I want to put a follow up on this thread. The GE Monogram all fridge all freezer units we purchased are both giving us problems that, according to the independent service technician, are showing up in more and more older models. In other words as the units age they develop these issues. I guess we are "lucky" in that they happened while we were still in warranty. First, the fridge was getting moldy. Mold was growing on the walls, shelves and even condiment containers and other containers that potentially are in the fridge for a while. I am cleaning the fridge every weekend, spending a couple hours at a time on it. Turns out that GE considers this within normal functioning parameters as the fridge is still getting cold enough. It is also developing rust. According to the technician - there is no fix for this. Second, the freezer is growing BIG hunks of frost on the back wall and according to the same technician this is indicative of "something big about to happen" although he refused to elaborate. So now I have two built in, custom panelled appliances purchased with the intent that they last MANY years and which will now need to be replaced. Be warned - stay away or if you must go with this line - at least go in with your eyes open.

Bon, I'm glad he's feeling better, even if he is bouncing off the walls. I hope it is warm and rain-free today so maybe he can play outside and enjoy feeling better. (In my perfect world---the one that exists only inside my imagination, it would rain only at night so we could work outside during the day). Thirty-five degrees is awfully cool. Have y'all reached your average last frost date yet? Lisa, I've been watching the 5-day and 7-day Qualitative Precipitation Forecast all week. A few days ago it was showing really great rainfall totals over much of OK, especially central OK, and every day for the last 2 or 3, the amount it is showing is dropping. I still think y'all will get some good rainfall, but I'm not sure it will be as much as the forecasters once thought. The same is true for much of the state. For all my complaining the last few weeks about wet soil, we have had a lot of drying in the upper few inches of the soil during all the hot, windy days when the rain kept missing us. There's still good moisture about a foot down. I know this because I removed the low tunnel from my onion bed (the leaves were hitting the netting, which meant it had to go) and when I pulled the rebar out of the ground, there was a giant sucking sound from that deep moisture. Unfortunately, up in the raised bed where the onions are growing, it is a lot drier. Now I'm worried our wet-so-far year may be changing back to more skimpy rainfall. I have been watching the soil moisture measurements falling on the Mesonet map and felt they did not reflect our reality at our house until, suddenly, now it seems like they do. I hate that. On the other hand, the reason I've gotten so much garden work done lately is because it has dried up. Now, I guess, I need for it to rain again which will help the plants but probably will put me behind schedule on the back garden, where I hope to get a lot done before the heavy rain arrives, which is expected to be Sunday here, though maybe not until Sunday night. We never seem to get the rainfall we need when we want it or need it, but maybe y'all are finally going to get a break before Lake Hefner turns into a desert. I think Lake Texoma is down about a foot, but that's not too bad all things considered. I've been on a sapling-killing binge too---mulberries, hackberries, elm and oaks. I can blame the oaks on the squirrels, I guess. On these windy days the adjacent woodland has rained down tree seeds, flowers and pollen on me and the garden all day long. I mean the stuff is swirling around in the air like snow. I don't ever remember being showered by so much tree debris in the garden before while working. I pick up every elm seed I see lying on top of the soil when I'm weeding, figuring I can pick up the seeds now or pull the young trees later. Carol, I bet you're right about your soil generally staying too wet for herbs. I have found that most of the ones I grow really like to be high and dry within reason. My soil still is too heavy for thyme to grow, even in raised beds, since we sometimes get really heavy rainfall. I just grow what I can in the ground and put the rest in containers. I have transplanted all the big tomato plants that I'm going to plant into the ground and am holding the rest for the Spring Fling. Those are the ones started from seed on Super Bowl Sunday and then in the second round about two weeks after that. I have tiny plants from a third round that have not done as well. They just won't grow. It is vexing. I don't know whether to blame it on the constant cool, cloudy weather they had to grow in virtually from the day they sprouted or if it is the growing mix (I potted them up into Miracle-Grow Moisture Control, which worked great for the earlier seedlings, but not for these....and I think they went into mix from a new bag which might explain why they are underperforming). Most of these plants are only 2-4" tall, but Ildi is only 1" tall and has been for about 3 weeks. Their color has been off, which isn't unusual for very small seedlings, but usually by the time seedlings are 5 weeks old they are much bigger and have great color. I think something in the soil-less mix is out-of-whack but haven't had time to do anything about it. I'm contemplating planting some of these tiny plants directly in the ground to see if they will grow better in real soil and then potting up the others into soil-less mix from a new bag. I was busy with so many seedlings during seed-starting and potting-up time that I didn't want to mess with chasing down all the ingredients and making my own 5-1-1 mix, but now I kinda wish I had taken the time to do it. I don't regret breaking the tomato list into thirds and planting in three rounds as it helped me feel like I could take my time transplanting tomato plants into the ground at a slow, steady pace instead of rushing to get all of them into the ground quickly before they got too big. I just wish the third round had grown as well as the first two. Since we have had some sunny days lately, the tiny tomato plants' color has improved somewhat but their growth hasn't. If they were the only tomato plants I had, I'd be losing my mind worrying about what is wrong with them. Instead I'm just taking a reasoned response that "sometimes this happens" and will see if I can get them to start growing better and looking better. I've had mixed results with peas. Of the batch I pre-sprouted and started in paper cups, some are doing great in the ground and others are struggling. They're in a bed that runs west to east and all the happier plants are at the west end. The garden runs downhill from west to east, so I'm wondering if the plants at the east end are staying too wet even in their raised bed. I noticed while weeding yesterday that the east-west running onion bed, which also is a raised bed and sits even higher in the garden is exactly the same. At the drier west end, the ground is hard and crusty at the surface and I couldn't just pull weeds out---I had to use a small weeder to break the soil surface and then I could pull the weeds out. About midway down the bed as I moved further east, though, the soil became progressively wetter at the surface and I could yank out those weeds there quite easily. Even in my pathways between raised beds you can see where the garden effectively changes from drier to wetter soil. In the drier areas the mulch is a lighter color and in the wetter areas it is darker and even looks wet. I really enjoyed yesterday's weather. It actually felt like April when I walked out the door. Our high was only 73 compared to the previous day's 87 and it was so much more pleasant to be outdoors that I was out as late in the day as possible. I have to be in before dark because so much of the night-roaming wildlife is not something I want to run into, but I just barely made it in before dark. An hour or two later I was out on the front porch calling the name of a cat who apparently decided to stay out all night and saw the biggest skunk in our driveway that I've ever seen. It was bigger than any coon I've ever seen and we have had some fat, corn-fed coons some years. I joked to Tim that if the cat doesn't come in this morning, we'll know the skunk ate him. It was a really, really big one. We've also had some really huge possums this year, so I guess the mild and wet weather we've had the last few months really agreed with them. Now, I'm headed out to the garden in a minute for what I hope is a full day of getting things accomplished before the rain arrives. Dawn

