Frogs arrived........

[D. Arlington]

I was walking around the pond looking for a few hyacinths to cut for the house - and saw frogs! The frogs are back. Bad news for bugs slugs and insects. :-)

[Charlie]

Big enough to eat??? Bad news for frogs!!! :-D

[rachael simpson]

I've the frying pan waiting...lol!

~Rae

[Charlie]

Rae!

How you been, girl? Spring is bout here and spirits are rising. I was just outside hanging over the gate at dusk making plans for all the wonderful stuff to plant and eat, thinking about needing to get outta town and wet a line this week. This frogleg thing reminded me to go get my fishing/hunting license, which I did.

How are the youngsters? Bet they are running strong and ready for spring. I've three grands now. The youngest is a the most beautiful little girl you ever saw (aren't they all). A girl-child is new for us, but she's got me wrapped. ;-)

According the the drought monitors, ya'll are stiil underwet, so, along with the depressed economy, the farming situation is still difficult? We've plenty of moisture...for now anyway, but several farming friends are more than worried about the astronomical cost of putting in a crop and the likelihood of a loss on their crop, if they can even score the credit to plant. Seems as if the only ones that are assured of financing are the mega-farmers who are into the banks so deeply, they are getting financing. I would hate to be one of the folks that had paid six grand/acre recently and hoping to come out even at best.

Enough of that. What do have gowin' this year?

Care Charlie

[Billy]

Let's see. Wyatt is almost 4. Breanna is two. Hmmmm. How you feeling girl? Got any, eh, projects planned?

[rachael simpson]

Hiya Charlie,

It seems I remember telling you that it wouldn't take long for the little lass to have you wrapped around her little finger. How are the boys taking to her?

At the moment, it's hard to believe we are still considered under drought conditions, as just two weeks ago we were under flood warnings. The river around back is still up by about 8 feet.

Farming-wise, the concerns there are the same around here. At least for the moment, non-highway fuel prices are down here and everyone is trying to stock up on fuel to last them thru the planting season. The weather is still to iffy here to plant anything just yet. Last week we were in the 80's for a few days, then on Friday we didn't even get out of the 40's. Got my whole household sick with colds/congestion. Most are waiting for Easter before planting, as we always get a cold snap right before Easter. If we don't this year, it will be a first.

Right now, besides a few pepper plants that I've started indoors, the only thing we have a growing is kids! lol! Wyatt & Bre are at full force, and the newest little one, Kaelyn, joined us in January, actually born on her big sister's 2nd birthday. So now I have two girls with the same b-day, exactly 2 years apart. Go figure.

I have high hopes for a bigger garden this year, but not sure if I'll be able to work one as with this last baby, my ticker tried to give out on me, and I'm still having troubles with it. I've known for some years that mine didn't want to last, but it's only a quarter + 1 years old, and didn't expect to have this kind of troubles yet. I hope when the weather straightens out and spring is here to stay, things will go back to normal for me and will have this ticker thing under control again for several years. I seem to have a flare-up with it every 5-6 years.

I hope to try some different maters this year, you have any suggestions on good growers? I like to stick with the heirloom varieties. I'll probably just buy mater plants from a local nursery this year. They usually have a good selection. I'll start everything else from seed. We generally just sow straight into the ground. Oh, I do have collards out there now. They are the same plants I grew last spring. Most of them made it over winter. We had several hard freezes this year which had come to be unusual here and that took a few of them out.

Well, I hear the baby stirring, she'll be ready for her feeding soon. Hope you and your's are all fairing well.

~Rae

[rachael simpson]

lol! Hi Billy. I'm hanging in there. Um, let's see...the latest "project" was completed in January. You can read about it in my reply to Charlie. New projects are mainly dreams of adding on to the home, reorganizing the play room and just making it thru the day... Everyone here is sick and the kids are just feeling well enough to constantly aggravate each other just by looking...lol!

~Rae

[D. Arlington]

These guys are too valuable to a gardener to have for dinner. ;-)