My husband and I moved a pile of logs to the burn pile on Saturday. I wanted to move the big old pine tree logs out of view and put them with my stump/root collection, but the ground by the stumps was mushy and the tractor sank at least six inches in the muck. I saw a barn swallow that evening. Sunday morning, I watched two more barn swallows catch bugs while my husband pulled multiflora rose, wild raspberries, Japanese barberry, and other noxious plants up from behind the rock wall to the east of our new yard. He threw it all on the burn pile for what I think may actually have been our last burn of the season. WHEW!!! After the fire went out, I harrowed the space in my new yard and just in front of the chicken coop. I cannot wait to cut down the stumps in the new yard and rent a grinder! Another harrowing and some dragging and it'll be ready for hay and flowers. I'm going to use hay for the lawn. This morning I harrowed the south field again, which is where I grow my crops. I managed to hook one of the garden posts in between the two rows of disks on the harrow, so I'll have to straighten that before I can hang the wire fence on it for my tomato trellis. I'm hoping to make enough compost this year to go to no-till in the garden from now on. At least then I wouldn't snag the posts again.

Dear Luke, I am so excited to tell you that I just found this link for you! (Only a plant person could get excited about a database, right?) This is a not-for-profit org, and I use the site ALL the time to look up every plant. And it's so perfect for you in Australia, since the database is global! And now I just discovered that you can download the whole thing. If you do, then you can just use the asci text version of the thing to import into your excel program. Here's how: Open Excel. File, Open, Files of Type: *.txt, highlight the file, Open, Type: Delimited, File Origin: Windows ANSI, Next, Delimiters: Tab, Text Qualifier: ", Next, Finish. If it does not work the first time, then continue to change the parameters, one at a time, like, try Delimiters: comma, etc. Well, I hope you find it useful. In the meantime, I will keep running around in circles in my empty room waving my arms in the air shouting, "I am a genius!" at the computer screen. :-> Very truly yours, Evelyn P.S. Thanks for the info about the software for the PDA. I would like to try that someday, now that I am in the league of the geniuses! Plants for a Future (PFAF) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html http://www.pfaf.org/database/D_obtain.html are a registered charity; we are compiling a database, which currently consists of approximately 7000 species of plants. We research and provide information on edible and otherwise useful plants suitable for growing outdoors in a temperate climate. Downloading the Database We offer several methods of downloading the database. Internet Download: Download now! Includes the latest Sept 03 version of the database and gallery of 400 photos. To download the database you first need to make a payment through PayPal once the payment has been made you will be taken to the download page. Just click on one of the images: Standard Home User: £35 $65 Low income/unwaged: £15 $27 Commercial: £100. $180 CD-ROM By Post: If you want us to send you the database on CD-ROM please write to: a minimum donation of £10 is required to cover our costs. We can only accept payment in pound sterling from UK bank acounts or payment via There are six versions of the database, all contain the same data, its only the interface which is different. The CDROM comes with all versions. Here is a link that might be useful: Plants for a Future Database

chase, I'm inclined to agree with you. My Mom cooked for us on a cast iron, coal-fired stove & she was a wonderful cook & baker. The only hot water we had in that Ely, Nevada house was the tub that hung off the side of the stove. OTOH, I am a much better cook than I was with my El Cheapo electric coil stove that was in this house before we redid the kitchen. I hated that thing. Either not hot enough or burnt. Would a fancy Wolf make me a better cook? I really don't know. If it was so nice to use that I cooked more frequently then it, probably, would improve my skills. Again, OTOH, my DSIL has that fancy Wolf & she doesn't cook anything but their personal chef enjoys the range. So, the Wolf hasn't made her a better cook. I think one can be a good cook no matter the range but it's easier learning on a better appliance. Just like any tools...better quality equals easier (if not better) results. /tricia

I got the curly hair story with burnt toast. That was back in the days when we didn't have pop-up toasters. By the way, if the crayons get forgotten in a pocket and you wash the clothes, and maybe even dry them, rewashing them with baking soda helps remove the crayon. However, it has been so many years ago this happened to me, I don't remember the amount of baking soda - probably half a box at least. My babies are 54, 52 and 50.