It was wet and cold most of today. Turkey stone soup time. Turkey bones, and scraps, leftover gravy, couple pieces of ham, 2 huge carrots, celery with tops, big onion put whole into pot, salt and pepper. Simmered and skimmed - all the foamy stuff is removed - so it was clear after 4 hours. All parts and pieces of turkey and other meats are strained before serving. Wantons made with cooked meat from freezer, cabbage, green onions, eggs, chopped and folded into wanton skins from market. Soup was dark, clear and delicious. Extra wantons were coated with some Pam spray and baked in 425 degree oven till brown and crunchy and served with dipping sauce, catsup, soy sauce, other Asian flavors and severed at room temp with hot wantons. It is about 36 degrees here tonight. Fiddly dinner but worth every minute.

I thought I'd post an update here for anybody who might be reading this in the future. After reading the comments here, I decided that I was probably going to be most like the people who liked the drawer. So I set my sights on LG LRMDC2306S, which is a counter-depth with flex drawer. Then I tried to find one to look at. I couldn't find that exact one (yet), but I found a similar model, the LRMVC2306S, which appears to be exactly the same except with "InstaView," their window-into-the-fridge feature. And I could not believe how small the fridge interior seemed. I brought my measuring tape to see if a 12-pack of soda would fit, since I'd seen people complaining in a few places that it wouldn't. I thought it was hyperbole, but no, soda boxes are 21" long and the shelves were 16-18" deep. If the shelves inside the right-side door were arranged just so, and only contained small things, I think it would be possible to fit a soda box in there front to back, but it would overhang the shelf and go into the closed-door shelf space. (It's not possible on the left side door since the icemaker is there.) The InstaView shelving did not allow this, but it looked like maybe it would be the case on the original model I wanted to see. And it was the case on several other counter-depth fridges I tested. Not a great solution, and maybe soda boxes aren't my only constraint, but I wasn't thrilled about this. So I just started opening counter-depth fridges at the store to see what felt bigger to me. I settled onto two others: The LG LRFXC2416S, which claims to only have one additional cubic foot but seems a lot larger. The KitchenAid KRFC704FBS which feels a LOT larger but is similarly sized as well. The KitchenAid seems to be about $1k more for an equivalent feature set, but I haven't fully researched it yet. Consumer Reports scored both of these highly. I'm not sure yet what we're going to do, but I'm coming to the realization that although a flex drawer is nice, I think it would only be viable for me on a standard-depth fridge. I just can't take the overhead hit to the volume. I'm still trying to find a LRMDC2306S that I can see in person somewhere, but I suspect I'll end up with one of the other models. The KitchenAid is quite fancy and has nifty wood-look accents inside, but the LG makes "craft ice" (2" diameter clear ice spheres) which simultaneously seem like a ridiculous gimmick and also something I really want in my life even though I almost never use ice.