Dorothy, I still had a couple of spring-planted tomatoes in the ground and this rain has finished them off...instant death. I'll pull them tomorrow if the misty junk finally stops. The fall tomatoes look fine, but army worms are here so I don't know if that will last. I have fall broccoli and cabbage and this is the perfect weather for them. The okra seems to be stalling, but since the temps have stayedin the 70s for several days with no sunlight, that's not unusual. The green beans are very happy. Whenever I decide in July to carry over spring tomato plants to fall, I always regret it by late August because they look awful. This year is no exception, so I've been yanking them one by one. The fall tomato plants have blossoms and green fruit, and I'm already harvesting from the cherry types so I am a pretty happy camper. I think for all of us with tomatoes, the cool weather does adversely affect hornworms, so hooray for that. Jan, I hope y'all get some rain soon, especially for the winter wheat. Most of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex just got pounded with rain all weekend long. In some areas they were out doing high water rescues this morning. My husband works at D-FW Airport and he kept sending me text messages for a couple of days that said stuff like "Getting pounded by rain". "Still getting pounded. Any rain there?" etc. It drove me crazy because at that time the rain wasn't here yet. I wish we'd had as much here as they've had down there. When I was a kid, my uncle and aunt lived in Grapevine which was a one-horse town. That was in the early 1970s. Eventually they sold their land to D-FW Airport. Even though Grapevine is so much bigger now, it is still one of my favorite places. I love their old downtown area AND all the new shopping venues....I can kill a whole day at Grapevine Mills Mall, and I'm really not even a mall type person. I know Dorothy would send both you and Jay rain if she could because she's getting too much right now. I'd send ya'all half of my measley 2.5" if I could figure out how to pack it and ship it. This week's rainfall puts our total at about the same amount as our average annual rainfall, so I guess this is going to be a good year, statistically speaking. It is still raining here and has been for most of the day, but it is a very light mist, so maybe we've picked up another quarter inch. Every bit helps though! Dawn

The reasons for not feeding are as above but are even more complicated short term too - While you don't want to change their behavior, you also need to know that deer digestion involves bacteria that help break down food. Different micro-organisms help digest different types of vegetation. If you introduce a food to them that is different than their normal browse, their stomach may not have enough micro-organisms to digest the food. (bread?) If a doe has a fawn hidden away, she could gobble up something new that appeals to her and feel full, then not digest enough nutrients to produce good milk for her fawn to become strong. How about a pair of good but lightweight binoculars so mom and dad can enjoy watching them in the field of clover?

Kats, that is some real chutzpah. I feel for you. We've been in our home for a little more than a month after a 13-month build (that was only supposed to take 9 months) - the delays were excruciating because they would have been avoidable by someone with even a modicum or organizational ability, which our GC does not have. He's a lovely guy on a personal level but not nearly as good a contractor as he thinks, and we sorely need a break from the unrelenting pressure. He still has not finished one major item - two sets of steel stairs that go from our rear porches to our rear terrace, as well as several small punchlist items. There's always an excuse. He's disorganized, but resents it when we step in to organize, or take any kind of action to impose a deadline - this from a guy who is routinely hours late to scheduled meetings and never met any deadline in the construction process, even ones he imposed himself. Our new theory this week is to give him whatever time he needs (within reason) but to limit his intrusions into our home life to one day a week, arranged in advance, with a "one hour" rule - if he's not here within an hour of when he is supposed to be he has to wait until the next week. Apparently that is being just as "mean" and "difficult" as complaining about unmet deadlines - he thinks we should be there 24/7 for him to do what he wants, or we should just give him a key and trust him, in any event on his schedule. No way - he has needed watching every step of the way. We've done way more than our share of work that he should have done - I feel for you there too. He's been inches away from being fired more than once on this job, and we've talked to a construction lawyer several times about really contentious issues. In the end, even though we have the cash leverage (we still owe him more than our 10% retention, primarily because he's too lazy to do a requisition), it just hasn't been worth it to fire him. Assuming that you don't need clean title for a takeout of your construction loan, it sounds like you have little to worry about. I don't have huge faith in the court system, but even then I find it hard to believe that a judge would buy his argument that his subs are not under his control. Also, if he's not done, how in the world could he be owed a completion bonus? The courts are always a risk, but in this case it seems to me a pretty small one. If you do have to close any new financing that requires title work, you may need to think about it a bit more strategically. Do everything you can to get your loan closed without a lien being recorded. Otherwise, my advice to you is the advice I have a hard time taking myself. It's only as big a deal as you make it. So hire a lawyer and instruct him or her to deal with it in as cost-effective a manner as possible. Then let it go and enjoy your new house.

Funk if you have the time and patience it would definitely be worth it. After you prep each piece they are about 1/4-3/8in thick. It took about 300 pieces to make a 30x60in table top. Depending on where you live it's probably going to be heart pine, cedar, or fur all of which are beautiful. It's more time consuming to save it since you can't just go at a wall with a sledge but it is really a shame so much of it just gets thrown out. Maybe you can work something out where you can have the wood for free if you remove it from a home.