I would much prefer the rain to the very cold winter we have had here in the midwest! We had alot of snow early on which was a good thing since we had some bitterly cold below zero temps afterwards that needed the layer of cold snow as insulation for the graft unions of the roses from those -35 wind chills we had. Lately we have had some good rain that was warm enough to melt the snow and get it deeply absorbed into the soil. Hopefully we don't get anymore bitter cold temps and not have the snow insulation to protect the roses bud unions later this winter. COME ON SPRING--I MISS YOU TERRIBLY!! John

Hi Cousin Edna ~ Glad to hear you are having some glorious weather. Ours has been nice also, although today it is gray, breezy and a tad chilly. We had a couple of weeks of really cold weather down here, and have lots of leaves on the ground instead of on the shrubs. Roses are doing great though. Hang in there all you in the winterlands, spring will be here pretty soon. FlowerLady Here is a link that might be useful: FlowerLady's Musings

Oh, see my plumber screwed up my eco toilets. I told him they have a strict 12" rough in and he calls my contractor telling him that I got these crazy wall mounted toilets (??). Umm, no. They have a strict 12" rough in that makes the tank, etc. flush with the wall. So no, you cannot run the water line directly behind the toilet. So Genius Plumber, instead of reading the Kohler install guide, just takes the template and jacks it 3" off the wall so that I can "reach back there for the water line." Umm, and how am I supposed to clean a 2.5" space behind the toilet? The waterline is supposed to be fed through a port on the side of the toilet with a fancy little stainless hole cover. Which the plumber then THREW OUT because he didn't know what it did. So now my toilets are all sicking out of their carefully designed hidey-holes and my marble floors are all drilled. And best of all, my water saving eco toilets run constantly because Genius Plumber had never installed dual flush toilets, so I have to keep the lids off until I want to use one. I swear I'm not sure if it's good or bad to know more than these jokers do. I think I would be more accepting if I were stupider. Herding cats. Seriously. And after all the problems he had at my place, I can't believe my contractor is going to use him on a bathroom designed by a husband and wife architect team that have never heard the term "standard plumbing fixture."

A skunk at night is normal. That's when they forage for food and I try to just ignore them unless they are doing something stupid like trying to get into one of our buildings that houses animals, for examples. Skunks out in the daylight usually are sick, often with rabies. We shoot them and carry them (wearing leather gloves) far, far away through the woods to a clearing about 150 yards from the house so the buzzards can find them. We want to be sure the skunks are far enough away that a curious cat doesn't find them. If we see a skunk nearby when it still is dark, usually those run off when they see us. Now, if they run towards you, that's more of a problem. I've never been chased by one after dark, but I've been chased by them in broad daylight. Our house is up on pilings for the same reason, but we still have lots of animals trying to get into it at times, particularly during drought (or flash flooding). We have, indeed, employed a porch dance similar to your Porch Stomp in an attempt to flush out skunks, possums and coons that are trying to nest or whatever underneath the porch. Our wildlife was oddly docile during the Big Drought (may we never have another one like that). I put waterers and feeders far, far, far from the house and fed everything willing to go there and eat/drink. Sometimes I'd see deer, coons, possums and cottontails all gathered around a waterer drinking together. We laughingly called our place the Peaceable Kingdom that year because the wild things didn't even want to fight one another for territory. They just wanted to eat, drink and leave. Well, there was one magnificent buck who brought his twin fawns to eat and he didn't want anyone too close to them. Their mother had brought them daily until one day they just didn't come. Then, the buck started bringing them so I assume the doe died, and I don't know if the buck actually was their father, but he came with them, stood some distance away and watched them eat and drink, and then left with them. That went on all summer. He did come later in winter and eat some deer corn, but he wouldn't eat until the fawns had had all they wanted. I never really thought of deer as a family unit, though of course we see them travel in herds all the time. The buck never ate or drank there that I saw in the summer months when all the animals were so desperately hungry, but he made sure the fawns did. It was kind of an awesome sight to see. In a separate area we fed the bees because all the wildflowers died and dried up by July and the bees had nothing. I'd never put out feeders specifically for the bees until that year, but it worked. They just wanted to eat and drink and leave. I'll be happy if we never ever have a year like that again. We've been wet the last two years, which just brings a whole different set of issues, but starving wildlife is not among them.