Steffie, I wish we were next-door neighbors, too, but since we live more than just a few miles apart, we'll have to be cyber-neighbors. :) I am far from an expert, just a gardening nut who relentlessly tries to learn and understand and improve what I do as I go along. And, lest you think I have a perfect yard or landscape, let me disabuse you of that notion right away! I have weeds I can't defeat, bermuda that invades beds it shouldn't, trees and shrubs that outgrow the spot where they were oh-so-carefully placed, plants that just give up and die and I never really figure out why they died, etc., etc., etc. Discussing things with my Oklahoma friends and neighbors here at this forum helps me keep things in perspective. It educates me. It offers me encouragement on those days when everything seems wrong and nothing seems right. It gives me new ideas and inspiration. Every one of you is better than me at something that is gardening-related. And, believe me, I know it. So, for example, when one of you writes about hydangeas, I pay attention and soak up everything you say, because one of these days I WILL succeed with hydranges. Have you ever noticed that most all gardeners are just the kindest, most giving and sharing people? You know what I'm talking about.....you see someone working out in the yard and you stop to tell them that you love their irises....and they dig up a couple on the spot and insist you take them, saying...."I needed to divide them anyway". Or, you drop off some of your extra tomatoes and a carton of hen or guinea eggs at a neighbor's house.....and they won't let you leave until you have some of their 'extra' fresh corn and peaches right off the tree, and some bacon from a hog they slaughtered and processed. I've yet to meet a fellow gardener who wouldn't give you the shirt off their back, or loan you their rototiller, or give you tons and tons of advice and ideas, and then apologize to you if their ideas don't work for you. So, I am very touched when you say that I am your hero. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. You have to believe me when I say that I feel the same way about each and every one of you. I believe we are all heroes for one another, and I believe that is how God meant for it to be. Life in this world can be cold, hard, and cruel, at times. For those of us who love to garden, the love, friendship, caring and support we receive from one another is a beautiful gift And, it is a gift I appreciate each and every day. Hugs to you, Steffie, and hugs to all the rest of you too. Dawn

Annie, I think we are only the tiniest bit hotter, but y'all are probably usually more humid. (On some days, I'd think the higher humidity would feel great, but on other days it would push the heat index into the stratosphere!) We have limited protection from south and north winds, but not so much from the west, and none from the east. Our clay holds too much moisture when it rains and not enough any other time, but it is great when well amended. We have one narrow band of sandy soil between the house and garden and that is where the guinea coop and chicken coop are, there under the shade of the big pecan tree. I have cannas and 4 o'clocks and rough-leaf dogwood under that pecan to help shelter the poultry from the predatory birds that like to eat them. Unfortunately, the soil amending has to be ongoing....year around, year in, year out. I am "only" 49, but wonder how many years I'll be able to garden at the current pace. Already, the heat bothers me so much more than it did 5 or 10 years ago. The garden gets a little shadier as the trees on three sides of it get larger, but I have to worry about their roots encroaching too. Our soil leans towards being neutral, around 6.8 to 7.2, as long as I keep it well-amended. I had alkaline soil (around 8.0) in Texas, and it was a struggle to lower it any at all. Unfortunately, our place here was once a farm where cotton was one of the crops raised, and there is cotton root rot in the soil. That gave me a lot of trouble in the early days, and there really is no "cure" for it, but I find that the more I amend and improve the soil, the less trouble I have with cotton root rot. Unfortunately, two or three thousand plants are susceptible to it, so I have to watch what I plant. I don't garden on most the land we have because the clay is like red concrete. Only about a acre or acre-and-a-half of it is tamed, about 3 acres are pastures where the wildflowers and grasses nurture the wildlife, and a little over 10 acres is forested and full of deer, bobcats, foxes, ringtailed cats, ferrets, snakes, snakes, snakes, and tons of other stuff, including possums, armadillos and skunks. We do mow 10' wide paths through the pastures so we can walk through there without stepping on copperheads (been there, done that, didn't care for the experience, but didn't get bitten either). I love, love, love living and gardening here, but I miss the longer growing season we had in Fort Worth, where the last spring freeze was often in mid to late-February and the first one often didn't hit until mid- to late-November. Still, I do like Oklahoma better even if it took me 39 years to get here! I envy the rainfall y'all get up there....in a GREAT year here, we'll have 30 to 34" inches and we'll be astounded that we got so much! I can't imagine routinely getting 35" or 40" or more. I'd sure like to try it for a year or two though! Most years since we've been here, it's been more like 26" or 28" or maybe 30" of rain, but one year it was 21" and another it was 24". In a year like that, it gets to where all you can do is water enough to keep the foundation from cracking. So, in a "good year" we STILL have drought here, and in a bad year it is unspeakably bad. I guess it is probably pretty much the same all over Oklahoma....is there ever really enough rainfall in June, July or August (well, maybe at Scott's! LOL). Our 17 keats have survived their first month and we've only had to kill two black snakes that were after them, although our predator-snake problem is usually the worst in July and August. DH keeps wanting to let the keats out of the brooder cages, but the last two times we did that when they were this old, something got them all, so they are staying in the brooder a while longer. I think the guinea coops is about 95% snake proof, but I am not convinced it is 100% snake proof. Our bunnies are disappearing, but I haven't heard the coyotes howling at night yet, so think they are still denned up with their young. A neighbor says a friend of his is seeing a cougar occasionally, but I haven't seen any signs of one near us for a couple of years, I think. Maybe it is the bobcats getting the rabbits. It has been such a great rabbit year, but I know it doesn't last long. The turtle eggs laid in the shrub bed (clay highly amended with compost) have hatched and we have little baby turtles everywhere, and we've had a huge population explosion in the hummingbird gang this year--ruby-throated, black-chinned, and rufous. Life is good! (Hot, but good.) I am very careful about exposure to the heat and sun. I don't wear sunscreen as often as I should (but I'm better than I used to be), but I always wear hats and, more often than not, I wear long-sleeved cotton shirts in the summertime. All the ranchers and farmers here do that to protect their skin, so at least I don't look like an oddball. (Being an organic gardener in a pretty non-organic county makes me enough of an oddball as it is! Not that I care. I wear my oddballness proudly!) Dawn

