Thanks, bhb. Nice to see your "name" here. Thanks for stopping by to read our fire thread. I hope you are well.

Susan, I do so appreciate your willingness to handle and scan our scorched paperwork. For now we need to clean, dry, and bag it and file all such things away for another day. We need some papers in case of an insurance question, and frankly we don't want to be sending anything away at this time. It means a lot that you and Hardi would offer.

Hil, Allison, Sandra, Kat, Sins, Maggie, gnu, mg, Dan, Ebbie( You ok?),Jacqui, Liz, Herga Kitty, ranger1...and anyone else- Thanks, as always. As grumpy as I may sound from time to time, I deeply appreciate your presence here.

Signs of spring- Golden Bunch crocus, single and double snowdrops, and , Johnnie-Jump-Ups (in bloom all year, even under snow!) are all in bloom and feeding masses of honeybees. Plump daffodil buds are shooting forth from the earth and will open any minute. Daylilies are showing as are lupin(e) plants. Lilacs are full of fat little buds waiting for May and June. Star Magnolia's fuzzy snowparka buds are full and waiting just a while longer to open...soon. Beets, carrots, lettuce, kale, and chard from last October's sowing are growing and soon will be ready to eat. The brilliant gold and green basket willow bed is breathtaking from the north end of the foundation, and gives a flash of beauty to offset some of the dismal pit we're working on.

maeve