ORVG COFFEE HOUSE # 149 It's time to play in the dirt!

Neal, you said "Seems grief brings out the worst in so many folks. " I agree! I think people feel powerless in their grief, so turn to micromanagement of arrangements because that's something that, in their minds, they can control.

It's a rainy, dreary day here, but lots of birds are chirping and singing. We're looking forward to seeing Heywood Banks Saturday evening. This week's going too quickly for me. Other than that, not a whole lot to report.

Is that the Big Butter Jesus guy?

Ugly here too! I told hubby I'd love to fight him for chicken duty but just couldn't get the words to come out of my mouth. LOL

It is nice to step outside. The frogs are all vocal and the birds are mating and I have bulbs up and blooming. The daylily gardens are starting to turn green and look less like a cemetery!

Chele, Nolan is preciouos. Good sized hands, does that mean a football player? Do the girls have him all the time? Bet he doesn't lack for attenion.

Dusty sorry that all the bickering is going on. Seems to me that she had let her wishes be known, and that should be the end of it.

msrobin, last night the peepers were really chiming in here. Then this morning when I went out to get the paper, the birds were singing loudly too. Glad that they don't "talk" at the same time!!

Marcy, I am seeing things coming up, and wondering what I put there. I am just gonna watch, and when they get bigger, maybe I can ID, if not, I will be posting pictures too.

Neal or Marcy, does taking cuttings now apply to all woody plants? I have a forsythia I would like to try, and wondered if it would be a good time to do it.

Well, not anything planned for today, and good thing, it is raining again, so outside work is out of the question, but I can't get enthused about inside work either. Maybe it is a "do nothing" day.

LOL I answered my own question! He does the "Toast" song too which totally cracks me up!

Thanks defoe! When Nolan popped out, the Dr said he had big hands. I started laughing and said most of my kids had big feet too. We all looked and sure enough!

No football team in Lynchburg! No wrestling either. Those weren't big concerns when we moved here with six girls. LOL

The girls start fighting for him as soon as they hit the door. :)

Kimberly, I've often thought that very thing. I remember family freaking out over little things like a dish or not being able to find an earring or something during times of loss. I think the mind focuses on things it can wrap itself around.

Darius, yep, these are the seeds you sent :-) I'll pot those Quince up for ya- they'll bypass a year or two of waiting.

Bonnie, it depends on the particular plant, but Forsythia root easily, so this is probably a good time. I've had stems root in water that I'd brought in for cut flowers. They also layer easily. Are you wanting to propagate them for yourself? I've still got loads of them from where these have layered themselves, I can bring you all you want.

Neal, yes I wanted some on the other side of the yard. If you have plenty, that would be easier, for me at least.

I guess it's human nature. I know if I'm worried or upset about something I can't do much of anything about, it's easy for me to focus on some small annoyance in my life. Like laying awake worrying, and focusing on a dog several houses away barking. Any other night, I wouldn't even hear it, but when I'm worried, it's all I hear.

Afternoon all....So far a rather peaceful day, albiet a rainy one...Temp keeps yoyo-ing from 44 to 42 and back up again...Now it's 45* and it looks like the sun is trying to find a way through the clouds...

I can't work outside, and don't want to work inside, so I'm with Bons, and makeing it a do nothing day...I may get a wild hair and decide to cook something or bake something, but as clean as my kitchen is now, I don't want to mess it up, so that may not happen either... LOL

If I can get my spouse to drill the hole in this little cabinet top to hold the base of my Ott light, I may do some work on my crewel embroidery...

Neal, you are so right about the dish and the earring thing...That was the case with my Grandmother...I blessedly stayed in my Semi on the road til the day of the funeral, and left immediately after...If you could have seen the filthy looks going on between her two children During the funeral services, you would have been shocked...
The air was electric...It was absolutely disgusting...

