Harvest Monday 5.18.15

Good morning, er... afternoon! It's harvest Monday again. This weeks harvest is a throw back to cooler days. I still have quite a few carrots int he garden. It's been rather hot out for a good while so the carrots aren't the sweetest, but they are most certainly edible still. Especially shredded and left int he fridge for a while.

The peach harvest ended this week. The last few were put in the fridge, and the squirrels managed to eliminate the need for harvesting the remaining 1/2 of the crop that were in the top of the tree. Grrr...lucky for them I did get some peaches this year. They aren't falling for the trap any more and I'm not sure what to do about that. I will have to find another way or move the trap. Either way I'll figure something out because now they are knocking down the avocados. 

So a few have been brought inside to see if they will ripen and be edible at any point. The larger ones are the only ones that have a chance, but I will continue to try as long as they continue to knock 'em down. Only good thing here is they are showing no interest in the fruit itself. They seem mostly unharmed if a little bruised.

 



Tomatoes are finally sizing up. I've been getting a small handful of cherry toms each week, but these little beauties are making my mouth water. I'm going to be angry if the dang tree rats mess with these!

I already have their use planned. They will be the first FRESH caprese I've had in a while, and I CAN'T wait! Too bad it will still be a few weeks. (pooh)


We've been working diligently outside the past few weekends and it seems like I'm turning wheels for no reason. We are having our home painted starting today and we needed to remove everything from against the house. It meant cutting the kiwi back to the (almost) ground in order to remove the trellis, cutting back all my flowers, and bushes away from the walls, removing some of the older plants, and putting all my potted plants outside. Along with that I had to take down 2 portions of fence, a gate and had to re-arrange the living situations for all the birds. None of them are thrilled, but they are all safe and moderately happy. They'll live this way until next week sometime (at the earliest!) when I can put their living quarters back in order.

We were planning a trip to Alabama to have a meeting with a builder and discuss our wants with them. We are looking at putting in a basement and a shell. We'll do all the plumbing, electric, cabinetry and flooring as we are able to. I'll keep ya posted on the progress with that. It's exciting, and scary to have another mortgage over our heads. Talk about budgeting!

Unfortunately now that this is all taking place I may have to stay behind in order to care for the critters. I hate to miss out on the meeting, but I know my hubby can take care of things and I will be kept up to speed on the important details.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.20.15

This week the main harvest was carrots. The rest of the carrots in the garden are iffy - but these were wonderful....

Weighing in at a little over 2 pounds after cleaning, this harvest was my favorite this week.

This week showed the end of the snap peas. I pulled the plants. The pods were swelling before I could harvest them and the plants were getting ratty.

I also finished harvesting the potatoes. I think at least. There could still be a plant tucked in underneath something, but in the long run this will be the end of them until fall. Sweet potatoes are still in and will be plundered all summer as usual. However, this year I am not planting as many. Space is tighter than ever in the garden so I'm trying to plant only what will be used. Nothing stores well here so it's no use growing more just to have it go bad. 

Blue berries have peaked and i"m getting about 5 ounces a day. Perfect size for adding to our breakfasts and a few for popping in our mouths as we go along. They have gotten extremely sweet now so resistance is futile!

Speaking of blueberries. It's also time to go to the u-pick place. I sure hope some year I'll not need to go there any more, but for now it's a great family experience and it gives us enough to get through the year.

Strawberries have flushed again so you'll be seeing them again on next weeks harvest.

Well- back to work for me. Don't forget to stop by Daphne's this week! Can't wait to finish putting in a few new plants for the patio this week.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.6.2015

Oh for all that I am - mostly I am forgetful...I can't believe I haven't posted lately. We have been SO busy with so many different things.
But lets start this with what I am here for... HARVEST MONDAY! don't forget to get over to Daphne's Dandelions for the lo-down on what is being harvested all over.

This week I still didn't take very many pictures, but I do have one good one to share at least and it will give you an idea of what's been eaten, harvested, and stored lately.

It may look rather small but it's several pounds of carrots, several pounds of greens and the days picking of strawberries and blueberries.

Most of the carrots and berries just don't make it inside but this day I pulled more than normal as I needed space for the smaller carrots to start putting on some girth. It's getting hot every day and I would like to eat them before they all turn bitter.

