How cruel you are! First you let that poor plant get attacked by a dog, now you want to get rid of it. I bet those thorns aren't as atrocious as the dogs teeth. If the dog hasn't learnt that the plant has thorns, it must be very stupid - so get rid of the dog. Triphasia trifolia isn't Australian. Native to South East Asia, mostly Indonesia. Also, the Limeberry I spoke to didn't like being called weird.

When we have a county burn ban, our commissioners usually lift it once our KBDI drops below 600. I don't know that the OFS uses that same criteria when making recommendations to Gov. Fallin, but I have been expecting them to lift the ban for some counties for a couple of weeks now, so the move didn't surprise me. We are having small fires in our county, but nothing that has gotten the least bit rowdy or out-of-control lately, so I think that they could lift even our burn ban (our KBDI is 661 this morning) right now (which they did not), and we wouldn't have serious wildfire trouble at this point in time. The trouble will come after you have a few frosts and killing freezes if it is still very dry and then you have all that dry, standing vegetation which will burn easily whether it is dead annual vegetation or dormant perennial vegetation. We need to have a really wet fall and winter so that the winter fire season isn't bad. Nothing about our soil is in good shape, Larry, except where I've been watering in the veggie garden and around the fruit trees. We're starting to see cracks in the soil near the house where we haven't had them before, so today and tomorrow I'm going to try to water long and hard in those areas to try and get those cracks to close back up. I'll probably have to water a while, let it soak in, then water again, etc. You know how hard it is to get clay to absorb water when it is rock-hard. Carol, I imagine it will be a real relief to everyone to be able to burn that piled up wood from the big storm that hit your area. As long as it is sitting there, it is such a fire hazard. I'd rather be able to burn that stuff deliberately and have it under control than to have a raging wildfire burn through the area and get it. Some of the Texas counties have been lifting their burn bans here and there along the river. One county made the announcement lifting their burn ban, then said that people should NOT go out and burn brush or do prescribed burning of land for brush removal because it still was too dry to burn. That made me wonder why they lifted the burn ban if they were going to stand there and say "but don't do any burning". That whole thing made no sense. Dawn

Plant is grown in MG, and terracotta. Watered consistently with either distilled or spring water. Dilute african violet fertilizer added to 3/4 waterings, the 'every time you water' dilution. Grown in a north window under a grow light. Fan on in room 24/7. Periodically has trouble with powdery mildew. Humidity stays between 45% and 60%. Thermostat set at 68. Temperature variances due to both cold windowpane and electric heat register below the window (not forced air), which the fan circulates. NOT on windowsill. Plants on windowsill are unaffected and healthy. This post was edited by Lauraeli on Thu, Jan 8, 15 at 1:30

Hi Deb, Based on the insulation I think it is safe to assume that this is a cable for something other than lethal voltage carrying cable. Better safe than sorry though. A service call from a Licensed Electrical Contractor will confirm and identify the cable. All cables are manufactured to specifications allowing them to function correctly. There will be a proper splice/repair kit for your cable. It also needs to be reburied at least to the minimum depth (18” here in Ontario). All wrapping a damaged cable in any kind of tape will do is put the proper repair off until the future when it will be difficult to find the problem area and be more expensive. I hope this is of some value to you. Terry Carman www.theshockdoctors.ca