Can't add anything to the original poster's query but I'm planning to rake the pieces of charcoal from the areas in the forest where I've thrown the wood ashes from my stove. I think I'll either add it to the compost or just mix a bit in planting holes with the soil and compost as I plant. "I try to "charge" the char first by some method, such as soaking in urine, apply with well-aged compost or manure, micronized stone dust, etc." Good advice to "charge" the char. Could probably use alfalfa tea.

Dale, I am truly sorry to hear that man's best friend sort of went nuts and failed to mind his manners. I hope you get some more melons and tomatoes from those plants. There must be something about canines and melons, because here in the boondocks, coyotes devour melons like mad and don't even wait for the melons to get close to being ripe. Fred has lost practically all his melons at the old home place to coyotes the last few years, and he used to plant dozens and dozens of plants. I think he's given up on raising melons out there any more, and it is a shame because the old home place has great sandy soil along the Red River. Most of my dogs don't eat tomatoes, but they're fenced out of the garden anyway. Since we have hard clay soil, they can't dig under the fence although they certainly have run amok in the garden when I have forgotten and left the gate open. (A mistake you only make a couple of times before you learn that your garden pays the price for a gate left open.) Do you think your dog was playing or was thirsty? Maybe he or she had knocked over the water dish and sought out the fruit for the water content? Maybe the dog wanted to play ball? My dogs grow their own gourds and pumpkins on the dogyard fence and randomly pull them and play with them whenever the mood strikes, so they don't necessarily get a lot of gourds or pumpkins to full maturity, but they have fun. The stink bugs are atrocious this year. Between them and the grasshoppers, it is a wonder I have a garden left. I haven't had SVBs this year, but have squash bugs, the aforementioned stink bugs (they arrived in May again which is abnormally early), and leaf-footed bugs. You know, pelting the dog with tomatoes might not be a bad idea. Here in our area, when a country dog kills a family chicken, some people tie the dead chicken carcass to the dog's collar and leave it there a couple of days so the dog has to smell that decaying corpse. They claim it teaches the dog a lesson, but uggh, I don't think I could do it. Luckily, our dogs aren't bird killers. Every year we have different gardening challenges, and some years are more challenging than others. You still have plenty of time to get lots more tomatoes and other veggies since the average frost date for your area is....what....about early November? Every winter, I start out the year with such high hopes for the garden, and then it is always a struggle all spring and summer to try to make the dream a reality. If it isn't the weather, it is the pests, or the deer or the rabbits or.....whatever disease is most active that year. What keeps us all going? Probably that old saying "there's always next year". Since we've lived here, every animal known to mankind has attempted to destroy my garden, though thankfully not all in the same year. As soon as I figure out how to exclude one type of wildlife, another one figures out how to get into the garden. I've seen animals in/around my garden that I never knew existed....until we moved here, I didn't know that there was such a thing as a ring-tailed cat. (That particular wild critter likes to eat our young poultry.) I'd never expected to have a beaver killing our trees, or a cougar hanging out at the edge of the garden, or skunks digging up sunflowers or turtles eating tomatoes. It is always something......and I didn't know that deer ignore those lists of "plants that deer won't eat" and eat them anyway. Recently, I noticed 1 lone pigweed plant in the corner of the potato bed. I kept meaning to dig it up or cut it down---seems like it zoomed from 6" tall to 5' tall in about a week.....but before I got around to it, a deer ate it. Ha! At least the deer are good for something. I think I grew okra here for 5 years before I ever got a pod because the deer would jump the then-three-foot-tall garden fence and eat every plant down to the ground at some point during the season. All that's ever worked for me is the 7' tall fence we have now, and it only works if I remember to always close both gates. One reason I haven't expanded the garden more and more every year is because it means moving the 7' tall fence or errecting another one. I have friends who garden in towns, both large cities and small towns, and they often find fruit missing from their plants, or sometimes entire plants gone, and believe it is two-legged critters stealing their fruit and veggies, flowers and herbs. So, I guess a garden is never truly 'safe'. Hopefully the second half of this gardening year will turn out better than the first. Or, as I always say, there's always next year..... Dawn

Our refrigerator died suddenly and we had to get a new one right away. I really hate having to buy something fast but it was either that or live out of an ice chest that my husband pulled out of the garage. We spent 3 days checking out Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, Pacific Sales, The Great Indoors, and a few locally owned appliance stores. ItÂs surprising how all the refrigerators started to look the same after a while but we finally decided on the brand/model we wanted. Now it was down to price. Over the last 1 1/2 years, we have had to replace all our appliances except for our stove. All have lasted us between 15-17 years so I canÂt complain. We bought our new front load washer/dryer from The Great Indoors. The price couldnÂt be beat by any other store and the salesperson was so helpful that when our dishwasher bit the dust a few months later, we went back. Once again he gave us the best price and great/friendly/helpful service. Our third appliance to go was our oven. Again we shopped all over and ended up buying at Pacific Sales. The price was the best and the salesperson was a pleasure to deal with, very professional and courteous. Our oven was installed last week. As for the refrigerator, Pacific Sales didnÂt carry the model we wanted. Although I shop a lot at Best Buy, their salesperson did nothing for us so they were out. The salesperson we encountered at Sears bent over backwards to try and help us. We didnÂt make it easy for him because we were so undecided but he stuck in there. We came back 3 times and he was very patient and understanding. Sears was having a big sale but someone else said that The Great Indoors was having a huge 1 day sale. We ended up getting a better price at The Great Indoors but since the Sears guy was so kind, I wanted to give him one last chance. We let him know that the decision was up to him for the sale. He beat the price and we got free delivery. He really earned the sale and we got a fantastic price. The refrigerator was delivered 2 weeks ago. We started having a problem with the doors squeaking right away. Called service and they came out very fast. They fixed the problem but it reappeared a few days later. Again service came out right away but this time they recommended replacing the refrigerator. Wow, how honest can you get? Most repair places would string you along for quite a while before admitting that you got a bad appliance. We should be getting our new refrigerator next week. Sears gets an A+ for both sales and service.

Hi Harriet, You're paying 8.25%, deductible, on your HELOC. You're talking about investing at 5% ... taxable. Which will produce what rate, after-tax? Why do you need to worry about an emergency fund? Your HELOC is almost certainly for a larger amount that you owe currently, so if you pay most (or all) of the $20,000. down on the loan, you'll have that much more available should you need it in the HELOC, won't you? Keep paying at your current rate on the loan, so it'll be paid off sooner. I can't give any advice on Roth stuff, for I know nothing about it (being a furriner). We have retirement accounts here in Canada and most financial advisors say that every person earning employment income who's a taxpayer should use them, but some of us disagree - for reasons that relate largely to the varying tax situation that affects various kinds of income, when it's applied and the fact that every dollar of proceeds of one's retirement fund is fully taxable, on withdrawal. By the way - maybe you should arrange a HELOC here in Canada. I have one fully secured by securities and they recently quoted about 6.25%. I'm waiting for a market correction to draw on it again - the market's too high, right now. And precarious. An investment group that meets monthly that I've attended for half a dozen years or so were rather largely antsy about the market at last month's meeting. Hope you make the decision that's wisest for you folks. ole joyful