Thanks Tom

[alan]

Thanks for posting the new TaterMater board Tom and good luck getting the new Tatermater up and going. I also wanted to say thanks so much for contributing at Homegrown Goodness where your pressence and information is always greatly appreciated. I am glad that we can work together to further all of our collective community efforts to further the work of independent plant breeders and small farmers and look forward to working together more in the future!

[tatermater]

Alan,

It means a lot that you and your Home Grown Goodness are now a part of the larger community of folks interested in all sorts of topics. Thanks for your words of gratitude, however I'm back at ya.

Alan, could you look at my blog that I renewed: tater-mater.blogspot.com/

I thought the blog could enrich and diversify my Tater Mater topics.

Tom Wagner

[alan]

Looks good Tom and can't wait to read more from you on your blog! If you get a chance feel free to check out my blog at homegrowngoodness.blogspot.com

[tatermater]

Alan,

Thanks for reminding me of your blog. A couple of weeks ago I went there looking for information.

It would be nice in some future time an event would invite both of us to be speakers regarding the public domain of plant breeders.

Tom Wagner

[tatermater]

Alan,

Could you explain the icons above our message box.

Tom

[alan]

I too would enjoy having the opporotunity to do a dual speaking engagement with you at some future event, maybe if we got lucky we could get Ken Ettlinger and Alan Kapuler in on it as well, that would be a truly interesting meeting of the minds of a bunch of "seed geeks" as my friends call us.

Anyhow, which Icons are you speaking of? The ones at the top of the page or the Icons that appear when you are writing the message? Let me know and I'll get back with you about them.

Your friend,
alan

[tatermater]

Alan,

The icons as I write above the smilies, yes.

Getting some "seed geeks" on an open panel of speakers, addressing personal concerns and taking questions from afield would be interesting, to say the least.

The other week, I called Ken Ettlinger to share some ideas. He and I are about the same age and after we talked, I thought about what should be a common goal.

Plant breeders are beset by a dooryard of limitations. Our yard outside the rear door of our houses is our breeding block. We need to project ourselves into more gardens, fields, nations, to become less provincial and more invincible.

Tom Wagner

[alan]

I agree Tom and would love to walk the gardens of others talking diversity and breeding projects with folks like you, Kent Ettlinger, and Alan Kapular and others, There is a lot of information that we could share both with one another and indeed also with the rest of the world that if not distributed will one day be lost.

Tom, have you ever thought of publishing notes or research papers, or as Ken calls them Ramblings? They really do a lot to inform the public and call attention to the work that home gardeners and independent plant breeders can perform. It might be a good idea and a way to draw more attention to your work and your varieties for sale.

I would love to one day have a "Seed Geek" gathering somewhere, the problem is finding somewhere central to all of us as both you and Alan Kapuler are on the west coast, Im in the mid-west, and Ken is on the east coast. Of course the three of you have years of experience and knoledge over a guy like me who has absolutley no scientific training, but I would love to find a way to work with you.

Anyhow, the icons above the smileys provide a number of fuctions including making bold text, Italisized text, underlined text, struck through text, colored text, text alignment, the ability to post image links, e-mail, print, and a number of other items that I've actually never put to use, I hope you find this helpful.

Tom, I'd love to give you a call sometime to talk about genetics and learn a few things, it would be great to get your perspective on many things, I will send you a private message with my number and you can PM me back, maybe sometime this week when we both have some free time we can talk.

-Alan