Not shown is the head of cabbage and a few potatoes that I pulled as well. The vast majority of the cool weather crops are torn out and other than the rest of the baby carrots, some snap peas/snowpeas and potatoes we are switched to summer crops. 

The tomatoes are beginning to set fruit already! The green beans are giving me a few each day as well. Unfortunately those are destined to be ripped out this week as well. They are the fall sowing and this second crop (While great to have) is much smaller. I think new plants would be far more productive. The single eggplant is showing signs that it will flower soon and the cucumber and watermelon(WOW should have started those sooner) are on their first set of leaves. Okra is 6" tall and growing FAST now as well. 

The berries are doing fantastic. Once it hits 90* they will stop altogether and just like that berry season will be over. SO far we've gotten about 3 pounds of blueberries and it looks like there is just as much left to pick. :-)

Ah, the sunshine and warm weather has been fantastic for my soul, but my muscles are not as happy. It's funny how you don't realize in the summer how much you use those muscles, but when you haven't been digging in your garden for months over the winter, your body will remind you that you should have had some other form of exercise!

It hurts so good.

See you soon! (With lots of updates)

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 6.2.14

Ah, yes. Harvest Monday. I missed a few weeks, and didn't link into Daphne's place a few times so it seems I've been gone forever. But, I haven't. I've been harvesting little bits here and there. The last of the blueberries are in and I'm already mourning their loss. It's only been a few days since the last picking but my fridge seems empty without them.

Also harvesting tomatoes, beans, peppers and carrots. It's been a good couple weeks and I've had the best harvest ever of beans. These beans are a bush variety and thanks to ducks and chickens - well fertilized. :-) I don't know if that is the main difference or if the weather was just perfect for them lately, but this is the smallest planting I've ever done and I harvested almost twice as much as my Romas in twice the space. I plan on cooking them tonight to do a taste test and if they are nearly as good as the roma beans I will be letting them go to seed.

Here are the pictures for the week:

 

The ducklings are doing well and the chickens still hate them. It's something I'm going to have to deal with soon...they need to be housed together and soon. We plan on taking the majority of the ducks to Alabama on the 4th of July. But, the one that stays needs to stay in the chicken run. This should be interesting. I don't know what to do to help the situation as the ducklings where inside the run in a wire cage for weeks with no attitude change from the hens. I would think about replacing the hens at this point to introduce an entirely new flock together but it's not chick time at the feed stores anymore so I would be forced to buy from a hatchery and I'm not sure that is a good answer. I'd need to find homes for the rest of the chicks.. Ah well- so I keep trying. They do well together in the yard, but not in the run.

 

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 6.3.13

Wowsa! What a whirlwind! This Harvest Monday will span the last 2 weeks. Because I'm a ditz and didn't post last week.
Last week was Memorial Day, but that is no excuse. I simply was busier than a Groundhog on, well... Groundhogs Day.

Here's the recap of what i thought to take pictures of...

Beans, cukes and tomatoes are the star of the show this week. 7pounds of tomatoes, 4 pounds of cukes, and just as much for beans. Amazing harvests have graced my tables and my cooking pots and I am humbled by it all. I only wish I was able to store more of it. I have only a single jar of pickles to show for this. BUT! We have enjoyed the heck out of it. Eating most of our meals straight from the garden has been refreshing and the kids have been just as thankful.

 

After all these harvest I decided to go get the last of those potatoes. I just wanted to get rid of any problems for the tomatoes that they were growing next to. Not that the tomatoes were having problems yet, but I couldn't imagine the bugs that the potatoes had would be good for the tomato plants. So I set about my chore, and gathered another few pounds of spuds...

Unfortunately I broke one of the main stems of the super roma. :-(
 

Now I have another 6 pounds of green Roma's sitting on my counter. Hopefully they will ripen. These all seemed to be ready to turn soon. I tossed any that were terribly small or damaged in any way.

 

Needless to say I was in a small tomato glut this week. It didn't last long. The first tomato glut is always met with a serious intensity from all of us here. It's taken very seriously that those first 'maters are eaten with abandon. This years first seem to be very thick skinned for some reason. It may be what has saved them so far from the bugs. I'd be OK with that. I'm willing to trade a little less bug damage and gardener worrying for a thicker skinned tomato.

