Sittin' on the Front Porch

[vbhoutex]

Bill give Coppertop my heartiest congratulations!!

Steve, do the same with your son. YOu both have much reason to be proud!!!

[furluvcats]

Have a great weekend and holiday all...we're leaving for Chicago tomorrow , early evening...gettin' this graduation done! :O)

[furluvcats]

Hello folks...not much activity around here I see! We're back from Chicago...we had a very busy 5 days...Brians daughter had a wonderful graduation and we spent time with all of his family...we didn't get to see any big storms....there was one that delayed us from landing on arrival, and a big one after we flew out yesterday....BUMMER! It was so weird to see all those tornado sirens everywhere...I guess I didn't live there long enough to really notice!

Hope everyones ekses graduations are going well! God Bless!

[Miss Mary]

Hey all - doing a quick pop in. School's Out!!!! For me anyways....today was my last day as a lunch lady. Until August 21st. My daughter Laura has one more day of exams (high school goes one more day). We did heavy duty cleaning today so I'm really worn out but a good tired, as I like to say.

And now I get to be a stay at home mom again....for 10 weeks that is.

Mary

[Pburgh]

"School's out for summer!" YIPPEE for you. You've earned a break.

Hey, get busy on that gardening lady!!!!jk (remember you promised your neighbor)

Have a great weekend
Karan

[furluvcats]

We're devoting this weekend to gardening...WEEDING mainly...lol...all my roses are in full bloom...they are amazing...should I cut them back once the bloom is over? Or just trim where the buds were??? Karan?

[Pburgh]

What kind of roses are they? Climbers, tea roses, florabunda, shrub rose?

[furluvcats]

All the above I am guessing...they came with the house...mainly like shrub roses with big giant fragrant blooms, some tea roses, some actually grow long stem....

[Pburgh]

Keep cutting your tea roses and bring then in the house. Cut all tea roses, florabunda and climbers back to where you see five leaves on the branch when you are picking flowers for a bouquet. When the first frost hits, I cut back my teas, shrub roses and florabundas by 1/2, mulch around them and they are set for a winter's sleep. I never cut back my climbing roses unless I want to "tame" them down.

Furry, if you have a rose bush that blooms for only a short period of time and you want to prune it to a smaller size or shape it, you really can't hurt it. Take all your agressions (if you have any) out on that rose bush.

All others I'd handle with care and cut any spent blooms or cut to make beautiful arrangements. The Teas will grow beautiful long stems all summer, the florabundas grow 4-5 roses on a fairly long stem all summer and I have a climber that blooms all summer long. My shrub roses also bloom all summer long.

Enjoy
Karan

[Miss Mary]

"School's out for summer!" YIPPEE for you. You've earned a break.

Hey, get busy on that gardening lady!!!!jk (remember you promised your neighbor)

Have a great weekend
Karan

Hey now Karan, just whose side are you on? LOL! Sigh, yes I did promise her that.....he he. But it rained today, darn it to all you know what. And I was really itching to get out there and weed......

I will, trust me. Just not in the pouring rain and after only having 5 hours sleep. Laura had me up at 5 today, to get her lazy rear out of bed to cram some more for her 7:20 exam, she didn't trust her alarm. After all that, I was wide awake and ready for coffee! So more zzzzz for me, until just this afternoon. Tried to take a nap but the phone kept ringing. I can't win!!!

Mary

[Jack8631]

Keep cutting your tea roses and bring then in the house. Cut all tea roses, florabunda and climbers back to where you see five leaves on the branch when you are picking flowers for a bouquet. When the first frost hits, I cut back my teas, shrub roses and florabundas by 1/2, mulch around them and they are set for a winter's sleep. I never cut back my climbing roses unless I want to "tame" them down.

Furry, if you have a rose bush that blooms for only a short period of time and you want to prune it to a smaller size or shape it, you really can't hurt it. Take all your agressions (if you have any) out on that rose bush.

All others I'd handle with care and cut any spent blooms or cut to make beautiful arrangements. The Teas will grow beautiful long stems all summer, the florabundas grow 4-5 roses on a fairly long stem all summer and I have a climber that blooms all summer long. My shrub roses also bloom all summer long.

Enjoy
Karan

Very good advice, Karan. When pruning roses, I try to make the cut as Karan mentioned above a five leaf set at a 45 degree angle, with the high side of the cut facing away from the direction that you want the new growth. This gives you some control over the shape of the plant, and allows you to keep the center open (and dry!) which helps prevent diseases like blackspot.

I think the biggest problem most folks have when tending to roses is the fear of hurting them by cutting them back too far. I trim mine back at least as far as Karan does. You almost can't hurt them. They love it.

I read in a local newspaper some time ago that the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (which would be the closest reference point for me) cuts back their roses the second week of February instead of the fall..so I have been doing the same for a number of years but due to the very mild February we had, was not able to cut them back at all this spring. They already had a lot of new growth on them by Valentine's Day. Think I will takes Karan's advice this fall.

