cactus, lol. I'm not drawn to those kinds of movies, but did like the Birds way back when. I have enough blobby stuff to deal with, remember my first encounter with a jellyfish, thought they were cool, none "bonded with me". buford, I knew just what I was going to see heh. Stinkhorn. Only once in the almost 40 years I've lived here have I had that, and it is gross, too. Yours is especially gross, they seem to vary. Mine was more slender and erectile, but I'm usually curious about anomalies in nature. Oh yes, the owls. Well I was relieved I had just the one encounter this year. They are adorable, quite docile when they get used to you, and a worry. One ornery one got in the street last year. It was like a circus around here for a few days, lotsa photos, it's pitiful watching them maintain a vigil in a bush where you have put them to keep them off the ground waiting for their parents to come, and the wildlife people won't let you feed them. I just love the sound of them, usually at night. We have a lot, barred owls, not on the endangered species list. This isn't the one I won on but is a nice closeup, was down on my stomach to get it, the one I won on is offloaded to my external hd. Have won quite a bit now, one on a baby chickadee, had never seen a baby one in my life. Right now one of my pelican shots is in a new magazine. I need to get back to photography, this gardening has me flumoxxed right now, trying to do too much.

Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

Love the cuckoos too. Most of the locals here call them rain crows since the myth has it that they call before a storm. They do have an odd call. CCox, you think it's a sad one? I don't know, it always reminds me of sitting in a fishing boat with my dad years and years ago. A cuckoo would do its cuk cuk cuk ca ca kow kow kow thing and dad would say, There's a rain crow, gonna be good fishing today. Never seemed to really have a bearing on the good or bad of the trip but the call still reminds me of those days on the water with him. I discovered a nest on a rather low branch of a tree here years ago. For days all I would see was a bird butt sticking out one side, and from where I was standing it looked almost like a dove's tail but not quite. Then one day I saw the cuckoo fly to the nest. I'd never seen one before and was delighted but unfortunately I never did see a brood. We had a series of strong storms and had to bring in one of our tractors to clean up the snapped off trees. The stack with all its hot fumes and roaring deisel engine were still not enough to make that bird leave the nest and after the cleanup was done a tail could still be seen jutting out of the flimsy nest. Too bad the chicks never appeared. I always assumed a snake was responsible.

I usually don't have that much traffic. That is the most diverse single evening I have ever witnessed in my yard. I was amazed everytime I went out I saw more critters. I have not seen the deer, skunk, possum, or owl in about a week. I saw a flying squirrel earlier this evening whenever I got home!!!!! I heard some loud high pitched squeaky chirps and I shined the light up in the water oak, and I saw something wierd sort jump from one main branch to the other. Holy Cow!!! that looked like a flying squirrel. I walked around the tree and shined up there again, and there it was, and it ran around to the other side of the tree. Then it flew or glided across right before my eyes. probably about 15 yards from the water oak to the thickett. This was by far my best flying squirrell sighting of my life time, and the first in quite some time. Really it was the only good look(actaully a couple good viewings per this one squirrel encounter) ever. This year the frequency, diversity, and quality of mammal sightings has increased to an all time high for my yard. The snake sightings were not as good this year, and I wonder if the raccoon population may be contributing to this. I stopped feeding the raccoons, I still throw out table scraps though for whatever gets them. It just seems better that to throw it it the trash. If the scraps attract the coons and the overabundance of coons decreases the snake sightings I guess this is another good reason to start a worm bend. Can you put meat leftovers in your worm bend?