JT & Duckie sure gave you a busy morning, hope they settled down a bit by afternoon!! Waiting for partII! Jan PS. Interesting place you work at, is it a pet/garden shop?

Well, at least you have a hobby/other work to fall back on for your retirement. Hubs is a more or less a workaholic but his job is very demanding physically. He puts in for all the overtime he can handle just to build up our nest egg and to the buy the big things we want now and not have to have them later. But the problem as I see it and I think he's starting to realize now (since he was off for 2 straight weeks) is that he doesn't have enough around the house to keep him occupied. He gets bored so he eats and sleeps. He couldn't wait to get back to work so he would feel "normal" again. LOL Me, I have tons of hobbies so my early retirement hasn't affected me, though I do miss the extra money. I think the gardening club idea sounds great. I couldn't do it myself (I'm ready to be kid free for awhile) but I know the kids love it when they grow things. Our granddaughter always loved it when her class did the growing thing. Now that she's a teenager her interests lie elsewhere (boys!) so try to get them a little younger if you can. Who knows you might be helping to start the next generation of farmers and gardeners in your community....and you can teach them about your passion.....compost! Val

Wow - nice pictures and you have to feel satisfied at having lots of stuff done. BUT --- I sure would love to have your 'clean-up' for my compost bin. I have a hoop house made of pvc with rebar going through that used to be a chicken house. We covered it with wire mesh and it is now my compost bin. Varmints keep eating through the wire mesh but I really don't care any more --- they have to eat too. It feels good to have a place to put all of our food waste. Right now is canning time for me so I have lots of tomato/fruit peelings, etc.

You're not kidding about the Mums this year, Pat! This is only my first year growing them (during regular bloom time, anyway), and I'm very pleased with how mine did. The aphids and ants didn't seem to make much of a dent, either. :) Some day, I hope I get enough going to be able to share the beauty, too. My mom finally planted some Mums in the ground this year (yay!), and they're blooming their little heads off, as well. I inherited a largish jade plant from a neighbor this summer, and it has a nice cluster of blooms on it now. First time I've ever seen one bloom! My pineapple sage looks like a California Christmas tree, with its tall (4 ft.) stems lit up with glowing red blooms. I'm so glad I planted it out by the front fence so others can enjoy its beauty. The leaves from the gigantic, unknown trees haven't finished littering yet, but half the fun is removing them to see what plants are hiding underneath. LOL Happy Thanksgiving! Brenda