All this waxing poetic over winter on the Seasons post.Bullbutter! I want some 60 degree weather and I mean now!

Now you hear me,I don't get a warm spell within the week and heads are going to roll. I'll start with my neighbors.Bloodbath on Kellacey.When you read it in the papers you can say "yeah.I knew her a little. Kinda quiet.Kept to herself,mostly.Seemed nice.Never expected this.You just never know,do you."

Hey I'm used to my January thaw.If I wanted 20's ,I'd a stayed in PA.Am I right,Cindy in KY, or am I right? Now let's see some changes here.Everyone to the south of me.Go outside right now and start blowing my way ,real hard. The forum political commentators,I really need your help the most.All that hot air should warm things up right good.Don't be going and wasting it,now.What do you say? For a countrysider?

You'll be doing the neighbors a big favor, too!

Thanks for the help.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 03, 2001

Answers

Now, now Sharon, don't go "postal" on us, and whack all your neighbors over the head with the snow shovel!!! :-)

The thaw will come, and all that lovely MUD with it!!! Mud I get "postal" over after awhile, yuck!!!

Remember, peace and harmony are your mantra..... Ooom, ooom,..... Spring will come.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 03, 2001.

Sorry Sharon, just went out and looked at the temp. It has cooled off about 10 degrees in the last hour since sundown and is now 53 degrees. Maybe tomorrow !! :>)

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), January 03, 2001.

Just remember with summer comes bugs !

-- Patty (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 03, 2001.

Just think Sharon, if you learned to love and understand winter how much safer your neighbors would be-somebody better hide the snowmen. Just think how at peace you would be if you sympathized the thermometer as it plummets to the 30's, then the 20's, then the teen's, then the... well, I better stop there, I wouldn't want you coming through your monitor.

Now picture this. You, sitting in your comfortable chair wrapped in a warm blanky around your snuggly flannel nighty, feet up on the footstool next to a warm wood burning stove. A mug of hot chocolate- with marshmallows, a good book, looking out the window as the snow falls getnly to the ground, there, that should warm your spirit.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), January 03, 2001.

Sounds like Cindy was peeking in my window! Winter is a time to relax (a little) mend socks, make curtains do all those things that are impossible to do when it's green outside! Honey got a kick out of me reading garden books last night, said "...in 6 months you'll be cursin' the deer, chipmunks, rabbits, weeds and rain or drought! Give it a rest!" Point well taken.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), January 03, 2001.

Husband has been suggesting retiring young to Florida. Doesn't seem like it's worth it the way the weather has been. Then again, it's been 0 here at night so 30 degrees is a heat wave. Two feet of snow too. I'd love it to be warm all the time. No frozen bowls to break. No frozen fingers and toes to thaw. A garden year round. Never mind, I'm moving.

-- Dee in NJ (gdgtur@goes.com), January 03, 2001.

It's about 35*....whhhhwhhhhhhhoooooooooosssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Any better?

-- Political Common Tater (animalwaitress@excite.com), January 03, 2001.

I'm here girlie! I'm with ya! Enough is enough, no more cold. Kentucky just set an ALL TIME record (since records have been written down) for 17 days of never getting above freezing! I settled in Ky for the mild winters too, used to live at 9,000 feet in the Rockys, so yeah, I know winters. And this is not normal for here at all! My farm looks like the North Pole with all these ice chunks everywhere. I finially got the chunk of ice out of the tub for hay, 1 big chunk, and I pushed it down the hill! All the other tubs still froze solid.

Yesterday, I took my big stick to break the ice in a bucket. I held it with both hands and rammed it in, and all that water underneath came straight up the stick and hit me square in the FACE!! It was like 8 degrees outside, there was some mild screaming!

We are getting to high 30's today, and next 2 days, maybe a little 40's. Tennessee gets 40's today. I have been searching online for property in TENNESSEE! no joke. I'm ready for the hot air, Sharon, like now. Send it on up here. I am freezing. You go girl!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 04, 2001.

Maybe you folks down south should come visit me for a week or 2 ,then home will seem great .Here in Northern NY its snowing again .We haven't gotton out of the teens during the day in ages .Snow banks are getting way to high .

-- Patty (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 04, 2001.

Well,I see I need to respond to you all individually.

Annie-if I wanted to levitate,meditate,& transend my environs,I'd a moved to Tibet.You just stick that ooom where the sun don't shine.Send me HEAT!

