I am in Alabama. Mark is in charge of keeping my bell pepper, cucumber, and broccoli seedlings alive. I am not holding high hopes because he is so busy, and this is my hobby not his. I will be home Saturday, and sowing carrot, radish, and green bean seeds (bush, Kentucky Wonder or Walthum can't remember which but my family likes bush better than pole). Then I will head off to my favorite nursery for transplants to replace what may have died in my absence plus Amish Paste tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, and more broccoli plants (only 9 sprouted of the 14 I tried to start from seed, and who knows if they are going to make it!). It looks like the night time temps will cooperate for transplanting next week. I do have some homemade covers if we get a frost danger. Here in Alabama, the fig survived! We truly thought it was dead, but yesterday we found new, very healthy leaves on it. We call it Fig Newton, and apparently Newton has a uniquely tenacious instinct for survival. The two kiwi look really nice and happy. The nectarines and peaches blossomed, very very pretty, but we do not expect them to develop fruit yet because they are very young - only 2-3 years old - so I think they probably just dropped their blossoms and will keep on going. The seven blueberry bushes have baby berries! The plums, which according to previous owners has not produced a crop of fruit in 10 years due to blossoming and then getting a hard freeze, has ONE plum on one tree. There are three plum trees. One lone plum. We just laughed. I personally think that the previous owners planted a northern variety that feels warmth in February (this part of Bama always seems to have a few 65-70 degree days for a week, and then whammo, cold again), and thinks it is time to come out of hibernation. These folks talked like the plums may have come with them from Illinois. So I don't think they will ever produce because of this. I should cut them down and plant a hybrid that is hearty for this area, but they are so gorgeous when they bloom, and are pretty trees for most of the spring - fall which makes me loathe to do it. The new montmorency cherry is chugging along nicely. It seems to have survived its tranplanting, and has leafed out very well. It is the only 2 year old stock, so Dd will have to wait 2 more years minimum for fruit. We plan on dehydrating a lot of the cherries once it is producing. The children love tart cherries on their oatmeal. Her raised beds have been planted with cherry tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, some red chili peppers, onion starts, and a variety of flowers. N and C love to plant flowers (little C gives them names and treats them like pets 😂), so some of her space ended up devoted to petunias, marigolds, and several other varieties. The strawberry patch has 12 plants that popped up and bloom healthy, and another large container with six plants. They are everbearing so not a big harvest. The adults won't get a single one because N and C will eat them off the vine. We took them to a u-pick strawberry farm yesterday and picked five gallons. Well, I picked one gallon and then spent most of my time keeping little T to take a nap and stay sleeping so his mamma could enjoy the afternoon and pick with his brothers. That's fine. He had on his strawberry overalls that I made, and everyone thought he was the cutest bundle, so I had a pleasant time receiving compliments. 😁

Wow! Do you think birds distributed the seeds from neighboring gardens?

I am so very sorry! Many hugs from me to you. The afghan is a darling, labor of love.

This warms my heart.

My kids also believe human kind is heading towards a mass extinction event.

Monday - made oatmeal for the clan. It isn't my thing, but I ate some anyway. It was topped with dried cranberries, strawberries, and blueberries. I decimated the Isle of Coffee. Lunch - we made homemade French fries, and served roast Brussels sprouts, a boiled egg each, sliced pineapple, and gave the littles some cheddar cheese plus glasses of almond milk. I drank a V-8 and had a bunch of celery. Afternoon - we took them strawberry picking. They picked four gallons - or more importantly they helped Dd and I who did a LOT of the picking. 😁 They had fun, and as soon as we paid for them, they easily ate 20 strawberries a piece, and I announced I was not going to be on bathroom duty tomorrow should any little human have trouble from this! I ate a couple, but not enough to even be a serving. Dinner - there was leftover chicken for the younglings, and they had some roasted carrots, rice with beans, and oh yes they did, more strawberries. 😂 I ate a baked potato with black beans, the small amount of leftover polenta, and some spinach salad with red and yellow pepper, salsa, shallots. Tomorrow I need to rise early and make tortillas. I want to serve spinach quesadillas for lunch since the spinach really needs to get used up.

