Glenda, I do think the folks on the Ozark forum are nice too. Sometimes I pop over there to read and see what's going on, but as you noted there are a lot more ornamental gardeners there and more edible gardeners here so I mostly post here. (And I grow tons of ornamentals too, but there's not as much to talk about with them since they're all well-established and I'm not constantly adding new ones.) The whole edible gardening trend is on a huge upswing and I believe one reason is because folks are beginning to understand that there is a true difference in fresh, homegrown produce and produce that's traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to reach the grocery stores. I are SO GLAD you and other Ozarkers come and join the conversation here as you all enrich our forum so much with your knowledge, experience and photos. Y'all, I don't think I've ever seen a rude remark here either, and even if I did see one, I'd try to assume that the poster was just having a bad day or a bad week because I'd know that's not the usual behavior of that person. I've also noticed everyone here avoids 'hot topics' like global warming or politics or whatever which is just fine with me. (Anyone who wants to discuss those can go to the 'Hot Topics' forum and debate with the folks there all they want.) I know that we often stray off the subject of purely gardening topics and discus other issues like weather, wildlife, birds, farm animals (well, gotta get that manure from someplace), putting up the harvest, sewing, fire danger, etc. but anything like that is still a part of our lives as gardeners here in this region of the country. Another thing I'm really proud of is the way that so many gardeners here share seeds with one another year-round via the U.S. mail and at the 'Spring Fling' seed and plant swap, and for folks who live close enough, even in face-to-fact visits at one another's homes. In the perfect gardening world I envision in my mind, we'd all live in the same town in the same semi-rural neighborhood with plenty of room for our horses and cows, goats and sheep, chickens and guineas, etc., and with tons of space to grow anything/everything we want. We'd run back and forth from one yard to another to "look at this" or "check out that". We'd meet in the summer on someone's patio for a cookout or just a tall glass of iced tea. We'd only have good weather, beautiful ornamentals and edible plants that always produce an abundant crop. However, since we all can't live in that one perfect neighborhood together, we've built our own gardener's virtual neighborhood here and it's almost as good as being together in the same town. Dawn

It's a harmless Nerodian water snake. It looks like a juvenile Yellow-Bellied Water Snake but could also possibly be a Midland Water Snake. Regardless its definitely one of the harmless nonvenomous nerodian water snakes.

Cool. Its always fun to discover a new location. Bet the hunting there will be terrific later in the fall when it cools down some.

Vladimir, coming from a family raised with environmentalists, I can sympathize with you. It stinks. My mother keeps telling me that to see a farm or tree in ten years we will have to hit the Zoo here in Mass...There is too much development going on at the cost of the environment so that cities and towns can just collect more taxes and build more and more. It's a vicious cycle taking out all of the surrounding forest around me leaving us with drought and a lack of pop of storms that once existed every summer less the 20 years back. We have Turkeys, Dear, Bears and much wild life running around peoples backyards, it's no wonder all to make room for those dam mini malls that we already have too much of or huge Condos'.. They just took down over 50 acres of forested hill tops to build another hotel, condos. and supermarkets which we already have just 2 miles away from that! ..I am so sorry to hear this Vladimir and I hope it all works out in some way. I love people but I just don't like noisy ones and being crowded...Good luck and please keep us informed.