18 half-pints of relish finished: Tried 3 diff combos: Will sample one of them tonight when eat my daily meal. (caught another possum last night... true story!) Caught a coon earlier in the week. And a cat. Don't like the taste of cats though. 3 lbs sliced onions 1/2 cup light brown sugar 2 cups dry wine 6 tbs balsamic vinegar salt & pepper Yielded 6 half-pints relish all three times Learned a little bit abt wines too. Only real previous experiences were Thunderbird and Strawberry Hill back in the 60s & who knows what when stationed in Germany. These links might be helpful: Types of dry red wines List of the dry red wines Examples of dry white wines Thanks again for the help!

In Central Illinois- usually only see a few towhees the whole summer and have never seen them in the winter. There must have been a small flock of them that spent their days under the feeders in the yard this past weekend. Really enjoying all the photos.

The hawk in Menifee, CA can only be a Cooper's Hawk but it is an oddly-colored one. Something going on with the feathers, such as a heavy molt or missing feathers for some other reason. If you have other photos please post.

Look under the leaves. The caterpillars start off as small slightly yellow transparent looking and are only a few mm long. Once around 5 mm long they are green. The same shade of green as brussels sprout leaves. I just squash them between my fingers. I did my plants today. Each plant with damage had at least one caterpillar on it. I rub off any eggs I see also. Obviously my hand treatment is for small scale garden. Don't assume they moved on, they are there to be found.