 

We also had an incident with our sprinklers again this last little while. Thankfully we had a wonderful harvest right before our problem or I would have been crying huge crocodile tears. Most of the plants are doing fine now, but the green beans seem likely not to recover. It looks like there is an issue with our electrical panel that carries the sprinklers and pool pump. I don't have money any time soon to have an electrician out so I guess we will just have to keep a closer eye on it. Good thing it just pops the breaker. Bad thing if I don't notice it in time.

 

Oh, and can I just give a shout out to those sweet potatoes? Oh sakes alive! Hubby won't usually eat the suckers, but I put them in a stir fry and he ate them right up. YUM! OK, I didn't put all of them in there. I just love a good sweet tater. (especially fried with a raspberry sauce. WOOWEE!)

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 5.20.13

I think I've hit the peak of harvests now. It will decline fast. So while I'm happy at the moment I know that it won't last long.

For instance? In the last 48 hours my zucchini plants when from having one green worm boring into it - to a complete infestation. the blossoms now have worms, the leaf stems have worms, the baby zucchini have worms. I do not have worms, but I do have a bad attitude. I knew it was coming, but I'm just NOT happy about it. If Mr. Giant corporation can come out with super germ warfare why can't it come out with a zucchini plant that fights back? LOL. Then again, as big as those plants get? Maybe having them fight back isn't such a good idea. What would happen if they decided they wanted to keep their bounty? That wouldn't be a pretty picture!

OK - On to serious matters. This weeks harvest!

 5lbs 6oz of new potatoes, a few bell peppers, jalapenos, 6lbs of tomatoes, the last of the snap peas (the vines are still there but no more weight will be recorded. The vines will come out this week)
Zucchini, Beans bush and pole, carrots, cucumbers, eggs (of course!) strawberries - but most get eaten in the garden because we only get a couple a day and a leek.

Oh, and that is 6.2 ounces of mint y'all! I made a few drinks this week that needed mint. Some hot tea, and some cold drinks. I'm weird. I really like cold mint. But I prefer it in my chocolate. LOL.

 

 

This weekend saw phase 1 of the big major project done. I"ll share here in a day or two. I also have a couple lovely recipes to share this week with some recent harvests. But, for now I'm late posting this so...

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~



Harvest Monday 5.6.13

Monday - Already? You've got to be kidding me! This weekend went SO fast!

I worked on a project for the chickens. I forgot to take pictures while I was working because i was by myself, but now that it is almost finished I have to go back and take photos. It's worth it. I turned the door around to their pen. I always hated the door leading to their run. I still do, but I hate it a little less now. LOL.At least I can OPEN the door now. See, it used to open in, and the little chooks always seemed to toss all the shavings wood chips and anything else they could find right in the path of the door. I fixed that! It did impede on their space a little, but there is only 3 of them and they do have a good sized run for just a couple of them. I have a few other things up my sleeve for them this summer, too. Just a couple things to help in the way of boredom and keeping them occupied during our seasonal rains. :-)

Ah, but that isn't why you are here is it? It's not just Monday... it's HARVEST MONDAY! Of course! This weeks harvests included the first potatoes and zucchini of the year. I threw those on the grill with some pork chops Friday night. I love it when a meal comes almost entirely from the garden, and ALL local. :-)

Also harvested more carrots, another cauliflower. This one topped out at a decent 2lbs 9oz. a few strawberries a pound of blueberries (not all pictured) and ... well... Oh yeah! One H.O.T. radish. I'm guessing that the weather is just getting too warm for them now.

The zucchini are full bore now. I've got a good 6 on the 2 bushes/vines? Hmm... Anyway We'll be swimming in them the next couple weeks which is good. They tend to only last a few weeks now as we get into May and June so we will be sure to take advantage while we can!

The potatoes I pulled up are the ones that are planted around the blueberry bushes. I didn't like the idea of leaving them to grow to full size under the blueberries and damaging the bushes roots. I knew the longer I let them grow the more likely I'd have a hard time digging them out and end up hurting the bushes. Since they flowered almost 3 weeks ago I've been keeping a close eye on them. Turned out to be the perfect time to pull this little bush we each got a small potato perfectly proportioned for us!

