Pam, To request a Willhite catalog, just go to the homepage. At the right is an image of their catalog cover. It has a little girl holding a slice of watermelon. Above that is a banner that says something like Request A Free Copy of Our Catalog. If you click on that banner, it takes you to the catalog request page. What kind of melons do you want to grow? Big ones or little icebox sized ones? Let me know, and I'll suggest some varieties. As with pretty much everything else in gardening, there are some melons that the commercial growers don't grow because the rind is thin, making them poor candidates for shipping. Sometimes market growers will grow them if they are not having to transport them too far to their local Farmer's Markets. Home gardeners can grow those. I used to grow big melons, but with a small family, I tend to grow just the little small melons nowadays. My personal opinion is that a fresh-from-the-garden melon always tastes sweeter to me than store-bought melons. It isn't necessarily that the melons at the store are bad, it is just that the melons from home are better. I also like to have melons available in a variety of colors, so when growing our own, I'll usually grow melons that have yellow, orange, pink and/or red flesh. I like having the variety of different colors. I have a certain degree of concern about your high hurricane risk there. The worst thing in the world for watermelons (next to the coyotes who like to steal them!) is excessively heavy rainfall. It can make them crack and split and rot before they are ripe enough to eat. So, if it is more or less inevitable that you're going to get hit by torrential rainfall at some point during melon-growing season, you need to evaluate that risk and decide if you want to take the chance and devote space to melons. Even when torrential rainfall doesn't make melons crack and split, it can just kill their flavor by watering it down. Since my torrential rainfall is pretty much limited to any month prior to July (usually it falls in April and May, and only rarely in June), I normally don't have heavy rainfall at the time of year that it would harm the melons. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Willhite Seed Home Page

Because of this board I bought a DeDetrich 5 burner and I couldn't be happier. I had to add a whole 60 amp circuit to my kitchen, but I've had the cooktop about 15 months and I love it. It has a sleek, shallow rim of stainless, which is very unobtrusive and looks great on my flamed black granite countertops (modern and Japanese kitchen, very minimal). I would never have found DeDetrich without you guys, or probably even have seriously considered induction, so thanks. When we remodeled I put in a gas line in the island just in case I regretted the induction decision, but fortunately I won't be needng it. I always do water-boiling demos for my fascinated friends at dinner parties. Puts a new spin on 'a watched pot never boils'.

Hi again pattico, Now all that you need is ... an ambulance! Formerly military one preferred? o j P.S. When the stretchers aren't needed ... make loops of rope hanging from the rafters in the garage and slip them over the ends of the poles (far enough overhead that the head of the tallest person clears). OTOH ... tie one end of the rope to a rafter a couple of feet out from the wall, let a loop hang down, with the other end of the hanger rope passing through a metal loop hanging below the rafter just beside the wall, with two nails hammered into the adjacent stud, one far enough down that when you hook the loop at the free end of the rope to it, the stretcher clears the head of the tallest person. The other nail high enough up that when you hook the rope-end loop on it, the hanging loop is high enough to let you put the handles of the stretcher into it easily, preparatory to hauling it up out of harm's way. (Think of all of the interesting stuff that you can stash on those stretchers while they're hanging! Actually, maybe it would be better to not collapse the stretcher and have two hanging loops at each end, one for each pole of the stretcher. You'd need to tie the loose ends of the lifting ropes together, so that they lift at the same rate.). Unless you always have two persons available to lift both ends at the same time, probably need several nails, so you can lift each end alternately, in small increments, to avoid dumping the stuff on the floor as the stretcher rises.). Reduce. euse. Recycle. And .. just think ... if you can make one appliance do double duty ... so much the better! HTH. o j

Wow! You really found lots of books. Many of those titles sound familar to me. I think I have a few of them. You know, I really should take the time to make a list of all my books! Seems like a big job though--guess I'd rather paint than do that. I don't have Sandi Strecker's books, but I did meet her in person once and I like allot of her designs. There are a few in some of my painting magazines. I have several of the Darcie Hunter books, will have to see if I have #5 so I can look at it with you. I only have one Dianna Marcum book but I like her designs too. And I have one of the Santa Claus sampler books, not sure if it is the same as yours. You know we all love Chris Thornton, the title of your book sounds familiar too. Isn't that wonderful that we all have so many books we can't even remember what we have! LOL So what else did you find yesterday? Anything to paint on? It's always fun to visit new stores isn't it? So exciting to see what they have. I had been by here and read your last post but really didn't have any news to share so didn't post. I spray painted a little carryall box with black--thinking I'll do those same peppers on it and either use it to hold silverware and napkins or give it as a gift with some raffia in it and some jars of salsa and bottles of hot sauce. You can tell me what you think of that idea when I post it. I really need to give these items as gifts, they'll never get used around here--we just don't entertain that much anymore. I also spray painted my metal cake cover and stand with white. Wanting to paint roses on it, but will have to be in the right mood for it so I can do a good job on them. Don't know what's wrong with me, but I just wanted to sleep today. I gave all my roses some extra water since it's in the 90's now, then I went all around the outside of the house spraying with bug spray. I'm sick of all the spiderwebs everywhere! Then I came in and sat down with a cold drink and a book and fell asleep! It was only 1 o'clock--usually don't think about a nap until 3:30 or 4:00. I really don't do well with the heat, I'll blame it on that and not say I'm just lazy! LOL Went to the doctor the other day and he wants blood tests and a mammogram. Seems like I just did that! I really hate all that stuff. Anj, have you checked your email lately? I sent you something, but don't know if you got it. LOL If you are bored, take a look over on Holidays at my latest tablescape and see what you think. I'm also doing one for Christmas in July, but haven't posted it yet. I wasn't going to do one, then I remembered that I had found some Christmas dishes at the TS, so I put one together with them. Didn't want to dig anything out of the storage shed, so I just made some red and white flowers out of tissue paper to use. LOL DH is playing pool tonight, so I'm just playing on here. I could be in painting, huh? LOL So nice of you to watch your friend's kids for her, I'm sure that is a big help to her. Hope she does just fine with the surgery. I'd better get moving. I'll chat more tomorrow. Luvs