Thankful that, after borrowing my allowance ahead from Dad on a few occasions and having been forced to stretch the pennies for some months afterward, to heed Dad's advice that if I couldn't pay cash for something ... to not buy it: wait till later, when I had the cash on hand. And build up some cash on hand, available in case of need.They said on the radio the other day that many people, earning $100.00 ... are spending $160.00! One can't continue a hobby like that for any length of time, without getting badly burned! Dad taught mne to be a good neighbour ... and my boss told folks a couple of thousand years ago that we should love our neighbours as ourselves. Seems to me wise to be courteous, generous and kind to others, even to offering a smile to folks that we meet on the street, in the supermarket, etc. ... or making a friendly comment: usually I get a reply that includes at least a small portion of warmth, and oftern there's a smile that each carries away, to brighten one's day a bit. Seldom do I get that look that offers even a slight suggestion that it'd be a good idea were I to get lost! Dad used to say that he wanted to leave the farm better than he found it, and brother, the retired farmer, feels the same. Though they may not have articulated such, they'd say that they wanted to leave their community better than they found it, as well - and both did. I agree ... and my definition of community stretches to our province, nation and the wider world. We'll either learn to live together, showing concern for the welfareof others ... or we could well all die together. Years ago we were worried about being fried to a crisp with those horrendous bombs ... but now it appears that our demise may be brought about by wasting precious resources and causing massive global warming and pollution. Unless we smarten up. Those seem to be my major good things ... thus far. ole joyfuelled ... who's been known to dispense gas ... as well as burning it

Hi Becca My wife and I honeymooned on the south island 5 years ago, and the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch is the place to start! You will really enjoy NZ, because they grow things there year around that would be an anual here, thus the size of the plants is huge compared to what you would see here. We traveled to Queenstown from Christchurch, and back to Picton thru Greymouth on the west coast. My wife says that you will not be allowed to bring back live plant material, but you can buy seeds and bring them back. If your looking for a place to stay in Christchurch I highly recommend Buckingham Palace Hotel. Its a mom and pop operation as most hotels are in NZ. A tip on driving in NZ, as they drive on the other side of the road from us, is to follow behind someone........then you won't get into trouble, and watch yourself while crossing the street as you will naturaly look the wrong way when stepping off the curb and you can get run over that way, as I nearly did! I was told on my first trip that while God was making the world, he saved a small peice of everywhere and put those pieces together to make NZ. If you are luck enough to get to travel NZ you will see that its true. NZ is a beautiful place and so are the people. Bill

I garden not far from NHBabs, the colder edge of zone 5. Last night we had a Confection kabocha squash from Johnny's. It was so sweet! Unfortunately, Johnny's is replacing it with a "better" variety. I also like Delicata for an easy winter squash for 2 people. I don't care too much for the butternut varieties except there's a Baker's Creek Long neck butternut that was an excellent keeper. Didn't have the great flavor of Confection but I would grow it again. Favorite zucchini is Costata Romanesco, a striped variety. Productive and great flavor. Any swiss chard after it gets cold in the fall. We liked Provider Bush green beans until I started growing the filet varieties. Good production. I agree with Sugar Snap. They might get 7' tall and production is great. I've tried other varieties and don't get the same production. Tyee spinach planted as early as possible. Gilfeather Turnip, nice flavor but I think it's really a white rutabaga. Decided I like Hakurei turnips. Was surprised that they grew very well even though I hadn't thinned them probably. I had clusters of turnips. I really liked Fedco's Fingerling sampler except for the blue potatoes. I thought our grandchildren would love them but we can't get past the blue color. And this is supposed to be a very nutritious variety! Carmen for a frying pepper that usually turns red.

