Ditto about goggles while weed whacking  also wear work shoes (not sandals) and preferably long pants. Take the time to reach for the right tool. Last year I bruised a tendon trying to pull a bunch of tough weeds with my bare hands. I often get poison ivy cleaning brush without gloves. Stand back and keep your legs out of the way doing any sort of chopping or slashing. Trim fence wires close or bend them back so that they can't poke or scratch. Kneel to do close-to-the-ground chores (weeding, harvesting, deadheading, catching slugs) rather than bending over and straining your back. Wear long pants so that you don't scrape your knees. (Always have a few pairs of pants that are clean enough to wear and unfancy enough that you don't mind getting the knees wet and muddy.) Check for bees before deadheading or picking flowers.

This is the same fungus that caused our second bird's death. The doc said he'd most likely had it since he was a chick, long before we bought him, and his species is particularly vulnerable to it. The odd thing is it wasn't in his respiratory system, but rather in the body cavity itself. Must have been introcuced through a puncture or something- they don't know. It's one of the few diseases that affect people & other animals too. A friend of mine told of someone else she knew that got very sick and almost died from an aspergillosis infection, and it was from compost that had her bird's droppings incorporated. I'm not saying it's spread by birds or anything like that, it was just a cooincidence. Litter that's used on cage floors can be perfect areas for it to breed, just like it would be for other small animals cages and in fact, compost. It's endemic, and we're all exposed, but when there's too much it can overwhelm a person or animal. So be careful out there! I don't like breathing in any kind of dust- as an asthmatic, it all gets me going. John, wonder if what that gardener had was a precursor to the MSRA infections. It's just a type of staph, and it's found all over the place. Maybe not if it was fungal, though, since staph's bacterial.

Since I already have Sigourney (given to me as a seedling), I ordered 4. Oh, how I wish I had enough money and space to get both collections! I got Kona Coast, The Thin Air, and two I have been watching since their maiden bloom in Curt's seedlings fields... Mother Upduff and Paradise Bar and Grill. I think P.Bar&G is much prettier than the photo he used in the catalog. Sort of a Jerry Hyatt with intense magenta eye. I had such a difficult time deciding which ones to get. I have a seedling out of Rock Lobster that looks somewhat similar to Mother Upduff. I have been crossing it to big spiders, like Bali Watercolor. I think there is a lot of potential in what we can get from crossing these intensely pinched things to spideries. Sigourney is SO different. It intensely pinches all the time, and has the most unusual throat. Not easily fertile, but does pass it's odd throat on to it's kids. I have always loved the unusual stuff. Walking Curt's seedling fields is quite an experience. From mini's to 6 feet tall, unreal patterns, and forms. He is really working on this new thing he calls frosting or fractilized edges. Kirlian Photography is the latest intro with this. One of it's parents, Photon Torpedo has given me the MOST unusual things! By far my favorite parent to date. I've never been a fan of the look that is so popular now - the big edges, the wide petals...things like ruby reds with huge yellow chicken fat... blech! But give me one of Curt's "out there" things and I am a happy camper. I also got Piece of my Heart last year, and can't wait to see it blooming here! I'm waiting for Illusive Phase Shifter to increase enough to get a piece of it. If you like the frosty, fractal edges, an older one, Masked Emotions, and also Touch of Faust are very nice, and not as expensive as these newer ones. okbt, you mentioned "Film Noir"... I have grown both parents for years. Through Dark Waters is one of my all time favorite purples. Terrific performer here - even though its in the perennial border and not in the daylily beds, so it doesn't have the best soil or conditions. I really wanted to order Unpredictable You - but last fall I got his Fad Gadget. They are half sibs and remind me a lot of each other, but Unpredictable You does tend to be a bit more..... unpredictable... in form. LOL. I am not one for having a flower look the same each day. I much prefer one that's going to show me a different face depending on what point in the bloom cycle it is, or the weather conditions. Since I try to keep my cultivars under 100 due to health reasons, having flowers that don't look the same each day makes each morning I go look at them a gift of wonder. In response to why he does not list bud counts - it's because so much depends on weather, watering and the gardener's soil condition. I know I have many daylilies that one year will have bud count of 10 and the next 35. I use very little fertilizer, and being on a well, only water when I absolutely have to. Curt grows in very highly organic soil, and has a huge pond that he waters out of. His plants almost always have better branching and bud count than when I grow them here. I do find that his plants over all are tough as nails though, considering that I treat them like garden perennials and not pampered babies.

Well, I went ahead with hiring a pro to re-brick where the hole was. I was able to find the same style brick but they had to special order it. Cost me about $50 for the bricks and $200 to have them installed. Unfortunately the bricklayer said he couldn't properly patch in the bricks near the window as he said it could cause the bricks above the hole to fail (some joints had already cracked above the hole), so he left it a straight shot there. He did patch them in on the right where he had to cut out some bricks. i think he did a pretty decent job. The mortar seems to be lightening since it was done last week. I thought it seemed too dark then but i guess it was still drying. Once I get the caulking off the bricks where the air conditioner was it will look better. I'll probaby also rub some dirt into the new bricks then hose them off to see if i can make them look a little dirtier like the old bricks. Here are a couple pix of the finished job... I'd considered trying to patch in the 4 bricks near the window to eliminate the straight line, but i'm not so sure anyone will even notice it. I could also try adding mortar there to bring the joints to the level of the bricks then painting it to look like the bricks I suppose. Just enough to make that line less obvious maybe. I don't know. For now I'll just leave it alone. Planning on trying to use a heat gun and wire brush to clean the caulking off.