Julie that is a terrible story! Shame on that shelter for doing that to you and that poor cat.
Katie, I am so sorry to hear that! The loss of a family member seems extra cruel in winter, to me.

My bestest friend ever, Beatrice the Boxer was 14 when she drowned. She had gotten doddery and slow and never left the yard so I let her out every day when I went to work and she would lie in the sun. I would find her under the basketball goal when I returned. I came home from work one day and I thought I saw her stand up under the goal and look towards me. I put my things away and came right back out to look at the gardens and found her drowned in my koi pond. I cried every day for a long time. I could barely hold it together at work. The loss and the self-recriminations and wondering just what had happened were horrible. That was 2003 and it still hurts to think about. I've had dogs before and since, but none have been as smart and intuitive and special as she was.
I'm glad Kobi can't read. His feelings would be hurt. He is 15 and sitting beside me right now.

Oh my, how sad that so many of you have dealt with the loss of a pet recently.

@poisondartfrog I was so angry at the way the shelter handled things. Even the vet that had to help me called the shelter and complained. My only comfort was knowing that she was loved the last few days of her life! She'll always be my special pet angel!

Froggiesgirl, that is comforting to know; so glad you were there.

So, here we are, night 4, 5? I'm not sure but I see that my wish list has dwindled down. I'm so excited about all the great seeds!!

Thank you all for the kind words. My heart goes out to all of you who have lost pets that you loved. No matter how many times you go through it, it never seems to get any easier. At least I know that in time, thinking of them will bring more happy memories than sad ones.

Back to the swap now. Happy thoughts. All those tickets yesterday let me just go down the line and knock of the rest of my wish list. I may have to give the whole list another once over. I think I will be enlarging some beds again this year. I'm going to try and push my zone with a couple of things like that false aloe. I wish I could try some more of those great hibiscuses, but I don't think I could keep them going indoors over the winter.

I'm off to have one more look at the list before the swap.

Well I have completed my checklist.

Yes, I guess I should make sure I didn't miss something that I will wish I have tried. Thank you all for your great offerings.

Anyone interested in blue morning glory vines? What about tievine? I'll list them just in case.

You're so nice to add seeds, Froggiesgirl.

I still have seeds available, so please take another look to see if there's anything y'all want.

I have lots of the blue morning glory and tievine. I love the tievine. I have it growing along an overgrown fence line. If I see it growing where I don't want it, I pull up the new vines immediately.

Later today I am going to go back and open some seeds I have posted on another swap to this swap as well, and vice versa. Not many, but a few as I have time throughout the day.
I'm extra tired this weekend and aside from watching the Kentucky/Alabama game this afternoon, I plan to vege out today.

I should have added that the seeds that cross over will not necessarily fit the theme of this swap.

I'm sure some of mine did not fit the theme of this swap, but I thought someone might want them. I'll be checking your list!

I know this is off the theme, but does anyone have luffah gourd seeds? I'd love to have a few!

Yes, as a matter of fact I do have some luffa seeds. I'll add a pack so you can call dibs.

No need to worry about the theme at this point. If anyone has extra seeds they want to add, go ahead.

Sounds good!! Thanks, Jay.

I'm putting up some random things now too. I had some packets from last year that I never got around to donating to the newbie seed project. It will be some non-natives that I've grown and leftovers from group swaps. I figure they shouldn't add much weight, and it is better to offer them up to be chosen here first before being sent out to some random person that may not even want them.

Thank you all so much for everything! As a newbie, I don't feel like I have much to offer, and I'm sorry. I will go through my stash again.
Thanks, Wildflowers, for the luffah!

Think I got about 35 more things added. Some tomatoes if anyone is interested. Most things were labeled pretty well and got a database match, but a few I wasn't sure on. One was a dutchman's pipevine that I really wanted for a host plant, but I somehow figured out it was probably the kind only hardy in the south (A. elegans). Hopefully you all have a chance to look through it all before the swapping starts again.

I'm keeping up pretty well with my packing. I'm just leaving all the fluffy seeds to to do all at once at the end. They are a pain to make packets for so I just dump the whole paper bag out in a big bowl and pinch them out of there. I still end up with some stuck to my sleeves or floating around the house though. :)

At the end of the swap, do our swap lists stay intact with the updated quantities for future swaps later in the year? Do things with 0 quantity stay on there as well?

You're very welcome, froggiesgirl. It's okay that you don't have lots of seeds, that's how we all started out. Now you will have some new plants to grow and next year you will have more seeds to share.