Larry, you may be behind last year, but you are ahead of me. My tomatoes are only about 4 inches high, but they look nice. I actually had to start over once. I started with a poor starting mix the first time and it dried out so quickly that I gave up and started over. Even after that, I planted too many seeds and probably have 60-70 plants, but I don't have a lot of variety. Outside I have planted onions, potatoes and a few peas. I threw some corn salad seeds in the onion bed, but I think the birds cleaned most of it up before it sprouted. When we had a hail threat, I covered one onion bed with row cover just to make sure I didn't lose them all, but the hail didn't come. I think the robins are having a family reunion in my garden this year. When we get past the next 10 days, then I will worry about getting everything in.

I've suggested to a number of people over the years that we should keep busy and active ... and should keep making new friends. Some have wondered what they need to do that for - they have a number of friends as it is, tried and true ones that they've developed over the years. And I've suggested that in many cases a number of them are work-related and when we retire, our interests may well change. Also, as many retire, they may, for various reasons, move to distant locations, so while that friendship may continue, it isn't as active as earlier. Some become less able to relate, some become disabled, a number die, so the number of active, vibrant friendships tends to shrink. The problem does disappear, eventually ... ... when we're the one to cash in our chips. In the meantime, it's valuable to have a number of active, dynamic friendships ... keeps one busy and vital, longer. It seems to me that if we lack such ... it may well actually be shorter ... but just seem a lot longer. ole joyful

alisande asked in regard to my Phoebe McCoy: "Jemdandy, how did you learn so much about your g-g-grandmother? Interesting! She looks so at peace in that photo." After I inherited her photo, I did some serious research on her. My break-through came when I traveled to the city library of Winchester, TN in the county where her mother eventually arrived with the Franklin(s). I found a well reserched article by another genealogist that gave me the lead on the origin of her parents in NJ. The best information of all was how and when Jemima (mother of Phoebe) met her husband-to-be and his correct name, Hugh McCoy. The story continues below: It was during the Revolutionary War. Hugh McCoy, a Scotsman, was not a military man and had gone to a seaport town to attend to some business when the Brits grabbed him and said, "You are in the Army now". (He was conscripted for war with the American colonies.) Hugh McCoy was shipped across the ocean and placed in Lord Howe's army at New York. Hugh was wounded and his commander took him to the house of Franklin(s) in NJ to recuperate. While there, his term of enlistment expired and he refused to re-enlist. The daughter of John Franklin, Jemima, had caught his eye and captured his heart. He asked for her hand in marriage. [To date, this is the only source I have found for my Scotish lineage. These Franklin(s) had immigrated from Acton, England.] Using land warrants from the War, these Franklin(s) and their married daughter, Jemima (Franklin) and Hugh McCoy, removed to Burke Co., NC where they aquired land. After Hugh and Jemima (Franklin) McCoy had about 6 children, Hugh supposed that he may have had some property comming to him in Scotland. He embarked on a voyage back home. He and the ship disappeared. It was presumed he had been lost at sea. Several years later, these Franklin(s) (and Jemima and Phoebe) voyaged by wagon train through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and eventually arrived on the Elk River in Franklin Co,, TN about 1808. Jemima had married for the second time and outlied her 2nd husband. She married for the 3rd time and outlived that husband by a couple of years. Jemima and her second husband is buried on the family farm. I was privileged to view their headstones and dates on these stones were very readable. John Brown and Phoebe McCoy married in TN, but I have not been able to find any documentation. I do have the birthdates of their children who were born there by calculation from data in Illinois. Also, strangely enough, I know where and the date of Phoebe's demise but can not find anything about her burial.

First, get organized. Construct a file system that suits your method of operation and memory jogging. I'll give an example below. Bear in mind that this is only one way. Construct a system that suits your needs, and that brings up the next suggestion. Try to put as much identification in the file titles as you can. This will aid future searches for data. Create folders for major divisions. 2. Create sub-folders for each sub-topic. 3. Scan the photos, give each one a descriptive title including the date of event when known. Please do use a consistent form of date for every file. This will greatly aid future searches of the file set. Major folders: I'll use family surnames such as BROWNE, MARCUS. SMITH, TABOR Under each name, create folders such as Obituary, marriages, wars, family gathering of 1950, 50th wed anniversary and names of cemeteries for example: Bridgeport, Old Carney, Wells. Suppose you scanned a photo of a tombstone for John Browne and he was buried in the Bridgeport cemetery. You'd scan the photo and place it it the BROWNE, Bridgeport folder titling it: Browne, John Day, b 02 sep 1910, d 29 oct 1990. If your system balks at spaces date, leave those out; If it balks at commas in the title, use a minus sign for a dash. The underline character can be used, etc. As you progress, you'll collect a number of photos that do not fit just yet into your system, place these under the major folder and forge on. Later, you can re-file these miscellaneous entries with electronic 'moves'. The main job at present is to get these photos scanned and preserved. In the future, you wish to find a photo. Recall how you constructed your file names. Lets say you wanted to find something that happened on 10 Aug 1940, but you do not remember the exact details. Do a search on "1940" and all titles with this number will come up and since you put other information in the title, you can quickly pick out the file you wanted from 1940.