When we have a county burn ban, our commissioners usually lift it once our KBDI drops below 600. I don't know that the OFS uses that same criteria when making recommendations to Gov. Fallin, but I have been expecting them to lift the ban for some counties for a couple of weeks now, so the move didn't surprise me. We are having small fires in our county, but nothing that has gotten the least bit rowdy or out-of-control lately, so I think that they could lift even our burn ban (our KBDI is 661 this morning) right now (which they did not), and we wouldn't have serious wildfire trouble at this point in time. The trouble will come after you have a few frosts and killing freezes if it is still very dry and then you have all that dry, standing vegetation which will burn easily whether it is dead annual vegetation or dormant perennial vegetation. We need to have a really wet fall and winter so that the winter fire season isn't bad. Nothing about our soil is in good shape, Larry, except where I've been watering in the veggie garden and around the fruit trees. We're starting to see cracks in the soil near the house where we haven't had them before, so today and tomorrow I'm going to try to water long and hard in those areas to try and get those cracks to close back up. I'll probably have to water a while, let it soak in, then water again, etc. You know how hard it is to get clay to absorb water when it is rock-hard. Carol, I imagine it will be a real relief to everyone to be able to burn that piled up wood from the big storm that hit your area. As long as it is sitting there, it is such a fire hazard. I'd rather be able to burn that stuff deliberately and have it under control than to have a raging wildfire burn through the area and get it. Some of the Texas counties have been lifting their burn bans here and there along the river. One county made the announcement lifting their burn ban, then said that people should NOT go out and burn brush or do prescribed burning of land for brush removal because it still was too dry to burn. That made me wonder why they lifted the burn ban if they were going to stand there and say "but don't do any burning". That whole thing made no sense. Dawn

Carol, It is true that it never ends. I think my poor non-gardening husband thought for a long time that at some point we'd get to that point where all we do is just plant and harvest. Ha! The list of things I want/need/must have is long and I normally am not someone who wants a lot of stuff....unless it is gardening or cooking related. I'm low maintenance too. Tennis shoes, blue jeans, tee shirts, hats and gardening gloves. Well, and seeds and stuff. You know what I mean.... Tim does laugh at me, but he too buys me what I 'need', and even those things I 'want'. He even listens to me talking ad nauseum about gardening even though his gardening involvement tends to be limited to (a) rototilling soil to make new beds and such, (b) pounding 6' and 8' metal fence posts into the ground for me, since I'm only 5'3", (c) lifting heavy stuff like hay bales and bags of mulch, (d) eating the harvest. I have a long list of wants including a greenhouse, a high tunnel, a cold frame, a hoophouse and cattle panel arches to grow things on. I really, really want a real root cellar, but don't know if that will happen unless we win the lottery (and we don't even play the lottery). I'd be really low maintenance if it wasn't for the gardening addiction. George, I really like the way you have your seed beans on an easily distinguishable support so nobody gets confused. It is good you're seeing some rebound with the bean plants. Now if only the warm mild weather lasts a long time before cooling down! Glenda, I overwinter a lot of plants in the garage because it is very well insulated and we are zone 7b. Last year (admittedly a warm winter here with only a few nights in the mid- to upper-teens) I overwintered my brugs in pots and had blooms all winter, but had to drag them outside every morning and inside every night. I normally start seedlings inside on a homemade light shelf in the guest room. (The guest room really doesn't have any room for a guest!) It is upstairs though, and when I start carrying them outside to harden off, that's a lot of trips up and down the stairs. I also have a screened-in porch on the west side of the house. It has two real walls and two half real-walls with the top half of those walls being window screens. We cover the screens with greenhouse plastic in the winter and it is great during the day but cools off too much at night. If we ever take out the screened portion and put in real windows and turn it into a sunroom, it'd be a great place to raise seedlings in winter. I've always wanted a hoophouse, but your comment that they don't hold heat backs up what I always "knew in my gut". That's why I haven't got a hoophouse already....I felt like it wouldn't hold heat very well. I have built temporary hoophouses using PVC pipe and 6 mm clear plastic to use as a season extender in early spring when a severe late cold spell threatened after plants were already transplanted into the ground OR in the fall to get past the first freeze and then have several weeks of Indian Summer left for growing. Ilene, I need a book like that. : ) I don't know when we'll get around to building one, but one of these days we will. Before Tim joined the local volunteer fire dept. in 2004, we had all the time in the world to work on projects like that in the winter. Since then, not so much. He loves the fire dept. though, so I can't complain about the 'to do' list that he never quite gets around to doing. Jay, It is all your fault. All of it. Cease and desist from posting photos of your cold frame and then I won't want one so much. : ) Of course, after you build your high tunnel or greenhouse (or both!) you must post photos of that. It'll give me one more thing to nag Tim about. Dawn

I use raised beds in Salt Lake and they are great. I was fortunate to have an old above ground swimming pool when I moved here which, when I tore it out, gave me a lot of 2 X 6 redwood boards. I built my beds 3 X 8 X 2 boards high. That gives me 10" of amended soil and allows me to reach across from either side. I was landscaping in other area so I had an excess of native dirt to work with. I filled the beds initially with a combination of local dirt, NutriMulch, and ½ bag of composted steer manure (I get the NutriMulch and steer manure form Home Depot) to within 2" of the top of the bed. Mix and plant. With raised beds you donÂt plant in traditional rows. You follow the seed spacing recommendations and fill up the bed. You wonÂt find many weeds and those that grow are easy to see and pull. I water by hand with a wand which saves water. I buy straw and spread it on the paths between the beds which looks nice, keeps unwanted vegetation under control and requires next to no work. I donÂt have any experience with St George but I imagine you can grow just about anything there. I think you would have to be careful with things like onions (intermediate zone varieties) and tomatoes that set in heat but otherwise you could grow everything in raised beds. I would throw myself at the mercy of a local nursery/garden center as far as varieties go. And probably start slow the first time. 2 beds will give you a taste for the hobby without tearing up a lot of the local area. You wonÂt need a tiller. Just some 2 X 6Âs, a saw, screws, and a shovel. (I would use standard 2 X 6"s to start. They will rot in a few years but by then you will know if you like it). I would post some pics but it is not easy on this site. Jim

Elmer Fudd: We have two levels of bicycle trails in Wisconsin: touring and mountain style. Most of our trails are touring trails with asphalt or crushed and compacted limestone roadbed. Many of the trails near urban areas are old railway beds with asphalt paving. The railway beds have gentle grades except for one named the "Bug Line". It has one section of 1/2 mile with 5% grade, very high for a railroad. This originally was a spur line that serviced lime kilns in Waukesha county. It pulled a low number of cars and snaked its way among various kilns. From overhead, it had the appearance of the random crawl of a bug, thus its nickname, the bug line. Today, only the remnants of a few kilns remain as a reminder of the past. The Sparta-Elroy trail is paved and passes through 3 railway tunnels. Even in the heat of summer, the interior of these tunnels are cool and dripping. the floor may be rough and wet. It is advised to walk your bike in these tunnels. and have a jacket. In the longest of these tunnels, a light is needed. Hikers and bikers share the same trails. There is no fee for hiking. The main problem that touring a biker has in this state is that many of the trails are short segments of 5 to 10 miles long. One must travel over vehicular roads to connect from one trail to another. Our trail system is a project in process and it will be many years before there is a contiguous network of trails. The city of Madison and Dane county has the best network in the state.