It is a factor in many choices. Worry isn't the word since worrying doesn't change it. But my grandchildren are inheriting a mess, a disaster, and I feel that deeply. It's one reason we bought a home for them that has a lot of resources for weathering the increasing problems. It is a reason we are going to keep a home in Northern Michigan since that will be one place that will be much better for temps, climate, food and water, etc. in the future. At least they can inherit a place that might help them and their potential families have a better life. There is little that any one person can do beyond supporting the right people in power or getting into power, and then supporting smart decisions. But, we do have thing like earth tubes in order to assist with temperature control naturally without burning fossil fuels for that. More insulation everywhere we can add it, replacing some windows. We will convert to an EV vehicle as soon as there is enough infrastructure in place that we can reasonably use it, and also afford it which might be two or three years...looking at an EV Equinox. I am doing more home food production, putting up the harvest, that kind of thing so my family has a little less reliance on food shipped from long long distance. Some things will be forced upon us by mother nature. Lake Mead and the Colorado River will eventually force the U.S. to stop growing strawberries, alfalfa, and avocados in the dessert. Las Vegas will be forced to not have a gazillion pools and fountains at every hotel. There will be a lot of things that will change. People will resist, but nature isn't going to take no for an answer.

The Aurora is wonderful! mother Nature is being a real witch for sending that snow.

Gorgeous!

Sunday Horror of horrors. Son in law and daughter who has clearly lost her mind, were out of java beans to sacrifice to the Goddess, me. Needless to say, it was a rough morning. I managed to feed the younglings on toast and eggs. Lunch - N and C were playing outside having a lovely time so I made a yummy charceuterie board of sourdough bread and dill butter (which they loved), carrot sticks, celery sticks, peanut butter crackers, sliced cheddar cheese, grapes, strawberries, and dried apricots. They grazed for hours on that. I made a big rainbow salad, and had some veggie soup with it. Dinner - grilled chicken breast, baked potatoes, savory polenta, fire roasted broccoli and bell pepper. Dd did most of the cooking while I entertained little T. No snacks for me. It was good to get all the vegetables in. Son in law wisely ran to town and bought coffee beans for tomorrow morning knowing that if day two of Marmee's head is melting off her shoulders might not be a happy time for anyone.

If there was a mother in law jail, she deserves a lengthy sentence! That said, I would simply not have her over. Meet either on neutral ground - go to the park for an hour and invite her along - take twins to her house once in a while for an hour, then leave. She sees them and interacts, but on a limited enough basis not to get the babies riled up and sleep out of whack. But no more allowing her to show up to the house and overstay. The boundary should be placed by her son, not dd. My father in law was a terror at uppending our lives and the kids sleep, so we had to put the kabosh on long visits. He also wanted to eat meals at weird times so once the kids were on solids, it was a nightmare because he believed kids should only eat when the adults are ready no matter how hungry the little person is. In the end, he didn't spend much time with the grandkids, and never on his terms. Sad. But some grandparents just can't change their ways enough to accommodate little people schedules, and refuse to respect parents.

Friday: I ate very light. Some scrambled eggs with veggies and usual coffee serial murdering spree, but nothing else until dinner when I arrived at the apartment of my two youngest sons. They then treated me to a huge bowl of homemade chili. This momma is very proud of how much cooking they are doing. Saturday: on the road to Alabama. Not exactly easy to eat healthy when you forget the packed lunch and snacks you made. 😜😡😱 So breakfast was nothing but coffee, like serious coffee, think "The Visigoths Sack Rome after drinking WAY too much coffee". Lunch I grabbed a salad from Wendys. Dinner, Dd had broccoli stir fry waiting with some fingers orange chicken all GF. I may have eaten more chicken than would be ideal. Exhausted. Going to bed, and hopefully dreaming of vegetables in the form of a massive salad because after so much riding in the car and not drinking enough water, I need to tackle the plant kingdom tomorrow beginning with some oats.

Hear hear!

Awesome sauce!!! Congratulations.

Carol, is DA BOMB on foot issues. She helped us so much when Mark had a bout with plantar fasciitis. Her recommendations were spot on, and he now wears Brooks Cascadia trail running shoes everyday except when he had to dress up for an in person work meeting. He has never had another problem. Carol was way more help than his physician and the podiatrist combined!

