Our First Ever Hummingbird. On the way to the Kitchen tonight I saw a tiny bird fly in and land on our hummingbird feeder. About the only detail I saw looked like a flash of yellow. As I crept closer to the French doors that open onto the deck, the tiny thing saw me and darted away. Wings were a blur but it could certainly move fast. I suspect that it will get used to us eventually. We had figured they hadn't found us yet but there it was. I should have changed the food two days ago so I got out there right away and change it out for some fresh food. At least the food is no longer just going to waste as we empty it out. But it was quite exciting to get our very first ever hummingbird. The feeder was a bit low on solution, too so I think that perhaps they have been working on it for a few days and we didn't realize it. It's cleaned out and fresh now so I'll be tracking it over the next few days to see if they drain it down. At some point I'll set up a film camera on a tripod with a remote release and try to get a close up photograph of one on the feeder.

My hummers disappeared for a while, presumably nesting and concentrating on insects for the babies, although they may also have been nectaring on the rhododendron mountains up the street. Now they're back, and I see them every day at the feeder. They don't stay at the feeder for long, they just take a few sips and zip off to the flowers. The meadow phlox are blooming now and the hummers love them. Re orioles: There are myriad ways of feeding oranges and jelly; you can buy fancy feeders but they're not necessary. One easy way is to hang an orange half from a hook, or impale it on a stick. The bird will eat out the orange flesh, then you can fill the empty rind with grape or other jelly. You can also put jelly in a bowl on a deck railing. I've put orange slices in a wire suet feeder and the orioles were happy. Catbirds like the oranges and jelly too. I have photos of different methods I've tried, but I'm hesitant to slow up this thread. Claire

Here I am adding more info from the literature review and my own experiments for those interested in this vegetable. Clusterbean also called Gavar/Guar/Guwar/Guvar bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L. Taub.) is a self pollinated, multipurpose, drought resistant, and restorative annual leguminous vegetable crop. Green and tender pods of cluster bean are used as a popular vegetable in many parts of India and Africa and some part of the SE Asia. It is also grown as a forage crop as well as green manure. It has great It has soil-enriching properties since it is a legume used for reclamation of saline and alkaline soils. It is said to be extremely drought-tolerant and grows well in arid and semiarid regions with little moisture. Too much moisture will leads to more vegetative growth and less pods. I found that this crop not new to southern states, but has been cultivating more for gaur gum, has wide variety of food and non-food uses. Gaur gum is used in gluten free food! It is one of the best food thickening agent, almost eight times as powerful as cornstarch for thickening applications. It is quite easy to cultivate. I did couple of experiment on its performance by sowing seeds in early spring and early summer (never tried as fall cop), transplanting vs direct sowing, limited water vs regular water in the last three years but with limited no. of plants with uneven replications, so statistically saying my results are not scientifically sound. Here what I found- it does well if directly sown seeds in mid-summer, I usually sown here in Norman around first week of June. It is good succession crop after you harvest your spring crop. Even you won't like it as a vegetable but as a soil improvement or green manure crop. It also suppresses the summer weeds in the vacant beds. Cluster bean seedlings are too sensitive to transplant shock, plants will get stunted and reduce yield significantly. However if you follows Dawn's paper cup trick of planting entire cup then it will not have any impact. I tried that this year with direct sowing and cup transplanting. Both seem to be growing well, but with cup I started a week early, they have couple of extra leaves. This year, I am also thinking plant second batch in late July as it is kind of a short day crop, I observed that number of pods per cluster keep increasing and taste better when day length shortens. Expect bountiful harvest from August to until first frost. It is very frost tender crop, little frost will kill entire crop. So harvest all pod when there frost forecast. Green pods store pretty well in freezer. I not found any difference in taste with fresh and frozen. We are still eating last year's harvest. I will keep adding if come across any interesting info about this vegetable. -Chandra

It is hard to compare vet costs between Canada and the U.S. Generally speaking vet costs are considerably higher in Canada - particularly in major cities, such as Toronto. We pay about $1,500 for a dental - in Buffalo it would be about $600. Let's remember, it is private health care. Office visits are $85.00. Costs are pretty much the same as per frogged's post. And a dog becomes a senior at 7. Seven is not "senior" for our 25 lb. fuzzbutt but it is for a large dog - but 7 is the magic number so that results in senior blood panels etc. We do have pet insurance. It was originally a Cdn. company that was bought out by a U.S. Company. Our dog is 11 and is currently charged at the 13 month old rate - but the rate has increased from $33 Cdn. PLUS TAXES to nearly $80 plus taxes a month. We had our first claim when he was 7 and the monthly premium had already been raised almost to its current level. Note that the insurance does not cover rechecks. Our dog who has the bloodwork of a 2 year old - and looks about the same age - was thought to have pink eye but it was really an ulcer in the making that turned into a corneal abscess. This happened on May 24, 2011. It is now Jan. 2015 - our next follow-up with the board certified eye specialist who travels to Toronto will be on Feb. 12. This is how long it has been going on - and we caught it on day 1. For every bill with the specialist - usually $125 to $150, depending on eye drops, we are reimbursed $22.09 by our pet insurer - and no, we do not get the taxes back. But we still have had to pay the $80 a month for his insurance. Had he had eye surgery the plan would have paid for 90% of the cost - less the consultation fee - and the deductible that was introduced when the company was sold. But eye surgery is only performed as a last resort. Up until last Jan. we had to visit the eye specialist every 4 months and use 3 types of prescription eye drops. Unfortunately, just as with people (of course our dog is a "person") the gunk in the eye will always be there. If his condition has deteriorated we will be back on the every 4 month regime. At the point of the sale new coverages were added - but they were not granted to existing patients - despite the existing patients never having suffered from the added health issues. There were a lot of unhappy people out there, but you don't cancel insurance on a dog that is getting older. I saw on a breed specific board the vet suggested price for a dental and it was less then half of what we had to pay (3 times now) and many posters thought the U.S. price was high. So I posted our cost - fortunately there were a few other Canadians on that board who came to my defence and said they had had to pay the same. Then there is the cost of the meds. His physical last month, together with his tick and heartworm meds came to just over $1,000. Of course he eats holistic food. He is a very well cared for dog!