I have been gardening in what I call "glacier slurry" and you call glacier till since '04. The only tool that worked for me was a hand mattack and I dug deep wide holes and perk tested them. My backfill was natural soil and purchased compost because my housepad/gardening area was cut out of a slope. There is probably little plant organic material in the gardening area because of it being cut out of the slope ... except for the decayed mulch material I have applied twice a year over the last several years. The glacier slurry is porous and drains well, which means that anything I use will end up in our water supply, the Trinity River. Until last year, I tried to get by with organics and time-released fertilizers, but the plants just didn't thrive. They did OK, but I knew something was missing. Last spring, after the estimated last frost date in April, I applied 1/4 cup of calcium nitrate to the larger roses and less to the smaller roses. I watered well the day before and then watered again the same day I applied the CN. It was enough to kick start the roses and they did a LOT better last season. Altho' the roses do leaf out earlier than they should, most of that growth is blind growth. I think it's the plant trying to feed itself through photosynthesis. We always get a late frost or snow before the middle of April and that growth generally dies off or gets pruned off. We have temps in the high 90s or low 100s for weeks at a time during the summer and time released foods are just burned up too quickly to be reliable, so last year, I did a combination of organics and synthetics and all of the plants were healthier than in prior years. In my experience, it's hard to find the right balance to feed the plants and not pollute our water source. I think I have planted the last of the roses I am going to plant, except for replacements for roses that don't do well in this climate. I know I don't want to dig any more rose holes in this stuff. Smiles, Lyn

ants are not the problem... the problem is rotting wood ... and the ants are visiting it.. and using it... curing the tree of ants... will not solve the basic problem ... an extremely old tree ... be very leary of any snake oil salesman .. who will take hundreds of dollars.. trying to fix a problem that is unfixable ... only to want more money to remove it later on .... the tree has been topped due to the power lines.. i dont believe anyone here will be happy about that ... someone has a link about how much damage that can do to a tree ... it also has that one gaping wound.. but i cant tell where on the tree that is .... that is unfixable IMHO .... without making an even bigger wound .... now... whether or not this tree will fail soon .. is the basic question .... if it is over hanging the house... and that part is related to the big wound ..... that part should be removed... if it will fall in a manner that will injure someone.. in a storm .. it should be removed .... i would tend to think.. you have a long time to go ... before it is necessary to remove the tree .... if it were me.. i would start a few other trees to provide shade.. and perhaps.. a few years down the line... plan on removing this one .... i doubt.. based solely on the pix.. that it necessary to do it ASAP .... i have seen apples trees at homesteads.. which have been gone for 100 years ... they are ugly trees ... but apples can last forever.. and get really ugly .... one tends to disbelieve they can even remain standing.. lol ... but i am of the opinion.. that it is only going to get worse ... ken

Against my better judgement, I looked at the NWS forecast this morning, lol, and our chance for Monday precip has gone from 70% to 80%. I would love snow on any day but Monday. If we can just have the Christmas Parade in town that evening and have it safely, then it can snow every day after that and I won't complain. At the parade, we collect a lot of food and donations for our local food bank, so we need to have decent weather so we'll have a large turnout. I actually think a lighted parade, Santa's arrival and the lighting of the Christmas Tree on the courthouse lawn would be beautiful in snow (not sleet or freezing rain!) but the snow also could hurt the size of the crowd and/or make travel difficult. Jeanie, I know we all are ingrates. No matter what weather we have, we seem to want something else. I am dreading a long, cold winter like last year's and was hoping it wouldn't start up until January, but it looks like it is starting early. Actually, for the OK Panhandle and for Jay's part of Kansas, the cold weather already has brought them some snow. We're all stocked up on groceries now for winter. I keep the pantry really full because the nearest grocery store I like is 30 miles away. There's a small one in town, but I don't care much for it and won't go there if I can avoid it. I do need to start stockpiling deer corn and wild bird seed for the really cold weather because we feed a lot of 'visitors' in the cold months. Jeff, I know that early snowfall fits right in with everything else this crazy year. I was looking at the video footage of all the damage in California from the Santa Ana winds yesterday and thinking to myself "at least we don't have those here". Paula, I agree with you on the shaking and the quaking. I am sure it was felt much more strongly at your place than ours, but even though y'all have had a lot of quakes in central OK, I never, ever expected to feel one way down here and I don't like that feeling at all. My plan for the spring garden is to plant less cool season stuff because it takes up so much space for so long, and instead try to get warm-season crops in the ground as early as possible with the use of low tunnels of floating row covers. Then, if I can get the warm season crops to produce before the dreaded heat arrives, I'll be happy. I won't spend endless $$$$ watering all summer long either. I'll stop watering the big garden at the end of June, and then everything can sink or swim on its own. When we first moved here, an older gentleman I met had his own planting strategy, developed from long battles with the intense summers and late cold springs. He planted on April 1st. He stopped watering at the end of June. Then, in September, he planted spinach and other hardy winter crops. He didn't have to deal with the recurring freezes in spring. He didn't spend money on irrigation in July and August. He got pretty good harvests most years, and great ones some years when rain actually fell in adequate amounts in the summer, without letting the weather drive him crazy. The longer I live here, the more I see the genius in his plan. I know we are better gardeners for having experienced all the extremes, but I sure would like to have a nice, quiet year when the weather is mild and mellow. It's not likely to happen, is it? Dawn

On Mon. I talked to landlord's son, about rent cheque, he said Dad had gone to their newly-purchased cottaqge 80 mi. or so north of Toronto for the weekend, so he was a long way from here ... and how was my driveway? We got only a small amount of snow, being 20+ miles s w of London, so I said that I could see dirt. He came and blew it out on Tues, and I thought that I should have told him not to bother, as I wasn't going anywhere, anyway. On Tues. afternoon I visited neighbour's, we thought that it would be a good idea for me to go home. But, being addicted to internet ... ... when I left their place, I turned north, about a ten mile trip to the main village where I use computer ... the road was good all the way, to I spent time at KT.En route home, I'd wondered about taking a bit longer route home, but found only a short distance of rather heavy going near a farmer's field where the road isn't higher ... but there was space so I drove partly in the other lane, there being minimal traffic on that road. No schools busses running, schools had been closed, in London and north of there. On Wed. my friend whom I'd helped move said that I could get a chest that he was giving me, so I went to town and got it, plus got new tires to replace the one that I had, which were almost as bald as I ... or is it that I was almost as bald as they? Library closed, I went to another, several miles out of my way - sign on door saying due to weather conditions, all libraries closed. But I went to the village where I was Tues. ... that library was open. Landlord arrived early Wed. evening - there'd been a 17-car pile-up about 20 mi. e. of London on the freeway, they had to detour. He was on his way home then, came to see that I was O.K. (my furnace wouldn't start, a week or so ago): he's a really nice guy. Got home safely, last night. I have a shovel in the car, and some extra clothing (but not much food, no candle). Was scheduled for visit this morning with laser clinic where they'd shot foamy irritant into my leg in early fall, and after a couple of weeks I had the embolism, as the lady wanted to check how I am. I've had no discomfort since the day of the embolism, and have been able to do pretty well what I did before. It seems that the hematology doc figures that my leg is clear, so he doesn't figure that the embolism came from there ... and it seems that I had two of them, so one must have been silent for a while. I may be on rat poison for a half year or a year ... or maybe for longer (if I'm still around) ... ... but I hear that if it's under five years, I don't start looking like a rat. So ole joyful hasn't got stuck and is getting along fine. Haven't heard from Iva Mae. ole joyful