[Pburgh]

Well to tell ya the truth I almost forgot about the angle of the cut and the direction. That terrific advice. Please don't mention black spot. By the way Furry, never water the leaves of the bush, always water at the base of the plant and never at night!!!! Sounds like roses are really pickie but only the hybrid teas have given me problems.

[Jack8631]

I'll never mention the "b" word again if you don't! Then again, we have another "b" word around here to deal with - beetles.

More great advice not to water the leaves, Karan! You also should not prune them when the leaves are wet. That will spread disease as well.

[Pburgh]

Well Jack, I hate the "b" word. I didn't know you shouldn't prune when the leaves are wet, but that makes sense. Thanks

[Jack8631]

Thanks, Karan. My roses look terrible this year because I couldn't cut them back..I'm definately on your plan with the fall trimming for now on.

[pojo]

I had my flight physical for the Hurricane Hunters over the weekend ... yea that was fun. Hopefully everything goes well and nothing comes back negative. Some how I read 20/20 w/o my glasses/contacts... don't ask me how..... somehow it feels that my physical went TOO well. I guess I'll have to see. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! The guys around already treating my like their own. I guess its pretty much a done deal once you get the interview/physical. I know I won't be flying this 'cane season... (schooling/training). 2007 I'll be ready!

Surprisingly I ran into senorpepr at the Hurricane Hunters building this morn... He was at Keesler for more Wx school and just happened to visit the Hurricane Hunters when I was running around the building.

[vbhoutex]

I think it is awesome that you and senorpepr met at of all places the HH school!

Are you going to get to go out on any flights as an observer this season?

[pojo]

I can't fly on 'observer' status this season... only observer flights would have to be 'training' flights which occur on the off season.

[Dee Bee]

Howdy, strangers! I've been traveling the past few weeks and haven't been in S2K for a while.

I flew to Chicago June 9-13 for a girls-only visit with my best friend Denise in my old hometown of Downers Grove: plenty of chatting and shopping (and drinking), even a trip to Millenium Park in the Chicago Loop. My splurge was to have a second hole pierced in each earlobe.

Today my husband and I returned from a 4-day cruise (June 15-19) from Ft. Lauderdale to Cozumel via Key West on Royal Carribean's Enchantment of the Seas. This trip was a replacement for the cruise we missed last October a few days after Wilma blasted through Boynton and we had to cancel.

Our outside window cabin was comfy; the food was delicious, as always; and the nightly entertainment was exceptionally good this time, as well. In fact, we "made our own dance floor" in the seating levels of the open Centrex area nearly every night whenever the group who played there nightly, the Evergreen Trio, would sing slow Patsy Kline or Elvis numbers.

Plenty of activities were scheduled; due to my fragile hip (and gigantic "weenie factor"), however, I took a pass on the bungee-trampoline opportunity. I contributed too much cash to the hungry (and quite "tight") slot machines -- a few small returns, but I promptly recycled the winnings. We had one dinner in the premium restaurant (Chops) which was definitely worth the extra $20 @. Of course, we took advantage of the duty-free shops on board for perfume and liquor.

Key West (Friday) was a relatively quick stop: since we live in SoFla and can drive there, we disembarked and strolled around briefly before the heat/humidity got to us and we fled for the air-conditioned comfort and tall frosty drinks of the Bolero or Schooner or Viking lounges.

Cozumel (Saturday) still bears evidence of the heavy destruction from Wilma last October. We took a bus tour of the island and explored downtown. Many excursions were available, several to the mainland, as well. The heat/humidity were horrendous that day.

Sunday was "at sea": sunny, hot, but quite windy, especially on the very top decks where we vegged out most of the day. In fact, I fell asleep in a deck chair and woke up a few hours later to find that my cover-up shirt had blown away -- possibly into the Caribbean.

I had foolishly planned to go to work this afternoon or evening. "Had" is the operative word.... Instead, I've tried to catch up with laundry and email -- and I even managed to squeeze in a nearly 3 hour nap. But by 7:15 it became evident that no one was going to either set up a buffet or take my order for dinner....

This was our second cruise, and I'm already looking forward to another soon, possibly with our daughter and son-in-law over the holidays if we can coordinate our schedules.

So now I'm back in the saddle for at least a few weeks. My communications course at MedVance is in its final 4 sessions; my Instructional Strategies course at PBCC begins June 26; my interim position in the Alternative Teacher Certification Program appears to be continuing past June 30, although I will be meeting with my dean tomorrow morning and will have an opportunity to ask more. Then it's off to Green Valley, AZ (about halfway between Tucson and Nogales) July 6-10 to visit Kurt's family, a business weekend on Marco Island, FL at the beginning of August, and a conference in San Antonio after Labor Day.
(It's good to have breaks to look forward to! )

[GrimReaper]

I am soooo impressed with anybody that has the nerve to FLY through a hurricane!!! You guys got the stones!! Safe flying, and thanks for all the great info!!