Rickey, Of course it was Fred. Who else his age is out driving around visiting gardeners in the middle of the afternoon? LOL If you see Billy Fred, do see if you can find out what he knows because he may know more details. Nowadays, when I ask Fred "who" he is talking about, he often can't remember names and will say something like 'you know...that guy that lives over yonder' and, of course, I have no clue who he means. Having said that, I hope that when I am Fred's age (and I'm not sure what it is but think right around 90?) I still get around as well as he does. Sometimes I do have to get Billy Fred to tell me who his dad is talking about because, while Fred always seems to have his facts straight, he does have trouble remembering names now and then. I had wondered about those goats....about how he keeps them safe because I've never seen any kind of guardian dog like a Great Pyrenees out there with them. I heard a loud growling this morning from the woods oddly enough (and I was inside the house and it sounded like it was right there in the room with me!) and it about scared me to death. As far away as your house is from ours, it is odd we've both heard that growling sound recently. It isn't like we're so close geographically that we'd hear the same growl at the same time. I've never heard this sound before and I pretty much thought I'd heard everything there is to hear around here. The dogs were going nuts in their dog yard, and I ran downstairs and didn't see a thing, but the cats were on the porch wanting to come inside. After that growling sound, I canceled my plans to work in the yard. James, I feel like much of what you say is true, but we have both good and bad government employees and always will. I know sometimes the local wildlife people seem to say whatever the 'official' story line is but their eyes and body language are telling you something else. Our local law enforcement officers are pretty good about telling us to 'do what you have to do' to stay safe, because they know they can't be everywhere at once. They also come as quickly as they can when called, but with only 1 or 2 or 3 county deputies/reserve deputies on duty at a time, their response time can be frustratingly slow. Game bird, I promise, if you tell me you see three dinosaurs crossing the road, I'll believe you. And. on a funnier note....Chris was 15 when we moved here and had a huge iguana named Alex. He built Alex a nice roomy outdoor pen, but somehow Alex would escape and run around although he always came back to the cage when he was hungry. We alerted our neighbors, and I showed Alex to Bill one day. We were watching Alex from the road and he climbed to the top of the pecan tree, which was then losing its leaves for autumn, so you could see Alex very clearly. At that point he was about 5' long. When Bill saw him, he said he needed to warn his wife and daughters because he feared they'd about run off the road and wreck their vehicles if Alex ever ran out into the road in front of them. Bill was afraid the women in his family would think Alex was an alligator. Carol, I do think a lot of people know exactly how to play the system. Tim and Chris both work at D-FW Airport, which is incorporated just like a city, and has a large Department of Public Safety consisting of police, fire and emergency medical personnel employees. Their department has several hundred employees and most are wonderful, but there are a couple that of virtually worthless. How people like that keep their jobs is just beyond me. Dawn

Jay That's the one! And just yesterday, my Interface on AOL had the video of Ann Heile's ordeal about the Mountain Lion attack she survived although with terrible disfiguration of her face, and multiple reconstruction surgeries. I know she and her family are just thanking God she survived. It could easily have been fatal. If we are going to have to live with these predators, we'd all be well advised to know what to do, 'in case of'. I'm asking my son to please be armed and alert when camping and treking in the wildernesses where he often goes, in NM, Utah and Wyoming. Ann's video can be seen on this link. It's shocking. I must say, she seems to be a great lady, and very lucky to be alive. Barb Here is a link that might be useful: Video of Ann Heile's account of Cougar attack

Angie the schools have a 2 hour delay it is crazy I live fairly close to the city and it is crazy everwhere and my daughter goes to Pitt but the Titusville campus boy am I glad she isn't at the main campus did you see all the craziness in oakland the fires in the street they are arresting some now. we do take the super bowl seriously I work in downtown Pittsburgh it will be rockiny tomorrow. Patty

Remy's package to me arrived today. What a big box and so full of all kinds of goodies! I tried to make a list so hopefully I have everything written down. Remy sent me Trachystemon orientalis, two daylilies (I looked up Ball Gown on the internet and I think it is Remy's picture of it shown in the example!), Helenium, an iris, a pulmonaria, Succisa pratensis, and Leontine Gervais Rose. That looks like such a beauty on Remy's blog. I hope it grows well for me. She also included some homemade applesauce (totally yum!), green tea, stevia, a pop-up vase, landscape gloves, and a tissue pack with flowers printed on them. Thanks so much, Remy. You really spoiled me! Jeanne