Hi Royce, Very nice seedlings! I can't wait to give that a try this summer. I'd be thrilled with anything half as nice as yours. The photos all look good to me. I'd say the Canon and the Olympus are tied for first...but the Nikon doesn't look as bad as I expected from your previous posts. Of course it's hard to judge in this format. You have a much clearer pic on your own monitor before resizing and compressing. I'm still having fun with my A620. I took some really cool pics of a garter snake eating a frog and a close up of a 6 striped racerunner (lizard). But I won't post them because I'm afraid you'd have a heart attack! :-) Hope you enjoy your new Canon. Kat

As far as the sides of barrel collapsing under weight using wire, cord or rope there is a way to solve that. You use a small piece of PVC pipe maybe 1/2" or so and cut them to length to be installed. The PVC pipes are cheap and you can cut them with a hack saw or a band saw easy. Also they will not rust and last as long as the barrel. Sample image below I will make PVC a "red color" for reference and black lines represents rope,wire or cord. Tie the rope into a knot at the end first, if it is a wire then make a loop whatever it takes to STOP the rope from pulling through that first hole it will be going in to on the barrel. So again pull that rope (cord or whatever) through the first hole of barrel into the barrel but now you thread it in and through your PVC pipe you have cut to proper size, go ahead and pull it through (push it with a clothes hanger wire if it bends) an as it pops out the other end of PVC then grab it and now you feed that out the other hole in the barrel, now completly through the barrel. Grab it and pull it tight and make a knot or secure it with a clamp like a snap tie. It won't come though because it has a knot on the other side right? And that PVC is ridged so it can not bend to easy so you end up with a stiff piece of "plastic" pipe inside instead of metal. So hen you secure that rope or cord or wire on the outsides just make sure you pull it as tight as it needs to be and then secure the outside ends. If rope (cord,wire) is pulled tight then that PVC has no place to go see? So no collapse on side of barrel at that point. You do all of them that way and the barrel sides can not come in on you now because all those PVC pipes will not bend. Grab a piece of 1 or 2 foot PVC pipe in store sometime and bend it, this will give you idea on how stiff you think you might need it.

Warning to game camera buyers..BUY INFRA-RED FLASH ONLY! It's clear that animals are avoiding the annoying flash-which always scares me when I hike up there at night-and doubtless explains why there are few repeat animal photos. I can see by their tracks that they are skirting the camera, including the Big Foot. When I took photos yesterday afternoon, the ice was just melting slightly in sunny spots, and there was no new jaguar sign. I thought he'd moved on, but this morning there were several new, now frozen, scrape marks right where I'd been photographing yesterday, meaning that the jaguar had visited and scrape-marked his territory right after I left, before the temperatures dropped again. I could see that he was giving me a warning, so I circled the pond to where he'd previously left his scat, sniffing the air to see if he'd scent-marked anywhere close, like the jaguar websites said they did. Sure enough, I became aware of a very strong, pungent odor, almost a skunk-like muskiness, so I followed the smell to a scrape-marked tree a few yards away from the scat. 3-4-09, farm pond, scent-marked tree with jaguar (?) scrape From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat paw-sized claw marks From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat First scrape photographed, 3-2-09 From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Old frozen scrape, possibly the same one? From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat 3-4-09, new frozen jaguar (?) scrape made yesterday afternoon in the same spot I'd been photographing, before night freeze From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Several websites said jaguars are unafraid of people, which makes them easy targets for hunters. Another website claimed that Amazon Indians are frequently followed by male jaguars to escort them off their territories. Still other websites said that jaguars seldom bother to mark territories unless there is a boundary dispute or overlapping territories. Perhaps our constant poking around "his" territory is prompting the alleged jaguar to warn us off. The meerkats in Meerkat Manor are always "furiously scent-marking" bushes and rocks to "see-off" trespassers, so he could be warning us to back off. If he is imprinted on humans from being in captivity as a cub, he might see us as rivals, but maybe all jaguars view humans that way. Of course, I was here first. Websites also say that about their second year, male jaguars move on to establish their own territories, which can be up to 500 square miles, depending on food availability, so he might be moving on soon.

I'm too late for the cookalong, but I recently made these to take with us on a road trip and wanted to post my favorite Lemon cookie recipe with the rest of yours. Lemon Lover's Cookie is made entirely in the food processor, so it's super easy. I first made these in August 2004, to try out my new convection oven, and they were an instant hit, light and delicate. Keeping an extra cookie roll in the fridge or freezer is nice to have on hand. I recently visited some friends in New Mexico and took them a bag, along with a few for ourselves. They cookies keep beautifully, and still tasted fresh after 10 days on the road. I like a lot of lemon flavor, so I punch it up by adding the zest of two lemons, which I didn't include in the recipe. Lemon Lovers Cookies A delicate cookie, from The Lemon Lovers Cookbook. Plan ahead, as you have to leave the dough in the refrigerator for several hours before baking. 1 large lemon, zest of 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces (2 sticks) 2 1/3 cups cake flour, sifted 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt Process the lemon zest and sugar in a food processor until the zest is as fine as the sugar. Add the butter. Process until fluffy. Scrape down the bowl. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Process briefly until mixed. Form dough into two 1-1/2-inch-round logs and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate until firm. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice each log into 1/4-inch thick cookies and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden around the edges. Do not overbake!