moon jigs, his special bobbers should be showing up Tuesday, and then he just KNOWs he'll be catching all kinds of crappies. That was funny, you mentioning your Mom ears. I have them, too, with the new kitties. Speaking of them. . . . uh oh, I fear they are into their teens, full blown. Jerry's actually the troublemaker; but Tom is the dangerously funny one. They were both obsessed with getting into the pantry, because of the hole in the wall where the water lines are. But mostly because it's a shut door. If a door is shut, that's where they want to go. Garry fixed the door once (previously it shut and stayed shut, but didn't latch.) But didn't fix it good enough apparently. Last night, one of the cats came racing in here with a prize--my brand new fancy dancy fuzzy "feather duster." Score!, he thought, and you could all but see them doing "high 5's" about it. All I could do was laugh. The fuzzy part is a foot long, and then has a wood handle that's another foot long. Hysterical. So I put it back and shut the door. This morning before I was up, GDW got to witness the same thing. But so, he FIXED the door good today. The cats are so ticked off. BUT, now, I fear the cabinets are next, as Tom was interested in seeing in what was one of them when I opened it today. . . and they, of course, do not latch. You could almost see the little light bulbs going off in his head. They've been rowdy today. . . SO rowdy. So funny. They're both also SO affectionate. I plunked Tom down 4 times earlier today when he was being obnoxious and in my face (AFTER I gave him 15 minutes of uninterrupted time), and four times he jumped back instantly. But he also has been in either GDW's lap or mine every time we have sat down today.

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