I would love to show off to you my first blackberries of the season as well, but my lovely daughter decided that she wanted to pick me a bouquet of flowers... (Can you see where this is going?) Just so you know when you cut a blackberry flower it only last a few hours in a vase. Also, just so you know it's REALLY hard not to cry when you realize just  WHAT the flowers are that your well intending child handed you with a smile on her face. 'Happy Mother's Day' she says. Happy Mother's Day, indeed. What a gem she is. Every. Single. Bud. And from the thornless canes no less. LMBO.

Ah, well. I suppose it wouldn't be gardening without trials and tribulations, now would it?

 

OH! Guess what else weird just happened? My blueberries REbloomed! Check it!

How Weird it this? I talked to a local blueberry farmer about it and more than half of his crop re-bloomed as well. He thinks it is because of the really late weird frost/freeze we had a few weeks ago. We had another weird cool spell just Saturday night - it actually got down to 59*. For us in May... that is just freaky. The blooms this time aren't as pretty and I'll assume they won't be as large of fruit, but so far on the bushes that have re-bloomed I have about half again as much fruit. That is good because I didn't get as much fruit this year because we didn't get but about 40 chill hours total. The bush in the picture is only a second year cutting so the fruit wont be kept. It's too small to support it yet. Next spring I'll allow it a small crop.

I'm rambling now. Off to work.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~ 

 

 

Harvest Monday 4.15.13

Tax Day. Have you harvested those yet? We have ours done. We didn't get back nearly what we have in years past, and according to our accountant we will get back even less next year. Oh, joy! :-(  Ah, well - no use worrying about that now.

I'm linking in once again to Dahne's Dandelions. Be sure to stop by her place to see what people are harvesting from all over the world. Thanks Daphne for hosting, once again!

This weeks harvest included massive amounts of peas. The snap peas and the shelling peas were very abundant. I also harvest a few jalapenos, blueberries, mulberries, and the first carrot thinnings of the year. They seemed to grow much faster this year than in the past.

Here are the few pictures I got:

 

Tally: 4oz Blueberry, 1lb shelling peas, 8.3oz snap peas, 1.5oz Jalapeno, 1lb mulberries (I quit weighing them), 6oz radish.

Went to Silvia's this weekend and then came home and had some swim time. It felt great to unwind by the pool. I managed to pick up a blush rose, a coral rose, some purple sweet potatoes, some new starts for garlic chives, a rose geranium, a red angel wing begonia and Cheryl gave me a couple pansy babies that will be gracing my desk here at work as soon as they are strong enough to be repotted. :-) So a great big THANK YOU! to Silvia for opening her home and for all the hard work that goes into the garden swaps . I really appreciate all that you do! Besides, I always walk away inspired to continue to work on  creating the environment that I really want to see in my yard for the future.

Lots of work to be done this week. Those new babies all need to be tended to, plus I have a VERY big garage sale to get ready for. It seems we are trying to sell nearly the whole garage! ;-) I'm kicking my precious car out of the garage, so you know i"m getting serious now.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~ 

 

Harvest Monday 6.11.12

This is the last large harvest for the Summer. The rest will be the drabs and dribbles that happen due to the heat. That is until the cowpeas start setting in large numbers. That won't happen until I'm ready to start my fall garden late in the year when everyone else is already turning under and ending their gardens for the year. The cycles are wacky here for sure.

To clear the way for the summer crops a lot of the beds needed cleared the bush beans,  the allium bed (and carrots with them) both had to be cleared:

before....and after.....

It was so steamy out. It even fogged up the camera!

*note the now completely covered trellis~!* 

Green garlic, and red and yellow onions - sorry y'all get the dirty pics - they are still drying on my kitchen table. I had to run out right after ripping all this out. I had a birthday party to go to, and no time to purty up the pictures.

 

But I did get a great harvest this week. Unfortunately it's all the carrots until winter unless there is a stray hiding somewhere. I still have about 20 onions in a planter, but I don't expect them to do anything. I'm only leaving them because I didn't find time to do anything with them and I sure don't need 'em. If I run into a neighbor or a friend who would use them I'd give them away.  I also pulled the leeks in the above photo. Wrong time of year for them but I'm not arguing. They are a good size and they cleaned up really nice. They just got knocked down when I took out one of the old less productive broccoli plants. I've got 3 that produce for me still and a few that haven't been so I was getting rid of the ones that don't.

