Okay Mailman, Patrick, and George, here is a true story. It is not racist, it is the gods honest truth, I was there, and saw it happen. A number of years ago one of the drivers brought in a medium large dog crate that had the door and vent holes covered with paper. It was labeled, "Rush, Live Animal". The crate was so heavy it was all one man could do to lift and move it. Anyhow, some of the overally curious dock workers moved the crate and whatever was inside hissed! Well, one of them asked the driver, "do you have any idea what is in there," to which he said, "no, the office was closed and everyone was gone when he picked up the mail. It might be some sort of cat." So the dock worker went over to the crate and gave it a shake, and whatever was inside hissed again. His curiousity overly peaked, he decided to pull a little piece of the paper off the crate and looked inside. Upon observing the contents of the crate he instantly became several shades lighter complected and ran inside, refusing to return to the dock. Word quickly spread from inside what was in the crate, and most of the black workers made a bee line off of the dock, leaving us white folks behind. Inside the crate was an eight foot Burmese Python! As to the bee situation, what happens is many of the workers fear being stung, due to allergies. As you are aware some of the bees occaisionally escape from the wood and wire crate they are shipped in, and the workers fear the loose bees will sting them. I have explained numerous times to them that if they set the crate in one location that is open the loose bees will come to the crate and stay there with the rest of her pals. I further explain to them that the only thing they have to fear, regarding being bee stung, is if one of the loose ones gets caught in thier hair or clothing and stings while attempting to get free or if they were to crush one. I am seriously allergic to bee stings, and generally do not fear handling them, but those people who have never been around them do not understand how the domesticated bee acts, or how to treat them.

Well, yesterday I put down a little more seed on the bare spots and covered them with another light layer of peat moss. Seems to be doing well so far. Weather has been perfect for new grass seed since the storm washed me out. I also misspoke earlier when I said my lawn was about 1,000 square feet. I measured and it is more like 1,500 square feet. I used so much seed because there were huge bare spots, and my lawn was incredibly thin. On a side note, all of my neighbors had their lawns aerated today. They gave me a funny look when I told them I cancelled my appointment. Oh well, hopefully I'm the one with the thick green lawn come springtime.

WOO - HOO! I harvested two black beefsteaks yesterday, 5/29. Which is normally when I plant out. So, a 60 day large beefsteak. The first time I have harvested before mid June. And the first time my first tomato was not a grape or cherry. This variety is an unknown that a friend of mine and myself bought as a Watermelon Beefsteak, but turned out to be a purple/black. It has been the best overall plant of mine ever since... 4 years running. It is early, produces until frost, is my most disease resistant plant and is a nice dark green color. But, disease showed up last week... septoria and a little of early blight. Some of the septoria is high up on the young growth. So, I have to stop that sh__ now! So far, no sign of the fusarium that I had bad last year. Any guesses as to the type of tomato?

Galinas, that's such a completely unexpected and generous offer. Thank you. I do have a friend who would probably be willing to grow my current seedlings for me. She likes digging holes. :) I'll have to ask her. Can I get back to you? While I'm on this subject, I'm sometimes willing to go to extreme lengths to accomplish things. If I were to completely encircle each one with a wall of vertical T8 bulbs, would that be enough light? If not, or if there's some kind of drawback to this, I'll abandon the idea of growing indoors and accept that they're going outside somewhere, somehow. Since it's been 4 days, time for me to give an update. I think it's recovered pretty well. It's perked up and looks sturdy. The line that's tied to it is no longer needed to keep it upright - it would be OK without it. It was dry, so I gave it a little bit of water a couple of hours ago. This is the first drink it's had in 4 days. Water didn't drain from the bottom - I didn't give it enough for that. I would like to ask whether anyone knows why the leaves would be curling down like this. This is new. Did I go too far in the other direction and wait too long to water it, or is this some other issue? Most of the larger leaves are curved like a claw. One or two are basically flat but curved inward at the tips. Here's one which is doing something unique from the others. The edges are curled in: A final question, this one about plant physiology. I mentioned earlier that I observed what I called a "seesawing" of the longest branch - alternating significantly in height. I've observed this behavior long enough now to see a pattern. It sits lower throughout the day. Then, when there's about an hour to go in its 'day', the branch rises significantly and stays that way until I wake up to go to work. This definitely seems to be part of a circadian rhythm. Does anyone know why that happens? This question comes purely from an interest in biology - I might learn something. :)