It's really not the nitrogen loss from the bark that may cause any problems as mulch. I found through some research that some pine needles are allelopathic and inhibit the uptake of nitrogen for other plants. Not all pines. I turns out the pines that grow in our forest just happen to have the allelopathic pine needles and I have collected the needles and used them to mulch between my propane tank and the garden shed. They have controled the weed infestation in that awful area. Smiles, Lyn

I suggest you do a google search for Farmer Says He Grows World's Longest Green Chile since we are not allowed to post url. Sweet and mild or hot and spicy, New Mexico chile farmers grow peppers for all taste buds. But one man in Hatch says the size of his peppers are breaking world records. "See this one here's 13, 14 inches," said Jim Lytle, as he picked fresh peppers from his 100-acre chile field. "I had one 17 inches." Lytle said he knew he grew the world's longest chile the moment he laid eyes on the enormously long peppers. "Yippee! I was really happy we had a new record to do it with. And then I got to looking in the field and found out that we had a lot more," Lytle said. The unusually large length does not affect the taste or quality of the product, he said. Instead, it simply adds eye appeal for customers, Lytle said. "That's one big chile," said a man purchasing the peppers at a nearby store. One measures about 15.5 inches from top of the stem to the bottom, breaking the current record of 13 inches set by Lytle's mother in 1988.

Maire, we have sisters' night once a month. I'm glad I didn't go. Every winter they always have several rounds of colds, flu, 'stomach flu', etc. And it takes forever for it to circulate throughout the home. This year the person who runs the Home instituted some changes. One was to have Purell containers placed throughout the building, w/signs for all to please use. When a nurse saw ANY symptoms of a contagious disease, the resident was kept apart from the others, not allowed to eat in dining room. This was just a couple of things. They had only a few isolated illnesses this past winter. Shirley

Yep. We were pretty bummed it was a squirrel. I do see that a red strawberry survived the night. We will have to check critter cam to see if we defeated the squirrel or if he/she didn't show up. Unfortunately making the bed squirrel proof also makes it people proof. A bit of deconstruction effort needed to get to the strawberry. There may be more in there that aren't visible from the edge. As an aside my Pinata rose had very slow growth. Just one inch of new growth. That got eaten yesterday inside the rose cage. Could have been insects as it wouldn't have taken much to dispose of the three leaves on the 1" stem. This may kill it. I have to decide if I want to try again with that rose or get something that grows faster. We've had a couple of tall garden phlox stems chewed down and some short phlox chewed off. Our dogs and us practically trip over the rabbits in the yard. I think we need a dog with higher prey drive. Ours just don't bother with the bunnies.