"Funny Sherry I was wondering the same thing about inbreeding, never have seen any mention of it when reading about captive breeding." When I showed up here almost 7 years ago, I took some people to task about the way they were releasing large numbers of inbred giant silk moths. That went over like a lead weight so I have pretty much kept my mouth shut since then. Ladobe criticized one of our members about it last year but no one followed up on it. The quote was "Besides weakening the gene pool, forced inbreeding produces low egg viability, high malformation risk and so therefore high mortality. Not a good practice." One consequence of moth inbreeding helped cause a shift in USDA policy last month. The USDA no longer regulates interstate shipments of Bombyx mori. Those moths are so inbred they can no longer survive in the wild. I raise relatively large numbers (up to 400 of one type) of Saturniidae every year. I go to great lengths to try to make sure the wild males that my girls mate with are not the brothers or the male first cousins that I released. I also try to make sure my released males and females do not mate with each other. I do this by doing releases at least 10 miles (usually more) from my house and releasing the females and males at least 10 miles (usually more) away from each other. I used to mark my males to make sure they were not finding their way home but quit being that paranoid after years of never getting one back. I release at least 10 miles away because 7 miles seems to be the generally accepted maximum distance that a male Saturniidae can follow a female's pheromones. That said, I have seen a claim that male giant silk moths can follow female pheromones for "nearly 30" miles. YMMV I preface my next statement by saying I have no clue how this guy operates. There is a guy in Ohio that raises 3k-4k cecropias each year. I read that he has been raising them since '86. Something wiped out his cats in 2008 and he had to start over in 2009. I'm real curious if inbreeding affected his setup and I'd like to know what happens to all the moths he doesn't sell (IOW, do they get let go). As for inbreeding butterflies and affecting the gene pool, there is a lot of info/controversy on the net about it because of people raising butterflies for mass release at weddings. One related article I have posted before is linked at the end of this post. Last thought: I know of one inbred butterfly that has been studied a lot: monarchs on Hawaii. I believe around 20% of them are white now. My guess is they do alright because the favorable weather conditions don't put a lot of stress on them. They would probably have trouble with migrating to Mexico and surviving the winters there. Anyway, there is a lot of research out there about them. KC Here is a link that might be useful: All Aflutter

Ilene, I've been wondering where you'd been! I agree with you. I do think there is a big climate difference between extreme southern Oklahoma and northern Oklahoma, especially northeastern Oklahoma. For starters, we are are the 'sunny side of the Arbuckles', though you can't tell much difference this year! I think we get a little hotter, perhaps, in late July and early August of some years. Our first year here we had a string of 110 to 115 degree days in early August that lasted about a week, and I was ready to pack up and move back to Texas, where it 'only' gets to about 105, maybe 106 on very hot days. Most of the time y'all have higher humidity and higher rainfall. Y'all also have generally better soils and colder winters. We have earlier springs most years, and we have occasional days in January through March where the temps spike up into the 80s and even the 90s, which will make us think it is spring even though it is not. I don't know if your winter temps are as erratic as ours, or if they are more consistently winter-like? I think our frost-free growing season is a few days longer than yours, but not much. We do get away with pushing the envelope as far as planting early, because our late cold spells tend to be briefer and not as cold as your late cold spells. If you are familiar with the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and its weather, ours is very, very similar to theirs--only slightly hotter in the summer and slightly colder in the winter. As far as whether you are a Yankee or not? I don't think so! I have to admit though, that when I was growing up in Texas, it was generally accepted that everyone who was NOT from Texas was, in fact, a damn Yankee! Now just find a single person in Texas who was even born in Texas! The Yankees have all moved south and become Texanized. Ilene, I was pinching back the lemon and lime basil earlier today because they are trying to flower and I am trying to stop them. I could pinch back basil all day--it smells so good. I have a big pot of tomatoes on the stove boiling down so I can make spaghetti sauce for dinner. In a few minutes I am going to run out to the garden and pick some Italian large leaf basil and some parsley to use. Yum. I am just like you--tired of the rain but afraid to say so out loud for fear I will jinx us and the rain will totally stop. It has happened to us before--we have gone from a VERY wet spring to a July and August where virtually no rain fell, and it is amazing how quickly the moisture in the ground dissipates! I hope they are careful with their water releases so your area doesn't have to deal with more flooding. Your little old lady friends sound so precious and sweet--I always liked the Baldwin sisters. When I was growing up we had a lot of older ladies like them and they got me addicted to gardening. I remember them working out in their yards and gardens wearing cotton housedresses in lovely floral prints, and very sensible shoes, and big straw hats, and very proper gardening gloves of course. I may be more comfortable in my jeans, T-shirts, baseball cap and hiking boots as I work in the garden.....but I don't look like a 'southern lady gardener' the way they used to! We've been fighting the grass too as it attempts to take over the world, especially in the beds where all the 'prety' stuff grows. It seems like all we do is mow and weedeat lately, in between rain showers, of course. I hate to say it, cause I'll jinx us, but not a drop of rain has fallen at our place today. There--I went ahead and said it--now it will probably start pouring down rain at any moment. :) I need to go gather some herbs. Talk to you all laer. Dawn

