Following up, a few months later... Things seem to be back to normal in the garden (thanks again for all of the advice and support). Nothing dead, and even a few new creatures -- a toad (must've come over from a man-made garden pond nearby) and a bunny (an unpleasant surprise -- living in an urban area, this is our first rabbit ever, in four years!). Birds are plentiful, and we're seeing a few goldfinches come by as the coneflowers dry up. I spent the summer enjoying the garden mostly from the inside... next spring will bring a clean slate and I can stop feeling funny about being out there (and about being here). Interesting, though: Like Hyta, I had not one Japanese beetle. Not a one. And I didn't spray anything besides all-season oil for aphids. Saw this in the newspaper today about more dangers from imidicloprid, this time about lingering dangers to honeybees: "Unfortunately, we are learning that Merit has some ugly side effects, namely causing what has been called colony collapse disorder, where thousands of honeybee colonies are disappearing for no obvious reason. Now we know that any plant that is treated with Merit and has blossoms that attract bees, those bees will receive a non-lethal shot of Merit. But it will cause them to lose their ability to find their way back to the hive. It also weakens the bee's immune system so the bee usually dies of some fungus or virus. ... "We yardeners can't deal with the bee problem in agriculture, but we definitely can take a look at how we are using Merit in our own yard. Some of the most effective and popular systemic insecticides for rose bushes have Merit as the main ingredient. Honeybees will always work over rose blossoms and so are exposed to a little bit of Merit -- enough to affect them badly." Provided the link for those of you who want to read more. (P.S. Maryl, I made sure to spray my clothes each time; thanks for the tip. And Joanne, now you must forgive me. I never have any e-mails about responses to a post. Still, please accept *my* apology for not responding sooner to say it's no big deal at all. :) )

Don't give up! I failed on my first batch of seeds a few years ago and had to start over....didn't get a lot that season, but I did learn a lot about growing them from seed. Are you in an area with a fall growing season? You could try again. I start in the Jiffy pellets (which I know many people HATE, but it works for me...just gotta pull the netting off when I pot them). This year, I did it a bit differently and moved them out onto my shaded porch when they had almost all popped up, bringing them in on cool nights. I also moved them father into the light, and potted them up into cups with miracle grow potting mix when they had a couple sets of true leaves, so there was really no hardening off period when I was ready to put them in the garden because most of their little lives had been outside in the elements and the sun. I never have much luck with the lights, they are always leggy. Anyway, you just have to find the method that works for you....every season is a learning experience. You will always reflect and find things that went well and things that could be better and make changes for the next season.

Happy April Fool's Day everyone. Hugs to everyone who needs them. We got here on Saturday & got everything unloaded Sunday. We got the truck taken back on Monday. I still have a few things to put up but for the most part, everything is in its place. It looks really nice. Here is the sad news. We took our furbabies to the vet yesterday. The oldest one, Lucy, has heartworms. We have to take her back on Monday to have them staged. We have had her a week today & have already had to pay out the wazoo for her. We love both the little ones. Just trying to figure out how we are going to afford the treatment. It is very, very sad & I wish I could say that this was an April Fool's joke but it isn't. Besh~I know how you feel. Dave tells everyone that it took us 10 years to even be able to consider having another dog after we had to give ours up when we moved to Florida. We were still crying every time we said their names. These 2 little ones have already brought us so much joy. If you or RAEANNE could let me know the best thing to pick up hair, I would appreciate it. Papillons are not supposed to shed but IDK if it is b/c of stress or b/c they weren't groomed properly or petted enough, they are shedding. Not as much now as they were a week ago!!! I cannot tell you how far they have come in a week. I'm so glad that Maddie got to do Rabbit, Rabbit. LOL I got Dave this morning. He has been winning a lot lately. I am thinking about all of you & I wish I had been able to write down what each of you said so I could comment but I have the computer on my bed right now & 2 dogs & a snoring husband in a pear tree! LOL I hope that all the MIAs will come out & play. Did we ever find out what happened with John? I miss him. He snagged himself a GF & doesn't have time for us anymore, right? It is supposed to be in the 90s here this weekend so our 4 year old granddaughter is playing 2 soccer games tomorrow & we are going to watch them. Hope everyone else enjoys their weekend. I will make the ultimate sacrifice & get a sunburn for everyone if you want me to. ;)

"I just know it's probably from the 1940's & most likely costume jewelry." You may be able to get big bucks for the stuff. Bakelite and Lucite vintage jewelry is quite collectible. Certain styles of the era are popular even it it is not true Bakelite. Google some of the places that sell it online and contact them. I would try to get another estate sale company in to go through things and see if there are any items worth it to be put up for auction. Do not rely on just that one estate sale company to give you advice. Way back when..........when my grandfather died, my mother did a bunch of rummage sales. It barely put a dent in the amount of stuff my grandfather had saved like a packrat. (Depression Era guy.) Then, my mom had someone come in to look at the stuff. This auction woman pawed through the stuff and found some valuable stuff that had gone unrecognized. For instance, my grandfather had a shoebox full of pens he had saved. My mom had put 50 cents on it for the rummage sales. No one bought it. The auction woman found a pen in there called *Big Red* from the late '20s and it sold at auction for a LOT of money. (This was before they reissued the reproductions) A little plastic box turned out to be an Art Deco celluloid cigarette holder. $$$$. A can opener was vintage Harley Davidson issue. It was sent to a store out East on consignment and fetched a pretty penny. I could go on and on. My point being that you could have treasure trove of collectibles. If you do not have the time or the knowledge of collectibles, have someone come in to look over the stuff again. There are places who will list things on eBay for you for a percentage of what it sells for. One persons junk is another man's treasure. My one cousin is always on the lookout at sale for old rusty, vintage tools she uses for decoration. She just cringes when at estate sales she is told "Oh yeah, we had a lot of old tools. They were all rusty and beat up, so we threw them out before the sale." Some things are only valuable to certain individuals. When my uncle died, there was an old, floor model radio in nice wood cabinet. My brother removed the guts from it and was going to use the nice Art Decor cabinet. Another cousin (who is into vintage radios) went ballistic finding this out, as it turns out the vacuum tubes that were tossed out and hauled away in the dumpster, were valuable to collectors who use them to recondition old radios, and worth waaaaay more that that crappy cabinet was. BTW, if there is a lot of stuff Goodwill and similar organizations will come to your house to pick everything up. They will give you a receipt for taxes.