Here are the tomatoes that were harvested a little green -boy did they turn! And a single cuke.  A day's picking of the concord grapes and the rest of the carrots.

*WHEW*  What a week. Unfortunately I won't have much to show for a while, and now I have a lot of planting to do. I still need to get rid of the big old zucchini plant and start those tomato seeds for fall. It may be sweltering out now, but that is just the time to get things ready for fall!

Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions. Don't forget to stop by her place and see what people are harvesting all over the world. Thanks Daphne for being our ever present - FANTSTIC hostess!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Day 5.29.12

It's not Monday. So, I'm late - again. Hey,  it was Memorial Day so I had plans. Plans that got blown away by Sir Beryl. Good thing we decided not to go anywhere. Turns out that there were a much greater number of downed trees and my parents had no power up in (North of) Jacksonville for 24 hours at last count.  No fridge or freezers and that also means that their 7 (yes, SEVEN) dogs that have the invisible fence to keep them on their five acres would have been roaming free out in the storm without someone there to start up the generators. Not to mention that the picnic and all the other outdoors activities like camping we had planned wouldn't have been so fun in 45 mile an hour winds. We were only planning on going to Ocala after all. Not all the way to Jacksonville. Silver Springs State Park is what we had our eye on.
Oh, Well. Next weekend we'll have a condensed version of the same thing.

Instead I welcomed a gardening friend over to see my mess and our kids enjoyed some watermelon while we enjoyed some conversation. It was a good distraction from thwarted plans and picnics gone awry. I sure hope their plans held out and Illuminations was still wonderful for them! Thanks, Tina for stopping by. Next time hopefully the lawn mower will be up and running and my grass won't be trying to attack your ankles! Troy found a treat for Nick and is waiting to see him again, too. :-D  The pool is back and ready for action. ;-)

I spent yesterday evening cruising the garden not really expecting to find much to bring in but to my surprise I did. And, I found quite a lot!

I had a roma and a bush tomato damaged from the storms, so those came out. There are a few of the tomatoes in this picture, but most of them didn't make the cut. I don't think they'll ripen so they aren't here to be represented. If they do I'll show them later. But these four all were starting to blush so they are here. A few more carrots - that large one weighed 6 ounces! The first eggplant of the season (THANKS RICK- that is from your baby long purple plant from the swap) 2 cukes some broccoli, strawberries, purple podded beans and dragons tongue.

This is the haul from earlier in the week. A key lime, a few carrots, cucumber, zucchini, green garlic, broccoli, and below 4 pounds of onions out of the main bed of alliums, I pulled them because they were starting to multiply by division more and more. It's getting hotter out and that means less likely to bulb at this point and I don't need this many green onions for my cooking. I do after all still have this many onions in the garden still. Bummer year for the onions. But, again Florida is a huge give and take State.

There is no guarantee when you garden here. The sun is extremely low, extremely hot and it makes for quick crops, and that is good and bad. The downpours and humid conditions are hard on the plants and certainly perfect for making mold and mildew. It's an evolving process and an ongoing experiment. I'm always faced with the next question. These onions are one of the prime examples of how gardening here changes every year. Some years I get great big onions and some years it fizzles. But this year I got great lettuce and some years I get none. Go figure. Same with the carrots. I'm still getting them and it's already 90 degrees out regularly. Normally the carrots are done and gone by late March. Here it is going to be June and I'm still pulling and picking them. :-D 

I roll with the punches as every gardener does. My garden looks bear right now to me. I'm waiting for some cowpeas to come up and the old spring tomatoes will be going out - while the new fall tomatoes will be growing and waiting their turn to get into the garden. I still haven't found a good determinate/semi-determinate variety for me/this area. I feel like this is a struggle I will always deal with in some form or another. Maybe I'll just go by a crate of the suckers! Maybe, like the carrots I'm just missing something that i haven't found yet.

Oh, I did learn something kinda new this weekend while I was cleaning up around the place. Will share tomorrow. ;-)

Gotta get ya back here some how!

'Till next time!

