Beth, I made pickles first and then I finished dehydrating my tomatoes from yesterday and then I finished my yellow tomato sauce and THEN I made one batch of Multi-purpose Seasoned Tomato Sauce. By the time I finished it was around 2 p.m. and we hopped in the car and sped down to the Southlake Central Market to check out their produce selection. I was a little disappointed. They didn't have nearly as many heirloom winter squashes, pumpkins and gourds nor did they have as many heirloom tomatoes. However, they did have pickling cucumbers, so I bought another 5 lbs. Since I made bread-and-butter pickles today, I'll make dills tomorrow. Best of all, my own pickling cukes are about to reach pickling size, so I'll be able to make stacker-type pickles about Friday or Saturday. We also picked up a 10-grain store bakery bread that we like and a few other veggies. Then, it was off to Green Sprouts Farmer's Market a couple of miles up the road. It really is just a smaller, more affordable version of Whole Foods or Central Market, but I mean really, really, really smaller and not much selection. They had some great prices on produce, but a lot of their produce was overripe and I didn't purchase anything there. But, I did get visiting those two stores out of my system. The next time I want to go to Central Market, I'll go to Fort Worth because it has a better selection by far. I don't know this for a fact, but it seems bigger than the one in Southlake. It might be that the Fort Worth store has more autumn pumpkins and winter squash outside because they have a big covered patio type thing in front of the store where they often have musicians and cookouts when the weather is good, and I didn't see anything like that at the Southlake store. The only advantage the Southlake store has over Fort Worth is that Tim can stop by it on his way to work at DFW Airport if there's something I "need". I got home in time to spend an hour in the garden while my sweet DH grilled chicken and sausage and made dinner. I had used up all my tomatoes today making the multi-purpose tomato sauce, but I got to pick another 6 tonight, so I'm OK. Moni, I think Tulsa might have a Whole Foods or Wild Oats which are sort of similar to Central Market but more heavily focused on organics and less focused on gourmet-type fare, although there is a lot of gourmet type stuff, especially if you like artisan cheeses and breads. I'll do some research and see what I can find out about Edmond-OKC-Tulsa. Surely something in that area has a 'health food store' with a good selection. I have found they usually have the best produce in terms of variety and selection. Today I was looking at all the fingerling potatoes (six or eight varieties) at Central Market and making a mental note to buy some in December to sprout for spring planting. Two road trips in two days. I've got to stay home and weed and mow for the rest of the week or the yard and garden will be a jungle. Jan, I'll link Pendery's below. The web site is great, but if you're ever in the Fort Worth-Dallas area, you have to visit the store for the sheer pleasure of inhaling all the lovely aromas of the many spices and herbs. Don't miss their chili mixes. They are great and come in many combinations. I love that Pickling Spice and Italian Seasoning Mixes too---they look like real spices and herbs, not just ground-up powders. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Pendery's Spices

I have some pictorial trip reports elsewhere, but following Keith's format for a sense of the day by day results here is how my first three days went: 7/30-Arrived at Tucson airport in the evening and cruised backroads for sidewinders that night. Came up empty on sidewinders. Saw several Merriam's Kangaroo Rats. Also saw a DOR Mojave Rattlesnake en route to sidewinder country. 7/31-Walked a wash in the morning looking for Gila Monsters with no luck. Spent the afternoon at Sonoran Desert Museum and added Desert Spiny Lizard, Zebra-Tailed Lizard and Sonoran Desert Whiptail to my lifelist there. Took a night hike looking for Gila Monsters and saw about 70 Great Plains Toads and one large Sonoran Desert Toad. 8/1-Hiked in the Huachucas looking for Ridgenosed Rattlesnakes with no luck. Saw several tarantulas on the roads. Then drove to Cave Creek Ranch near Portal where we'd be staying most of the trip. Saw two Desert Box Turtles on the roads near Portal. A Madrean Alligator Lizard (lifer) greeted us at the door of our cabin at Cave Creek Ranch. It was crawling up the crack of the door and ran into the cabin and under the stove when I opened the door.

Thanks Gary. Hey Wayne can you post my Gila Monster pic when you get a chance? It isn't a great picture, because it got blurred a little with motion and its head isn't very visible but it is still a great "see how close I am and see that distinctive gila monster pattern and coloration" shot.

Mtn we were going to build, we have our lot (which is also now for sale) but we decided we 1. Didn't want to wait the time it would take to build, as our temporary house is really too small now w/ two kids. 2. More importantly, didn't want to be in the area where we bought the lot after visiting it often and dealing with traffic. Honestly, traffic in Orlando is just god-awful everywhere. And we want to go places with the kids (and ourselves). We want to be in the most central close-to-everything location we can, which basically means buying an existing house. We also visited Celebration a lot and we really do love it. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but we think the downtown is so cute and there are 26 miles of walking paths for us to walk the dogs, and tons of activities for the kids. And it is so close to everywhere. It's just a matter now for us of waiting for a house we want to come on the market there. We will not tolerate rear neighbors (which many Celebration houses have) so we are waiting for one of around 40 houses w/ lake views or conservation to come on the market) If you are going to find a place anywhere w/in the greater Orlando area, drive to where you might want to go at different busy times of the day (including and perhaps most especially the airport if you want to be able to travel easily) and see if you really want to live there.