In Jims Mothers case, it is only about her remains, and that disgusts me even more...She remarried 2 yrs after his Dad died, and when Carl died, he was interred in Iowa next to his first wife, and Jims Mom said she didn't want the expense of a funeral like his or Jims Dads...She wanted to be cremated, and her ashes interred in her grave space next to Dads...The big argument started when Sonnie said she would bring her ashes up **Sometime this summer, when we come up to Toledo to see our kids, and *drop them off* in Celina on our way up..**
Ohhhhhhh lordy....The roof came off here, and in Alexandria, KY at Mikes at the same time, and it was a warzone for the rest of the day...
Sandy and I managed to get the boys to agree to have the mortuary down in Texas, ship the cremains to the mortuary in Celina, so they can be interred by Dad immediately...and IF they decide they want any kind of memorial service later on, one can be arranged...But there wouldn't be anyone but the 3 of them and maybe some of the grandkids, as Mom has been full time in Tx since 1974....There are no friends etc. left up here...Geeeesh...It was the *drop them off* comment that hit the boys so bad...and I have to admit, it did sound rather callous to me also...Sonnies bloomers are in a twist, because it is going to cost extra to do that, but as Sandy and I patiently tried to explain to her, it was not HER money that was paying for it...Ah wellll...She can get glad in the same britches she got mad in...It's settled, done and over with, and the cremains will be shipped tomorrow...Sonnie got Moms house and contents and jewelry, and any money left after burial expenses is to be divided equally down to the penny...She also got her car, but that was several years ago when she put Mom into the nursing home...I am seriously doubtful, there is much, if any, money left as Sonnies name was on Moms checkbook...LOL Maybe that's why she didn't want the added expense...LOL

Ah welllll...on to bigger, better and brighter subjects...

Speaking of Bigger...Master Nolan reminds me of Whitney when she was a baby...We called her Hildegard Hamhocker with her thighs...LOL
He sure is a beautiful baby Michele, but then you already know that... LOL

((((Neal))))... if you have an extra, I would love to try a quince...Not like there is no place here to plant one...LOL
Thanks for the hugs sweet man...we needed 'em...;-))

Bons....Cookie, for some unknown reason, hates forsythia, and set Bro Bill on a path of destruction along the fence row between here and Berties...Either they are most persistant, or he did a lousy job, because I have LOTS of them hiding along there and they are blooming...If you want some, I will try to get some for you...I happen to adore the things, and am keeping Bro away from that fence row...LOL

Okay, I am off to find the drill....You all have a wonderful afternoon...

Neal...I'm not sure yet of being at the roundup...but bring it anyway...lol.
I guess what I was saying about the roses is...everything is BROWN...so far. I will look again soon...when it stops raining. Somehow..I don't think brown cuttings are gonna grow?
Ok...had a great time at the grandparent's day. Dawson was his usual ornery self...lol.
He reminds so much of his daddy at that age!! My youngest son! Not in looks so much..but the way he acts...and his short attention span. Hopefully, he will grow out of that. Jim did....well...pretty much...lol.
We had our picture taken with him...and put into a frame he made ...to put on the fridge of course! I scanned it. Now let me see if I can get it here!
Ok...hope it works!
Ok..well it didn't work. I will work on it.

This message was edited Mar 26, 2009 1:39 PM

Hello grouplings. S'been a while since I dropped in but looks like things are going as-usual for most of you.

i'm up in the bedroom, hiding from the chaos downstairs. Was sick in bed for a week and when I went downstairs it looked like a bomb had gone off! Tried to get the kitchen back on line and I kept backing into stuff, stepping in stuff, tripping on stuff, I phreaqued!!!!!, gave a dying soul yell, grabbed a sppon(sppon? *snerk * make that SPOON.), a can of eagle brand milk and a can opener and now I'm back in bed, hiding.

Of course none of this is near as important as coping with family freak-outs and dying relatives. I hope that settles down for those of you coping with them soon.

Neal, what kind of quince do you have? I've got one here that had to've been planted when they built the house a hundred years ago as the roots (and suckers) volunteer all over the yard, miles from the parent plant. I could let all the suckers grow and forget cutting the grass. Of course I could also forget having a yard then. I'd have a solid, 300' wide quince thicket. Mine (don't laugh) is a TEXAS quince.

