We upgraded from 3 preformed ponds too one 11x21.5ft liner pond 2 weeks ago, as we were digging the hole every night 2 Herons flew over right above the top of our tree near the pond-as if they knew what we were doing. We are in South Jersey. I figured we'd be ok , we have outdoor cats & dogs in and out-running around but figured wrong! woke up Sunday morning and 2 of our bigger fish were missing along with 6 smaller fish and also 2 dozen minnows we kept in a small preformed pond for fishing bait were gone. At first I thought coon or cat but didnt find a trace of the fish, normally you might find a head, tail etc.lying around the yard collecting flies...so we assumed it was the heron. Sunday night my dad gave me a 3ft statue of a pelican it is blueish gray- didnt miss any fish Monday morning..Monday night we put line around the pond...our neighbor called at 6am Tuesday morning too tell us a Heron was sitting on the Peak of our roof but by the time we went out he was gone...my other neighbor gave us an owl decoy and we put that up Tuesday night, Wednesday night he flew right above our tree line on the side yard but not directly over our pond..like before when we were building it...we have not lost anymore fish- Thank god, but have used PVC tube and chimney blocks to insure the fish have enough places too hide. Every night I move the pelican & owl around- I dont know what is keeping him at a distance but hope that he stays there... Heron never bothered the preformed ponds they flew over high up all the time. Could it be because the liner pond looks more natural than the preformed that has attracted the bird this time?

"So I guess it depends on what you are trying to propagate." Absolutely! " I generally use media rather than water" Me too, depends on the plant, cutting size, time of year, weather... ...but I read that "water roots" don't always transition to media well." Yeah, "they" do say that but they never elaborate. There's a huge gray area from when a cutting is stuck in water to when it is moved to media, an indefinite time span. I think it's good to put a lot of cuttings in water for a short time first, depending on the plant, until one sees roots *start to develop,* not fill the bottle or even get to a measurable length. Once it's obvious the entity has gotten the message that roots should be formed, I see no reason to wait in water any longer. Other things would just rot, and should actually dry/callous for a few days before attempting to propagate. A general rule is wilting. If you take cuttings that wilt immediately, they're going to have a hard time rooting in media (without the aid of some type of humidity augmentation, as mentioned.) For these plants, constant/consistent moisture, at least at the cut end, is necessary to stay alive long enough to form roots. But cuttings of something like Tradescantia zebrina, jade, or most of the succulents that do not wilt will not release their moisture quickly enough to need to be in water. For these plants, it is the search for moisture that inspires roots. Actual moisture may likely result in rot. I can't speak experientially about propagating Scheff as I haven't done it many times, but it is known for growing slowly, which would apply to anything, like forming roots. For the others, I've done it countless times, 4 of my fav plants. Tradescantia zebrina is extremely succulent and unlikely to wilt for a few days, immediately forming aerial roots if not already present. T. fluminensis, more prone to wilting but will also 'heal' at the cut and send the aerials. Heart-leaf Philo cuttings take several days to wilt also, though enjoys a few days in water as a cutting if the 'money node' doesn't already have fresh aerial roots. All three will take root if simply dropped on the ground outside during summer (and can make contact with the soil.) You've pegged the Coleus as a wilter, so why people often radically trim the leaves to prop in media. If put in water for a few days first until roots appear, a cutting can retain much more foliage, IME. I also think a lot of the problems people have prop'ing directly in media are due to insufficient size of buried part. Submerging 4" of stem is much more likely to produce success than 1". The last of the moisture tends to be at the bottom of the pot. No doubt that humidity augmentation can make a huge difference for some plants in some situations. Sadly, though, plants that don't wilt are much more mysterious during the prop process. If they're dying, it's not usually apparent until they're just kinda gone one day, like...

I've eaten horse, during the PBB scandal when all the cattle were poisoned and dropping over from PBBs in the cattle feed. LindaC, I bought Pocky at my local Meijer's and sent it to dishesdone, they had a chocolate and a strawberry version. Ashley says she's gotten it at WalMart right next to the college, it's a cookie shaped long and thin, not as big around as a pencil and dipped in chocolate or strawberry fudge. I have eaten crocodile AND alligator, and black pudding which Grandma used to call blood sausage. Nettle tea tastes icky and "green" but is supposed to be a diuretic and make your hair shiny, I can't figure out what the heck those two things have to do with each other, but I've tasted it because it's also supposed to be helpful for anemia. I didn't see that it helped. I had chicken tiki masala at a restaurant in Ann Arbor with Elery. It was basically a chicken dish with a curry kind of sauce over rice. Eh. I'm not a huge fan of curry. Paneer? Elery likes cheese. A lot. So we tried this, it kind of reminded me of the homemade yogurt cheese I make by putting yogurt in a strainer and letting it drain for several hours. Criollo chocolate is just a variety of cocoa bean. It's expensive and I found it to be very mild, I wasn't all that impressed with THAT either. I think I bought it at Fresh Market, and everything there is expensive so maybe that's just why it cost more. Tom Yum is just soup. I think it had coconut milk in it and it kind of reminded me of Chinese hot and sour. Annie

Crocodile in Alaska is surely appropriate, if I want to tip my hat to regional decorating. I'm sure everyone would approve of this latest tangent of mine, as I consider that white alligator tile on my fireplace, my bathroom, my hall wall that is going to jut over the peninsula to form the cooking nook or for the actual tile in the cooking area. SOMEWHERE. I am mostly kidding though I do ping pong around like a pinball...and that white tile does appeal to me in terms of adding interest through texture while keeping it light. It tips it's hat to the modest modern roots of my 1952 ranch while offering more than a hint of funky and a little dab of the natural world. I kind of like it.