Dear all Thank you to all those that reached out with kind words about the work I do for the exchange, it really means a lot and even when I don't reply back, I still appreciate it, but I just keep on going. Exchange 476 was large like no other for me, and with more complex items for mailing. Hopefully we will succeed in figuring out a good solution/mix of all the exchange aspects. The fact that we live in a variety of climates, and have interests in a variety of plants that produce seeds or are lifted at a different time of the year makes it difficult to have pre-defined dates for the exchanges. Some of the seeds are short lived, same with some bulbs, Some bulbs are for winter, some are for summer - nothing that you all don't already know. I don't know how my predecessors were able to flawlessly manage these sales, but I have been consulting with Dell about certain aspects, and I know how appreciated he was. I know some of our PBS members are themselves in the business of distributing plant materials, and you can appreciate the task we have at hand. I have received offers for pre-packaging of seeds, and I accepted, so donors are willing to help. Locally present, there are not many members, unfortunately, but we are trying something and hopefully it will work. I usually have some instructions in my announcement e-mail as to what will help me if included in your request, so paying attention to that will help. Keeping your mailing information current will also help, as the mailing program remembers the previous time I used the name+address and then I don't have to retype it. The very tiny material, seeds or bulbs - becomes difficult to handle when there are many requests. I do understand that some are quite rare, so there are not plenty of some of the offerings. Counting seeds also takes a long time to pre-package. But you all know that me counting or someone else counting, is still the same - counting. If you feel so inclined and you want to count, please ask me to send a few glassine envelopes, and that will help as well. Sometimes I do have a generous donation, actually many times I do. Then I give out a generous share, because I want to distribute everything to our members. This next exchange I will list all the viable leftovers that I have, so please look them over. There will be both seeds and bulbs. I do appreciate your support and understanding, some issues I have are not in my control, and if my printer goes bad on me, or my internet router breaks down - I'll have to run and get new equipment ;) ( joking of course, it's not because of the exchange but because everything these days is internet, even the Friday night movies! ) Another exchange coming up, please take notice and stay tuned. Fall for me is busy because of the lilies - dig up bulbs, plant bulbs, seeds to collect and sow, and just in general clean-up the garden beds. Just follow the instructions, to make it smoother, and we'll give it a go! We may be in for another year of seclusion in the homes, so gardening is one way to have something actively to do ! yesterday - I realized it was the firs time my mycelium beds were running - we had very little rain all summer, but we just had a couple of weeks with rain and wine caps and Hypzigus ulnarius poked their heads up! Luminita in Mpls (where we had 51F two nights ago and 88F today and predicted 90F tomorrow!) _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>