Whoever posted that photo of the fire in Circleville THANK YOU! We were on our way to a Dr appt in Columbus and passed that while it was raging off in the distance--YOOGE plume of black smoke, I thought it was a TIRE fire!!!--and never did hear what it was that caught fire and what finally became of it. Though a fire like that's never good news, I am glad no people got hurt...er, no people got hurt, right?

MsRobin, please don't badmouth the dear little peepers. There's some (and not so far away, either) who miss the peepers so much they play them continually on a little cd-playing boombox stereo in the bedroom. Listening to them as I type, as a matter of fact. Gawd, but I miss livin' in the country!!!

Who was it worrying about their goldfish/koi freezing? Or wondering why they didn't freeze because the heater malfunctioned or something? So long as your pond is 18" deep or more they can winter over just fine. Carp are a cold water fish anyway and don't want a heater, even in winter. In fact, if you put a heater in, you have to feed them all winter or they'll starve, so it's just as well the heater didn't work. You can have them in warmer water, but it revvs up their metabolism and ultimately shortens their life some.

defoecat, grab some branches from that forsythia and bend them down to the soil and park a car tyre on 'em or something. It'll root. There's no stopping forsythia. I had a little rise I wanted to plant something bushy on in my yard, so my husband who has ADD+OCD would be forced to quit trying to mow it at a dead run (it was either that or find the insurance policies and lay them out where I could find them at a moment's notice!) I planted a couple or three cheap store-bought forsythias at the brow of the little hill and let 'em go without pruning and they naturally cascaded down the hill rooting themselves as they went. Few years later: no more grass and the DH lives to spread chaos in my little kingdom another year. YAY! er, sorta.

...now if I could come up with a clever way to get him to stop pacing, picking stuff up and dropping stuff in weird places without noticing he's doing it when he's on the phone... * sigh * Melis

This message was edited Mar 26, 2009 2:34 PM

Eagle Brand milk? Hee hee. I did that once. Never again. Didn't feel so good after.
Hope you're feeling better now.

Prayers for all who are hitting rough times.

Melis...good to see u again! As far as I know...no people were hurt in that fire, but it sure did burn some trees! 33 acres worth! My friend was so worried about his house!
I would have been outa there! We had a field fire once when we lived on the farm.
We were buring weeds. There was NO wind. And all of a sudden...there WAS wind! That fire took off...faster than I don't know what! Hubby, son and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Called the local FD. They arrived with a sprayer truck...and never even stopped when they came in...just went to it! Thank God! It came within inches of our two barns!
We never did that again! Everyone burns around here...but not us! That was sooo scary.
Well...can't seem to figure out how to get the scanned pic to where I can send it ? Something I am not seeing I guess. Oh well.
Hope you are feeling better Melis!

Eagle Brand's the first thing I bought with my first paycheck. mineminemineminemine...couldn't even wait until I got home either. opened it with a beer bottle opener and slurped it walking home--well, 16 and didn't drive y'know.

40 years later, and I haven't changed a bit! (if you don't count the waistline!!!)--Melis

I had that happen once to me too, Marcy. I got it out before the fireguys arrived. Had a hose nearby already hooked up.

Didn't stop me though. I even got a permit to burn here in town, though I don't use it for trash. It's a marshmallow fire. Yep, strictly recreational.

That's muh story and I'm stickin' to it. Yup, yup.--M

Bonnie, there are a bunch of forsythias well rooted out there, so I'll bring you some. How many can you use there?

Dusty, yes, lots of Quinces too. Happy to bring ya one :-) (or perhaps 3, 2 for good pollination, and 1 just in case)

Melessa, these are fruiting Quince. I've got the coral colored flowering quince too, but the fruiting one doesn't appear to have those spreading stolons. I've got a bunch of those because at some point a large branch partially broke from the plant, laying on the ground. It rooted all along the branch, sort of creating a wall of Quince. Good grief, my flowering quince is coming up all over the place! I'm not sure how I'm going to contend with it.