I'm so glad your dog is doing well and seems to be well on the road to recovery. We've had several cats bitten by copperheads and rattlers, and most of the dogs survive (even without a trip to the vet) and most of the cats do not. When we have a dog bitten on the snout, we immediately give it Benadryl (we keep the children's liquid type on hand so we can squirt it in their mouth with a medicine dropper) to prevent swelling. We do the same thing with a bite on the paw, where swelling could cut off blood circulation. Our big Rottweiler/Retrieve mix, Duke, was bit on his snout just above his nose by a timber rattler one day while Tim was at a fire on the interstate. He weighed 115 lbs. I managed to get him up close to the house, which was about 300' from where he got bit, but couldn't get him up the steps as he was getting glassy-eyes and woozy. I called Tim and he said he'd rush home as quickly as possible after they got the fire out and he told me to try to hold Duke upright because he felt like if Duke fell over, we'd lose him. I agreed because it seemed Duke was going into shock and fading fast. So, I sat there with that big dog leaning on me until Tim got home and gave Duke the Benadryl. Within a few minutes, you could see an improvement in his condition. He didn't eat for several days, but we got water into his mouth (with a turkey baster) and he slowly recovered. I had been so afraid that the swelling near his nose would interfere in his ability to breathe. We still have one living cat who survived a snake bite from a copperhead more than 10 years ago. It probably was closer to 12 or 13 years ago. His name is Shady (he had a brother named Slim and their mother was named Emimem after her father Emmit, lol) and after he was bitten, a circular copper-colored rash formed around the area on his body where he was bitten. That rash took months to fade, and hair never has covered over the scarred area. We never thought at that time that Shady would outlive his brother and his mother because his health was just pitiful for the longest time. He couldn't or wouldn't eat, and when he ate he didn't gain wait. Ultimately he made a full recovery but I bet it was a year or longer before it seemed like he was finally eating normally and gaining wait again. He's about 15 years old now and has no problem gaining weight at all. After Duke's rattlesnake bite, he was suspicious of anything snakelike for the rest of his life, and he was very cautious, so he did learn from it. He hated water hoses because he thought they might be snakes. He hated to walk past the place where he was bitten and would make a wide circle around that spot instead of walking right past it. I loved Duke and he was a great, faithful companion for many years. , We lost him to heart failure earlier this year, but he lived at least another 8 years after the snakebite and I was grateful for that. We had one cat, Spots, survive being bitten twice by a copperhead, about two or three years apart. The vet said a second bite likely would kill her but it didn't. A couple of years ago our mama cat, Ranger, got bitten in the head/face area and was nearly paralyzed. There is no reason she's still alive except that we had a cat specialist vet who simply would not give up on her. He kept her at the vet hospital for about a week and did everything under the sun to save her. He worked a miracle with her and saved her life and restored her health. I am so grateful for him, and it was worth every nickle because she's a very good cat who means a lot to us. He also did not charge us an arm and a leg for all the careful, time-consuming care that he gave her. Even after he finally let her come home, her face was paralyzed for weeks and she couldn't close her eyes. He told us he thought that the paralysis would fade, but he wasn't positive it would as he'd never seen a case exactly like hers. Eventually it did fade, though. For a while, she looked kind of like one of those Hollywood people who'd had a facelift that arched their eyebrows way too high to be real, you know, , but eventually the paralysis faded and her face returned to normal and she no longer looked like an aging Hollywood star with a face that is, um, abnormally tight. She'd go to into a closet so she could sleep, eyes open, in relative darkness, and I wouldn't let her go outside since she couldn't blink her eyes. I think she stayed paralyzed for at least a month, and didn't go outside until late fall after the snakes were hibernating for the winter. We try to teach our animals not to stick their heads into tall weeds or something where they cannot see if there's a snake there, but you know how animals are...the minute you turn your back, they are off in the tall grass in the fields where they shouldn't be. One year I walked outside and there was a timber rattler coiled up underneath the big pecan tree, with five cats sitting around it like Cub Scouts at a campfire. It was a horrible sight and I thought all 5 of them were about to get bitten. I got as close to them as I could and started throwing whatever I could find....a chicken feeder, a bucket, sticks, etc. at the cats to drive them away from the snake. I was calling them by name but they were mesmerized by the snake and were totally ignoring me. Then a neighbor came over and shot the snake. By then, I had the 5 cats safely indoors. How we got through that incident without a single cat being snake-bitten amazes me, and I felt bad for the snake....it had restrained itself and not harmed anyone but had to be shot anyway so it couldn't come back another day and maybe bite someone that time. It wasn't off in some obscure spot where you'd never encounter it again. It was right in the yard where we all spend a lot of time. Having venomous snakes around is just a nightmare. If I could change anything about living here in such a natural, wild location, it would be getting rid of the venomous snakes. A great local remedy for feeding an ailing pet after it is snakebitten is to mix together a raw egg and bacon grease and feed it to them. The family that farmed the land we now own used to do that when their animals were snakebitten. I try to feed it to the cat or dog as soon as possible after they are bitten. I don't think anything about it saves them from the venom or anything. Rather, it seems more likely that the bacon grease merely tempts them to eat the egg and the egg provides protein for them at a time when they don't feel like eating very much. I have noticed that if a snakebitten animal won't eat the bacon/egg mix, they are less likely to survive the snakebite, but then maybe that's just because their reaction to the venom is so strong that nothing would save them anyway. We have had friends whose expensive competition dogs have been bitten by rattlesnakes and they did not survive even with veterinary care. Sometimes the bite is just too much for the pet to overcome, the venom too strong or in such quantity, the location of the bite, etc, being something that cannot be overcome. One friend of ours, many years ago, took her two dogs to a snake aversion course offered at a local junior college near her. They used shock collars to train dogs to stay away from snakes. That may seem cruel to some, but its goal is to save the dogs lives by teaching them to avoid snakes. Her two dogs were her babies and she lived in a rocky area filled with snakes, so she was doing what she could to keep them safe.