Barbie~

HARVEST? MONDAY 5.21.12

I don't have much to share. But, linking into Daphne's Dandelion's to share it! Thanks Daphne for always being a great hostess. Don't forget to stop by her place and say hi!

 The last week has been about the summer change.  Here is the one basket I remembered to take a picture of.

These carrots have changed my mind about how I'm growing carrots from now on. I loved growing them in with the onions all willy nilly. It worked out well - and this giant type also worked out well. They took no longer really than the smaller types and I got so much more! Look at the normal sized on in there next to the larger ones. Wow! What a difference. Considering how MANY carrots this family eats....I'm thinking go BIG or go HOME! er... OK I am home- but you know what I mean.

The biggest honking carrots, and nice sized green garlic (I'm begining to think I'll only get green this year) a good cuke, some okra, berries, zucchini, broccoli, a few beans, a young red onion. A decent haul. I got a couple chilis and 2 small romas this week as well as a few more okra and broccoli- but that is about it. I really was concentrating on getting things changed over.

More sweet potato slips went in. 6 more - so 12 total. I won't be breaking a record with that number, but I have so many other things i want to grow that I don't have space for much else. They are all bush type of course. The peanuts are all up, the soybeans didn't germinate very well. I'm quite disappointed. I think I'll risk moving the plants and distributing them so that they can at least benefit from the area given to them rather than leaving them crowded to one side, as it seems the ones that did germinate all were together. (figures) There wont be any more slips going in now. I used the butt of the potato to generate the last of these. They had some great roots though! Awesome for not having transplant shock. LOL

The last stand of sweet corn for summer is up. I'll try again in fall. I don't know what my failure is with it all the time. Like carrots I just keep trying. I'll figure it out at some point! ;-) The last batch from a few weeks ago was delicious, just miniature. I'll plant popcorn in the heat of the summer. Funny- the corn always grows up in the plots in Alabama. Humph. Guess the clay holds the nutrients better and longer. Even with all the amendments and how wonderful things are doing (compared to how they USED to do) I still can't get corn to grow. Oh, well!

I also cleaned out the rest of the non vining green beans, so any green beans you see now until fall will be non green, flat Italian, or for the first time ever, POLE! Speaking of - it seems to me that I may have stumbled upon something. My dragons tongue beans are not very, uh - 'poley' they are much more bushy. They are also not holding up well in our humidity. :-( They have loads of beans that isn't the problem at all. Its that the poor little plants have already gotten mildew. *sigh* Can't win for losing 'round here I suppose. You should see those beans here next week.

Hopefully the growth of the seedlings will be good this week and I can do some update shots soon. Right now it would just look like a blank garden and then a lot of the same old stuff you always see. (the allium patch, the blueberries, etc)

Summer is here officially - we have our first Tropical storm off the coast of Florida and it's 'officially' hitting 90 each day this week. Yikes!

Stay cool my friends!



'Till next time!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 4.30.12

April is on it's way out. This is the last Harvest for April, and it seems like it just got here. This Spring is nearly done here. The bugs are out in full force by 10 am yelling up a storm announcing that it's too hot to be out. Yet if it's the weekend I'm braving the heat sweating my booty off in the sun. The nights are still strangely cool thanks to the cold front that came through last week, but the highs in the daytime are hitting 90 religiously now and there is no more turning back I'm afraid.

The garden is starting to show the heat stress already and the humidity is in full force now. Fun times the next few weeks!

This weeks harvest:

Mulberries continue to come in at 2 cups (1lb 6oz)every day or two,  or whatever I feel like picking at the time. 3lb 5.6oz green beans, 3lb 2oz onions, 1lb 5oz carrots, 4lb cabbage, 5oz parsley,  6oz broccoli, 4oz strawberry, 5oz blueberry.

a bucket of parsley for drying and chimichuri sauce...

A few zucchini blossoms, I only get these on the weekend when I'm there to go out in the morning.

Oh and the best of all- a pool that is FINALLY ready to swim in... Did I show you this already? I apologize if I did - but it is VERY exciting news around here!

This is probably the best news so far. It gets the kids approval for sure! ;-)

Off to check my seeds and see what type of cowpeas I'll be trying this year....

'Till next time!

Barbie~

*ETA* Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions - I'm so embarassed that I forgot!!!! Don't you forget!!!