CLOSED: Fall Piggy Swap # 10

Thank you Jill. I wemt out this morning and it was beautiful. I got really excited and eventually had to make the snow angel. If was over powering me. I had never made one. We were not allowed to play in the snow in PA when we were little. I had a blast.

I put 2 snow balls in my freezer. I may find them a jar and sell very rare snow for this area on ebay.....hahaha I took so many pictures. It was beautiful. :O)

I look totally silly here and I loved it. It was awesome.


This message was edited Dec 11, 2008 11:41 PM

Should you ever get up this way during a winter snow, I will "save" (no tracking!) a lovely big patch of pristine snow so we can make angels... and then, if the snow cooperates for packing, we'll make a snowman or two.

I spent a couple productive hours of "down time" today printing/cutting labels and packing seeds. Looks like I'll have a pretty fat little pack to send out from here! It was relaxing to sit and pack and listen to Christmas CDs (mostly Mannheim Steamroller)... but I'll be glad when I'm out and about and more active again. Thank goodness for antibiotics! If anybody else is down with the "crud" and it's been a week, go see the doc. Mine says I've got "the same thing everybody has," and it sure got a lot better right away once I started that z-pack (antibiotics).

I found a few 2007 packs of my Favorite Italian Genovese Basil for pesto et al. (the one my friend brought back from Italy some years back), so anybody who hasn't tried it and wants some, please post and LMK. (If you got some from me in the last year or two, the odds are good that you still have enough for this year, since I sent out pretty fat packs.)

Critter, is it different than the Genovese Basil you can buy here? If so, I'd love to try some. Thanks!

Fun snow angel Sandy!
Come to think of it, I'm not sure that I've ever made one either.

Critter I would love to try some of your basil! Enjoyed your article on cinnamon ornaments. Plant to make some.
Cindy

My Italian Basil has large, crinkled, intensely flavorful leaves. It is hands-down the best culinary basil I've ever tried (and I've grown a few LOL). Yes, I believe it is different from the "sweet basil" or "sweet Genovese" I've seen sold here... somebody suggested to me that it might be a Napoleanto type rather than a Genovese, but since I've been writing "Italian Genovese" on the packets for years, I think I'm going to stick to that.

I think I had probably 5 extra packets available, and I've already got Tuink and Wind down for packets also, so there should be 3 left after Cindy & Danita.

Thanks Jill! :)

Jill, you sent me some seeds of several of your basil's several years ago. They still germinated last year and I expect to have basil seeds germinating next spring too.
My co-workers and family thank you ... I plant extra seeds and give away the extra plants.
I do that with the unusual tomato seeds too.
And I'm hoping to do that with the pepper seed co-op too. :o)

ilovejesus99 - I love that you made snow angels!!!! I haven't done it for several years now that the kids are older. Someday I hope to do it with Grandkids.
And you have gotten more snow than us too!
We've had tons of rain though.

toofew

Ooh! I would like to have some of that basil, if there's any left for the taking!!

I had thai basil germinate at nearly 100% a year later, so I imagine it should be just fine:)

Critter, I'd love to try your basil! I make a ton of pesto every year, and I'd love to try a stronger flavored basil than what I've been growing.

LOl. Sandy! Awesome snow Angels. Glad ya had a chance to get out there and make em, don't feel silly I would too. Heck, my first year down here, I didn't knwo we didn't get some like in Ohio an dMichigan.

My mother had sent my son one of them plastic slip slides and a regular slide when he was younger. We had about much snow a syou and actually been the last snow I have seen here. We got them slide sout and ona mud slide of a hil covered with a tiny bit of snow we tried sleding. Got stuck and covere din md, but hey it was fun to do.

As long a sit puts a smile in your heart, go for it. Thanks for sharing it with us. : )

Don't feel to sad, there is alot of us that spend the holidays alone. I do what I can for others at this time and then spend the day alone. Good day to lay on the couch, read a book and just be thankful fo rthe real meanign of the day.

