judijune, be careful with all those snakes! We get some venomous snakes too. My scariest situation was maybe 5 yrs sgo at my old farm when our Lab had cornered a huge Timber Rattlesnake out by the chicken coop. It was all coiled up rattlling its tail -holding its black rattler up high. It had a different sound than other snakes and from a distance without contacts/glasses on, I thought it was a black hornets nest lol! The dog was barking its foolish head off in that snakes face! Im shocked it didnt bite her..or me! I was at a loss of what to do because the dog would not back off, so finally I walked around the coop and up behind her and grabbed her tail pulling her backwards, away from the snake, until i could get hold of her collar and back up towards the house. That snake took off into the woods quick. I later learned that although massive and one of the most venomous rattelesnakes, The Timber rattler is not aggressive and will sometimes even play dead rather than strike. Good thing lol. I dread seeing another one. Diane, I Love those goat photos and their guardian dog! Its a smart thing getting the goats out there to keep the wildfire risk down. The silly photo: We had just got a new overgrown pasture section ready for the goats, a few days ago. We let them out, into it for the first time and they were all going nuts running around tasting everything. Some goats were rubbing their heads on the tall weeds like a scratching post lol. Somehow, this little guy got a big weed stuck on his head. Then he went up to the girls and they would try to eat the weed, then would run and they would all chase him trying to eat the weed. He tried it with the older female goats and they were not impressed and would butt him. They kept us laughing with their goofy antics!

There are at least a couple of possible causes. One is that this is your first indication of a massive internal fungal infection, just breaking through the skin. This is a terminal condition. The other, and more likely, cause is simple external fusarium (black spot) fungus, which is disfiguring, but not fatal. I would treat with a topical anti-fungal and hope for the best. You could take it out of the container to look for rotting roots, remove them, let it dry for a bit, and repot. If the rot is indeed in the central vasculature of the plant, it is doomed. Not too worry you too much, but I just lost a decade-old E. obesa. It was huge and massive, and had been blooming and making seed with its similarly sized male companion twice a year for a long time. I must have overwatered it last summer, and the meltdown was initiated. Very sad, her companion is despondent and inconsolable, considering suicide. I've got him out of his pot and am keeping a close eye on him, not that there is anything I can do at this point. ;) Brad

I was doing a little more reading up on HVX and found the 2007 update from hosta library. I will be posting the link for the full article. Here is a quote to the home gardener: Hosta Virus X - Fall 2007 Update by Bill Meyer "GARDENER ALERT!!! This summer I think it is time to declare a moratorium on cutting flower scapes or cutting off hail- or frost-damaged foliage. These practices are just too risky in times like these. Hosta gardeners around the world must now accept the possibility that they may have an infected plant or two in their collection. There are just too many infected plants out there to feel very safe about it. I think we should all stop these and other sap spreading practices for a period of three years while we wait and check to see if any plants are showing HVX symptoms. This could make the difference between tossing a plant or two and ruining half of our collections. If you must cut hostas, you can do it safely by cleaning your tools after each plant. Use bleach or ammonia and clean them thoroughly." I would hope that you who choose to keep infected hosta document their growth and take pictures of them every month or so from one season to the next and create a post here documenting the progression, possible improvements, or disappearance of symptoms as these hosta mature. I think it would be a fantastic learning experience for all of us if you are willing to share your findings. As far as I have been able to tell so far there has been no documentation of hosta that have been allowed to continue with the disease. All are encouraged to discard infected plants. The possibility of crossing over to other species of plants exists as well. If the hosta are given a chance to grow and develop a resistance/immunity to the virus we may never know if someone does not document the progress of the virus within their own gardens. Here is a link that might be useful: 2007 HVX Update from HL

Certainly Open Office is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office depending on your needs because the two platforms are not 100% compatible. Certainly you can try Open Office and see if it meets your needs. I don't know about Quicken but I would imagine there is some kind of "export" feature. Whether you use that in a newer version of Quicken or move on, is up to your. I hear good things about Mint (.com) but haven't used it personally. Microsoft has discontinued Money.