I assume the frogs would never want the plants disturbed. More plants = more cover and food. If you had to pick a time I suppose when food was most abundant. However there is a harshness to nature. I wouldn't personally be overly differential to the frogs and would divide the plants or do whatever when I needed to. Trying to do too much for any species seems to always have the opposite effect long term.

Dorothy, I just finished harvesting the last ears from the fifth corn variety. I'm glad the corn is done because I wouldn't want to have to keep watering it in this hot weather. All 5 varieties produced really well, and the raccoons didn't get a single ear, which is really odd---almost unheard of---but I am not complaining. We've had lots of corn to eat fresh and have filled up a large portion of the largest deep freeze with corn-on-the-cob to enjoy over the next few months. It was a much better corn year here this year than the last two years, thanks in large part to the heavy rainfall we got during the last two weeks in May. Without that rainfall, I don't think our corn would have produced. I still haven't dug the last variety of potatoes. I thought they'd be ready to dig by Independence Day, but they weren't. They still were lush and green. They look considerably worse now, with grasshoppers and spider mites hitting the foliage, but still are green. I may dig them one day this week anyway. I have had grass clipping/leaf mold mulch a foot thick on top of them for the last couple of months and haven't watered them but once or twice, so not sure what I'll find when I do dig them. I expect the ground will be hard though. I do water the perennials to keep them going, and that keeps some of the annuals planted near them going as well. This year I planted cool-season annuals in the veggie beds I didn't intend to water, and planted the warm-season annuals in areas, like the pepper beds, that I did intend to water. So, when I water the veggies I intend to keep going, I'll be keeping some flowers alive too. The only cool-season flowers still alive are sweet alyssum, violas and nasturtiums, and with this heat and the fact they are in non-irrigated beds, I don't think they'll make it much longer. It is getting dangerously dry here now....the kind of dry where a spark from a mower hitting a rock, the hot rubber thrown off a tire when a vehicle has a blowout on the interstate or a tractor/bailer issue can cause grass or a hay field to ignite. It isn't a big everyday thing yet, but we definitely are seeing more grass fires occurring each week. It is likely we'll start getting busier and busier, so I'm trying to can everything the same day I harvest it so I don't fall behind. Right now, our back pasture is so dry that it hurts to look at it. I am getting ready to mow it down as low as possible in order to stop any possible wildfire that would come our way from the large, cedar-filled pasture adjacent to our property. I've just been waiting for the green milkweed to set seed, and now that this has occurred, I intend to get out early in the morning and mow it down. I am so disappointed that we are having another droughty summer. I didn't expect a really wet summer, but was hoping it wouldn't dry out as fast as it did. Back at the beginning of June our Keetch-Byram Drought Index number was incredibly low---near zero, in fact. Now, roughly 5 weeks later, it is over 350. For us, in a normal year (whatever normal is any more, who knows?), a KBDI near 400 would be more common at the end of August or early September. In a bad year it can be in the 500s or higher by early September, and that's the track we're on now unless some significant rainfall occurs. I'm not really expecting significant rainfall. We did have a tiny shower one morning last week and it gave us 0.21" of rainfall, which wasn't much, but was better than nothing at all. I'm scaling back my plans for a fall garden. I likely will start some cool-season seeds indoors for transplants this week for the fall garden, but then, if we don't get some half-decent rainfall in July, I likely won't transplant them into the ground. It is hard enough to establish cool-season plants in August in a normal year. In a drought year, it is almost impossible. There's always a silver lining somewhere.....I guess this year's silver lining is that the prickly pear cactus look really happy, and the zinnias (which do get watered since they are next to the peppers) look very happy, although with the zinnias, they only look happy because they are getting water. It took me three hours this morning just to harvest from the back garden, and I didn't even make it to the front garden. Both were watered, in part, two or three days ago and those parts look good. The parts that weren't watered don't look very good at all, but there's only so much I am willing to water. I'll spend the rest of today canning salsa and pickles, and then either this evening or early tomorrow, I'll harvest from the front garden, and either do more canning tonight or tomorrow. After this week, I'll likely have done all the canning I'm going to do. The pickling cucumbers have been doing great, but I can see the plants aren't looking as good now as they did even a week ago. You can tell the heat stress and summer pests are really starting to affect them. It is ridiculously hot and humid this week. Part of NE and E OK have heat advisories and excessive heat warnings. Seems like a good time to stay inside as much as humanly possible. We just put up the shade cloth over the hot peppers today, and may put one up over the main tomato tomorrow. The shade cloth helps, but when rain isn't falling, it does not necessarily help enough. Dawn

Location, location, location, Joan! As I understand it the jet stream steered all the moisture and storm systems north during the winter and spring, and now we have a big high pressure system over us that just steers them in a big circle around us. The things that are making us dry are making others wet. I'm sure the folks flooding in the mid-west and along the Mississippi earlier this year would've been happy to share some of their water with us! I remember a few years ago when the Southeast was baking and dry, we were wet here, for us, because all the moisture got pushed over our way. I'm definitely ready for something to move or change. The famous Dust Bowl in the 30s was centered in this region. For calender year 2011 we are four times drier than any year during the Dust Bowl. Of course, drought length adds to severity too, but, we be dry.

Does she love the wallpaper? Is she expressing any sadness it's going? Reason I ask is that some older people don't like change, and they don't see a need for it. As you say, she is getting forgetful, does she remember why there are going to be changes? I'm not suggesting keeping the wallpaper. But I am thinking if she likes it, then maybe a green, that sort of reminds her of the wallpaper might be nice. If you were decorating this home for yourself, that would be a totally different thing. As far as the lighting, just make sure it is very bright for her. You can always add a dimmer, but I believe you should make sure there is plenty of light. I think decorating and designing for seniors is a very special skill.It is wonderful for you that you are able to have her here and that you are able and willing to help her with this redecorating. You are a wonderful daughter. That's my 2cents.