Weird Weather of '09!! ....... #3

We came from here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/943742/ but I fixed the name.

Thanks for the new thread Laura! Have you thought about advertising on craigslist?
Susan

DH has looked at what's up there.

Yesterday a package arrived from Amazon and I was so excited to get my A - Z! I tore open the box, and was looking forward to sitting down with my new gardening book. But, alas, it was just a gluten free cookbook that I had ordered a long time ago and forgot about. Maybe the A - Z will come today!!!

Portland, I'm sorry for the let down. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS!!! LOL!!!

ohhhh.... geez portland! For the few seconds while I was reading your post about a package I as getting so anxious and excited. Then.... awwhhhhh crud. But, you're right. Maybe today!!! lol

You'll know for sure when that big book comes in.

Right now the books I am reading are the dark elf ones. I like the "Sharnara" books and am continuing the new ones. The Scottish Highlander type. Love the fairie and magic

If you get a package that is so heavy you can barely pick it up......your book has arrived. Mine came today and it's fabulous!! I can see I'm going to spend a lot of time looking things up. Thank you for telling me about it rc.

You ordered yours right after I did Portland, should be soon.

Geez Willow how do you find time to read. If I sit down long enough to open a book, I'm waking up half an hour later.

A lot of progress on the cupboards, he thinks he can finish tomorrow. Yeah!! But then I have to line all the shelves and put everything back again. boo!! Cats are getting better, Pookie (the scaredy cat) actually stood in the doorway (across the room) and looked at the guy. He tried talking to her and there she went, lickety split. It was really funny.

I have such a hard time with new rooms, what was the topic???? LOL

Oh yeah, that.

It was cold here today, what else is new? I think I'm getting tired of being cold. LOL

Tilly, we were talking about the referance book "A-Z" on the last thread. It's a BIG book! Both Sally and Portland decided to order it. However, IMHO it's well worth the weight of it and the $. Portland got another package and was disappointed that it wasn't the book. From there.... we entered the new thread.

I'm glad that you are really liking yours Sally and I really hope that you find it worth the $. As I mentioned before, I love how easy it is to look up the pests and diseases that every plant is susceptible too and when the best time to take cuttings and prune is. Looking forward to seeing a picture of your cupboards.

The weather today for me was cold, but sunny. I love it!!! Not necessarily the cold, but the Sun and no snow!!!!

I HATE IT when some of my threads just strangely "unwatch" themselves!!!!! I have been out a lot lately, must be the dog and cat unwatching my sites..........

Our weather must be improving, I can see the water tower and the relay tower on the hill by my sons apartment tonight!! Fog has been so bad lately we couldn't see the red light up there....it is on a hill across the valley about 1 1/2 - 2 miles away....warmed up some....it was only 39 when we came home at 8:30.......I am ready for this inversion to go away.

Trisha, it must be improving if you can see that far.

I haven't gotten to the bugs yet..diseases and pruning too? I was just looking up different plants I could think of.

hehe. When you turn to a plant that you are curious about,lets say hellebore, at first there is a long paragraph that is the introduction to the genus. Then in bold is "cultivation" with a paragraph and subtext - which tells us what someone, in that hellebore thread, was saying about the alkaline soil that they like. Next in bold is 'propagation,' a brief paragraph. Then is 'pests and diseases' in bold. Hellebores don't have a lot of problems. so it's short. Then it goes into the info on each particular species. Anyhow, you probably already had figured that out. that's the order in which the give the info on most of the plants. since hellebores don't really get "pruned" they don't go into that for them. If it is a plant that gets pruned, it's mentioned under cultivation.

Keep in mind that for many shrubs and vines they mention 'pruning group 1,2,or 3' They explain what each group is in a section at the front of the book. At least that's where it's at in mine. Your edition is newer than mine is, so that might have changed.

This is a used one, so not necessarily...it says it was revised in 2004. Couldn't find a published date right off. It doesn't look used, so whoever had it was either very careful or didn't use it much.

Mine is a 1996 version. I bought in '01 I think. But, I think that the layout is still the same. You can try turning to the hellebores and see if you can find the infor that I mentioned. Then have fun looking at all of the hellebore pictures!!!! :-p

Done and done, just didn't read the whole thing. hahaha I'll look tomorrow, I'm too tired to tax my brain tonight.

haha.... I full understand!

My Quail are back! I thought since I had the boys I wouldn't see them again, but they are here now. The boys are here in the house so I'll keep them in for a while.
Here's a pic of them last year. It's foggy out so I can't get a good pic from the house because of the flash.

They're eating the bird seed that the smaller birds knock out of the feeder.
I love to see the Quail here. I have all kinds of birds, mostly Sparrows.

Here's my Sparrow hedge (it's a Woodsii Rose hedge in the summer). LOL!

That pic was taken last yr. I took this one on Christmas Eve day. All of the red are Rose Hips, as you can see in the first pic there wasn't very many, this yr they're just covered. The dogs just love 'em. They have eaten as many as they can reach.

This message was edited Jan 23, 2009 8:50 AM

This message was edited Jan 23, 2009 8:52 AM

No A - Z yet. :( Maybe today.....

Yesterday I drove to Monmouth, near Salem, to visit a good friend who just moved to Oregon from California. It was 20 degrees warmer in Monmouth that it was in Portland - and the sun was out! It felt so nice! We took our dogs for a walk to see the sheep and geese in the nearby fields. It was a lovely day.

I am so clueless about plants that I may have to take photos of the stuff in my yard (when it blooms or turns green) and let you guys tell me what they are.

I'm in the process of buying my own health insurance - I never had to do that because I always had it through work. It is outrageously expensive! And I'm pretty healthy! After reading about the problems some of you have with getting the best drugs for your conditions, I am wondering how people feel about our healthcare system, and if we should have universal health care.

