Hello all! I have not posted in a while for many reasons. First, I have had quite the eventful winter break, and because the trees are in winter dormancy, there is not much exciting action.

Upon leaving my dorm for winter break, I have to take all of my plants from my third floor dorm to the ground floor. Thank goodness for elevators. It took me four trips of dragging a huge Rubbermade tote back and forth to get them all downstairs. It was much more than I thought.

Here are all of my plants together. Pots are heavy. I put them here rebelliously- this is a university loading zone, but other people were doing it, so I took the chance. While loading up my car, two campus policemen walked by. I was nervous that they were going to scold me, but they simply were awed by my bounty.

So, on the trek to my Dad’s house, I skid on black ice, ran into a barbed wire fence, and totaled my car. It was a wild day, but everyone was safe and no one got hurt. Except for maybe a few plants, but as much as I love them, they were the least of my worries in the grand scheme of things. More on that later.

My sad smushed car.

My new car, after a stressful amount of car shopping.

Who knew a barbed wire fence could do that much damage? But alas, I researched tirelessly trying to find a new (to me) car. I replaced the 2009 Honda Accord with a 2016 Ford Focus. I am happy with it!

But my plants still had trauma. Many had been shaken out of their pots and chilled, barerooted, until they were retrieved from the tow yard. Here is some of the damage.

This will be a hard first winter for me. I am doing all I can to revive them, but the weather is still against me. In addition, the plants have this trauma. It will be hard to identify whether a plant dies because of trauma or improper winter care. Hopefully I will learn more next winter.

I will be okay if I have a few fallen soldiers. That is part of this hobby! It is just a shame that it had to happen this way. But alas, I have not lost hope!