Well the first place I headed in the general store was the notebook section and I got my self 2 books..i got a hardcover book with lined pages..and a sketch diary, a small sketchbook with medium weight blank drawing paper pages.. I too keep a regular diary in my remote control drawer by the t v and computer, i record temps, exercise, weight, things that happen during the day, etc..in this nearly every day, sometimes when i'm busy the pages stay blank, but i try. I also keep track of birthdays and appointments in this one. I also like josh have other notebooks..i have some that have squared off pages where i sketch out garden plans and ideas..i have spiral bound notebooks that i glue clippings into ..several..all with labels like "gardening" "sheds" "interior design" "baking recipes' "meal recipes" "self help" etc..i'm a real big note taker too. i have notes on a lot of my favorite books in notebooks..and i have notes in my books, i write in all my books and underline everything. but i have tried to do the hardbound garden diaries before and they are just too structured for me..as Josh says, i do them sporadically, i write down when i see my first robin, what plants i've grown that did really well for me, when the last hard frosts are and when the snow actually melts, when the first flowers are opening..anmd i try to go week by week in the growing season and make a list of what is blooming at the same time, mainly so i can know how to arrange my plants to a pleaseing garden someday..when i divide plants, i'll have a list of what else was blooming at the same time and maybe i can find a pink this that goes with a pink that in the new garden..etc. as far as lists..i keep in another notebook a list of each plant that i've ordered mail order, or lists of packets of seeds that i have bought and am ready to plant this year, a list of leftover seeds from last year and a list of what i want to buy..etc.. i think my purpose for this garden notebook is to be able to write my "garden" type thoughts of what is going on in my property that has really nothing to do with the rest of my life..in the house..etc..and something i can go back to. i have kept the same daily diary hardcover from the same plublisher every year for about 20 or so,they send them to me automatically, but they aren't really garden diaries..i wanted something that i could keep just for my gardening.. also i think the sketch book will be nice to have on the front porch to grab with some pencils or pastels so that i can draw whatever catches my fancy..as well, it isn't pretty, maybe I'll cover it with some pretty fabric or paper..why aren't sketchbooks pretty like the journals and hardback notebooks are that they sell..don't they think artists like pretty???? duh..i have some larger 8x11 sketchbooks, but i did want a grab size one that i can have handy rather than schlepping around big ones..too.

I can't speak for anyone else, Perenialfan, but I know for me the forum is simply the most convenient means of communication. Btw, there is a good chance that at least some of your questions been answered here on the forum. If you haven't already checked out this site's search engine, I highly recommend it. I have discovered some useful info by doing so. Happy growing!

Thank you so much everyone!! A tattoo on the big toe! I think that that would hurt 80 million times more than these did! It wasn't that brave Terri. It only took maybe 20 minutes to a half hour. And a lot of wincing. LOL Stacy, do you like shopping for shoes? My foot is a nine and WIDE so I hate shoe shopping. I only go when absolutely necessary. Blech. :) I haven't named them Flamey, BUT the girls have claimed one each. Claire insists on the littlest one even though she's not my littlest girl. But that's okay. :) So Kim does it hurt less on say the back or leg because I was thinking that there was NO WAY that I could sit for hours of that. It was ouchie. :D Thanks again everyone! I love how they turned out. Danielle

Johnny, I wish we had had someone plow our entire property when we bought it, because then I would have done the same thing. As it is, I just dig it when I can and dispose of the roots in black trash bags. Despite the fact that my husband is our local fire chief and my son is a professional firefighter, we don't burn brush often. In fact, it probably has been 5-7 years since we've burned it. For most brush, I pile it up, hugelkultur-style on badly eroded areas, and keep adding to those brush piles for years, but I don't put Johnson grass roots there. Eventually the hugelkultur brush pile decomposes to the point that the once eroded area is now filled in with a rich compost/humus from the years of piling on the brush, and then the native plants return to that area on their own. If they don't, I collect seeds of native grasses and forbs from the pasture and scatter them over the newly healed area. It makes me happy to see once-eroded areas that featured ugly red clay eventually return to native grassland. Dorothy, I have let it grow on the west side of the new back garden for the same reason. I figured if the hoppers could stay there, maybe they'd bother the new garden less. I am not thoroughly convinced it worked. Once rain started falling in June last year, that stuff really started growing and hit about 8' in height. I hated it as it started to invade the garden, where I'd largely dug out all of it the year before. This year (and I haven't done it yet) I may try smothering it with black plastic held down to the ground with U-shaped staples sold for use with landscape fabric. I might be accidentally creating a snake haven underneath that black plastic, but the back garden has a major vole issue, so if snakes were living underneath that black plastic just outside the garden fence, then maybe they'd spend some time eating voles. That would be a win-win situation for me. However, what I fear will happen is that the Johnson grass will just move into the back garden even more. Scott, I think we ended up right where we were meant to be. I love this land and I love all the friends we've made here. It is a perfect fit for us, but I hate the Johnson grass. Everyone lets it grow and run wild here, so we'll never be rid of it. I just try to keep it out of the places on our property that we try to keep looking civilized. With the Johnson grass, and I cannot remember the exact details, but the prussic acid builds up after a particular set of circumstances occurs in a specific order. I think there's two or three different ways. George, Oh, you know how it is, everyone here lets livestock graze on it but then the experienced ranchers do know (most of the time) when to pull the cattle out of a pasture with a lot of Johnson grass so they can avoid the poisoning. It is when a rancher guesses wrong, or the cows escape their pasture and graze on Johnson grass alongside the road when they shouldn't that the cows die. They also cut and bale it as part of their hay crop, as you mentioned. I know that some of the stresses that can cause the poisoning include drought, freezing weather and excessive nitrogen in the soil. Oh, and excessive moisture. One of the most dangerous times for cattle is immediately after you've cut and baled it (usually the first cutting, which normally is in May here) when there is enough available nitrogen and enough soil moisture that the Johnson grass makes quick, lush growth. I believe that is what happened with the cases our vet saw last year on the day we were in his office. We'd finally had rainfall return here in a big way after months of drought, and everything grew like mad. Dawn