"Hail in Vista? wow!" Just a comment on the above remark - Hail can happen anywhere and is NOT stricly cold winter precipitation like snow. I'm originally from the east, now in CA, and notice many people here think of hail almost in same terms as snow. This is a misconception. In fact, it's very common to hail in the midwest and east coast during intense summer thunderstorms when it's 80 or 90 degrees outside! Hail is formed in very high altitude storm clouds where the temperature is below 32. The moisture in the clouds swirls around turning to ice then eventually falls to earth in the form of small ice balls (hail). So hail can technically fall anytime of the year in places that don't ever get snow such as Vista.

Yours were not the only weather bones making complaints. I told several people that this was not going to be pleasant. We had a forecast of over 1/4 inch rain today, getting icky tonight. Well, it was about 35F, raining, soaking everything thoroughly after lightning and thunder and a good bit last night. Next thing I know that rain was WHITE! Over half an inch of white rain later, it decided to get "clear" again, and now it's coloring up again. IT IS APRIL darn it! All my daffodils are lying face down in their beds! Now that I think of it, I might go bry my head in my bed too!

I can help with that. I used pure sand to cover my washed out limestone soil when we moved in in 1992. After many years of being on an organic program my sand has enough dark matter in it to trick you into thinking it is dark soil. I know the sand is still pure white because I tested it during a remodeling job a couple years ago. The contractor dug up an old walk way through the back yard and I was surprised to see the very dark brown color of the soil under the St Augustine. I scooped some up and dropped it into a glass of water. The white sand dropped to the bottom of the glass immediately. Most of the brown stuff floated and there was some brown discoloration of the water. I used compost once on this yard in the late 90s. The sand came to me originally as a 50:50 mix with "compost" which was extremely hot at the time. It was basically sand and horse manure. Since 2002 I've used corn meal, alfalfa pellets, and corn gluten meal. That's all. The soil looks pretty rich but it really is only sand and the composted remains of roots, leaves, grass clippings, and whatever I've applied. Does that help?

1 Daff opened today; a beautiful orangey-red little flower close to ground [not crocus, but don't know what since this is our first spring in the house and except for the bulbs I planted in Fall, don't know what's planted]. But best sign yet...calving started 2 days ago in the field next to our house...5 so far and lots more coming I'd imagine!1