You are correct, pnbrown. I'll post a proper pic of just the rhubarb for you. I have no idea what variety it is because these six plants were already here when we bought the place in 2001. The previous owners where here for a decade or so and they didn't plant it either (I got to ask about all sorts because it was a private sale). No idea how old they are, but they're going strong with no care at all except a little water when it's dry. Every stalk is bright red, too, almost right to the leaf. This photo was from a couple of weeks ago, I think. What I've gathered from the neighbours is that the larger barn on the left was used for pigs. The smaller barn in the middle was converted (from what, I'm not sure) to a custom lambing barn by the people we bought the place from. We use both barns for hay and straw as we don't have lambs or pigs, just a horse and mini donkey. The shed on the right is their old chicken coup. I would LOVE to have laying hens, but there's just not enough time in the day right now with two little kids. It's my tack and grain room for now. Perhaps when the girls are older it could fulfill it's original purpose again. That's all farmland around our yard. I don't know anyone around here who DOESN'T plant in rows. :) I'm actually the oddball because I work the whole garden with manual tools, except for the initial rototilling in the spring. Most of the farm wives here, including my mother-in-law, plant in looong rows with enough spacing in between so that the rototiller can pass between when needed. I'm not fond of that option because I figure when the plants are established, the tiller will chop up their roots that have spread out. Obviously there's some fault in my theory because my mother-in-law always gets fine production. Ah, well... to each their own! So my question is this. I give my rows a lot of space. Maybe not always as much as recommended on the seed packets, but a good deal more than intensive gardeners tend to give them. When my plants are approaching maturity, you don't see a whole lot of soil. I find it hard to understand why it would be beneficial to cram them any closer together? My tomatoes probably don't need as much room as I give them, I'll admit that. When you get results like this, though, in zone 2... I'm not keen on changing my methods any time soon.

1. Don't have near enough time to be on here! 2. WEEDS, especially the chickweed..What's up with that stuff this year? 3. Chameleon Plant, aka Houttuynia. If you see this plant at your local nursery (and you will), do not be tempted to buy it. If you'd like some (and you really won't after a short time of growing it), feel free to contact me and you're more than welcome to dig all of it that I have. 4. SNAKES - I have left them all alone because I'm pretty sure none have been the poinsonous-type, but I've been keeping track and have seen at least one in my yard every day for the last 12 days. I'm getting tired of running into them constantly! Scotland, interesting that you mentioned dying azaleas....I have one that's about 15 years old and I've been watching it slowly die on me for the last couple of weeks. Wonder what's happening?

"All other snake encounters I've had, all I had to do was step back a few feet and wait and the snake would wander off to the brush." This is a great strategy for snake encounters. With cottonmouths (and also copperheads to some degree) I find that they will often continue to stand their ground until they think you have left the area. This is easily solved by simply continuing to back away (paying some attention to see that there aren't other snakes around as you are backing). Most species I move off roads..I can just chase off the road, but with cottonmouths I will gently tap them on the tail with a stick and then back away. They leave once they think I am gone but they usually won't flee until they think the threat is gone. "A female cotton mouth protecting her nest will go after any animal that comes near it... including humans. If you've ever accidentally dropped anchor over one or walked by one on the sand near it, you'd experience it first hand." Cottonmouths give live birth to a litter of anywhere from 1 to 16 young in August, September or sometimes early October (the average litter is 6 to 7). They typically give birth in upland areas and do not have nests in the sense that birds or some mammals do. "Out of all the snakes in Texas, the moccasin is the only one I turn tail and run when I see it." Moving away from the snake is, indeed, a good idea. The most common recommended advice is to back away slowly rather than sprint away. The primary reason is that you can pay better attention to your surroundings if you are moving slowly. Once you've seen a venomous snake and are more than 1/2 its body length away..the snakes you don't see are a bigger danger than the one you can see. Since cottonmouths are locally abundant in places, running away quickly can lead to running so fast that you step on another cottonmouth 15 feet away (this probably matters more in a wilderness area than in a yard where chances are the one you see is the only one around). I don't know of any cases of this happening with cottonmouths, but I do know of an unfortunate case where someone saw a rattlesnake a good distance away and freaked out and took off running so fast that they ran smack dab full steam onto a different rattlesnake that reacted instantly to being trampled on and tagged them. Of course the odds of this are still pretty low, so there probably isn't really much practical difference between turning tail and running and backing away.

OH my gosh, you are right. They could have repaired the pipes in the basement then air pressure tested the house. They really screwed up. Neighbor who's 76 was horrified and just as I thought - and had told the plumbers - she knew more about plumbing then them. We narrowed it down to pipes inside the shower wall most likely, I pulled up the tile in the upstairs room, and imagine this - she's going to come with her crowbar and help me pull out the boards behind the shower tomorrow. No those plumbers won't be coming back, they tried to call several times this weekend. Next is are they going to bill me and do I have to pay for this garbage? I told the owner of the company when I get a bill I'll sue so they don't need to bother billing me and they'll never step into this house again - they wanted to come "have the chance to fix it." I just can't believe this... at least today I wasn't in tears. But we didn't consider pressure testing. They should have, instead they blasted an old house that was vacant through a winter with water knowing there were issues. Stupid, stupid people who could care less.