Yep Beelize, My eyes were wide! Since then, it's been nervous out there! Syncal, I wanted to say how sorry I am to hear of your loss. What a horrible thing. I'd have felt frustrated, heartbroken, a host of emotions. Miss Kitty, we're in the Pac NW, about 30 or miles north of Seattle, though in the foothills of the Cascades. We have predators of every variety, but they usually remain aloof and we don't see them much, hence the surprise. The encounter was on Sunday. The following Fri-nite, we lost a bird. That cranked the nerve switch up a notch. One of our best muscovies mind you. We were still working on their permanent structure, but they had been fine all year in their pen. Whatever it was left a real mess. Based on all I've read about predators and their leavings, I couldn't i.d. it. Raccoons go for the head (I imagine becuase it has the bird by the neck) but our muscovy was not decapitated. Possums go for the guts, but ours was not disembowled either. He was on his back and filleted at the breast. What ever it was chowed straight in from that angle, and left the remains. Cougars, I'm told, usually haul away and bury their prey, but not always, so I'm not sure. Coincidence? Outside of a dog attack in broad daylight, it is the only loss we've suffered. Three days later, our neighbor saw the cougar in his driveway when they pulled in. It lingered for awhile as they waited in the car. The Wildlife Fish & Game were contacted again. We haven't seen Freddie Cougar since, so don't know. Maybe he went home. Sad fact is, he may have been homeless altogether. They're being pressed out of most territory thanks to so much development. It's not his fault. But I sure feel silly walking up to it like some cougar whisperer saying "here kitty, kitty". Call me Mr. Magoo. RJ gave me a rifle lesson. Doubtful I'd ever use it, but I shot my first tin can! Am thinking about mounting it on the wall over the mantel. :0>

Lou thanks for contributing the compost information. I know that Cornmeal is very effective when applied to the 'Palmetto' St Augustine grass. My son inlaw tried the fertilizer chemicals the first year, and was not very happy with the result, The next fall the Cornmeal applied like you suggested and horse manure compost applied later showed a dramatic improvement over the chemical fertilizer/weed killer he used first. The virgin clay soil that was on the lot where my daughter's house was build was nearly white hardpan. And then I saw that their builder only layed down sand as a topsoil. That really stressed me, because I know the light color I saw in her clay soil must indicate that it must be nearly void of humus and also void of many important nutrients that trees and shrubs need. Because of that we made the landscaping beds with well processed horse manure compost, and when he applied that same compost and at the right time put down the cornmeal, my son-in-law ended up with one of the nicest looking yards and landscaping on the block. Too bad they moved back to OK the next year, and no longer can enjoy that. I say that, because now most of the yards in our area are full of that horrible weed called bermuda grass. Too bad the 'Palmetto' ST Augustine grass is not hardy enough for our borderline USDA Zone 6b/7a I have a friend who's Bermuda grass is worse than mine at invading, and even after we covered some of her lawn, for a new landscaping bed, with black plastic for 6 weeks in the hottest part of the summer, the Bermuda's roots still are not killed. We looked under the plastic this week and saw lots of thick white roots with hints of green barely showing. What a pain. I just simply hate Bermuda grass. The only good thing; is that even if it goes dormant in a drought most Bermuda will not die out, and in the next warm rainy season it flourishes again. For Lawns that is great. For Landscape beds that is nothing more than a huge weedy burden. Now, for my friend's new landscape bed, I know of no other choice than to spray the area with a grass root killer that will not harm the roses and thornless dwarf hawthorn tree and some shrubs we want to plant next week in that new bed. As far as my above advice to Mike, I did not want to advise him to make the soil in his oak tree's bed extra fertile until he gets his bermuda roots under control. If he does make the tree's bed nice and fertile before then, with the organic stuff you mentioned, The Bermuda will simply send down even deeper roots and take a stronger hold in the bed, resulting in the roots stealing most of those composted organic nutrients away from the tree's rootball. Since the tree is already stressed, many pests which drop and spend the winter in the soil do not like the oils in cedar. That is why I suggested Mike use it. Not so much to break down and feed the tree, but to instead help retain soil moisture, and to retard the pests which otherwise might want to emerge from the soil and attack this tree that is currently struggling to establish. Mike, once your bermuda is under better control, then by all means do all you can to follow Lou's advice on the organic spreads. And when your tree is more healthy, you can begin to use the faster breaking down mulches Lou mentioned, because by then the health of the tree should help discourage more of such opportunist pests from rushing in.

In most states theft from a construction site is a totally separate law from petty theft or grande theft and it generally carries a much more severe punishment. In my jurisdiction $86 value is the dividing line between petty theft and grande theft but $20 is the dividing line between petty theft and grande theft from a construction site. While an ordinary petty theft may be treated as a mis-demeanor punishable by a fine and probation, even petty theft from a construction site carries a mandatory minimum penalty of $1,000 fine and 12 months in jail for the first offence. The law here further defines a construction site as any site no matter how slight to which construction permits have been issued. About three years ago theft of copper pipe and wire from construction sites or vacant homes was rampant in this area. I personally replumbed 21 homes in one year that were rental properties that had sat vacant for a month and the copper was stolen. Our county finally took a hardline stand on this issue and instituted an ordinace which requires that anyone who turns in more than 20lbs of copper at the scrap yard must sign a disclosure of origin defining how they generated the scrap. For bona fide plumbers, electricians, sheet metal workers or homeowners who are building or doing a rehab at a specific address this is not a problem, but for the crack heads who turn up every couple days with 40 or 50 lbs, they are finding it tough to convince the authorities that they came by it honestly. The scrap yards are also required to get positive identification for anyone selling copper scrap and they must get a "thumb print" of the person presenting the copper for sale. As a result of this legislation the theft of copper is no longer a big deal in this area.

that link scanner has been a big problem in AVG at various times, I would try doing as one person suggested and disable that link scanner from AVG and see if that works. AVG in their FAQ in fact tells how to install AVG with out the link scanner since it causes so many problems. Frequently Asked Questions this is the reply I am referring to by ripling "I tracked my particular problem to AVG 9 , specifically the AVG Active Surf-Shield in their LinkScanner, I unticked that & all has been fine since apart from not having that particular component of AVG available to use." Of course you can always try reverting back to an earlier version of Firefox which it seems many there have done and it seems to go back to normal. do you have the no script add on in your firefox by chance? I see in some threads there may be an issue with it causing a similar problem, however the most recent update of no script supposedly fixes it. from over on BBR I found this comment "tool>options>security uncheck block reported attack sites and block reported web forgeries. restart firefox and see if that helps" There is a new release candidate of firefox that you can give a try if you want to do that, see if it makes any difference new Firefox! seems to be a problem many are trying to find a cure for and none I have seen is the end all be all fix, some things work for some not for others. Those are so difficult to dig out the root cause.