Gott ahead out here again to school and see what I can rescue of my one research project, was mad at whoever destroyed all our work, but life goes on and ya do what ya can the best ya can with what ya have left. So won't be back til later this evening.

If anybody stil need my addy, it in the exchange or you can dmail some of the other swap folks, they would have it.

Have a good day everybody!

Jill -- if you have any left, i'd love to try that basil.

Aaawwwwww!! I LOVE the snow angel! There is no age limit to playing in the snow. toofewanimals is right, you have more snow than we have gotten. We'll get a little dusting and then cold rain. :-( Much rather have the beautiful snow than icey rain. I heard that the south was hit with that weather front and some areas had not seen snow in over 60 years. Wow! I can just picture people walking around with their tongues out trying to catch a snowflake. :-) That's what my girls do. hee hee.

Jill, your Italian basil made me giggle. I have a neighbor who does not live in the house but rather uses the property for growing tomatoes - they have an Italian restaurant. It's rather odd because they keep the house looking as if people live there and right now it is decorated with Christmas lights. Anyway, he speaks very little english and it's hard for me to understand him. He brought me over some "large" tomatoes at the end of the season that were exquisitely flavorful. They did not make it into cooking as I just sliced them up with some fresh mozzarella....yummmy! Well, when I asked him what type of tomato they were he just said Italian. "I get the seeds from Italy". I asked what they were called?.....Italian. Hee hee. So after I saved some seeds, I now have them marked as Italian tomatoes.

I'll probably be spending part of Christmas alone, as my sisters are Jehovah's Witness and don't celebrate it, and Mom's dementia is at a stage that she has no clue what time of year it is. I'm still gonna do a country ham and maybe an apple stack cake, a couple of my holiday favorites, and will enjoy over indulging in sugar and sodium :-) The dogs and cats will be keeping me company, and are most entertaining. Some people put up a tree for the kids, I think I do it for the cats (as do they!). I never know where I'll find ornaments or the tree skirt, LOL!

Critter, looks like I've probably missed out on your Italian basil, but if you have even a few seeds left I'd be oinkingly happy. Thanks.

ilovejesus99, I saw a picture of the snow on the new yesterday and we haven't even had anything but snow flurries this year so far, I felt rather guilty lol And I thought about your plants when I saw that snow :( On an upbeat I loved your snow angel and tell toofew she doesn't need kids around to make a snow angel lol That's the kid in you coming out lol

I had lemon basil planted with my tomatoes this year and last, I didn't save any seeds because we had enough floating around last year for them but I like that one best for my tomatoes but I'm going to try the big leafed one that I got seeds to from Ansonfan last year and see how they do, I don't plant a lot of basils but I'm glad to hear the seeds are good for a long time from toofew :)

My dad has dementia too Neal and has no clue what Christmas is, he asked me just the day before yesterday what his name was :) Sounds like Sandy and you and I should write eachother on Christmas and keep eachother company lol Christmas is for kids and such a joy to watch them but we have none here so Christmas is just another day :) No Christmas tree here for the kittens maybe I should put one up for them lol I'm sure that would be the intertainment for the whole day!

Hey Piggies,
Get your Free Worm Poop!!!

This was listed in Dave's classified ads:
http://www.bestwormpoop.com/freeoffer

Ooooooo, yea -- wormpoop.

thanks Danita.

Yippee! Maybe we should ask bestwormpoop (what a handle!) if he wants some piggy swap seeds... ;-)

Can you imagine asking for worm poop as a holiday present? heeheehee ^_^ - actually, I would like that better than a sweater . . . .

Excuse me, I'm just lurking here, but had to butt in when I saw the last post - Seandor your dream present is available, I got a catalog in the mail that offers this:

http://www.superseeds.com/products.php?search=manure%20medley

Butting back out! (but back to lurking!, I'm learning so much about different plants from all of your posts - Hope you all don't mind my interrupting.)

