seems like i can't wait until i can break my garden each spring. i have such fond memories of my mother and grand mother out there in there bonnets hurring me along to get the ground worked up so they could plant something. seems like they had the same fever. it didn't make any difference if it was a little to early or the land was still a little cold as long as they could get thier hands down in the cool, sweet smelling earth and rake out a hole and drop in a tomatoe plant or some bean seeds or corn or squash or a few water mellons or a few catalope or a little okra. you get the idea. i never feel right every spring until i get out there and get my hands and toes in the dirt. once i do i feel better. i feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off of my shoulders and i've shared another moment with those who are near and dear to me. moms gone on now and it doesn't feel the same. my grandmother is 97, has had a heart attack and has complete blockage on one artery. she still lives by her self and cooks her own meals and makes her bed every day. she goes to the senior center and plays rook and dominoes with some other seniors everyday. there is several of us in the family who swap out days or parts of days and we see that she gets there with a fresh bottle of oxygen and she's picked up and gotten safely back home. she cooks the worlds best chocolate pie. i mean good isn't the word for them. i have a little garden spot just outside her bedroom window so she can still watch it grow and can still lets me know right quick it it needs hoeing or plowing or watering. she's got to have the first tomatoe and a few beans to cook. it may never feel as good as it did when they were there to share those days with me and tales of how gardening use to be. like the time my grand mother got a neighbor to come plow the garden for her because paw paw was to busy planting corps and she and mom got out there and planted the garden. that afernoon my grand father made us stop planting early and bring a tractor home so he could disk the garden and get her off his back. needless to say he didn't ask before he went in there and plowed it all up. i don't think my mother and grand mother ever forgave him of that. no matter that they can't be there to help, i know my mom is watching and for sure grand mother is still in the window letting me know that i might not be doing that just right to suit her, but you know i don't care if she has to get me told good. i still do it for them and their memory and for what they have meant to me all my life. go see some body you love today.

john

Are you indicating that you live somewhere in the tropics and plowed the garden already?

I am a Hoosier in North Central Ind. and I saw robins yesterday on the way home from church. When the red winged black birds get here I will think spring is coming. I can't wait to disk my garden and plant potatoes.

Our robins down here in N.Fl. must be non-denominational. Seldom see them coming home from church.

Sorry. Couldn't resist. But you could start to think about gardening down here right now, though we had a low of 12 degrees last week! Ouch! I guess there are a lot of cold type plants that could maybe go in soon.

i'll admit that i'm 2 months early about planting anything, but i did have some trash i wanted to trun under that i should have done last fall. mostly just wanted to share my memories and maybe bring back a few to somebody else too. i guess that anybody who grew up on a farm has all the memories they want, but i sure do enjoy remembering most of mone. now pulling the down row behind a team of mules on 75 acres of river bottom ground or having a hoeing partner to chop cotton with or pulling corn with a pick sak with 8 inches of snow on the ground is a different memory. a hoeing partner was needed when the ground was so wet you couldn't plw it and you took off you shoes and two peole went down each row. you hit a lick in the mud and your partner hit your hoe to knock the mud off. the blistered feet was the worst part i guess.

Were not thinking of gardening
I guess I should drive north as the last of the ice melted here today and the garden mud would be about 10 inches.
We didn't have any electrical outage but Illinois is to have the last customer on tonight Kentucky and Missouri still have lots of outage. The word today that another 2-3 weeks are needed for volunteer crews to pull limb out of back yards then on to Kentucky and Missouri.
Watching FIT's temperature we have had warmer nights.