The contest is officially over!! and if I can ever get this phat cat photo to cross over you'll see the phat lady sing! Thank you all for the warmth and humor you've shared - I really need it now that we're not going to see 10F for another week. (-30F windchills for the next 4 days - yes, sympathy please). SO! It's up to the judges now, the panel of 4 has their work cut out for them. We're picking 1 winner in the pond (aquarium) catagory, and 1 in the non-pond related catagory. Each winner will have $25 donated in their pet's name to HSDM. And as I've told the judges, every photo here is fair game, because while some photos are of the pet involved in their OCD behavior, other pix are of the pets and the stories are of their OCD behavior. And, yes, the owner's OCD! We're all family here and a picture of Aunt Mable snoozing in the Lazy Boy may bring up fond memories of that great Thanksgiving when she got a little tipsy and fell asleep before the pecan pie! There's often alittle history behind a photo. Winners will be announced SUPER BOWL Sunday! Thanks everybody!

Can you draw a sketch of the general building area--the road, driveway, garage, outbuildings, and how you would orient your present house plan? I spent a little time this afternoon looking at your plans and trying to think of how to improve them, but I keep getting stopped at the thought of all of that hot sun in the summer. The screened porch just seems to be on the wrong side to be useful. We had a deck on our previous unshaded south side, and from about 10 a.m. to dusk it was too hot to be out there in the summer due to the heat radiating off the floor boards. We now have a patio facing NW, but we took down 4 trees to open up the back yard some more and the SW sun on the pavers makes it impossible to use the patio from about noon to 4 p.m. Now that the lower branches on the adjacent trees have space to grow, we will have shade on the patio again in the not too distant future. I think that you will use the front porch the most. Ours faces SE so it is cool at all times of the day. Also, the prevailing summer breeze is usually from the SW, so it blows across the porch. Have you had a screened porch before? We thought about whether to include one, but decided that the summer would be too short and too hot to get much use out of it, and the spring and fall would be too cool most of the time, and therefore we put our money into other parts of the house instead. Seems like a year round sunroom would be more useful. But maybe since you're home all day, things would be different for you. I know you specifically haven't asked for comments on the other half of the house, but I hope that you won't mind if I make a few. When I think of a farm, I think of dirty work boots coming in. Is the office for your husband to use to keep track of the farm, or is that elsewhere? Will he be coming in with his dirty clothes directly to the laundry, or will he be using the powder room? If any of these are true, I would not want the dirt in the hall to the MBR or main living area. I'd want the laundry, powder room and office with doors opening into the mudroom. When we were building our house (we were owner-builders), we were a mess at the end of each day. We were renting a house that had a huge mudroom/laundry with a bathroom with shower right next to it. It opened off the garage and the driveway and we were able to keep the mess there and not transfer the dirt, sawdust, etc. into the rest of the house. For layout purposes and traffic flow, I think I prefer the first plan. Since you're home with 2 children, you must be in the kitchen a lot. Do you can things in the summer/fall? Do you store a lot of things from shopping or gardening? Do you have other family members visit a lot? Could you put some measurements on the screened porch, kitchen, and dining area in the first plan? There should be enough space to improve the kitchen here. Anne

Actually, DH had reservations about wood period. He thought the tile should go throughout the house, and I said NO. He installed the Bellawood in the front rooms of his Cape up in Massachusetts, and it was the narrow boards of the select ash, very light, and it was gorgeous. That house has lower ceilings than here, and it was basically more individual rooms and not going to be open concept like our living/dining/kitchen/laundry will wind up being. And, our cottage with beadboard could better use the 5" wide boards, also select ash. It sits in my Teahouse under lock and key, with the heat or a/c keeping it properly conditioned for use. I got a bit more than DH estimated we needed, thinking he would skimp on what amount was required, and so there will be enough to have a little left over.....and I will have no problem extending the back porch/addition another foot all the way across, and to floor the tiny new entry as part of the living room. If that doesn't quite make it, well, I can put tile in the entry. It was MoonPie who hiked his leg on everything, even just a tiny squirt on the house plants, the chair legs, the bed covers that hung down far enough for him to reach, the laundry basket, the garbage can.....I became expert at recognizing what HE did and what Dixie might do. She specialized in the bath mat, since she knew business should be conducted IN THE BATH ROOM. Which is why I am so impressed with Dolly and her arriving at 7 weeks of age already, in effect, PAPER TRAINED. And she cannot yet go outdoors to learn about grass, because she needs her final shots to avoid parvo virus. What a charmer she is though.

Two out of the three hummingbird feeders are up. Now, the waiting game. Last year I saw my first ones on May 7. I don't have a clear view of the porch feeders from my reading chair inside so I need to get up and go to the window but in better (warmer) weather when I'm out on the porch they are up close and personal. There is one feeder on each end of the porch, about 90 feet apart. The third goes on the wisteria covered pergola at the end of the front walk, maybe 50 feet away. It makes a nice triangle - or racetrack - for them to zoom around and play. I suspect that a nest(s) are somewhere in the cedar hedge nearby that separates my property from the next door neighbor but haven't been able to find them. I do enjoy watching other birds but I'm still very much a novice. The more flamboyant birds I recognize easily, it's the more common ones that still look alike to me that I have no confidence in my IDs. I'm just learning what to look for. Our local Nature Conservancy has been a big help to me and I have many field guides. I also enjoy learning about interesting facts and behaviors that birds exhibit. I'm a big fan of crows because that's just about all I see in the winter. I decided that I'd learn to like what I have and that's been fun. One spring the crows alerted me to a barred owl that was sitting on some patio furniture on my front lawn. What a fuss they made swarming and screeching - the numbers were incredible. Another time a persistent crow let me know that there was something trapped In the downspout of the garage. DH was able to dismantle it and rescue a baby squirrel that had slipped into it and couldn't get out. Excellent! Sorry for such a wordy post!