I much prefer to upload my FULL sized photos to Photobucket.com, (it's Free!) then just copy the "HTML Code" Just Below each photo on your photobucket page. Next paste that "Code" into the message (right here) in the body of the post on GardenWeb. You can also do multiple Pic's in the same post. Simple and no resizing and you can see your pictures when you preview the post before you click the "submit message" button. HTH Chris Don't paste it on the link box below the post, just put it right in the message above or below your post.

Bon, I keep trying to convince myself that our drought situation is not as dire as it seems, but...c'mon....who am I kidding? I know how bad it is. I still haven't planted a single thing in the back garden. I want to. Truly I do. We didn't spend all that time breaking the ground and removing the existing vegetation and then fencing it all only to turn around and not use it. The plants we grew back there did great last year (except for the ones the voles ate), but that was largely because we had some good rainfall in the weeks after planting. I still had to water a lot in July and August. So, every day I think about planting something back there and then I waffle on whether to do it or not. So far I haven't planted anything. I feel like if I do plant back there, then I'll have to water. I don't want to water it. There's cracks in the ground about an inch wide in the non-gardening area surrounding it, so my head tells me not to plant the back garden unless we suddenly get a flood of rain. I wouldn't mind heavy flooding as long as it didn't damage anyone's homes and didn't hurt anyone. I wouldn't even mind if my garden flooded because the plants that died would be sacrificed for the greater good. I don't even want to think about dead trees either. We've removed a few and have more to remove, mostly native trees that were here when we bought the place. All the years of recurring drought got to them and killed them. We only try to take out the ones near the house. The dead trees out in the woodland are allowed to stand until they fall. Dead, standing trees can provide homes/shelter for wildlife, so we let them stay in there because we don't walk through there in snake season, making it less likely a tree will fall on our heads. Ironically, since they are the last thing we need, new cedar trees keep springing up everywhere. They aren't allowed to stay. The raised beds in the front garden are in great shape and, like your raised beds, that's my primary focus. I added tons of compost to all but a couple of those beds this year, so they retain moisture well and the plants are growing well in them. There's not enough room in them to grow everything I planned to grow in the back garden this year, but I'll just succession crop as much as possible and try to get the maximum production from them. When Scott first mentioned this week's rain a few days before it arrived, I tried not to get my hopes up. Eventually, after watching the QPF predicted rainfall numbers go up, up and up, I started believing. That was stupid of me. We never get what the QPF says we will. I can remember two times that we've gotten more than it says for a specific time period, but generally we get a whole lot less, or even nothing at all. One of these days I'll learn to stop getting my hopes up. I know how little rain we've received here this year, and I know how low it is in comparison to what we'd have in year-to-date rainfall in an average year. I just try not to dwell on those numbers because they are too depressing. Seeing them in black-and-white in our local, weekly newspaper just reminds me how bad it is, and when I saw the numbers today, I just cringed. These are the numbers from our local cooperative weather observer, whose place is just a couple of miles from ours....less as the crow flies. Our rainfall is often very close to his numbers. Year-to-date rainfall through May 6: 4.91". Average year-to-date rainfall through the end of May: 15.45". There is no way that we will get enough rain through the rest of May to get us anywhere near that 15.45". Even if he recorded a half-inch this week like we did, it doesn't help nearly enough, and our numbers in next week's paper will look almost as bad as this week's numbers. Our chances of rain for the next few days are very similar to yours, but it wouldn't surprise me if all the rain misses us as it so often does. We used to have such lovely springs with lots of rainfall and often had good rain even throughout June. Even though drought was a regular feature most years in July and August, it was bearable. The last few years, though, the spring rainfall keeps falling short....really short. Normally, in the summer months, by the time we reach Severe on the Drought Monitor, I've stopped watering and called it a year. Here we are in May, normally one of our wettest months, and most of our county is in Severe Drought and has been for a while, and the western end is in Extreme Drought. You just kinda start wondering what the point of planting is if it is all going to die. I'd say that at least half the people I know here who usually have gardens have planted very little, or nothing at all, this year. I can't say that I blame them, but it makes me sad when we drive by an empty garden plot that usually is green and thriving. My garden actually looks great, all things considered, but the amount of work, worry, irrigation, covering and uncovering of plants, etc. that it has taken to get there is ridiculous. Just keeping the garden alive to this point has been a full-time job. I'm stubborn, though, and don't give up easily, so I'll keep plugging along for a while. Dawn

It is quick and easy to sign up for a free account with ImageShack. Once you upload your images there, all you'll need to do is just paste the code they provide in a post and your picture will show up. I prefer to use 'thumbnail code for sites', that way folks can click to see the full-sized image if they choose to see it, and don't have to bother with it slowing them down if they don't. Here's a couple of clickable thumbnails:

carolyn, I liked your word, "tidy-minded". It doesn't really apply to me as far as my reading, but I liked the word. Read more than one? Always. Always an upstairs book, at least one downstairs book. At least two in the car, one in my purse, one paperback mystery shoved under the seat of DH's SUV (just in case... shhhh... he doesn't know it's there.) and quite often, an audio tape in my car as well... the current audio tape is a Hamish McBeth mystery, Death of a Perfect Wife. And I usually have one textbook-type non-fiction book that I read in bits and pieces, too. Right now, that book is William J. Bennett's AMERICA: The Last Best Hope, volume 1. I cannot seem to hold myself to just one book. We are going on vacation in a month or two and with the new weight restrictions on luggage, I am seriously considering paring down the clothes so I can take the same number of books. PAM