Dave - That's a sweet piece of steel you got there. Very nice.

thanks! I thought our last one, a smaller pioneer was pretty good , but this one rocks. at 11 when I go to bed, I put in 2 pieces of hardwood turn it 2/3rds down and it will be still going at 4:30-5 a.m. the labs love it. 4 beds lined up in front. on cold days there is a race for the hot ones.the glass doors clean easily and are a sign of a clean or smoky burn. clean burn=clean glass

I sat one of my blooming violet next to my computer today, just to have some green and color.
Maybe tomorrow I'll take some cuttings from them.

what color is the violet?

There is this terrible slushy snow/rain blowing from the sky.

uck uck uck

I RARELY go out and do anything...wanted to go to a homeschool meeting tonight...(hear lots of complaining)

MHG's cabin fever pic

MHG,

That is a FANTASTIC shade of blue!

And so very healthy too!
(I am impressed...I have a houseplant that is currently in the "will I die or will I live" phase. So, that makes your healthy specimen even more impressive! )

Oh, went to the meeting anyway...slipped and slid the car down the drive, but made it. More surprising is that I made it back *UP* the driveway. The slushy rain has turned to blowing hard snow. At least 8 more inches in the driveway when I came back. At least it is pretty!

Thanx. They suprise me at how well they are doing (5) in my cold N. window sill.

40 below w/c again today.....semi's were pulling off interstate when I took wife to work. But the sun is shining so maybe grnhs. will be hospitible to be in today anyway.

Gonna start a garlic experiment today and start a clove like you would a Sweetpotato with just it's butt in the water. The one I potted Sunday already has enough root growth that it's anchored as of yesterday.

Question throw out there to anybody that might know.....has anybody ever started violets from harvested seed....? I've only propigated from taking leaf cuttings. Are there other ways ?

Seed, needs light, so only pressed into the soil and not covered. 70º soil temp, They germinate well, but, yep I kill them with overwatering, so! Don't overwater! Anyway, I like cuttings best, but seeds are possible.

Takes about a month from seed ya get from the seed company, and may not even germinate then, but if ya got a place to set them in the shade outside and get seeds to set like I did, they only take about 11 days. Butterflys pollinated them from what I could see, but maybe bees landed when I wasn't looking? Don't know?

It was a perfect day in the grnhs. today.....if you like it to be 102 degrees. Upper 20's outside. Finished peeling the last of the garlic to be powdered. Onions will be next to get dried and ground up. Something to keep me from going crazy with winter cabin fever.

National news tonite : final figures for last year are in; your groceries cost you 4% more last year. You should expect them to increase at least that much again this coming year.

Bright spot of the day so far was finding vines/slips/shoots starting to show on my SP's. Dave has been kind enough to once again post my pic for me on that thread.

Yup!
I have lots of houseplants, several of which are African Violets, but only one blooming now.

A few weeks ago, I had about 5 blooming, and I also had 3 or 4 cactus blooming (Christmas-type), and a "lipstick plant" has a few blooms now...don't know the real name, but they definately boost the spirit in the winter!

Thanks for the pics!

What did I miss this morning? Or is it top secret?

Son came, we did taxes. Son left. Here I am!

Catch me up!

U didn't miss anything. I put the call out around 9:20am but nobody answered.

Liz,

How was your trip? Hope it was worthwhile!

Blue,

Guess you aren't home!

MHG,
I yoo hoo'd ya. Now I'm going to eat corned beef and cabbage. Been hungry for it for 3 days!

Bummer. I was hoping y'all would have something fun to catch me up on besides MHG getting a bunch more snow.

Good to be home. Tired. Spring must be coming soon.

Hello again, we live in central Fla. I wanted to post a thread asking how to best plant and grow orange trees, because we just bought one .

I am unable to do this for some reason . Coulds someone please either post a thread for me or give me the secret of doing so .

Also are there many southern folks on here ? Not that I haven't benefitted greatly from you nice northerners , but also need help with citrus and bananas .