When you say Safflower feeder, I'm going assume a standard tube feeder. I had the same problem but with House Finches rather than HOSPs. I have a four-station tube feeder with metal rods that protrude through the tube to provide a perch at each station on opposite sides of the tube. Try wrapping some type of mesh around the tube. The perch rods will stick through the mesh. Use cable ties to hold the mesh in place. I wanted to try something with about a 1/2" grid that would allow the birds to grab seeds but not shovel the seeds out like the HFs were doing. I have a pond so I ended up using a remnant of the nylon netting I use in the Fall to keep the leaves out. About a 12" long by 8" tall section covered the openings. The nylon flexes so I assumed the birds could reach in and grab a seed. The cardinals would land and stare at the feeder but wouldn't touch it. After a week, I started cutting slits in the netting to make the openings larger. The cardinals finally gave it a try and could grab the seed out of the feeder. The dees and titmice have no problems, either. I have seen HFs on occasion throw seed out but it's rare. Much nicer filler the feeder up once a week rather than once a day.

Trin, Sending good thoughts and prayers for her. I went through the lumpectomy and radiation 6 1/2 years ago, so I hope that she will be as fortunate. The one thing that helped me was following the diet they gave me after the surgery. It said to have lots of good quality protein - eggs, chicken, turkey. I can't remember what else. The diet helped me heal quickly. I'm sure that they will give her good advice. Another thing that helped me is that I started swimming when the surgeon said I could. Swimming slowly helped to stretch the chest and arm muscles.

I agree with Barbmock that your Kew's Aurea is actually Morgenstern's Aurea. It's also called Morgenstern's Futura Aurea, and Juan Chahinian in his book The Sansevieria Trifasciata Varieties simply calls it Futura Aurea. Glasshouse Works, as Barbmock mentions, got their stock of this sans from Kew Gardens in England, but they also say that Kew Gardens' original plants of this came from Morgenstern. Stush, gorgeous plants of Asahi and Morgenstern's!! Chahinian's pic in his book of two Futura Aurea's show a wide light-yellow margin with light green center reminiscent of centers in Golden Hahnii. But as your plants show, it's very variable with stripes, green edges and even yellow centers, wow! I received a many plant years ago from collector Alice Waidhofer in Stockton, Calif that she had labeled Morgenstern's Futura Aurea, and it looks like Chahinian's pic. But I'm now suspecting it might be S. metallica (guineensis) variegata. I've put down a couple of leaves to see what emerges, a trifasciata or a metallica. Russ

I worked on a house with similar problems where the solution was to install buried conduit(they used PVC Schedule 40 pipe) at a slight downward angle(like sewer piping) terminating in an area away from the house. In this case that area was the street gutter. Since this area freezes in winter, a freeze joint was used. A freeze joint is simply a gap in the piping which allows water to escape to the outside if the underground pipe freezes. One corner of our house has a downspout which is connected to an underground pipe which is U shaped, the termination is about 10 feet away on a down hill section of the yard. The effect is exactly the same as a long down spout extension, but is invisible. The first solution was done by a crew with a trencher, but the second could be done with a shovel, since the depth of the underground section is only a foot or so deep. I included a Google page on the subject.Google downspout extensions