Gonna be hot again today, not like back east and down south but anything over about 85 is hot to me. So far this morning I have managed to accomplish killing two hours in the cool of the day playing here on this magic box. Got most of the problem branches off the walnut tree yesterday. Was fun as there was a strong breeze blowing. Had a mountain of brush off of it with more to go. Finally decided enough of being on a swaying ladder and turned to loading brush. One of the tree plantings I did 25 years ago was to make sure I had PU access into the garden area. Took some back and forthing but did get it there. Chopped brush and used Alma's new anvil shears to cut all the small side shoots off the branches. Don't know the brand but it is a nice tool. Will be able to load all the brush on one load if I continues really chopping it small. One more trip up the ladder today to remove the last big problem branch. Also attach a cable up there. Need to cable it back to the PU, add about 3 5gal buckets of water to the middle, reef it tight and fall the tree. It wants to go the wrong way. Although Alma never really said it is O.K. She didn't say NO! NO! so I take that as agreement. I am sure that I am reading it right, right?? Subject removal of the locust. In addition to bringing up more morning glory seeds when the stump was ground it apparently has caused the roots to send up shoots. I am finding them all over up to 30 ft away from where the tree was. Handy dandy spray bottle of Round Up always convenient. Ceresone: I heat almost totally with wood - 5-7 cord yearly. Sold a few cords twice but it really doesn't pay. I use 'wooding' as both recreation and physical excercise. Currently building a good stock so I can continue heating with wood when I can no longer cut more. Checked the 1/2 acre of hay that I want to go to seed. It is looking dry and strawy now but the seed heads still seem firm. Will wait a bit more then lay it down with sickle bar mower and chop it up with the riding mower. Always fun in the hottest part of the year. Just about finished with watering for this stretch. One more move of the sprinkler chain after breakfast and that's it for another 4-5 days. Harry K

I've been ignoring all of you for several weeks because I'm not going to be growing any more and I'm still in the decluttering/beginning packing process here. But one day this week I got four or five seed or plant or garden decoration catalogs, then the next day some more, and I'm getting wistful!.... So I dropped by and now I'm seeing flower cart pics on the other thread, and seed ordering thoughts on this and other threads, and again, I'm wistful! I NEED to be outside ALL the time now because I'm trying to dig up & repot my irises and at least some of my daffodils. And a good bunch of the iris have been transplanted. WE don't have ANY rain, we've been in a drought for 6 or more months, it's the driest year for nearly all of Texas in decades, lakes are WAY low, and temps are in the 60's and 70's, some days even the low 80's! But, when I'm outside, I think of the packing/decluttering/ that needs to be done, and when I'm inside, I'm thinking of all the garden stuff that needs to be done, and I'm in a dither! I've ignored my field for a few weeks, too, except to occassionally dig up iris or daffs. This week I glanced at some rows and saw lily bulbs trying to emerge. Now I'm going to have to water them because their tips are already turning brown! Dang! If I'm far behind on the irises and daffs, then I don't have any more time to be digging up the lilies and aliums I'd hoped to get to. Got a mailer from a fabulous retail nursery near Tyler, south of me, yesterday, and they were promoting "pre-order your larkspur and poppy plants now, for March delivery", and I went "ooohhh, maybe I should sow some larkspur just in case......". Well, I swatted my hand at that thought. If we ever get any rain, I'll have tons of self sowed ones coming up, and that'll have to do. I'm HOPING we can at least be listed by Mid- Feb, to early March, and gone some ? time after that, but Murphy's Law being what it is, I'm sure we'll be here for a while! ..... So, maybe I'll have some daffs, iris, lilies and larkspur to sell to my florist after all! And random 2nd or 3rd year tulips. The weathermen are saying we MIGHT have a SLIM chance of SOME rain late Sunday night into Monday morning, but until that happens, could you rain soaked people put on the fans and blow it down here? LOL! Many parts of the state have had BIG grass fires in recent weeks. We even had a small one just in front of my neighbor's house this week. Fortunately, the county or state is doing road work on the access road right in front of us, so one of the guys w/ a bulldozer put it out w/ his machine. We live in an oak forrest here and everything is DRY!!!!!. My neighbor keeps his yard clear of leaves, but he sitll has trees, and my yard & forrest area are COVERED in fall leaves. Could've been dicey if the road crew wasn't here. I did call 911, but I guess the FD checked w/ the road crew, cause I never saw a FD truck. Well, that's all the (way too much!) news in the "way southern" part of "Lake Woebegone"! SusiQ Re the drought: last night the Dallas TV had a report warning homeowners NOT to be watering their yards/fields, because since the lakes are already very low, watering now could put us in a water rationing mode in the winter, as oppposed to occassional rationing times in the summer. They said water use is already 40% above normal right now! And also, that it might take YEARS to refil the lakes to a good level! Wow! That's NOT good!