Marcy, you're right, if the canes are brown, probably no life in them. Some years are worse for winter die back than others, and after a drought year I often see more of it. I sure do hope you can make it to the RU! But if not I put the Quinces in Ric's truck to take to ya, LOL.

OMG, I had a sudden plague of fungus gnats! We ran to Lowes and I resorted to malathion, there were millions of them!

Whew, Mel...glad you're feeling a little better...well enough to check out the kitchen anyway and pop in here! Did I forget to say the little peepers were pretty cool in the first few days? ^_^ It's when they started calling in all their buddies, that it started getting on my nerves. Probably wouldn't even bother me if they were in my yard at home and I had enough things to do during the day so I was actually tired at night. Thanks for the info on the goldfish. We sure thought we were doing a good thing with the heater in the fish pond! I had read where a small area needs to be open in the ice to let the gases escape. Guess we can put it away for when we get goats again. I was dreading the thought of going home to possibly floating fish, but sounds like we are safe, as the pond is 30"+ in the center bottom. We sure enjoyed them last summer.

Nothing else to say at the moment, so I'll check back in later.

hey gang !
busy day
lots of running around
in St Paris this weekend will be the funeral and a service for the children of the fire. THe middle school will be the place.
I will go and make our donation.
Friday we have another funeral of T's aunt . Viewing is friday. then the funeral if following.
we have an auntie that is hospice but then the masonic home doesn't have a contract with that hospice group. ? sooooo we wait for them to get a hospice person for her . Yeah.... grrrrr. Masonic home ! Nuff said . sorry if i offend .
darn it i didn't ge knee highs for the funeral tomorrow ACK that is going to be painful in them shoes. uhg.
sorry can't chat to long
but im pooped
sue

For Neal!

Ric

Marcy, don't worry too much about the fishies. We've used a stock tank heater for two winters now and the fish have been fine. In fact, they even bred over the winter last year! :) The one we have switches on when the water temp goes below 60 degrees; mind you that's up near the surface since it's a floating heater, so the deeper portions of the pond stay a little cooler than that.

Ric, wow, I don't think my lilies are up that high. But I am going to post a picture of my magic lilies and my sedum that I took on Sunday.

The sedum

DH and I clean up pretty good,don't ya think?

Aww, that's a great picture of you two! :)

Great picture Bonnie!
Kimberley, I think you have me mixed up with someone...I don't have a pond or fish! Wish I did!
Ok...I figured out how to get the picture here...I think!
It scanned crooked...but that's ok....lol!

Oh shoot..it's blurry???? It's not really. Hmmmmm.
Oh well...I guess you get the idea anyway...!
Night all.

This message was edited Mar 26, 2009 11:07 PM

Marcy, what a cute picture. I know that you will cherish it forever.

Off to bed, really really tired after doing nothing today.

Sue, Sorry to hear abt the hospice glitch. I used to take communion to folks at the Masonic Home. They take in people, who give all their assets to the home, which is supposed to take care of them. It was probably a good idea back when people died younger & care was cheaper... If Auntie is on Medicare, you can call the state & complain abt her treatment. They might move faster if they had a complaint.

Someone e-mailed this to me, & even though it doesn't apply to me, I still got a chuckle out of it.
Pat

The Center for Disease Control has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically. This virus is called Weekly Overload Recreational Killer (WORK). If you receive WORK from your boss, any of your colleagues or anyone else via any means whatsoever - DO NOT TOUCH IT!!! This virus will wipe out your private life entirely. If you should come into contact with WORK you should immediately leave the premises.

Take two good friends to the nearest liquor store and purchase one or both of the antidotes - Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.

You should immediately forward this medical alert to five friends. If you do not have five friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life.

He, he.

Ric, those Lilies look like they've multiplied well! How have the L.henryii Lilies done? They should be blooming size this year.