Gardener, your bird feeder is great!

Gardener, I love that birdhouse pic! All of them are good. But, in that one the house stand out like a beacon!

Portland, I'm just on a break right now, so I don't have time to rant. But, yes not being on company insurance definitly gives a different perspective to what the sitaution is truly like. I have never had company health insurance, for the last 14 years I've had my own. It's amazing to me at how many folks don't realize what the real cost of things are and they seem to have their head in the clouds when it comes time to vote for these things. However, My sister who makes four times more than I do in a year, only pays about 1/5 of the amount that I do towards meds. There's something really twisted about that scenario. So strange as it may seem.... I'm always happy to have another person who understands why I'm always ..." just getting by" after I pay for my meds. But, I'm definitely not happy that you're stuck trying to cover yourself now. It's never fun. Good luck with that.

Shelly, that's a feeder in the pic, but thanks. It would make a nice house too!

This message was edited Jan 23, 2009 3:03 PM

Red - I never gave much thought to what people go through to have health insurance. This has been a real eye opener for me.

I too love that bird feeder! I'm afraid to hang one since I have 2 cats. But I guess if I hung it high enough it would be ok. I'm not a big fan of birds anyway!

Since our previous employer discontinued Health Care we haven't had any......we are hoping we will be able to get some with the new owners.....but unless they throw in a big pay raise it isn't going to happen. it is really scary....luckily we had insurance when my husband crashed his bike and had to have an emergency hip replacement and I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery.....don't know what will happen if something like that were to come up now.

Love birds, have one inside, the cat and dog are inside pets.......and love the feeders outside my window....the squirrel feeder is farther out by the street.....and I love those little furries too!

I told my doc that I hadn't been able to see him for awhile because I was unemployed and couldn't afford the office visit copay after I had monthly health insurance payment. And because I couldn't see him I couldn't get my prescription renewed. All he heard was that I couldn't afford the medications.

I had to remind him that it wasn't the meds themselves that are expensive (for me, I know that they are for others) - it's the first visit, lab tests, second visit, labs tests, etc. to keep your prescription at the right level that I couldn't afford. Lab tests are the worst!!! You'd think they were doing it all by hand with a centrifuge or something.

We are a crazy nation - on the one hand, we are appalled when we hear about people being denied treatment because they can't pay, but on the other hand we are not just about to vote for "socialization" of health care because we don't like the idea of being socialist (well, I do, but then I'm your average crazy liberal).

Shelly and Laura and Portland - I do understand (first hand) the difficulties of your situation and really sympathize.

I would vote Socialized Medicine before you could finish saying the word....so there is at least two of us average Crazy Liberals out her....well 3 because my DH will vote right there with us!!

Yay for us animal lovin', plant lovin', people lovin' softees!!!

I'll join your list of CL's. Our money pays for this country. Seems only fair we should come first.

There are more of us softees out there than you might think. I have health care now, but happened to be between jobs when I had a head injury (20 years ago) and ended up in the emergency room. Luckily it turned out to be less serious than the docs originally thought and I ended up with a large but not impossible bill to pay. That experience makes me really appreciate what my job provides. but I know that it isn't available to many. I worry about what my kid will do when he goes out into the world on his own. I am well aware how your health situation can change in the blink of an eye.

Lots of us can relate. I have health care coverage and even with that; a high risk multiple pregnancy resulting in a child with significant sensory integration issues who's meds and resulting treatments are not covered can drain the bank. I'm thankful for the coverage. Paying out of pocket for any medical services or insurance takes a big bite out of funds often not leaving enough for necessities.

I'm with you crazy liberals - no one should be denied care because they cannot afford it. And no one should have better/more sophisticated/newer modality care than another person. Good health care benefits all of us in many ways. We need socialization of healthcare. A study was done comparing the cost to the individual for healthcare in Sweden and the US. Even after the very high tax rate in Sweden, we here pay more as individuals for our care. And Sweden has an excellent healthcare system. I was not involved in that study but I was involved with several others in Sweden and Germany. Our country is way behind. So add me to your CR list!

Katie59 I am one of the lucky ones with an autoimmune disease that can be controlled with a gluten free diet - no meds except for vitamins. I do have tests once a year to prevent colon cancer since I have an increased risk. It has made me more aware of what people with serious situations have to cope with.

I think Portland has seen the last of the sun for a while - expecting rain & cold for the next week. My A - Z did not arrive today and I was looking forward to climbing in bed with it tonight. That's about as exciting as my nights get lately, not having met an interesting man since I moved here!

Shoot, I should get my brother to move back to Portland. He's in the architecture field, is a really decent human being, and has had enough unusual experiences in life to be considered interesting. Unfortunately he is in San Diego. He is divorced, and moved there to keep joint custody and stay integrally involved in his son's life like a good dad should. He liked Portland and didn't really want to leave, although the work situation was come and go for drafting work.

Me, too - a hot cup of something and a good gardening book or magazine can't be beat for wintering away the doldrums.

We do represent a good sample of the reasons centrally-funded healthcare is important. Joe the Plumber has nothing on us when it comes to representing a constituency's position on a major political issue!!

One thing I cannot bear is a father moving away from their child/children. Someone I once dated did that and I had no desire to ever see him again. That is just not cool. When you get my age you have so many requirements - no gold chains, no pinkie rings, no blown dry hair, no bad teeth - then you subtract gay and dumb and you are in negative numbers. Not a chance!

That's funny Portland. ^_^

Nope, he wouldn't ever leave his son, even though he really does not like San Diego. I wasn't suggesting he do that, because I totally respect him for staying by his son, just wishing they could both come back to Portland, which is a town he liked living in and of course is a lot nearer his extended family. This is impossible of course.