That's hysterical! I bet all of us would love to find that under the tree! Question is, does anyone have someone that would actually get it for them ;-)

Hey, you can have too many sweaters, but I do not think that you could EVER have enough worm-poop!
I signed up, and they confirmed me, too, so YAY I guess that I am getting Worm Poop! (happy dance)
Oink!
Thanks, Danita!

LOL The description of the Manure Medley is great!
"Casting about for that perfect gift? What'cha guano get the gardener who has everything? Doo consider our exclusive gift set that contains 3 highly effective and concentrated manures. The set contains 4 lbs of wormcastings, a 1 lb bag of desert bat guano, and 2 lbs of fossilized sea bird guano and a bar of gardeners soap. All are tastefully wrapped up with a bar of gardeners soap and come in our attractive, sturdy 1 1/2 gallon canvas bucket"

"Hey honey, I want fossilized Sea Bird guano under the tree this year! "

oink!!

Whatcha guano doo when they come for you?

And to think my brother had to ask what doo I want for Christmas. Some people are just not true gardeners, I guess.

what a hoot!!

i think DH would think i've completely gone over the edge if i asked for "poop" for Christmas.

I bet who ever wrote that description was splitting a gut when they wrote it!!
maybe one or two 'stiff' ones to get rolling.

My DMIL gave me a bag of the loveliest potting mix one year... She found it at her local nursery and loved it so much she knew she had to go back and get some for me! Jim's dad tried to tell her it wasn't an appropriate present, but she said she knew better -- and she did! :-)

I am trying to convince Jim we need a worm farm... he's not gonna go for under the sink, but maybe in the mudroom or just outside the door into the garage... There's a pair of great DG articles on setting up and maintaining a worm composter.

Pyro,
that was hilarious.
ILoveJesus, I will send some happy to you, keep Jesus in your heart, you will see better days.

I have felt so bad because our weather here in Washington state has been pretty mild UNTIL NOW. We are supposed to get a storm with unheard of low temps for us, 8 (Iforgot how to do the degree symbol). The wind is howling, the chimes are dinging or donging, whatever they do, and my poor bamboo is wildly swaying in the wind. It is even supposed to snow, which we don't usually get much of. And to think I was envious of everyone's cooler weather because I was worried it wouldn't be cold enough to WS my seeds (first time WS'er).

I am lucky, my neighbor has llamas, and has more poop than they know what do with. I need to go scoop the poop real soon! That stuff is great. I went overboard on a couple of things and had huge green plants, but few flowers.

OMG. That Manure Medley is Great! I actually think my MIL would love that as a present, but somehow I think my DH would put up a stink ;-)

Pinetree (the superseeds site) has a nice seed selection... I've ordered in the past, and they tend to carry smaller packs at smaller prices, very nice for home gardeners. They also have a great selection of sprouting seeds. I see their shipping has gone up (just like everybody)... they used to have a very reasonable charge for a seed-only order. I'm bummed that they changed that!

You all are cracking me up! LOL! I never know what to expect when I open this thread. My DH would buy the medley for me in a heartbeat - but only if he found it himself.

Hey Cheles, dmail one of us with your hubby's email address and we can send him an email with a Hint For Christmas - of course he might wonder why the message included "OINK!"

(humming the bad Boys song with new lyrics)

Say, Lynn, where is Buckley? I am from the Portland/Vancouver area. This weeather that you are getting is really really bad and unusual for y'all (see, I've lived in the south long enough LOL)

My mom is going to be coming to visit us next Tuesday, flying out of Portland OR (PDX) - She is my Gardening Sage-Mentor, so I am thrilled that she will be visiting me, my DH and 2 sons - my dad passed away a year ago on the 19th, and so I wanted her out of her house on the 19th because it would be just too sad for her - they were 7 days away from their 60th wedding anniversary. She was all worried about getting to the airport in the wee early hours with such horrible weather forecast, so I told my bro to get her a hotel room at the airport - He got her a SUITE at Embassy Suites (I was thinking more like a Motel 6) and he and my sis-in-law will be taking her over Monday afternoon and having a super dinner there with her, then she can sit in the lovely atrium with a glass of wine and listen to the piano, go to bed, and get whisked to the airport. I am So Smart! I was afraid that she would get mad, but my bro told her that it was his Christmas Present to her, so it was okay and she is really pumped! Pretty good for an 85yo Uber-Mom! She has more energy than me!

