The summer temps seemed to be about normal here, from what I remember. I'm guessing I ran the AC about a normal amount of days. A wet spring...good for digging out the Star of Bethlehem bulbs until the foliage went dormant in early May. A wet summer. The grass stayed nice and green, never browning out and going into summer dormancy as it usually does. The Con side of it though was there was no reprieve from mowing all summer. No watering was necessary for anything that was planted in the ground, at least not after things being initially planted out. The Con is that I have 2 big pot ghettos, one of sun plants, and one of shade plants that had to be watered a good bit in spite of all the precipitation. With so much rain, there was a lot of times that weeding was so easy, with weeds coming out so easily as opposed to breaking off due to hard dry clay. The Con was that if I didn't immediately Preen and/or mulch immediately after weeding, weed seeds sprouted almost immediately. Normal (or a bit above) temps are predicted for today and Wed with no precipitation, just perfect for weeding, Preening, mulching, spraying, edging, mowing, pruning things back and cleaning up some beds and the veggie garden. I'll just keep chugging away, trying to get everything done that I have been behind on all season. I also have hundreds of new daffodils to be planted. I haven't counted them just yet, but think I have probably acquired over 200 new (to me) named cultivars this summer and fall. Whoo-Hoo...looking forward to Winter Sowing and then spring blooms, especially Daffodils! Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast Here is a link that might be useful: Get your weather sticker here. I save the code to a word document for convenience

Hi pirate girl! I frequent the Hoya forum quite often. I purchased a lot of my Hoyas from EBay... But purchased two supposed EA lacunosas from big box retailers that look completely different from each other. I received an ID from the Hoya forum of my dark green as Ruby Sue and the lighter I was just guessing as Tove. You know how spotty their labeling can be. The Aeoniums that have the larger more sporadic looking leaves were labeled as "Voodoo" and listed two parent plants with Schwarzkopf being one of them. The other more bushy aeonium was purchased from an eBay seller in San Diego calling it Blushing Beauty... Not sure on that one. I have tried to be very precautious with the Hindu Rope as well as all of the clearance bin babies. Most I have systemically sprayed with a Neem/Soap/Alcohol mix I found in the Hoya forum. Admittedly, it is a pain in the rear!!! And I'm sure the Echeveria will only be tolerant of sprays if they are few and far between. The Aeoniums don't seem to mind at all. I realize it's a gamble, but they just won't make it outside in a N TX winter. I'm crossing my fingers!!! Anyhow, thank you for the advice and info. And thank you, thank you to Kathi and Hoovb! ~Sara

Susan, The nice thing is that she can be whatever she wants to be as long as she's willing to work for it. When my now 24-year-old niece was 3-years-old, Tim asked her "What do you want to be when you grow up?" and she replied "Barbie!" Well, she didn't grow up to be a Barbie doll after all, but she is a mom herself now and that was her real dream all along. Chipotle heat varies depending on which kind of jalapenos you use to make them. Chipotles are just roasted jalapenos and you can roast them in the oven or on the grill. I freeze them but they also can be canned in adobo sauce. It sounds like you had an amazingly successful butterfly year. After having very low butterfly numbers in 2008, everything seemed to return to normal this year, and I still have tons of butterflies here in the first week of November. There are all kinds, but especially the sulphurs. In August and September, it was mostly swallowtails. If I pay attention to what is going on around me, I'll see butterflies here almost every month of the year....although not too many in January and early February. I am not sure about the grasshopppers for 2010. We saw their population make a strong resurgence all over Oklahoma this year but we won't know for 2-4 more months if their numbers will climb higher and peak in 2010 (likely) or if 2009 was a peak. A very cold and very wet winter works against them, so let's hope for 'cold', since the El Nino pattern more or less guarantees 'wet'. For us here in southern OK, there are years we start seeing grasshoppers hatching out at the very end of January or in earliest February. In a year when that happens, I make a mental note to buy one of the natural baits with nosema locuste (Grasshopper Attack or Semaspore or Nolo Bait) in it and scatter some once the hoppers are 1/4 to 1/2" long. It kills them quickly when they are in the younger instars. I only put out a little if I am seeing early hatchings, but I put out more every couple of weeks through about early May. If you can catch them early, they are easy to deal with. If I don't see a lot of grasshoppers hatching out until March or early April, that's a good sign and likely we'll have lower populations. So, by mid-Spring, we'll know for sure. And, of course, it goes without saying that there's not much we can do about the other grasshoppers that migrate into our yards during the summer since they grew up elsewhere, but I do think it helps if you've been able to keep the native population very low before the migrating ones arrive. Because grasshoppers were bad, blister beetles were bad too, although they were bad late. The blister beetles eat a lot of things, and I believe grasshopper eggs are one of their food sources. So, if we are seeing lots of hoppers, we'll have to brace ourselves for lots of blister beetles. We had prolonged heat in part of July and part of August which did make those water bills pretty high, but the rest of the year the water bill was just a dream. The important thing was that the rain came along every so often and kept the garden in heavy production a lot longer than normal. I can justify the high water bill if I'm harvesting oodles of produce, which I was. For once, I didn't have to just give up on watering and walk away and let the drought take the garden from me, so it was very nice. The amazing thing about our rain, Susan.....here in Love County we had 23" in 2008 and, so far, about 48" in 2009. I guess you can see where our average annual rainfall (36-38") comes from. I have to say that I prefer the 48" years to the 23" years. Grandkids are fun. We just should have had them first! Dawn

When I quit I learned one thing: You will NOT quit until YOU WANT to quit. That's the number one thing. What works for one won't work for another. Money was a big motivator for me. At the time I decided to quit I knew I was going to be quitting my job soon and the discounts I got on cigarettes would end. And at one point I was around 5 packs a day and just went, nope, won't be paying that much. I liked the taste of a cigarette (and do to this day) but it simply was not worth it. Smoking is more habit than anything else. Break your routine. I quit smoking at home first, then quit at work, then quit in the vehicle. That was the toughest part. Get in and reach for a smoke. But when I did a simple adjustment like moving the cigarettes to a different pocket and started noticing my hand in an empty pocket, I realized just how much it's habit. Working in the garage really gave an urge. But when I realized it was the habit it became much easier to deal with. Like with a diet or many other things, what works for one isn't for everyone. You need to find your motivator and use it to your advantage. Once I truly decided I WANTED to quit, the quitting part wasn't very difficult. The tough part is convincing oneself that you want to quit. Good luck finding what works for you. Once you do, you're almost home.