Speaking of "postal",the retired mailman's the first to go.Biggest troublemaker.To quote,Nick "He's the the gossipest old washerwoman back here" I don't expect anyone had much privacy when he delivered the mail.Wonder how long it took him to make his round,what with steaming open all the envelopes.

Patty- Do you really want to get me started on bugs yet,with PMS raging!

JLS-well,just forget the neighbors-now I want a piece of you,buddy!! At least it will be warm when I get there.If you would be so kind as to send directions,please.

Cindy-yeah,yeah,yeah,what are you? One of them there psycoterrorists! A counselor tried that visualization crap on Nick once.Told him to"visualize tossing his troubles off a cliff" Nick said how bout I just toss the people causing the trouble off the cliff,and take care of the problem once and for all.So, ditto.

Patty-Been there,done that 5 years in Erie Co,PA. No thank you.

Cindy in KY-Let's march on Frankfort! Nah,never mind. They don't know how to get anything done,there,anyway. They're all too "mouthy drunk", like the governor.

Doreen,you darlin' little tater you.It is much warmer now! Thanks,Hon.

Actually It feel quite a bit warmer.All the hearty laughter really helped.I feel almost toasty.Thanks y'all.You really came thru.I knew I could count on you.You're alright.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 04, 2001.

Thanks for a good laugh. Sharon, I betcha keep everyone around your house in stitches.

-- Lena(NC) (breezex4@go.com), January 04, 2001.

Gotta good laugh .The man we bought the farm from is a postal carrier ,guess what we found in the house ? Where you still looking for that check or new credit card ? Bettcha I got it .Now Sharon don't be a weinny , cold is a state of mind .I am still amazed how - 35 feels pretty warm .I am just getting sick of this white sh-- falling from the sky !!AS for PMS they make good drugs for that .

-- Patty (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 04, 2001.

Hey, I don't care how cold it gets outside (being raised in the interior of Alaska, where seventy below is normal, central NH is about as far south as I can take!! LOL!!!), as long as the HOUSE stays warm!! Which this old house does NOT!! And we had a chimney fire the other day bad enough to start the chimney liner to flaking off, so now we can't use our woodstove until we either get that fixed or put in a new chimney -- sigh. Sure hope oil doesn't go any higher than it already is. And that the power stays on the rest of winter!! Sharon, sorry I can't help you with the warm air -- if I blew on you from NH, it would be blowing the heat farther south! But my favorite thing to distract my mind in the winter is big, glossy photos of tropical beaches!!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 04, 2001.

I do not think its winter I HATE its the lack of sunshine,the kind that goes deep in your body and warms you up. Thats what I miss, I think I must suffer that illness caused by lack of sun,cant remember what it is called.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 04, 2001.

Kathleen , how about the seed and chick catalogs ? They always make me feel better.

-- Patty (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 04, 2001.

You're right, Patty, but those require some attention. A calendar picture on the wall is kind of like having a window to a warmer tropical world! (As we are keeping the house temperature down to about 60 to save on oil while we can't use the wood stove, I'm wishing for one of those tropical pictures right now! The feed store calendar hanging in front of the computer has a very pretty picture of a buck deer leaping through a snowy woods -- just doesn't quite cut it!!)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), January 04, 2001.

Renee, that's SAD. Really. Seaonal affective disorder. WTHTM. An MD (as in O'Neill MD) ought to know THAT! ATB.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), January 04, 2001.

Hey now, Patty. we prefer the more generic term...wussy.

I'm over 40 so I get to be as wussy as I want,or whatever else I want ,Right? I thought that was how it worked,anyway.

And,they haven't make drugs strong enough to put a damper on my PMS.Well, probably elephant tranquilizer would help,but it's pretty pricey,don't you think?

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 04, 2001.

Hey Don....md stands for Maryland...wthtm what does that mean?and atb? Awhile ago it was asked if we included our state in our name so questions could be answered better...I think I even mentioned that people would say I was a doctor!

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), January 04, 2001.

OK Sharon yo got me by a few years .Did you know woman have gotten off with murder claiming pms.I am a firm beleiver in getting a life time scrip for valuim {sp} I"m tired } when you had kids .So I think as woman we should be able to get whatever else we want for free .

-- Patty (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 04, 2001.

Try vitex and natural progesterone cream for the PMS, works for me, and the progesterone cream will make you sleep like a baby again! You'll just think you've gone to Tibet, you'll feel so peaceful!!!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 04, 2001.

Ok you guys.now you made me have to tell this story.