About Dixie - I'm confused. Deutsche Drahthaar translates exactly to German Wire-haired. So are her parents the same breed, just one is said in English and the other in German??? An inquiring mind wants to know. Summer is here. Highs in the 80's and 90's (98 yesterday, yee-hah!), lows in the 50's and sometimes 40's. I'm irrigating, irrigating, and irrigating. And then irrigating some more. The drawback to our comfortable no-humidity air is that everything dries out VERY fast in the heat. But I'm not exactly complaining. The annuals are exploding and giving me some good market days. I thought I was going to have a lily lull this week, like flowerfarmer, but the outdoors Triumphators and dark red Orientals (don't remember the name at the moment) are starting to open, so there will be a few, anyway. We escaped the heat yesterday, went up a mountain to pick huckleberries. It was MUCH cooler up at 6,000 feet, there was a gorgeous view, and we were in a huckleberry patch so big and rich, we called my sister to bring her whole family up to pick also. When we left, they were starting to wind down, but all agreed it was the best patch they'd ever seen. It got nowhere near picked out - we all just got tired eventually. Even the richest patch takes a long time to pick, and I think it would take at least a week to pick that one out. Knowing about that patch was stroke of luck. It's a big privately-owned area, not developed yet, that my husband's company is currently surveying. My husband is the boss surveyor - his field party chief tipped him off about the berries after working up there. We called to get permission from the owner, but as it turns out, he just doesn't care and anybody can pick there. It's a long way up a primitive road, so I don't think that many folks find it. It will be a great year for the bears, anyhow. And the moose and elk. One of the kids found moose poop that was full of huckleberry seeds. At least we didn't need to be concerned about bear encounters. There was plenty for everybody - no black bear is going to come near a group of humans if they can get food elsewhere, and boy oh boy, was there food elsewhere. There was food EVERYWHERE! Oh, and goldenrod, too. Here I spent money amd grew the seeds to be sure to get plants tall enough to cut - then I go up on the mountain and there are plants identical to mine, everywhere I look. Brother. But they were very pretty in bloom, along with the Pearly Everlastings and the fireweed scattered around. Gotta go irrigate- Jeanne

I have been trying to find a belt for a week for my rider...had to pushmow last week (took 3 days)! LOL I am needing to start some veggies, get my garden turned and waiting on mushroom dirt to be delivered. I have weeded several bed's. Problem I have is Campanula is taking over one bed and Silver King, Dusty Miller type (I think it may be some type of Artesia sp? as well) is taking over 3 bed's. It's not an easy thing to pull....any ideas on how to get rid of them? Same problem with glads and 4:00!! LOL I also am not sure what is weed's and perrinnials coming up. LOL I have started a new compost pile as I used up my other one. Bad that I find reason's to bring horse's in barn and clean stalls (like I need something else to do!) Needing to walk/carry and spray pasture's and yard with weedkiller (hoping hubby buys me a pull behind sprayer this year) I am putting all house plant's and 2 brug's outside today in hopes thay can stay out there for a bit. LOL I need to repot the brug's yet would love to put them outside in the ground. The ones I had in the ground didn't make it 2 years in a row. On the side I run two kids to tball and softball 4 days a week and also packing up the house to remodel! LOL