Getting my seeds packed up. Any other oinkers, Dmail me and I will get them ready for you!!

Ya all think that worm poop is funny. Hope the bags dopn't smell as bad as the real stuff does. I have a coupel of friends that raise worms just to make worm poop. They keep the worm making bed sin the back of the property and feed em just like ya do fish. LOL Onyl they feed hors epoop, cow poop , newspaper and other biodegradable paper and stuff.

Ya all need to try some cricket poop. Dr. K and I at a show last year bought five pound containers of it.

Then ya need to try the bat guano poop. Lovely stuff too. As long as it don't eat meat, ya cna compost it. I ned to harnes s all these dang grasshoppers and get them to make pooop for me to sell. At least that way f they gonan eat my plants I cna recoop some of the expense with poop.

frausnow.. Your box arrived today and has been seperated all out! : )

Midrest tyro.. Ya not butting in.. Glad ya learning. Check out the link on the cottage garden swap threads and you find out even more. Lot snad lots of info on the piggy swap thread over there. A whole years worth of so much info.

Pyro, Buckley is close to Puyallup, about an hour south and east of Seattle. We're in the foothills, so the weather can be colder here than in Seattle. We have 5 acres (which had virtually no landscaping until last year , and now thanks to the piggy swap, it will be beautiful next year!).
That is nice of you to get your mom away. That first year after losing someone is the hardest. That is great that she is able to get around so well. My DMIL has lived with us for the last 8 years. She doesn't even want to get out of bed,, let alone go anywhere. She doesn't even bathe herself (I have to do it) or fix herself anything to eat. She is 87.

Has anyone tried Superthrive or Grandma Eggy's products? I probably misspelled that. I want my little seeds to have a good start since I don't know what I am doing! This is silly, but I'm afraid to put them out in the weather. I enjoy just looking at my seed packets that I received from Lorraine.

ilovejesus, so glad that you could enjoy the snow, and make a snow angel. It's so exciting when you get that first snow of the season. It doesn't normally snow where I live in CA, but here is a picture of the last time it did.
I was a bit disgruntled when a neighbor called at 6:00 am to "Share the Magic" with me. : ) Not an early riser by choice during the season.
I took off with my camera and got several photos before it all got tracked up. My other neighbors' dogs thought it was a hoot and "found" me, they joined me for the rest of the walk. It was fun. It was four years ago, on our early tree reservation weekend. We didn't sell many trees that day, but people were pulling in to play in the snow. Stopped right past our place. Snow started melting the next day, and by the time the pre-cuts arrived the following week the snow had disappeared except in the deep shade under the oaks. I think it was the last time I enjoyed the cold and snow.
This photo is of Grandmother Oak Tree. She is a California Live Oak Tree. While she isn't the biggest one we know of, she has many friends in our community who have put her up for Historical Tree Status. We'd all be bummed if anything bad happens to her. We aren't for sure how old she is but I've had guesstimates ranging from 150 years on up to 500 + years. The elders from local tribes say she was here before the Spanish came. I believe it.
WIB!
SW