Larry, I love the photo. Our deer aren't as thin as yours, but they were that thin, or even worse, last year. Yesterday when Tim came home from getting a haircut he came in with a bag of deer corn and we put some out for the deer this morning. I put the deer corn right by the back compost pile near the deer trail and the deer were there eating it 10 minutes later. It was the same herd that I described in the first post on this thread. They didn't come until about 7:45 a.m. Something is scaring the deer and rabbits because they are becoming very scarce in the evenings, and don't come out in the mornings until well after sunrise. This is a change in their pattern that has occurred within the last week. Yellow Cat, who was a feral cat for a decade before he settled into our place, adopted us and retired from being wild and self-sufficient won't even leave my side right now, and would stay inside the house 24/7 now if I'd let him. When he starts hiding out inside like that, or sticking to me like glue outdoors, that's another sign the predators are getting too close to the house. I haven't seen any or heard any, but we had a coyote hanging around a couple of months ago. Likely it is a coyote that's scaring them. Susan, I've never seen native passionvine on our land nor have I ever seen it anywhere in Love County. It might grow down in the wild river bottom areas, but we've been down there on fires and on drowning searches/recoveries and I've never seen it there either. Remember that we're more of a grassland than woodland type ecoregion, although there are some stretches of woods along the river and along creekbanks. I wish we had native passionvine here. We do always have gulf frits, though, so there's got to be passionvine someplace. My guess would be it is more in the eastern part of our county because the soils there are better and there's more woodlands along the river. I've seen giant, black and spicebush swallowtails this summer, but not very many of any of them. Usually they are as thick as flies, so I really miss having the usual hordes of butterflies around. Carol, That sounds like a great way to shade your pepper plants. As hot and dry as y'all are there, I know they must really appreciate that shade. My peppers wilted a couple of days in June when rain hadn't fallen and we were over 100 degrees but haven't wilted since then. They do get shade from the pecan tree beginning between 2 and 3 p.m. and that seems to be helping keep them happier this year than they were last year. Dawn

Goodmorning Everybody ! :) I heard from my swappers last night...:))) Mariann I have a couple of surprizes for you...We love putting surprizes in our boxes Regina started it.. Chell you are so creative and your writing is so much fun to read... I bet the boys loved playing pirate.. I can see their smiling faces now...What a great idea to make a hideout.. They will always remeber their hideout mom made for them... Norma I havent traded with you but I am sure you went way above in sending her nice cuttings..I seen pics of what you send...They are awesome boxes..:)) Please dont be sad..:)) Regina howdy :) I am so sorry about Mark having to have surgery and the heart condition would just send me into heaven.. Wow I am so glad to read it all went well...Shooo My heart sank for a minute...He will be all healed for college this fall..:)) You empty nester dont go through what I went through...Stay busy and call them alot... I miss my kids so much it hurts sometimes... Dogs are okay but they cant replace our true babies...I love reading about chell and her boys... It makes me smile so much... Frances lol You poor gardener..ahhah You need a break from mother nature..Really..:)) Oh big snakes yucky... I would be screaming... I love chippies...They are so cute...Havent had many around with a cat now...Kiki has brought home two gardener snakes...He was very proud of himself... Yesterday I was getting ready to go out and play in the dirt...The crows or blackbirds were screaming...It just like a scene in the movie the "birds"... It creeped me out really bad...I couldnt see what they were yelling at.. I watched tv...Than got bored and went coleus shopping..lol The master gardener sale for the next county over is tommorow... I cant wait to see what they are going to be offering..I have never been to this one...Oh I almost forgot..I heard from the master gardener I met...Looks like we are building another gh..lol She wants to do it closer to fall since everyone is busy with their gardens...I am glad we could help her..They are a pain to build.. well I gabbed enough lol must be the strong coffee and I got a lot of sleep...:)) Have a good day everybody..Barb