One of my friends,in Erie,actually,was this nice ,petite ,blond haired,peaceful,easygoing,cheerful sort. We were sitting at the worktable together one morning sipping tea.Just out of the blue she says "You know,when I get PMS,I could just kill someone"

Well,I didn't know whether to prepare a good defense, or run sceaming from the room! So,I did the next best thing,I started laughing really hard.Fortunately for me, she started laughing, too.

Actually it was the dichotomy of such a sweet little thing, and her statement, that cracked me up. So watch out for that little lady when she's having a bad day! She lives in Michigan now,in case anyone up there needs the neighborhood alert.

More seriously,a friend in the throes of flashes agrees on that cream too.I had tried evening primrose,and it helped quite a bit,but then I got allergic to it.

So Annie,does it also make you all warm and fuzzy too? Or will I still need to crawl into my blue bear rug bathrobe.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 04, 2001.

Sharon- love your humor---it is humor isn't it? We don't want to be reading about any homesteader rampages in the newspaper. When we read the stories about how so-and-so had GUNS, ammunition, knives, books on survival, food stocked up for a year, etc. and how crazy they must therefore be, we have to laugh. How does a person live in the country and even try to be self-sufficient without those tools?

Husband Jim says all he does these days is shovel off roofs, plow and cut wood. No time for anything else. There's a lot of truth in that. Seed catalogs help. Thanks for the laughs people!!

-- Peg (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), January 04, 2001.

It's working girlie! Keep it up. Lookin at 40,40 & 48. Not quite 60 but up from his forcast yesterday! And now RAIN instead of snow for Sunday. We had meltage yesterday, I can see green grass again, and my mule is no longer walking on ice stilts.

By the way, I'm over 40 too, power DOES come with age, we have earned it. And that's just the way it is. PMS? You'd be amazed at how much harder you can hit that log with your axe! Or tear down something, just to tear it down. Say 'Changed my mind, don't want it there, you gotta problem with that?' And eat lots of fritos and bean dip. Works for me!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 05, 2001.

Not to upset anyone.But yesterday was 70 here. and am miserable.

-- Anthony J. DiDonato (didonato@vvm.com), January 05, 2001.

Not to upset anyone.But yesterday was 70 here. and am miserable. Can not wait to head north next friday Fout years with no snow and warm weather is just too much. Looking forward to getting back to New England. Just hope that there is some snow left.

-- Anthony J. DiDonato (didonato@vvm.com), January 05, 2001.

O.K. guys, you can stop blowing toward the north country!!!!!! It is in the high thirties here and all the snow is turning to MUSH.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

Seed catalogs help?! I must be backwards. I didn't have a bit of cabin fever till those glossy technicolor pages started arriving. Now I look out at the thermometer every couple of hours. It's about to drive me crazy now. I can't wait to dig and plant and ....... I'm SURE I can keep the weeds in control this year. (I completely lost the cantaloupe last year. No, it didn't die, I just lost it in the weeds!)

My six year old son asks every day how many days till spring. My answer causes him to groan and say "but Mom, that's too long!)

-- Mona in OK (jascamp@ipa.net), January 05, 2001.

Hey Mona, your "January garden" must look just like mine. Oh for the perfect gardens of January!!!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), January 05, 2001.

Boy, I feel better. I spent all afternoon outside cleaning things up, raking up all the wood chips, pulling out T-posts and just having fun. The fresh air was soooo nice, and it was warm! This morning no ice in any buckets! And I don't care that there is mud, it's warm enough to get out, out of the house for awhile. I let the stove go out so we can clean it tonight. I am going to be outside all day tomorrow too! Is this better, Sharon? Did you get out today?

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 05, 2001.

the reason women get pms. they deserve it. thats a joke dont get poed bob in se.ks.

-- bobco (bobco@hit.net), January 06, 2001.

No bob-the reason women get PMS is because MEM deserve it, since men usually end up the recipients of the ill humor.TeeHee

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 07, 2001.

I can't hardly believe this! Hubby told me it is 44 degrees today! I really don't think that is a good sign of things to come here in Wisconsin. Last year, we had "warm" weather most of the winter and a very dry summer. It was a terrible year in the garden!

-- Ardie in WI (a6203@hotmail.com), January 10, 2001.

Get this. Geese here have been seen flying NORTH. And the geese never really came south this year in the great numbers that usually come. We're going to hit 50's by the weekend, yippeeety do dah!!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 11, 2001.

My O my, what a wonderful day!

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), January 11, 2001.