Ditto Maggie. In in his first year or so our rooster charge me a couple of times. He hasn't since. Now he's nearly 2. I always keep an eye on him. When I first let them out in the morning and he's especially active, I always have a garden tool in hand. When the chickens are following me across the yard I will walk facing him--I don't trust him though he hasn't touched me for several months. When grandkids visit, the roosters are in the pen. You can't be too careful. Sometimes I think it would be easier not to have roosters but they are beautiful and they are part of the natural order (however "natural" their lives are). And this rooster is great with his girls. AS far as agression, our head hen is much more agressive than the rooster. This morning one of the pullets was in the egg laying place (of course the nesting boxes are ignored) in the corner and Hera just kept pecking at the pullet's neck. The pullet almost looked like she was in the submissive position but didn't leave the spot until the egg was layed.

Bluegirl, that's a good point about adjusting to whatever your experience says is normal - like traffic noises or train sounds if you live near their passages, or heat in a Nevada summer, or cold in a Minnesota winter. It's just what you expect and we build positive associations with it for the pleasant events that happen in that period. As a relative outsider to cicadas, the negative associations have gotten firmly established before any positive ones could set in. Tammy and MG have plenty of their own negative experiences too, and if they start laying eggs in my rose canes we'll definitely move them into my mental "bad bug" category. Of course, I'm not big on loud repetitive uncontrollable sounds anyway - having lived in landlocked places all my life I find the sounds of ocean waves to be slightly disturbing and annoying, though not to the same extent. I'd way rather listen to crickets chirping than a tape of ocean sounds during "deep relaxation" parts of yoga class, but I realize I'm in the minority here. So, Michael, if these chirping sounds are all mating behaviors, does that mean that crickets and grasshoppers are just more, um, horny than other bugs, or is it that they have quicker life cycles and we're hearing new generations of cricket males like perpetual teenagers desperate for a date on Saturday night? You'd think if the same old thing didn't get results last night, they'd give up or try something new, but I guess that doesn't apply to teenagers either... Cynthia

How about buying a tub you haven't bathed in? We bought the Kohler Tea for Two whirlpool after I discovered it, I believe for the first time, in a home magazine. I finally got to eyeball the tub, but not the whirlpool version, at a plumbing supply store. It wasn't the same size I wanted, and it wasn't a whirlpool, but we ordered one anyway. While I love the tub and the look of it, we are slightly disappointed that the jets aren't stronger than other Jacuzzi-type whirlpool tubs we have been in. We even asked a company representative to come out and check it out, to make sure it was working the way it was supposed to. They said it was, but how would we know, as we never got to try it first. But along the same lines, we also ordered three toilets for three bathrooms, some of which we hadn't seen, and we also didn't know what the flushing was like -- strong, not so strong, etc. At the time, like maybe many of you, I was wishing someone would have a store where they displayed all these things in working order, kind of like a television or stereo store. You get to see the picture on TVs before you buy them, or hear the sounds of stereo systems before you purcharse. Why can't you know how toilets flush or tubs work? They even let you lie down on mattresses before you buy them! I can't believe we all spend so much money on these plumbing things and know so little about them!

Some ways around HOA restrictions..... I have 6 lines in the basement in one of the unfinished rooms we don't need/use. We installed a ceiling fan to move the air and I line-dry all the laundry in the basement. There is a 6-foot clothes rod permanently installed on one wall and we hang wet clothes on wooden or plastic Tide hangers to dry on the rod. Everything that normally hangs on a hanger in the closet is hung on a hanger to dry, which saves a lot of space on the lines. The clothes dried on hangers go directly from the basement to the closet. I do have one tip for drying slacks/pants. I hang them by the bottom of the pants legs, one leg on one line, and the other leg on the line in front of it (keeping seams together so I get a crease in the leg). This way you get the benefit of the heavy wet body of the pants pulling down so they get a nice crease in the legs. Let gravity help you out. This method allows the crotch to dry faster, which tends to stay damp if you hang them from the waist. In fact, with today's fast spinning washers, it's beneficial to leave a little more moisture in your clothes when you line-dry them. Those 1000 rpm (or faster) spin cycles are beneficial when you use a dryer, but only set wrinkles in clothes destined to dry on a line, so try a slower spin. The additional moisture = weight + gravity will help pull wrinkles out of the fabric naturally. I have a special spin hold cycle on my washer that is designed for hand washables or line drying. It leaves them a little wetter and fewer wrinkles. What wrinkles are there can be quickly smoothed out with your hand. Other great benefits from an indoor clothesline...... -No bird "bombs". -No bugs/bees/wasps hiding in the pant legs or sleeves. -No allergens from the air clinging to the fabrics. -No sun fading colors and destroying the fabrics. -No sun destroying elastic. -Don't have to worry if there is an unexpected rain shower, soot in the air if someone burns a wheat stubble field and you get flecks of black debris on your clothes, and many other problems solved. -No fabric-destroying wind whipping and snapping the ends of clothes. -Clothes last soooooooo much longer than when you hang them outside OR use a dryer. I read where one inventive gal raised the hinge pins on the door hinge of a little-used guest bedroom just enough to put a clothes line around it from the door to the door on the closet hinge pin, to a hook located by a window, then back to the door, so she had 3 lines in that room. When we first moved into this home and before we had our landscape done and the clothesline courtyard finished with the umbrella-style clothes line, I strung 2 long lines in the garage between the car bays and turned on a high-speed fan hubby keeps in the garage. Where there's a will, there's a way. ;-) -Grainlady