Sept. 8 Plant Swap: Organization and Logistics

Thanks, Sally! I always get those two mixed up. But I love the trail to the falls, especially in spring when the wildflowers are blooming... there's this vast expanse of trout lilies... :-)

I'm still coming!

Elf

Great!

:-)

Sorry, I didn't transfer all the names over from the other thread... it's been a while, and I know people's plans may have changed... but I'm hoping we'll have a good turnout!

I still don't know if I can make it. If not, I hope I can prevail upon Larlienda to take you all some plants for me. But I hope to be there myself.

Oh please try to make it Hart. I felt like you were so busy at yours you never got a chance to relax and have a good chat with anyone. No fretting for you this time. We got Jill for that this time (sorry Jill)! Besides, lot's of people missed out on the pussy toes last time :o) Oh, and I'll swap you something for that adorable new puppy of yours.

I am going to do my best to delegate and keep the logistics low key so I can relax this time too!

Hart, I sure hope you'll be able to make it up. If it's a question of needing a ride, maybe somebody else will be coming up from your direction? I promise, we don't want you just for your Pussytoes... LOL!

I know, I know. I hope I'll be there. I just don't want to promise I will be there unless I absolutely know I will.

Critter, I'm crushed that you don't love me for my pussytoes. LOL I apparently have two plants in my yard that look exactly the same as far as foliage, Miata. One is pussytoes, one is mouse ears. I'll be glad to dig a bunch and bring them but you'll have to wait until next spring when they bloom to find out if you have pussytoes or mouse ears or both.

There is nothing anyone has that I would swap for this puppy. LOL I'm in mad puppy love here. Did you all see the new photos of her I posted last night? Much better than the first batch.

Java has finally gotten over her disdain and she and Jello are romping all over the living room right now.

Maybe Blake will get over his disdain too... and then Kitten will get a real name... and still be here on the 8th!

Hart, it's more that I don't love you *only* for your pussytoes, LOL. I've got a whole flat of mouse ears (most of them have sent up a bloom by now -- not a pussytoe in the lot!), and I have to say they're pretty wonderful also. They're much bigger after being separated into 2 inch pots, but I think it's just too hot right now to transplant them. I'm considering putting them out with Gita's lily of the valley (they'd get afternoon shade, which should be OK) and letting those two ground covers duke it out for supremacy at the back of that bed... :-)

You didn't find a home for that adorable little kitty yet? Sounds like maybe you have though, by default. LOL

The mouse ears and the pussytoes are extremely, I do mean extremely drought tolerant, so I don't imagine the heat will bother them much. It might melt the person doing the transplanting though. I hope it's not as awful there as it has been here this week.

I've never seen what happens when you grow them in conditions that lily of the valley likes - moisture and shade.

Well, when Blake seemed to be having a change of heart, we figured we'd give Kitten a couple weeks' trial. :-)

OK, the mouse ears go out in the iris bed, then. :-)

And yes, I about melted yesterday morning planting out a bunch of iris rhizomes... but the rain this afternoon watered them in nicely for me! :

YOU HAD RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIINNNNNNN??????????????

"Twice," she said smugly.

which reminds me... if it rains on Sept. 8, I do have a couple of 10 ft. canopies outside (one on the deck, one that we plan to set up on the patio so I can move the plants from the deck down to alongside the house), plus we can take the cars out of the garage and use that space, plus of course we can just retreat inside (but not with a zillion potted plants, probably).

Critter - btw - IF you have not found a good home for kitten and you can't keep him - I would love to give him a forever home! I have been holding back hoping you would find him a permanent home closer to you - but....I have wanted him from day one! :-)

Awww, kitty love at first sight!

We've had rain three times today, Wrightie. The third batch just stopped. I can still hear the thunder rumbling in the distance. We needed it so badly and it has cooled things down a lot too. As far as I'm concerned, it can do this every day for the next week.

Braggarts!

We actually did have some sprinkles moving through a wee little while ago, but they don't count...

It's raining again here.

Oh. You. Are. Funny. Hart. FUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNYYYY.

