Hello Camille,

I'm so sorry to hear Gloria passed. She was a wonderful human! You have my deepest sympathy and please pass them on to Lucy, too. I remember that swap in Berthoud, it was a wonderful place for it! Skybird used to organize the swaps and still has a hand in lending materials and advice for them. This is the right place to offer to host and talk about planning the swap. We don't usually start planning it until April, once our seedlings get growing and we have some idea what has survived the winter and can be divided. There probably won't be much traffic here this time of year, but don't be discouraged. You have dibs on hosting! I hope your holidays are wonderful and we'll talk about the swap in a few months. Or people can chime in and we'll start talking about it now.

Treebarb

Hi Treebarb,

Thanks for your quick response.

It has been almost two years since Gloria has passed and it still weighs heavy on our hearts. She was so very much into homesteading and gardening. Lucy and I want to continue those skills in her name.

Please keep us in mind for the spring swap. We'd like to have it in Berthoud at Lucy's farm again.

Here is our contact information. I will continue to monitor this site as we get closer to spring.

Very much looking forward to a successful gardening year.

Merry Christmas.

Camille and Lucy

Hello RMG friend! In your best interest, it would be a good idea to remove phone numbers from your posts here. This site is world-wide available and posting phone numbers just seems like a really risky thing these days. Especially with all the other personal information.

I feel better now!

Hi Camille, it will be wonderful to have the swap at Lucy's farm! I'll look forward to it.

Awesome. We are not sure who to contact or how to go about notifying folks that we will host it.

Please, anyone, let us know how to move forward.

Hi Camille/Arborwolf,

I was planning to get here to post sooner, but other stuff has been happening and I just didn’t get it done!

I’m sure there are people around here who’d like to have a swap again, but I’m not sure, based on the fact that this post hasn’t received more of a response by now, if they’ll see the post about a swap or not. Since houzz took over GW/RMG there have been fewer and fewer people posting around here, and as “old” members “go away,” only rarely does a “new” member show up since GW/RMG almost never shows up in search results anymore since houzz—so “new people” don’t seem to find us anymore! You may have noticed that there are VERY few posts anymore!

So! Having said all that!

If you’d like to go ahead to see how many people show up and express an interest in a Spring Swap this year, here’s what I recommend!

If you already have a date you’d like to have it, start a new thread with a subject something like:

SPRING SWAP 2023 – SA? May ??, 2023 at 00:00 a.m.

It doesn’t need to be May, but that’s when the spring swaps have generally been in the past. Other than that all you’d need to start the thread is that you’re planning to host it in Berthoud, and maybe give an “approximate location” with “main streets/roads” near you—don’t post your exact address here online.

OR – If you don’t have a particular date in mind I’d suggest starting a new thread with a subject something like this:

SPRING SWAP 2023 – When should we have it?

And then post the day/dates that will work for you if it makes any difference to you, and ask people what days/dates will work the best for them. I’d add to that post, like I said above, that you’re planning to host it in Berthoud, with similar “location info!”

You really wouldn’t need much more in that post, just enough to see if enough people see it and respond with dates or ideas to find out if there’s enough interest and response for it to actually be feasible this year.

If you have any other questions before you start a new thread, post them here and I’ll try to get back within a day to answer them for you.

And if/when you start an “actual swap thread,” as in my first suggested “new” thread above, I’ll jump in as soon as I see it and copy/past all the Swap FAQs for you—to answer questions for anybody, especially anybody who’s “new” and has never been to a swap before!

Since there have only been a few people who have responded to this first thread that you started a few months ago, I’d say that the most important thing right now it to try to get a feel for how many people will see the tread and respond that they’re interested in coming! There will definitely not be as many people as were at the swap up there in spring of 2015—there just isn’t enough action around here anymore to get that many people.

And if it turns out that there is a swap this spring, and as long as it’s on or before the weekend of SA/SU May 20/21, I’ll be there! After that I’ll be “back on the other side of the hills” for a while!!!

I’ll watch for specific questions if you come up with any,

Skybird

P.S. I'd like to add my condolences to both you and Lucy in the loss of your sister, Gloria. I'm so sorry you lost someone so close to you--I hope you're able to remember and share "the good times" you had with her, to honor her and keep her alive in your hearts.

F 03.24.23 @ 18.18 MDT