Darlene

Brat.

*darlene peeks out from under her cave covers and looks around...* I see snow capped mountains that mirror their reflection in pristine lakes surrounded by grasslands that cradle the sheep that are grazing. If I look in another direction I see coastlines whose waters remind me of the coastlines in the Bahamas. When I turn a little more I see someone coming towards me. They are running and waving their arms. As they get closer I can finally hear what they are saying. I am momentarily stunned as I listen to them say, "........."

...but I thought it might be fun to play along. I'm going to start a 'story line' and who ever wants to, can add to the 'story'. In the past, these have been a lot of fun and caused me to "LOL", literally . Ok, here goes... "I wonder if there is some bear DNA in me. As the weather has gone from warm and balmy breezes to cold and biting winds, I find myself wanting to retire to my cave and hide from everything until the Spring rolls around and I'm once again happy to venture outside. Since the family would never tolerate me living in an isolated cave for 4-5 months out of the year I think that I'll....." Who would like to add the next paragraph? lol

This is a huge loss for us and a huge gain for Heaven.

It's great to see you again!

The next 2 weeks are going to be slammed for me. My youngest son is visiting from Shanghai and I'll be going to Miami for my dad's 80th birthday so it'll be a little while yet before we get the site where it needs to be. The good thing is that with us going into the fall/winter months, that's a slower time for me so it'll help me to have more time to focus on these things. As others said, no politics. As far as religion, I don't see it as religion...for me it's discussion about our relationship with Him. Long story short, the only thing that will never be removed from this site is an openness to talking about Him. I would think that there are a zillion reasons that many might not find our site attractive and if it's discussions about Him that is the cause of it, I'm sorry but that won't change. In a funny way, that would cause me to be fired lol because I can't talk long without bringing Him into the discussion because He is the thread that weaves the fabric of my life

I can't get the link to open but I need to ask a client friend of mine about these. He was head of Agriculture for the state of TN for his career and I vaguely remember him saying that there was a period in their life cycle when they were easiest to control or get rid of. Note to self: take more notes

(((((((((((snowmom))))))))))))

Welcome back!

I really appreciate everyone's feedback. There's some good ideas and suggestions. I talked to Annarchy for a few minutes yesterday about this and she's raring to go! I'm excited to clean and update the site

lol not to worry...no orange or purple or wild colors. Just something soft and soothing but a bit happier. It's interesting that Jeepers mentioned the Flu Clinic because I had the same thought yesterday. I think we made that forum originally when the bird flu was such a scare. We can definitely broaden it. I think we can flesh out other forums to be more inclusive also. Thanks for sharing your thoughts though. It's good to know that they pretty much mirror mine Note to self...make sure any colors we do keeps bandwidth low.

I have a few ideas I'm thinking about for MrsSurvival so I figured I'd share some of them with you. These ideas are only preliminary but I'd like to update our site. I love the logo of the house and flowers etc, but I'd like to update the tan background. I'd like something easy on the eyes that is relaxing and peaceful...something that is a little happier. I'm thinking about condensing some of the forums. I remember Gunplumber suggesting that a couple of years ago lol. I haven't gone through all the forums but things like Urban/Country Homesteading might be able to stay seperate but under a 'Homesteading' forum...make sense? Some of the forums would stay stand-alones like RURR, Streams in the Desert, Sunporch, etc but I think it would be nice to condense the forums while potentially still keeping them seperate. Anyway, the above is a couple of things that I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks. I'll obviously have to get with Annarchy because she's our lifeline to doing things right in the programming area (ok, I confess...I did go into the control panel to see if I could figure out how to play with the forum colors but got too confused lolol). Any thoughts?

I second that lol

Yeah, this is a timeless recipe. I need to post a "Summer Sauce" recipe that I discovered last year. You want to talk about easy peasy. I canned a ton of it last summer and used it all year. It's simple and can go in any direction you want by the spices you add when you heat it up. I'll post it later.

It had rained on and off today but I was able to see the bright start. It was interesting how the moon looked a little like a harvest moon in color although it was normal size.

What's the thumb nail test?

