Thanks, everyone. The pics of the spicebush swallowtail butterfly, on a piece of kyanite, were taken at my current residence and personal gardens. In the pic below you can get a little better view of the property, which is about five to eight hundred yards from the San Jacinto River, it is heavily wooded, mostly thick but some open area with Turk's Cap Hibiscus and palmettos among other various trees. The adjacent property has a small winding field with lots of Monarda. There is also some False-Aloe, Manfreda, growing along the abandoned road that I hope to develop an educational wildlife trail along. One of the times I was down there scouting out the area, up on bluff overlooking the river, there was an area with lots of Passiflora incarnata growing and swarms of pipevine swallowtails fluttering around. I was trying to get a positive ID on an Aristolochia, but no such luck. However, I had a pretty strong feeling that there was some in the area. Can you all see the video with the Louisiana Milk Snake, Lampropeltis triangulum amaura ? It has a cool bird calling in the background. Can anyone identify the bird? Here is a link that might be useful: Milksnake Video

Don, no I have two other Fortunei Hyacinthinas. One is much smaller than this, and has a dark leaf too. The other is a smaller one and it has really light colored leaves. I'm always looking for different sources to check these highly reproductive specimens in the hosta world, to see if they start evolving to a different plant under different conditions. Here are six of those shown above in the last wagon on its way to the Back40 and some good shade. Note the size of the pots, and most of those sticks go to the bottom of the pot, measure about 36 inches long, and thus you can guess height of pot and hosta. I chose the two deeper pots because of the length of the roots on those two hosta. What I was doing after the potting job was completed. Laid back. Would you believe first thing I had to do this morning was repair damage done by the neighbor's cat, who dug into every one of the pots? I think it was the smell of the crab shells, eh? I had no damage done to the ones already ferried into the Back40 shade, so it was not squirrels. The cayenne pepper gets added to these, soft potting mix is too tempting to diggers. The last wagon load ready to locate in the shady Back40. Now I must get the name tags on the plants, all 22 from Jim, all 2 from Mason Hollow, all 4+1 from Hallson, and 1 Sam Spade from Ed Schulz....put on the skeeter repellent, and go for it. Gesila, I'll make a point to get Tijuana Brass pictured for you in its pot. Thanks for looking.

Hey there Civil Enger TN -- I'm a EE in MD. Live near the water. I'm fairly sure you are hearing a water bird (not a frog.) Here they are grey, long beak, long skinny legs, body around 14" or so and wingspan probably twice that. Agree with the start-up whistle but the croaking is gross at times and resembles a large animal gagging I think. Have not looked up the type bird but I'm betting that is what you are hearing.

I am so looking forward to blazing up the insert for the first time. I got an oxyacetylene torch today and cut out some of the old damper. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get a 350 pound insert up an outdoor flight of concrete stairs. Well, the installation should be interesting. The "flex" pipe is very rigid, so it'll be interesting getting it through the offset and then through the damper gap I created. Anyway, I keep looking out at the wood wondering if it'll be enough. I plan to insulate my attics with this cool "Cocoon" stuff I found at Lowes. If anybody is interested in insulating their attic, here are the specs on the stuff . . . Made from recycled newsprint. Better R value and Fire resistance than fiberglass. Helps seal air leaks. Buy bails of the stuff, feed into a hopper outside, up a hose, and spray into the attic. Best of all? The stuff is about 1/2 the price of the pink insulation, and I really, really hate working with the pink stuff. So I figure I'm going to insulate and hope that helps with the insert effectiveness because . . . The 3-4 cords I have doesn't seem like it's going to be enough. Fired up the old gas furnace for the first time. I could not believe what 180,000 btus of gas looks like. It's a monster flame! Rambling done.