Me too. We gave up on organized religion, and instead followed our hearts supporting causes and NGO's we could trust, and volunteering for the community in practical, none religious ways. We are both better of mentally. We both have excellent singing voices, and miss singing so good news, we found a community choir to sing with though we have to travel some distance for it. It has been worth that once per week effort this year.

Spending more time enjoying nature, not just being outside, but active. Kayaking and sailing, swimming, and hiking/walking has been so good for Mark and me.

Actually, you assume I am not well informed. We have NASA and Northrop engineers in our extended family. My father was a civilian engineer just out of the Air Force and working for a NASA affiliated company at the time. There is practically ZERO oversight of private companies compared to the oversight that NASA received from the government which was sadly, not nearly enough. The thought of putting all the safety eggs in the Musk basket is hard to imagine. If you think the pressure to launch for Challenger was high, you might want to consider how much more pressure there is from the greed machine standing to make a profit from the technology. That said, it isn't like Grumman and friends in the 1960s were morally upright. I still have questions about the design of that power panel under Grissoms seat. No conspiracy theory at all. Not really sure what their design review process was back then, but definitely not top shelf. It is an indication of the perception that they didn't need independent eyes on the designs. It was literally something that our 4H Introduction to Engineering class students would have picked up. Basic high school chemistry and physics. Privatizing space exploration makes it a for profit entity in a country loathe to do a thing to regulate big business who routinely eludes even a modicum of oversight much less responsibility for the loss of humans. Mostly though, it is a bizarrely risky business, and anybody choosing to pursue the astronaut corp is well informed of that. Despite my misgivings about Musk and company, we were mighty proud when the first alumni of The American Rocketry Challenge docked with the ISS on a Dragon last month. Everyone who has ever mentored a rocket team felt that very personally, and we know that astronaut's high school mentor. It was a great moment, and a launch that I felt a lot of anxiety about!

I will help you! I didn't know any thing when I started. The first thing I made was a night gown for Dd when she was two. We lived in Oregon, and I spent some long distance money calling my mom back in Michigan for help with the terms. Yes. I grew up with someone who was offered a job with Butterick right out of high school because of her sewing competition wins, and managed to not know a darn thing. She wanted to teach me to sew, but I only had eyes for the piano during my childhood. Sometime, I should have you to the Alabama house to sew. Dd has a nice sunny room with a view set up for it.

Portugal offers a retirement visa for 90 EUR with proof of ability support self without working in country plus as well as proof of life and health insurance. There is an option to renew for 5 years. Portugal is beautiful, and not as expensive as other European nations. I don't know about renting an RV to tour the country, but rent in small towns is often reasonable on modest apartments. Just throwing that out there since Canada for a year means enduring so much cold!

Other: I whine away the hours. 😁

Y'all, I want you to know that when I went to Red Stone Arsenal for a tour with our rocket team in 2017, I asked the engineer leading our tour how I could get my hands on a nice big tank of liquid hydrogen like to they had sitting about the base. I told him our rocket team needed it to further our aerospace program back home. 😂😂😂 I am so glad NASA folk have a sense of humor! Agreed. I prefer answering to the public than to a board of investors for accountability. I had just finished giving a piano lesson and was rushing to the t.v. to see how the launch went when I found out about the explosion.

I was born in 68. Not old enough to remember, but my brother was 5 years old and so was hubby. They both remember watching it with their parents on t.v., and when they started kindy in the fall, their teachers planned all kinds of space and NASA themed activities. Tons of failures. Lots and lots of failures. All the ways how to " not" make a lightbulb kinds of failures. It was especially embarrassing to the U.S. because the Soviet Union had figures out the math, and we had not. It was considered a major Cold War failure as well as massive security risk to have them so far ahead of us. Mark and I just finished reading Scott Kelly's book, "Endurance". Wonderful read!

Some of the biological experiments on the ISS are going to be huge. The data being gathered is amazing.

A rocket team member sent me this cryptic message about the launch. "Cato, RTKF." Catastrophic event at take off/launch. Return to kit form. LOL. I love my rocket kids. (I really should stop calling them kids. There are 32 of them, and not one is still a minor! 😂😂😂)