The craziest thing happened for me. I had an African violet in my office. When I came into the office on Monday, the entire plant was gone!!! I was dumbounded and thought someone had played a mean prank. But today, the custodian and I did some investigating and found rat droppings around the office and have decided my poor plant was eaten by a rat that is someplace in office. Gross! That thing contaminated my office. I was sick thinking it all day. I did a search online tonight and found this discussion. I had never heard of an African violet being devoured by a rat.

Hi Beth, I'm glad to here your "experimental year" is going so well. You harvest the onions when the tops naturally soften and fall over. Usually here in southern OK that is sometime between late June and mid-July, depending on each variety's days-to-maturity and how early or late I planted. You don't harvest early because the onions won't cure well or store well, and you don't harvest early just because a rainstorm, wind, child or dog knocked over the onion tops either. Just wait for them to naturally soften and fall over. It doesn't happen all in the same day, so when you see the necks where the stalks are attached to the plants beginning to soften and fall over, stop watering the onions at that point and wait for all of them to soften and fall over before you harvest. I can't believe you dug up your potatoes already! Normally, most varieties are ready to dig between 90-120 days after planting, although technically you can harvest them and use them at any size. Did you only dig around the plants and remove some early potatoes (commonly called "new potatoes") or did you dig up all of them? In the future, if you wait for the plant foliage to yellow and die, you'll get larger tubers and more of them. : ) You may get more beans than you think, especially with the pole beans. Even if you don't, you're getting a lot of valuable experience. I'm having fun too....most days. Today I am chained to the kitchen, putting up the first round of the broccoli harvest (freezing it). It is rainy here today (what's new?) so I probably couldn't be out in the garden anyway. Although putting up the garden's bounty is a very important part of raising your own food, I'd still rather be out in the garden any day of the week. Hope the fun continues! Dawn

The Milk Dud fairy? We need some dimensions here...size, texture, shape, etc... there are lots of possibilities. Believe it or not, the caterpillars of some of the giant silk moths can leave a huge pellet, although it is hard to confuse it with anything else due to the shape and texture, which is like a small knobby-covered barrel. Do you have trees that overhang the area? Still, these shouldn't be larger than rat scat.... Frog and toad scat is more like a stretched-out oblong shape, hard to confuse it with anything else. Could be squirrel...what is in this area that would be an attractant to them? Look around, take notes, and get back to us. Now I am definitely interested. Gee, how depressing...anything coliform in nature and I sit up and take notice??

Rhizo, I'm very familiar on what a Chupacabra looks like. This animal had a beautiful coat that was almost if not identical in color to a red fox. It was stout (not sick in any way)and shorter to the ground. Think of the shape of a RAT(wider and taller towards the back). I estimate its weight to be around 60 to 70 pounds. My earlier description of it's canines was modest. They showed even when not growling. Again this animal heard me walking quickly(lots of noise) thru the woods and came to me. I had visual contact with this animal for 2-3 minutes before I was able to scare it away with loud and large unhuman actions(I was scared). I grew up hunting and making money with trap lines during high school and I've caught a few red fox before. Again, I seen the same EXACT animal in an encyclopedia just a few years later. I remember it referring to North America as where they are found and it was part of a canine species. Somebody has got to have seen this also. Any help identifying this animal would be greatly appreciated. I'm going to continue looking at encyclopedias. Thank You. jamescooper@fuse.net