Becky, that's really, really good to know! Thank you! I'll keep you posted. He's had a couple of other potential offers from friends, but you know how that goes... sometimes people are more willing to say yes to a kitten who "maybe" needs a home and then change their mind when it comes down to it... so I can't tell you how wonderful it is that somebody in my DG "family" is willing to take him in. Meanwhile, whatever the outcome between him & Blake, he's getting lots of loving and learning social skills (like not leaping onto dinner plates and playing with "soft paws"). Jim says I'm "warping his little kitty mind," just like I did with Blake -- I don't know how many people have said Blake is more like a dog than like a cat, because he's so friendly and loving. He had no choice, living with me in that tiny studio apartment!

BTW, I realize that we're getting chatty on this thread, and I'm as guilty as anybody else... but I'll do my best to add any important information to the posts at the top, so please give those a glance from time to time. And if/when this thread gets too long, I'll start a new one and link it to this one both ways.

Hart, here are some Pussytoes for you.... Kitten was playing next to Jim on the couch and suddenly discovered he (Kitten, not Jim) had a tail!!

Gawd, now I really want him!!!!!!!! I love your way of "training" him - but, I must say not letting him leap into dinner plates is so not fair to the little fella! LOL

As an add-on we have had rain twice today as well - huge storm this afternoon that forced me to shut down everything and one smaller one just now - so yey, we are getting rain!

To be honest, I wouldn't care at all if my cat jumped up and helped himself to a share of my dinner... but I know that would freak out most people, and I want everyone to love my cat! So, no jumping on tables, no begging, etc. Blake is funny to watch if I'm eating something he *really* wants (like scallops), because he makes such a total show of how he is not begging, no, not even looking in my direction, see how he's lying on the floor facing the other way (except for his ears swiveled back)... good cats who don't beg get something when I'm done eating. LOL.

Hmmm, maybe I could trade Kitten cuddle-time for vinca.... :-)

I've been letting him have the run of the house increasingly, since he's being pretty good (and always using his litter box). But during the swap, I think we may put them both upstairs, just because people will be going in and out so much. Blake is pretty good -- tell him "Blake stays inside" and he does so... but Kitten may not have learned that rule by then. Actually, Kitten hasn't shown the slightest interest in going out (and today's storm got him all worried), so I'm thinking he knows when he is well off.

Awwwwwwww - he sounds like a total sweetheart - actually both of them do - wish my critters were as well behaved :-) Though I know that most of all their bad habits are my own fault - I do tend to let them get away with nearly everything - spoiled, nah, not in the least - I spoil my critters so much that Chantell was saying the other day; that in her next life she wants to come back as a squirrel in my back yard - I was telling her how in my next run to buy "wild critter feed" I am getting pre-shelled sunflower seeds for "Paulie Walnuts-aka the squirrel", our resident squirrel, and roasted peanuts, already shelled :-)
(Paulie, before I went out and ordered a huge feeder for him that he couldn't knock off the deck)

Bec, when we ran out of peanuts to put out for our squirrels, my husband said, "I put out some that was in that jar." MY MACADAMIA NUTS! We had a squirrel that was all chewed up and lame in one front leg. He still chased away all the other squirrels. I called him BAS (Bad A** Squirrel).

We had an inch of rain last night... more expected here today too! But after actual temps this week of 100 Monday, 106 Tuesday, 104 Wednesday, and 100 again yesterday before it rained... I think we deserve it!!!

(sorry wrightie!)

Poor Wrightie. We actually had four rainstorms yesterday afternoon and evening. I haven't checked the rain gauge, which would be off because I watered up there earlier in the day.

It's kind of clouding up again right now. I hope that means more rain today. We really desperately need it.

That's right, just keep kickin' 'er while she's down...

Seriously dry on my side of the beltway.

I feel for ya girl! It had been that way down here in the 'burg... but we have had some good rain for the past two days. It is seriously jungle humid now though... whew!!!!

Methinks someone upstairs is playing jokes on us. I drove all of 8 miles to work today and had to dodge deeeeeeeep puddles in the parking lot at work. Yet dry as can be in my neighborhood. Enjoy it while you've got it!

