I have been feeding the birds for only 1 year. I have a small tube feeder with BOSS and a Suet Log. I also throw some peanuts and seed on the ground under large evergreens. I noticed that there were fewer birds on the feeders when the weather turned mild and all the snow melted last week. Now that we have 8 inches of compressed frozen snow on the ground, the birds are flocking around the feeders again. I assume this is because 1) they cannot forage for food on the ground with the snowcover and 2) there is no insect activity when the temperature is this cold. Here are photos of the Suet Log with some of the birds that visited on Friday (the day of the storm). The first two pics show a Fox Sparrow with Junco(s). The second two pics each show five different species of birds on the Suet Log at the same time. In general, the birds really love to perch on the branches I glued into the top of the log. It was a very busy day for birds that day! :)

Hi guys! Does cotton root rot effect milkweed? If not then bring on the Monrachs! Maybe I can grow milkweed in this MESS I have for soil. Yikes! Okiedawn I had never even heard of cotton root rot until your post today! Oh dread dread...it sure sounds like a possibility for me! I am here picturing my 4 year old apple tree dead with leaves still attached..and the apples still attached. The leaves turned reddish...I saw it happening and was panicked...watered it really good, worried and prayed but it was totally dead very quickly. From a thriving, bearing apple tree to dead in a very short time...I am guessing less than one month and maybe even only a couple of weeks. And I know when one of the peach trees died.....oh gosh I hate admitting this but when we went to dig it up there were almost no roots at all and I remember some weird "stuff" like strands of an old rotted rug or something hanging from them. I showed DH and we were both really puzzled and kept wondering how in the world pieces of an old rug got in there with the tree!!!!! We for sure know we didn't do it. Oh no! I didn't know that might be a clue to why it suddenly died. I still have trouble remembering all the specifics on all the other trees and plants. It could be the fig trees just didn't like it here? Neither of them lasted long but I keep thinking they must have made it longer than a year or I would have gone for REFUNDS.....lol. Gosh you get tired of paying so much money just to have it die. In talking about all this with DH he has helped me remember trees I had forgotten....we did have two apple trees....one died sooner than the other but even it lived until at least the third season and was growing and doing well. We have just lost a wisteria too. It is trying to come back from roots now but it SUDDENLY died and it had been here for 8 years as long as we have lived here. And over the past 3 years all of my English Ivy has slowly all died....but I only say slowly died as it all died suddenly which was planted in one area, then next year all of it died which was in another area...and last year got the last of it which was growing in yet another area. All these deaths of trees, plants and all ornamental bushes have been such a puzzle to us for SO LONG now. We would assume we didn't take care of it right but I know I have had the same kinds of trees and plants to thrive even with my occasional neglect at the place we used to live. I finally told DH it is nothing we are doing wrong we KNOW how to grow things...there is something terribly wrong with this ground...this soil. Still I just thought it was because of it being such mucky hard poor draing stuff. sigh...this is just SAD. But if this is really what is wrong then I am so thankful to find out so at least I can STOP buying plants and trees and just save the money for my bigger new 5th wheel which I will have when I sell this place and forget it all....lol lol. I wonder how I could find out for sure? Perhaps talk to someone at the Noble Foundation do you think? Oh my....and nothing can be done about this cotton root rot. How horrible! Anyone want to buy a nice home with lots of extras? Including fungus in the soil? lol lol Yikes! Many times I have thought that my trees must have lived long enough to have grown out of the nice clean fill dirt we put in when we plant them and thought it was when they hit the 'muckity muck crap' as I call it, then they die. And wondered why they were not strong enough to stand it by then? This is just great....NOT! Did I mention however that two houses from us the street ends at a large field which is farmed every year? also behind the houses right across the street are some of the same fields farmed yearly. They have raised wheat some years and hay some years. The info I found said alfalfa couldn't grow where this fungus was in the soil. I guess there are other types of hay though....hey I am not a farmer I have no idea....lol. Also crops or things which doesn't grow deep enough into the soil will perhaps make it? So Dawn what have you done about living where this stuff is? Tell me your experiences. Thank you so much for this info. I would never in a million years come up with this as I didn't even know anything about it. And have not really tried hard to find out what was actually wrong I just kept buying and planting and wasting money. But that will now STOP unless someone can tell me a way to keep it all from dying. Now I worry about my roses... will their roots eventually go down far enough to get into this tainted soil and I will lose them too? Oh God I do pray NOT! That is just painful to think of. Thank you so much for taking so much time and trouble to help me out. I appreciate it so much! Just sign me SAD HEART tonight.

Here's my little snow bunny! I had to pull on boots over my bare feet and a coat over my PJs and go rescue her this morning. Later I shoveled a path for her and my other dog. Didn't lose power - yet. Some evergreen shrubs are split or laying on the ground covered with snow tho. :( Thank goodness I don't have to be anywhere and try to drive; but can never resist getting bundled up and taking a walk and look around after a big snow. Plus, it's still snowing! Tami, I don't remember the names of the grocery stores but they were right on the main drag through Lorain, mostly small family run stores. Had the greatest deli cases too with delicious Cuban, Puerto Rican or Mexican dishes all cooked and ready. We usually stopped at two or three before heading home.

Homebody here too. My homes are my sanctuary. Ours are not that far apart, only a 50 minute drive. Our primary home is in the suburbs and our vacation home is at the beach. Our house at the shore truly feels like a vacation / get away each time we are there. It feels as though my stress melts away as soon as I see the water! Our ultimate goal is to sell our primary home and move to Florida when our son goes to college in 6.5 years. Then we will keep the shore house in NJ, have a house in Florida and go in between. Like Mtn, I also feel guilty about the vacations we take during the season but having another home is not going to stop me from traveling.