Well, I whacked it think it was yesterday close to the ground with the lopping shears. There was a smaller one beside it. If they come back, they're right close to the back door, so I'll do the stick or some RU or both. Mulberry is hard to get rid of, too, like a hydra, cut it off, pops out 5 more sprouts in its place. One got so bad out on the terrace, some stump diggers came thru and got rid of that once and for all. That was before I would have dreamed of using RU or don't even know if they made it then. It's a riot of color with all those rudbeckias that self-seeded and other stuff. Not what I would have planned or wanted but maybe Mother Nature knows better. The main thing is they'll bloom a long time and the Jap beetles seem to leave them alone. They're here now and ruining my roses like they do every year. Glad you like my baby's breath. Too bad it took so many years to get it going to look that pretty. You can dry it, too. I might. No, I would not want to eat pokeweed it even if I cooked it right. I did venture into collards, turnip greens and some other stuff beets maybe, with onion and ham hock. Good for you, made a huge batch a few weeks ago. Ate it all but it took 3 or 4 days. 50 cents a bundle, don't see how it pays to stock it. My Jiffy corn bread muffins flopped for some reason. I took some more photos. These are odd, but I was going to use RU behind the garage until I saw what was back there. So I'll throw the photos in here and write an explanation at the bottom. I always find neat stuff back there (and lots not so neat). 1. I think is a little juniper, transplanted one and think I'll pull this one out. 2. A hosta that seeded in a crack, can't lift the rock to get it out, and it's not like any of the 3 I've had before; another one just like it follows. 3. A tulip tree seedling from my neighbor's tree. Been wanting one but no place for a large tree. So I'll put it in a big pot or wait. Maybe I should just leave it alone? 4. An ancient fern that's been there since before we bought this place. My son put 5-year-killer back there several years ago, and that fern survived. I am very attached to it now and it will be treated with the dignity it deserves. 5. Common milkweed, not good landscaping but we need all the butterflies we can get so I'm leaving it alone until late fall. Always get some back there. 6. A redbud tree seedling, looks like maybe second year. That I'll have to stake or transplant. It could grow there ok but may not grow straight behind the drip line of the garage. 7. The second hosta, will leave that right where it is. Had 3 Patriots back there, decided I didn't want hosta so gave them away on Freecycle. Now I kind of regret it because they'd just gotten to the dimpled stage. 8. Those purple flowers. Think they're ladybells. Adenophora something. How many times I've tried to WS them, well twice. Nothing. So it looks like they are multiplying. So I kind of feel like I got some free stuff ;-). I need to do more work back there, was going just RU the whole thing and cover the fern but now, I'll have to do something different. The mowers are dumping my grass clippings back there, so I can use it for smothering and mulch. I look at it again by the nicer hosta plant, and it looks like there's a smaller one there, too. I really don't like to go back there very often, and it shows. I pulled a whole bunch of stuff but need to do more. Now it's hot, and I don't do heat.

That's pretty much the way I do it if I have an already cooked ham....I usually prefer a n uncooked ham. However I use pineapple juice instead of cider. But I sure count on an 8 pound ham serving a lot more than 8 to 10 people. The presentation of a whole ham is not be beat....but it can be a puzzle to carve! Linda C

I bought a spiral ham last week. Not because we were having a lot of company, but because we like them. So I had no reason to heat the entire thing. I just cut off what I needed each time (a plateful to take to a party I was going to; a few slices here and there for our dinner), and heated those up in a foil-covered casserole. Unless you want the pretty presentation of the whole thing, and you're having a big crowd, I see no reason at all to heat the whole ham over and over, drying out the leftovers. And it saves a lot of energy--I had a 9X9 casserole for the party, only took about a half hour to heat it adequately. So that's another alternative--just heat what you need. You can still make a pretty presentation on a platter. I added some grilled pineapple slices and a scattering of dried cranberries that I'd plumped in orange juice.

Hi all, It's been awhile since we've done our last update on our herb garden. We went away on vacation for a few days and came back to some sad looking plants. We made sure the jars were full before we left, but unfortunately our plants were too thirsty. The basil and mint plant jars were bone dry and the plants were drooping like crazy. This is a picture from our cat sitter from halfway through the vacation. She was a bit worried! Luckly for us, when we got back all we had to do was refill the jars and a day or two later we had some happy and healthy plants. We've already had a couple meals with the basil and the parsley. I'm in the process of looking up some great Mojito recipes for the wife and me. Looking forward to those! Here are a couple pictures of the happy plants that I just took this morning. They love this light! Crazy roots!