Awwwwww.....I'm having kitten withdrawals!!!! And ummm, Wrighie...I hate to say it but yeah, we've had some decent rain. In our defense, I'm just north of Karen and just south of Becky...those 100+ temps were kicking my butt!!
Shelled sunflower seeds...geez...who wouldn't want to come back as Becky's squirrel...sad, I tell you...just sad. Far be it for me to say I told you so BUT...that squirrel's gonna be ISO hot cocoa at Becky's door come Dec..mark my words....WITH marshmallows, no less!!! ROTFLOL

UHU - well, if Paulie wants hot cocoa with marshmallows, then that is what he gets! Macadamia nuts! Hmmmmm - wonder if he will like those??!! K, here is proof my critters live a horrible life - Grandma comes to visit - she goes to Petco and buys 10 lbs of assorted cookies - yup, sucks to be them!

ROFL! Yep, I'd like to come back as Becky's squirrel... or any other critter in her household! But, actually, I think Paulie might be better off shelling his own seeds and nuts, because chomping through those shells will help keep his teeth in good shape (squirrel teeth grow continuously, so he needs to gnaw). LOL@the image of Paulie hanging on the rim of a cup of cocoa, reaching for the marshmallows. :-)

*bumping* this up since it's almost September!

I've been busy with family and up in Pittsburgh this past week, and I realized I'd better get going again on any details that need addressing for the swap.

If you haven't posted yet to say you might be able to come, please do. I'll be Dmailing directions to everybody listed at the top of the thread, so if you want directions you have to be on the list! :-)

If you're not sure what plants you'll have for swapping, don't worry about it too much. I think this event is as much about spending a fun day together as anything else.

I'm so excited about seeing everybody!!

BRING BUG REPELLENT. I've got a couple of kinds, but if you have a favorite, toss it in. We finally had rain around here, and the mosquitoes have been fierce the last couple of weeks!

(I'll add this detail up top, also.)

Hey Jill: What are the hours for your swap? I can no longer remember, and I didn't see it at the top.

LOL, I fooled you by putting it in the first line... in bold print... ;-)

Gathering time is noon. Six o'clock is not a firm ending-time for the gathering, although I expect the plant swapping and door prize activity to be over well before then... people are more than welcome to stay and hang out! If the skeeters get worse toward evening, we'll just move the party inside. If we run out of appetizers (as if!), we'll order pizza. :-)

Oh me. Thanks.

YIKES!

The skeeters chased me inside again! Good golly, I'm not sure how to deal with them... they've just become really bad the last week or so!

Has anyone ever used one of those propane-powered mosquito traps? Maybe I can rent one for Saturday...

I can't put citronella torches around, as that scent is guaranteed to give me a migraine (so please, no citronella sprays either).

If we have an otherwise pretty day, I'd hate to have the bugs chase us inside... you might want to bring along lightweight pants & a long-sleeved shirt... and we'll have to make sure we go in and out quickly so we don't let in the skeeters; that way we can take refuge inside!

I'll use Off or another repellant, OK with me...

Jill,

Have you ever used the "Off" Yard spray? You spray it all around the premises and it is supposed to keep most of the bugs away.

If you like--I have 6 "torches" I could bring. Three tall and 3 short.

Ahem....I have also hear that Mosquitoes will not bite people that drink a lot of beer. Something about the yeast smell in their system.
also lotions and potions and the color of your clothing and perfumes and sweet smells is supposed to attract them. So--come au naturel.....BOY! That could get interesting......

Wonder what Margaritas keep away???? Good looking, interesting men??? Will Brent be the only man?

Jill, Those Mosquito magnets cost a few $100's of dollars. Something like $349 at HD. Don't know if they rent them?

I think we all need to bring some kind of repellent and, as you said, wear long, lightweight pants .

See you soon! I am sooo looking forward to this!

Gita

I've got Deep Woods Off and Cutter repellents, and both help quite a lot. No torches, please... the citronella would just kill me. I'll see about renting one of those magnets, and if not I'll look into that Off yard spray... I'm willing to hit the yard with a couple of cans of it, but not if it's going to kill every bug in sight because I've got loads of "good bugs" and bees and butterflies out there.

Thanks for the tips!

Is Brent coming? I don't think he ever posted yea or nay... maybe I missed it!

Please, everybody check the list at the top of the organization thread... if you are not on it, you won't get a Dmail with directions!