Wayne, Disease is always a problem and wilt is a problem I deal with each year. I lost 6 plants under the netting due to wilt, it seem to went straight across in a line down the middle. I also lost one of my Stone mountains. I am completly Organic and I choose not to spray anything even organic sprays. Mainly I choose this approach because I don't have the time to spend worrying about each problem that arises and spending time and money trying to battle it. Instead I choose cultural practices to minimize the effects of insects , birds, deer ,rabbits, coons, squirrels and ever bacterial, fungal and viral microbes out they that want the vegetables and flowers of my garden. I have found the more I learn to let nature take its course and creat a garden inviting to beneficial insects and keeping the ground covered at all timeswith the use of mulches, cover crops, and employing tactics to ward off critters, including vigilant trapping of some pest such as squirrels the garden takes care of it self and I have more time to enjoy my garden and I feel a lot better about the produce I eat and raise. But wilt is probably my worst problem with melons and roatation is the key. I too have grown melons for years but not as long as you have especially in this garden spot. Hopefully I can continue to get a sweet summer melon for my troubles. Frank if referring to the Missouri yellow meated it is a big melon the one pictured is probable 35lbs I picked one the other day and that 's what it weighed. It was devine juicy and sweet. This was the first year growing it. Rodger

idaho mountain, thanks, now I KNOW I need to get them into the warmest possible spot and give them more water, maybe more food, next year. It looks like my watermelons are going to finish at about 3-5" in diameter. I don't suppose they'll ripen. This is my first year growing veggies and fruits, although I'm an experienced gardener otherwise (I've decorative-gardened in two different climates for about 15 years, and grew and sold cutting flowers for eight years but quit last fall), so my learning curve is pretty steep. Floriculture is quite different from veggie-culture, as I'm finding out! Veggie-culture is actually quite a bit easier in many ways, but there's NO source that tells you how all the different plants grow in this climate. With flowers, I learned it by experience. Now I'm trying to learn from all you folks' experience! Jeanne

Yes, a rattlesnake bite can be fatal to a cat. Dogs have a bit more tolerance for the initial envenomation, being larger, but a bite can still kill a big dog. Many dogs don't die from the initial bite, but from gangrene and infection that sets in when the tissue starts to die, so a rattlesnake bite is still a medical emergency, no matter how big the dog is. I breed Catahoula Leopard Dogs, and males of this breed often hit the "century mark" in terms of weight, yet some of mine have had some close brushes with the Grim Reaper following rattler or Cottonmouth bites. NO rattler bite should ever be taken lightly. I have never seen Guinea Fowl attack a snake, and we have had Guineas on our property for as long as I can recall. I've seen a Black Ratsnake, on more than one occasion, stealing eggs right out from underneath a setting Guinea hen, and a Guinea hen with eggs or chicks is something *I* won't even go near! I guess that the birds would eat really small snakes, like Ringnecks or something, but those are harmless. I have caught HUGE Canebrake rattlers on this same property, with a flock of Guineas feeding nonchalantly a few dozen yards away, so I am really skeptical about that claim. Sharon McKenzie

8/8--Now the monsoon rains are really falling. We got rained out of a hike to look for montane rattlesnakes in the mountains and the 4 wheel drive road we were on started to have water running over it. All was not lost though. On the flats we saw a Sonoran Whipsnake (lifelister). That evening the rains continued but we did see a Desert Box Turtle drinking water from the road and an adult Mojave Rattlesnake. Also saw a DOR Checkered Garter Snake. 8/9--Back in the Tucson area, Rachel and I got to see a nice 4 foot Sonoran Gopher Snake. The snake hissed at me when I approached. Nearby we also hiked and saw a dead Western Diamondback near the trail. It wasn't clear what had killed it. Downtown Tucson received 3.37 inches of rain that day and we got rained out of our nighttime road cruise as virtually every road we attempted was closed because of flooding. We turned around at a raging river across theroad on one road. 8/10--Sigh..Time to leave. Too beautiful of country and too much great herps and other animals to see and I wish I could have stayed for a month... My trip total for live snakes: 6 Mojave Rattlesnakes (lifer) 3 Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes 2 Northern Blacktail Rattlesnakes 1 Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake 1 Sonoran Whipsnake (lifer) 1 Sonoran Gopher Snake (lifer) My DOR total: 4 Mojave Rattlesnakes 2 Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes 1 Checkered Garter Snake Our family live snake total: 11 Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes 10 Mojave Rattlesnakes 2 Blacktail Rattlesnakes 1 Arizona Black Rattlesnake 1 Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake 1 Green Rat Snake 1 Sonoran Whipsnake 1 Checkered Garter Snake 1 Sonoran Gopher Snake 1 Great Basin Gopher Snake (my parents saw this en route to AZ) add a Reticulated Gila Monster to that group of snakes and we fared very well as a group even if we did strike out on the three montane rattlesnake species (Ridgenose, Rock and Twin-Spotted Rattlesnakes eluded our entire party).