My tomatoes aren't ready yet but I have been stealing new potatoes

Sheesh, y'all are way ahead of me. Mine is only about shoulder high. Getting close but not quite yet. How do you time picking it at that 'perfect moment'? I always either try to pick too soon or way too late

Well, everyone needs to remind me in September of 2016 that renewal is coming up so I don't miss it again lol

No, y'all had pitched in and I paid for 1 year....this time I did pay for 2 years because it's a hassle to do this every year lol

I wanted to let everyone know what happened when MrsS went down the other day... I got a call from Annarchy that MrsS was down and when I began to look into it I found that the domain registration had expired. All the renewal notices had gone to an email addy that I rarely use anymore so I missed the notice. I called registration immediately, went ahead and paid for 2 years and they told me the site would be up in half an hour. Not too shabby. Well, 4 hours later the site was still down for me...the next morning it was still down so I called the registration people again who explained that the site had to 'propogate' around the world since the ip address number had been temporarily cut off. It was wierd how some people in the country had no problem getting in and yet others couldn't get in for a while. Regardless, I just wanted to let everyone know what had happened and hopefully this won't happen for another 2 years because we're paid up till then...sheesh. I apologize for the inconvenience and confusion this caused for everyone. Thankfully Annarchy is on the ball and knew very early on that something had happened and contacted me immediately. (((((annarchy)))))

ROFL! I have to hand it to you though...you were brave enough to stay on lolol (((((wormie)))))

sheesh! You don't realize how fat you are till you see yourself in a picture lololol...time to diet and I just got through eating some pretzels lolol. I LOVED the 4wheeler video John...that had me cracking up all over again You did good capturing the essence of some of the things we do on the farm...good job!

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we first take the time to think lolololol (((((wormie)))))

Wormie is probably still in his car driving northwest as fast as he can to be reunited with his beloved wife, dufflebag full of goodies I sent back with him for the two of them. MomM and MrMomM are driving northeast, back to their beloved home with suitcases full of goodies I sent back with them. AO5FG is probably already back home, settling back in with her beloved family and hopefully enjoying the goodies I was able to share with her. I figured this would be a perfect time to take a few minutes to share with everyone here at the site what my perspective was...what my experience was with those that came to the MrsS get together... Originally, I had started planning this particular get together because it had been the allotted 2 years since the last one. In the beginning many people expressed interest and planned on coming but life has a way of throwing one curve ball or another and regrettably, several were unable to attend. Some of the 'regular' attendees were unable to attend for one reason or another and I had begun to think that perhaps it was not God's will that we hold a get together this year. I didn't move on that thought, just pondering it and before I knew it, there was less than a week before everyone would arrive. I called MomM to talk with her about it. I knew that her and MrMomM were definitely coming so I wanted her thoughts on a smaller, more intimate crowd vs the larger crowds in previous get togethers. She expressed a sincere desire to come and I realized that the get together wasn't based on the number of people who attended, but rather those that God would bring for His reasons. I had a game plan laid out on all that we would do....lots of cooking and lots of time spent on making various body care products...soap, lotions, etc. We did all that and more but what I didn't have planned was the intensely special way in which everyone touched my heart. There was something unique with this small gathering that I've never experienced before and I found myself falling more in love with each person individually...the friendships deepening, the bonds solidifying and the appreciation that God had crossed our paths ran high. Some things are meant to be and can defy our plans and expectations. This is one of the reasons I've learned that His way is always better and I'm so grateful we were all able to gather together. While MomM and I were talking this morning, she made a suggestion that surprised me because I had already been contemplating the same things. There really is something special when we gather together and I cannot find any legal documents that state we can only gather every 2 years, and that we can only gather in the Fall . Her and I decided that we feel in our hearts that another MrsS get together is in order...sooner vs later. With THAT said, we're going to plan on having another gathering this coming Spring...probably March or April. It would be so nice if y'all could come so check your calendars and we'll figure out a date that is best suited for the majority. Springtime in the mountains is absolutely gorgeous and instead of winding down for the season, we're winding up for the season so there will be a ton of fun things we can do. If anyone is interested in learning beekeeping, I'll definitely be working on the hives, etc etc etc. Anyway, I'm sure wormie will tell lots of lies about his time here and MomM and MrMomM will tell lots of truths. AO5FG will be a good referee for keeping wormie on the straight and narrow and hopefully somewhere along the way, y'all will get a glimpse into that something special that wants to defy the written word that we shared together over these past few days .