Okay:
One last photo of my last snow day. I think that is me with a couple of my kids in front of my red war pony. I did find a couple of small snow people left behind the next day. I used to like to make snow critters. My best one was a snow Peacock. The hard part was the neck. I wish I had a photo of that. I think it was the first time my boys went to play in the snow. They made snow angels! Perfect day!
I bet my DH would love to give me bat guano for a present. Thanks for the link, midwest_tyro. It will make it easy to show DH, he is very tolerant and interested in farming himself, but on a commercial scale. I loved raising garden worms. I just used an old plastic storage container, and worms I dug up from my own yard. Of course at the time I was raising the worms for turtle food! I guess I quit feeding them live worms when I moved them out to the pond and they could start catching their own food. (tadpoles) Good friends, great listeners! : )
Our neighbor has really good horse manure. We have chickens and pigs too. Not to mention a bearded dragon who eats crickets (and mealy worms which we are growing). I guess I should start composting their poo! LOL! : ) Those were such humorous comments. I'm sure whoever wrote the ad copy was cracking up the whole time! And he got paid for it! : )
Star do crickets count as meat? Oh, I finally managed to mail off my package today, and sent it priority so I don't hold you up! I can't believe how long it took to pack and mail three packages. It's all done, and what a huge relief!
What happened to your research project? Hope it isn't too hard to replace.
WIB,
SW

SW, I'm LOL @ your description of the turtles as good listeners! :-) I'm glad you told us about your Grandmother Oak... I've known some lovely live oak trees in GA.

Lynn, I know I'm getting O/T for this thread, but unless (or regardless) your MIL is that physically incapacitated, it sounds to me like maybe she should be evaluated and treated for depression... ? Sometimes medications and other factors can alter somebody's mental status, so if she hasn't had a thorough workup that might be something to consider. You've probably been through all of those possibilities already... it just sounds sad that she's not just unable but seemingly unwilling to participate in much anymore.

Starlight, my seeds will probably be among the last to arrive... I'm taking your directions to mean as long as I get them in the mail by the end of next week, I'm ok. Hey, the longer it takes the more seeds will probably end up in the box! :-)

Say, can we keep this thread going so we can visit with each other on Christmas if we want? I'd enjoy that, and I'm sure others would too.
Trees are good listeners too, Critter. Actually, I sing to my turtle friends they seem to like it.
Took a peek at the photo I last posted and from left to right are Jonathon (my youngest son's best friend), my youngest son JJ, and me, all bundled up after my walk. Four years makes a huge difference. Jonathon brought his girlfriend over to meet me tonight. He has really matured. Very hardworking guy.
Showed my husband the ad for the guano. He thought it was funny too. I've bookmarked it for him. LOL! : )
I don't know too much about dementia, Gemini_Sage, but my heart goes out to you. I know it's hard to deal with a parent's mental acuity not to mention their physical condition when it declines or changes. Critter is so right, you should check (and it's hard) to see that your MIL is taking only currently prescribed prescriptions how and when she is supposed to. Your pharmacist can really help you with understanding drug interactions.
Don't know if it helps but I'll keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers.
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf

SW, sweet pics! I could tell which boy was yours- the one with your smile :-)

So, I must be an idiot, what do I do with my free worm poop?? I mean I am assuming it goes in the soil right??

Fairy... You use it like an additive for your soil. You get your soil and mix some of them in.

Now, it fun to get free stuff too, but you also want to be careful with any new product. Don't try it on your best flowers first. I didn't see on their website a place that showed exact nutrient and chenical break down of the organic componets in the package.

I didn't see where it showed or told how these castign were made and collected. When ya get your bags, check all through it before puttign on anythign to make sure you don't have any type of little liek fungal mycelium growin gin it or any weird lookign funny colored stuff.

Have fun with it, certainly , but take time to remember that pathogens an dweed seeds can be hiding in anything. Always be careful when intro ducing somethign new into your gardens, so ya don't have disease and pest problems later.

SingWolf. When I close the last thread here out we wil all be transfering to our cottage garden thread where we wil chat and gab and continue our seed journey an dgarden hourney for the next year til th enext swap. Once everybody gets their seeds, there always a bunch of questions on how to so wthem and how do to the winter sowing and most th epiggies have the answers for everybody to help them get beautifuilious gardens for the comign years.