Papou--I still am praying for you and I hope your most recent scan proves to be very good for you and that you get to go to Florida and enjoy the sunshine there this winter! How did you pick Margate to winter over in, out of all of Florida? I grew up in Ocala/Silver Springs and lived there till I married and moved up NORTH!! :O) Joyce--that is some SERIOUS SNOW!!! I confess that I still love the snow after all these many years of living up NORTH! Beats the dreary gray skies we have if there isn't any on the ground!! It always seems like a good reason for me to curl up with a fire and a good book and let all the other 'dailies' take a rest! Carol--I've been too busy to really do any jewelry making but I hope I will finally get back 'at it' before too long--but I do have LOTS to do in the meantime! Good news--the baby has finally turned in the right direction--thank You, Lord and if he doesn't get going before next Monday, the 26th, the doctor insists she will induce her!! Our daughter does not want to do that so we are praying he will "come on down" before then!!! I love the idea of making organic soap!!! I know that could be really fun and profitable if you choose to sell them!!! I love the scent of hyacinths, jasmine, lilac and honeysuckle, peonies, lily of the valley, and..... 'Plantaginea' ;o) just in case you need any suggestions of fragrances! :o) Char--I've been wanting to do one of those penny bowling balls, myself and even have all the pennies to do it and I'm sure I have a bowling ball stored in the top of our garage, too! Please post a pic. of yours when it's done! I even have the instructions on making one---somewhere on this computer!!! Oh, Connie--hope you see this before you leave us---I bought the 'Fishdom' game (CD) from Amazon for $12.99 plus shipping--unless you buy something else to bring the amount up to $25, then it's free shipping!! Beats paying more for it online, especially if you want the back-up CD with it!!! Love that little game--way too much!!!! So good to hear from you all, and Papou--I hope and pray to hear more good things from you, before long!!

Last year, I bought a feeder at the store that was made of green glass, and shaped like a pear with a hole at the bottom. There was a black rubber stopper stuck in the bottom of the glass pear. The stopper had a hole in its center, and an angled glass tube was inserted into this hole and hung downward. The end of the glass tube had a collar of red plastic. It was cute looking, but what a terrible feeder! The vacuum inside the glass receptacle prevented the solution from travelling down the tube, and the tube was so long that it would take millions of years of hummingbird evolution to find a bird that would evolve a bill shape to use it. Their bill would have to be curved upward, like a godwit or something! Anyway, I got so disgusted with this that I decided to make my own feeder. I got a small glass liquor bottle (maybe 4 oz or so) and found a red rubber stopper at Wild Birds Unlimited. The stopper fit perfectly into the opening of the bottle and had a hole in the center that was meant to receive a bent glass tube. Instead of using the tube, I made a flower out of Sculpey clay (or is it, Sculpy?) and poked a skinny hole in the center of the flower with a bamboo skewer that seemed the right size. The sculpey clay itself is supposed to be non-toxic, and I glued it to the red rubber stopper with epoxy. The epoxy is on the outside, and never touches the solution. Finally, I found some very fine gold wire and fashioned a sort of harness to hold the bottle. The bottle hangs diagonally downward at an angle of maybe 45 degrees, or a bit less. The ants I have trouble with are great big carpenter ants (man, can they bite!) and they are too large and clumsy to climb down my very slender gold jeweller's wire. I don't know if it would work with tiny ants, but I haven't seen a single ant on the feeder, so it seems to be working. The feeder is small enough that the nectar gets used up quickly, so I seldom have to worry about nectar going sour. When I do clean it, I just pop off the stopper/flower and toss it, and the bottle into a pot of boiling water. Easy! To be sure, there are more elegant feeders to be found, but the hummers seem very comfortable with it. The sugar solution stays up in the bottle, and the bumblebees that have visited it seem to have trouble reaching the solution, so don't linger. The hummingbirds, with their longer bills, have no trouble at all, and just probe deeply inside to get at the sugar water. My fake sculpey flower looks kind of like a cardinal climber flower, and I guess it's convincing enough that the hummers have no trouble seeing it as a possible food source.

Thank you all for your responses! Sorry I didn't get back until now. Was babysitting a 2 yr old, who hid the cordless mouse, LOL. Just replaced it today. *punk* :) My boys are 12, 10, 7 and 5. So I know things like star's houses and such won't be a real thrill. We were set to be there from the 3rd. We get there late, so that day is a wash. We were flying out on the 10th, at 2:30. So, can't do much that day, either. We've now decided to have my husband stay another 3 days, then return home. (work calls) And the kids and I are going to stay another TEN days! Yikes! I'm excited, but I know I'll be home sick. And especially miss my dogs, and friends. But, seeing friends I haven't seen in 13 yrs will hopefully keep me going :) That, and we really don't have any real reason to come home. We spend almost every day hanging out at the local water park. So, we can now chill at the beach :) I don't work, kids are finally free of any practices, or activities. So, we now have more days to do things. I'd still like to relax some. And not HAVE to do something every day. I know we'll all burn out soon if every day is go, go, go. Some suggested Santa Monica, so that's now on the agenda. Leo Carillo sounds very cool! We're also playing a train trip to San Diego for Sea World. (then my 12 yr old is staying on another wk with his aunt. And going back there to Lego Land) We were thinking about Catalina Island. Is that worth it?? I believe we'll take in an Angel's game on Wed, which should be neat for my baseball players :) They've seen our new minor league team play, but never a major league game. Oh, and Griffith Park Observatory ...that's something else we're thinking about. Man, I'll be anxious to get home to relax, lol. I appreciate everyone's suggestions!!! thanks!

Vacations and healthy gardens are difficult to juggle without extensive "planning ahead". So for many, the vacation moves to non-gardening times of the year. That way you get the best of both. Planning ahead allows you to incorporate auto watering set-ups into your gardening; either someone to cover for you or auto water timers attached to in-place drip tape or soaker hose or even sprinklers. Even the most inexpensive auto-timer can take care of all but huge garden plots for you and when the garden is heavily mulched and deep watered from the beginning of the season, one week of no attention is no problem when it comes to water. Pests and disease issues can still run wild when there is no attention but the plants won't lack water. :) Dave