Nancy (Sunshine 98) I am truely thankful for being one of your chosen winners. I can't thank you and everyone else, who are contributing seeds, enough for such a generous offer!! I can't wait to tell Jack on Christmas Eve (my family has him join all of us for Holidays) that I will be sowing, sowing and sowing these seeds which will help make it possible to create flower beds/spots for more of his neighbors and friends. Oh, I just called my sister that helped me this past summer with the gardens, to tell her the good news. She said she is ready and raring to help me again this coming spring/summer to plant. She and I can hardly wait!!!! She is upping our count of gardens too - whew it will be fun!! I will send you an email with my mailing address. Please let me know what else I need to supply. THANKS again to you all! Wishing many blossoms for many years to come to everyone here on the GardenWeb! Sandy Sandysgardens.

Hey ChickaDDD, I know what you mean about Chicklet's story. He sounds super natural or something. Sleeping on roof, resetting his own arm, Typhoon or something and his birthday. WOW. But like you said if it is true your are surely helping them and thats all that matters. I must have missed it when the unwelcoming committee killed a catbird chick. That is awful!!! And it is not FUN to get rid of HOSP. I dont know why they would say that and it makes me sick. I cant believe they said it was fun, that is disgusting and shows how stupid they are. I hope you dont dislike ME for it but I have seen them with my own eyes terrorize my other birds and not just the cavity nesters, but i dont enjoy it. I just want to save my other birds. They were after Braveheart today when he and Scardycat would try to feed their babies AND they are building two nests in two of my boxes right now :-( When papa tries to bring food they jump him and fall to the ground. It is just pure harassment and today i noticed his right eye was closed up. I dont think it was the HOSP because he was fighting two mockers today too and they probably got fed up with him getting in the middle and decided to kick him around awhile. My blue is insane they are twice his size. But now he will be at risk of hawk attack because he cant see from that side. Ahhhhhhh SIGH. I am having such stress this year with the bluebirds. I love them and all the birds except the HOSP and it is hard on me because I worry so about the birds. My other little sparrows are building in my holly bush that the robins used three times this year ( they were busy ), you know the little ones that i keep blowing there little babies out of the bush. So at least i know where they are this time and wont blow them out. Birds are so funny. She fusses at me every time i go out there but then builds her nest right in my back steps. Go figure :-) Why would they kill a catbird? I dont understand that, it must have been before i joined because i dont remember seeing it. Do you know what month and maybe i can go back and find that post. That is very disturbing, maybe they are just animal killers? Maybe they do enjoy it. They almost had me convinced that the house wrens were evil till Bet got on there. Maybe they kill all birds except bluebirds. That's sick :-( Well im glad you didn't have any little jets get confused and end up in your house today :-) Maybe they realized that outside is where they belong. Hopefully for you and your families sake. All summer without air conditioning is a horrible thought for me. You are a very strong and sweet person to sacrifice your comfort for the little jets. I bet Daisy was hot too with all that hair. My Mary is very hairy like that ( 4 layers of fur ) and she doesn't even like to be outside in the summer. We are very spoiled. Im glad your kitties got bored with the swifts, i know you were blaming yourself for the deaths but you didn't know they were coming so im glad all is good now :-) I better go because this is long but i know i could talk a lot more!!! LOL. She who is to long winded~~~~~~~Bonnie

Yeah Marcia, what's that old Ben Franklin quote ? " An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure " ? Smart guy that 'ol Ben. I wasn't even new to Florida as such when those new trees died, - originally moved from New York City to the Upper Keys where I lived for 13 yrs before moving here. But living in the Keys is like living in The Wizard of Oz Land as far as gardening goes. Growing mango trees was so easy there, got complacent, but woke up quickly after moving here ! ( smile ) My 2nd set of mango trees all had Christmass tee lights strung thru them Nov 1st to March 1st. Even had some old sheets to build a small tent over each if it got really bad. Lost no more fruit trees to cold nights after that ! Don't want to sound like I'm complaining tho,..far from it. Was out early ( 7:05 AM ) this morning putting my big garbage bin at the curb and had to pause and take in the scene. Only 58 degrees, - brisk, but I loved it. Sun just peeping over the eastern horizon, casting a warm looking glow to the lawn. But wait, - something different,..NO WIND for a change ! Love being a retiree in SW Florida,...those concrete canyons of NYC are just a faint memory now ! TBTG ! C'mon Mother Nature, try throwing another curve ball at me, will be ready this time ! ( smile )

Hi, I am a mother of two small children who are 4 and 6 now. They were 3 and 4 at the time. I got my kids two puppies to grow up with. They were 6 weeks old at the time. One day when they were about 7 months old. I had to leave, left them outside. I have one of those underground fences and they were trained by it. When I got home, it was dark. I got the kids in the house and went outside to call the dogs. I called and I called and no dogs came running. Finally after about 30 minutes of calling, I heard a rustling in the property next to me. I came in and got a flash light, went running over there, found them both, barely breathing, barely able to move. I brought them in the house and spent an hour on the phone with my vet explaining how they were acting. Finally after not getting an improvement, I loaded up my kids and the dogs and headed for the vets office. We get there and they ran tests for Parvo, sure enough, Parvo, I had to have them put down. My kids were both crying as well as me. We were all VERY attached to them. My vet asked me if I wanted them cremated or if I wanted to take them home and bury them for the kids. I decided to take them home and bury them for the kids. This was decided after talking with my children for 20 minutes. Now its like 4 in the morning. The vet and I loaded their lifeless bodies into the trunk. The drive home was 45 minutes of answerng questions about where puppies go when they die. Got home around 5am. Tucked the kids into bed and told them we would take care of the puppies later. When we got up, I let the kids pick out a place in the back yard. All three of us together dug a hole big enough to place them both in because my kids didnt want to seperate them. After the hole was dug, I pulled my car around and unloaded them into the hole. The three of us covered them back up with the dirt. I let my kids find some rather large rocks to place around the grave. I still have plans to make a little "graveyard" in that area. You will see why when you read the next part. My daughter received a cat for a 5th birthday present. The cat was an outdoor cat so I left it that way. A couple months went by and she ended up having 4 kittens. My kids were exstatic. We fed the kitties daily, went out and played with them and watched them grow for about 5 months. My neighbors dog got out on accident and my daughter watched as the dog grabbed up one of the kittens and literally shook it to death. The kitten it happened to grab was her favorite. So, I took her and calmed her down and explained to her that her kitty is now in kitty heaven with her puppies and that her puppies were watching over her kitty and they were all playing together. This time, her and I dug a hole together. She wanted her right next to the pups. We placed her kitty in the hole and covered her. Again my daughter went to the rock pile and picked out rocks to place around the grave. To this day she goes out and "talks" to her animals and tells them she loves them and misses them and hopes they are ok. I just started doing landscape work in my yard and am in the progress of designing something to have a "memorial" affect to it. I will post again when finished and pics are available. Shells