Property taxes can be high here in NC too. I think Gaston county has a lot of crime. Charlotte is wonderful, that's where we go to do decent shopping/dining. Charlotte is definitely where it's at as far as I am concerned. Wilmington is nice but too close to coast, hurricanes. Personally I like Asheville a lot. Lots of art and culture there including hippies. I don't have a clue about the schools in any of the areas I mentioned. I live in Hickory, NC, small city with the traffic of a large city, yuk. Winston Salem is also nice. Greensboro is near and High Point although I don't know what High Point has to offer. Carla

I got lucky in the last post when I stated 9 tenths. That is what I emptied this morning. I talked to several from a wide area of the OK Panhandle and SW KS today. The range was mainly between 5-9 tenths last night. The reason the totals were limited was because the storm was moving so fast. My fiancee received .55 in Leedey also. I heard Perryton, TX had around a half an inch. My coworker who I share an office with lives in Boise City and he had 9 tenths. The good part of this was that it reached from southern NE all the way across KS, the OK Panhandle and a good portion of the TX Panhandle. So a wide area got at least some. Instead of the spotty rains we've seen some of. They are giving us continued chances throughout the week and into next week. Don Day an independent forecaster who hits it best for our area especially long term said he is watching another possible event down the road. I hope it develops and this trend continues. The cool weather is nice also. This time last year it was in the 100's with high winds. We had the winds today. Over 50 mph but at least no dirt blowing. Very cool today. I'm heading out to finalize some planting. Hopefully I'll finish by tomorrow. Jay

When we have a county burn ban, our commissioners usually lift it once our KBDI drops below 600. I don't know that the OFS uses that same criteria when making recommendations to Gov. Fallin, but I have been expecting them to lift the ban for some counties for a couple of weeks now, so the move didn't surprise me. We are having small fires in our county, but nothing that has gotten the least bit rowdy or out-of-control lately, so I think that they could lift even our burn ban (our KBDI is 661 this morning) right now (which they did not), and we wouldn't have serious wildfire trouble at this point in time. The trouble will come after you have a few frosts and killing freezes if it is still very dry and then you have all that dry, standing vegetation which will burn easily whether it is dead annual vegetation or dormant perennial vegetation. We need to have a really wet fall and winter so that the winter fire season isn't bad. Nothing about our soil is in good shape, Larry, except where I've been watering in the veggie garden and around the fruit trees. We're starting to see cracks in the soil near the house where we haven't had them before, so today and tomorrow I'm going to try to water long and hard in those areas to try and get those cracks to close back up. I'll probably have to water a while, let it soak in, then water again, etc. You know how hard it is to get clay to absorb water when it is rock-hard. Carol, I imagine it will be a real relief to everyone to be able to burn that piled up wood from the big storm that hit your area. As long as it is sitting there, it is such a fire hazard. I'd rather be able to burn that stuff deliberately and have it under control than to have a raging wildfire burn through the area and get it. Some of the Texas counties have been lifting their burn bans here and there along the river. One county made the announcement lifting their burn ban, then said that people should NOT go out and burn brush or do prescribed burning of land for brush removal because it still was too dry to burn. That made me wonder why they lifted the burn ban if they were going to stand there and say "but don't do any burning". That whole thing made no sense. Dawn

Sharon (canarybird), my inlaws met on Majorca. Ironically neither of them is from Spain. LOL She was a Dutch stewardess with KLM and he was an American physician traveling around Europe. So romantic (gagging sounds). LOL I have been here on and off for 8 1/2 years now! I think I was first directed here from a search about philodendrons, hence my user name. Then I slowly meandered to the cooking forum. I check in from time to time - something got me thinking about the group yesterday and I decided to log on. :) I have three wonderful children, ages nearly 6 (in two days!), 3, and 8 months. I am married to a teacher of economics and history and we live on the campus of a boys' boarding school in New York state, not that far from Stacy3. In my spare time LOL I love to sew, read, cook, and blog. I have a private blog for friends and family to keep up with the kids, and it's been a blast to keep it up in various forms since David was a mere tot. I have another blog that talks mostly about motherhood, childbirth and pregnancy called The Deranged Housewife, of which our very own Netla was gracious enough to "follow," putting me on the map that is Google Search. (Thank you, Netla!) (A native of Iceland, she has a wonderful blog with photos too, that I often look at ...just a quick plug there...LOL) I am a freelance writer/editor/sort of graphic designer and work from home when I can get assignments. Most of my work now is volunteering my graphic design "skills" (I use that term lightly sometimes LOL) for my son's school. I enjoy cooking not so much for the meal preparation but I love feeding people. I consider it such a wonderful blessing to have family or guests around my table to cook for. I overheard a woman at the store the other day talking about how she's going on a Mexican vacation over Christmas and is excited to not have to cook. I thought, you can keep your vacation because I'd rather cook for my friends and family! And now I must stop blathering on in order to prevent my infant son from eating the Persian rug...excuse me.