"Oh, 'Starting from Scratch,' book..thank you. Once some woman emailed, 'few yrs ago,' asking me to fax 79 pages to her. I told her I didn't own a fax machine..she then asked me to 'TYPE THEM OUT.' lol..Yes, ma'am, right away.." Hey, I'll take a copy of that! You're about finished right? Holy ___! Sweet potatoes, I read about that retardant spray after I had potatoes in the ground. Maybe they were local and it wasn't used or one of those dumb luck things that work when people don't know it's not supposed to. I just cut 2 potatoes in half and buried the pieces a few inches down. They grew vines all summer, and we dug up the potatoes when frost killed the foliage. Yum! About 25 potatoes last fall, and what will come from what's grown back this year is yet unknown. Not bad for a few minutes' work and the cost of only 2. Thanks for the kind words, but I don't put up pics of the failures. There are definitely some. I just do so many, I end up with plenty of successes. That's my fav thing to do with plants, chopping them into pieces and watching them grow back. The eyes are where the foliage sprouts out, the black holes. It takes a very small amount of the inside attached to the eye on the peel to start growing more potatoes. The spot we call veggie patch is for ugly/unruly plants like sweet potato, tomato, zucchini, cantaloupe. But all around with the flowers and Coleus I have peppers, Basil, sometimes a broccoli, lettuce, spinach, okra, onion, garlic, the other experiments I mentioned before. I want some purple eggplant plants next year, and purple cabbage. Tried swiss chard seeds but it was too dry where I put them. Veggie seeds are cheap, worth trying where there's a spot. When you want to pick a tomato that's as big as possible but still green, you notice way too much about how they ripen. Between green and red, they are white for a time. The immature seeds are too wet, gelatinous for frying *as well* when they go from white to green. In case anyone wants to copy/paste: Gramma's: Slice green tomatoes fairly thin, usually 5-6 slices per slightly-smaller-than-tennis-ball-size. Moisten slices in water, then coat with: mixed: 8 parts flour, 1 part sugar, some salt/pepper Fry in oil, flip when medium-going-on-dark-brown. Drain on paper towel & eat plain, on a sandwich, or dipped in something, like ranch, spicy ranch, or remolaude sauce! Where I'm at lately (this does 2 tomatoes): bowl 1: plain flour bowl 2: 1 egg, 1 Tbs water, 1 Tbs spicy or buffalo ranch, 1 Tbs regular ranch, dash worcestershire sauce, dash hot sauce, few taps of coriander, couple pinches dry chopped rosemary, pinch of garlic powder. I don't measure anything, but that should be pretty close. Put slices in bowl 1, then 2, back to 1, then fry, same as above. You can also add crushed corn flakes to bowl 1 if you have the time and like a crunchy breading. This is making me hungry!...

In the past I've used soil mounds 8-10" tall with 24" tall chicken wire cages filled with leaves on each of my roses. That works very well in my climate, but it's a LOT of work when you have as many roses as I. Plus you have to have a source for the soil. I've also used soil mounds and pine needles, especially on the beds in front because I like the look of that better than the cages filled with leaves all winter long. I've also used the much-maligned rose cones with huge success. If I could afford it, I'd use those on all my roses. It is quick, and easy, both for covering in the fall and for uncovering in the spring. Plus, you can uncover early and if it threatens to get cold, you just put them back on overnight. In my particular climate they work wonderfully. No rose loss ever under any of the cones. No mold, mildew, or rot. Just wonderfully green and early-growing roses in the spring. Last year, however, I decided to go with just wood mulch, as my county began to give free mulch if you load it yourself. That worked as well as the soil mounds and leaves for me, and it is LOTS easier, especially in the spring. You just pull it off and leave it. That's what I plan to do again this year.

Tim, it is entirely possible that he is still around. I hope so anyway...however mom is full capable of raising the nestlings on her own too. Helping her with mealworms would be good though. One year during incubation I had a male go missing for four full days..he returned on the 5th day. During that time I had trained the female to come to a mealworm feeder. After he returned she taught him how to use it. Then another year on a nestbox check I found a dead nestling. This box was at the back of our property so I couldn't observe things as much. After watching for awhile I was convinced the female was gone so I started feeding mealworms twice a day. I would put a dish on the roof of the nestbox and Dad would use them up immediately and then I would take the dish back home, didn't want to leave it and entice any other birds. Well after a couple days there was mom getting mealworms too! So she was there, I just was never seeing her when I watched. This year just last week, my male went mia for half a day and I was freaking out. Mom is incubating 7 eggs and their were four fledglings still needing to be fed. Mom seemed rather stressed too. I watched all morning and was convinced something happened to him but just after noon he returned and then started feeding the fledglings again. This box is in the back yard very visable from the house and they come to a mealworm feeder on the deck so I knew he wasn't here for that time, just mom and the fledglings were. Later that day I saw another female in the yard wingwaving with our male! I have read that males and females will mate with more than just their partner during nesting season so I am assuming my yard male was out on a fling that morning. I do know when my female was laying her second clutch there was another male around too, I am guessing she mated with both him and her normal mate. Anyway..hopefully this is what you are seeing and he isn't really gone. It does happen though sadly...hope you see him again! If not your female will probably find another mate but he wouldn't help her with these nestlings at all. Keep us updated! Donna

once heard a speech at hosta college between the difference between urban and rural deer ... urban deer.. when hungry.. will eat just about anything ... especially under stress ... rural deer ... as babs notes.. have a lot of production crop to feed on during a big part of the season .. out here.. most damage.. comes in really bad winters ... after that speech i noticed the same effect with rabbits ... in suburbia.. with lawn warrior grass being pervasive.. rabbits go after your garden ... but out here with a former horse pasture that i call a lawn ... the rabbits browse the pasture buffet ... clover.. yarrow.. plantain ... rarely do they bother my gardens ... dont get caught up in your Disney/bambi world ... vermin are vermin ... no matter how cute and fuzzy they are ... and no matter how big they are ... if those two drop a youngin.. then next year you have 4 ... then 8 .. then etc ... if the golden is trained to the property.. let him chase them off next time ...no way he will ever catch them ... but they will get the idea he doesnt want them there ... enjoy looking at them.. on someone elses property .. lol ... ken