Bonnie, that's a great pic!

Bonnie, what a great picture of you and hubby!

Marcie, that is a sweet photo for you to hang on to. :)

Pat! You are so bad. LOL

Neal, I'm looking forward to seeing the lilies this year! I think they all bloomed but one!

You guys were talking about roses. We have a Mr. Lincoln planted behind the house. One year it came up really late and I thought it was dead. This year I noticed the old canes have lots of new growth coming out! Does that one grow on it's own roots? I was sort of thinking/wondering about rooting some. Also, when does that one need pruned and how? We planted it beneath Morganne's window. Mr. Lincoln is keeping an eye on her. hahahaha

We had two giant bullfrogs turn up dead in the pond and one fish. We were amazed by the size of the frogs and sad they died. Everything else was fine so I guess they just surfaced too early or something.

I have a strange favor to ask. Does anyone have any sheets of new twist ties? I'm talking about the ones that come with garbage bags. Craig looked when he was in Hillsboro and couldn't find any. I use them to close bags of milk for the freezer. I'd be happy to send postage or a surprise in a month or so. I really need some twist ties. LOL

If I can remember when I get home I'll look. I think there could be some in a drawer.

What about one of those rolls of twist-tie stuff that has the cutter attached? I might be able to scare up one of those for ya.

Marcy, it wasn't you worried about the fish, it was msrobin. Oops!

Hubby looked for that too. I know I've bought them before, sold as tomato ties I think. I'm planning to go to Walmart in the next couple of days so I will check the garden dept. I think he looked at Kroger and I'm not sure where else. We also have a Kmart near the Walmart. Thanks Kimberley!

I want to make sure Nolan will take a bottle if I'm not around and also have some stored in case I get a job offer or need to leave him at home one day. :( I had to have surgery when Maddie was five weeks old but thankfully I was able to nurse her just before they put me under and again as soon as I woke up. LOL Then I got the heck out of there! We all know how I love hospitals...

Hmmm, I just found them at Uline. You can get 2,000 for $8 and another $8 for shipping. They even recommend the clear ones for medical use. Maybe I'll do that next week. Never thought about googling them. LOL

Badseed,

Lurker here.

I'm pretty sure I remember that you do a lot of craft-y type things, so do you use "pipe" cleaners for many of your projects? They make the absolute best twist ties!! Cut them any length you want, they can be reused tons of times, always stay soft and supple.

Just a suggestion.

OK, back into lurk mode! ha.

Deanna

Deanna, great idea! I've never used them for twist ties. They'd be great for the garden, too, since they would be gentle on tender stems.

Chele, I've gotten the rolls of the stuff at Big Lots. If there's one near the others stores, you might try there.

GW,

Right on! There's thousands of uses for them.

I used them a lot in the flower shop, for tying corsages and Bridal Bouquets.

One use that might surprise all you "Lily Lovers"-nothing works better, or is more gentle in getting that ripe pollen off one of your prize lily petals. Try it!

Just (very gently) brush the curved end of any pipe cleaner over the pollenized petal, following the length of the petal. 1-3 soft swipes, no more ugly brown pollen.

Deanna

Hi Sasha! No need to lurk. LOL Thanks for the idea! I have a few black pipe cleaners but I'm thinking the lint from them might get inside the bags? I'm storing breast milk so I may need to stick with un-furry ties. :)

Kimberley, there is a Big Lots in Wilmington. Trying to think if I need to go there any time soon. Oh, there is a Lowe's in Hillsboro! Maybe they'll have them in the garden section!?!

I use to save them off bread loaves but most use those plastic things now. We used to save the ones from garbage bags too and just tie the garbage bags shut. Our garbage can only works with the handle tie bags. Grrrr.

Deanna! Long Time!
How's things down there?

Ric

I've also found the stuff at Lowe's and Home Depot, Chele, yep.

Hoo! Scored a floor-to-ceiling cat tree from someone on Cheapcycle for $10. I just have to drive out and pick it up. The kitties will love a lofty perch.