I was going to suggest that any of the canned items you give him should have the pop tops...unless you open them for him. There used to be a guy living under the freeway by DS's work and we used to pack him something just about everyday. Between me and my son he ate at least 1-2 meals a day. Turns out his wife and child were killed in an accident a few years before and he just lost it for a few months...depression and lost his job. Just gave up on everything he had going. He couldn't get himself together after that and ended up homeless and helpless. My son got to know him pretty well and took him food everyday, and clothing from time to time. He was really a nice guy. We gave him a one man tent which he appreciated in the rainy months. He refused alot of blankets and such as he had to move around alot and couldn't carry it all. He just disappeard one day my son said...no one seemed to know what happened to him after that. I do hope he found some help and got a job and a place to stay. You just never know what their story is and why they are the way they are. I too look at them differently after this man's story. Good for you CR for not turning him away. I figure if they are not asking for money then they are pretty legit in asking. I'll give food and clothing...I have a problem giving money..I'm afraid it'll go for booze and drugs. Dh gives money with no problem....he always says "whatever gets them through the day"...I wish I could see it that way.

Khaki Campbell Ducklings Newest member of the farm, a black American AlpineGracie, another Alpine/Nubian cross doe After selling three of my extra Pekin duck males, I have a total of 77 farm animals now. Unfortunately, I didn't get my order in on time for the Saxony ducklings. The broker tried to get some in for me, thinking there would be enough during the last hatch, but it wasn't meant to be right now. I'm sort of expecting the Pekins to lay eggs any time now and really would like to get an incubator by September. So, why more goats? I wanted one that would be ready to breed early fall, and Gracie came into heat basically as soon as we brought her to the farm. We bred her to the Alpine male. If the breeding took, we should have some goat kids in early January. In the long run, I would like to shift gears into pure bred goats, and eventually, all registered ones. The new American Alpine doeling is ADGA registered, and I already had an unregistered purebred male. Whether or not the other three does get bred before January 2017 depends all on their weight. By then, the youngest one will be 8 months old and the other two will be 11 months and 1 year. The turkey poults have made it through what most people call the critical stage, 12 weeks. They are in a 10x10x6 pen right now, and I will separate them, by breed, into more 10x10x6 pens, when I find out I have at least a pair of each breed. I'm reasonably sure that some of the breeds I have are potentially all Toms. So, despite having 6 breeds, the final number of pairs or trios which will have their own separate pens will probably be around three to four. The extra Toms will probably be sold off. Apparently, heritage turkeys mature at around eight months old. So, I have 4+ months to get all of their pens ready. But wow, after reading so many horror stories about people having a death rate between 50% and 90% with poults, I was really nervous going in and kind of on pins and needles, until they did hit that 12 week mark. I had to come up with my own feed mix, because none of my local stores or mill sold a turkey or game bird starter, or any poultry feed in a high enough protein range. As of now, most of the older ducks and chickens have been put on lacto-fermented feed, and soon, the turkeys will also be put on primarily that. I can already see a difference in the ducks, as they no longer attack the feed storage room every time the door is open, when they used to have an unending hunger. I mean, the Pekin ducks would just peck right through the tough feed bags in seconds and jump into the storage area.... You'd think they were goats... After several weeks, they just stopped doing that and started acting as if they were no longer hungry. The change was so abrupt that I thought something was wrong, but it's been awhile now, and everything has been A-OK. The chickens, well, that's another story. They still seem to have an unending appetite. Well, that's about it for now.