I had occasion to go to the same LoweÂs I stopped at late last week (the one I was so annoyed at because they had nothing on sale). When I was there before I had run out of time and hadnÂt had a chance to see if they had bulbs. So I went back today with some renovation returns. Hardly any bulbs, and nothing special at all: just tulip mixtures by color, etc. Less than a quarter of what the one I used to go to would have. Phooey. This time though they had reduced small tropical hibiscus to $1. Pots are about a gallon. When I was there last week they were $4 each and still had flowers. None were blooming now but most still had buds: very healthy looking too. So I bought 3. No idea what color they are, but hey, they were a $1. I tried to pick ones that I thought might be 3 different colors. Of course this makes 3 MORE hibiscus I will have to winter inside, in addition to the 4 I have already, but hey. You canÂt buy a houseplant of that size for a $1. They had a few perennials that I know werenÂt there last week since I had gone over everything very carefully then. Not really clearance priced yet, but not expensive, so I decided to get them anyway. A Red Dragon Fleeceflower, a Black Adder agastache, and a Crème Brulee coreopsis. I have wanted one of those for a long time, as people here have said itÂs a better coreopsis than Moonbeam, which I have not had much luck with thus far. The Black Adder looks like a much brighter blue than the agastache I have now which I think is Blue Fortune. Plus I used to like the TV show of the same name with Rowan Atkinson. So IÂm feeling a little less deprived; though not actually feeling lucky yet.

Thanks everyone. I hope you will feel free to go to the rest of the website and check it out, and even sign my guestbook. It sends a positive message to my sponsors (RootsWeb and Ancestry.Com) Who knows...we could be related! http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hindorff/ Libby, isn't it interesting to have records that go back so far? I do not have all my information posted on my website. Too much information! I am so behind in updating it right now that I am plum ashamed of the state it is in right now. Waiting on a certain person who lives in this house to fix my computer like was promised three years ago. (Am I patient or what?) It is running now, but I don't have all the tools I need to upload my files and web pages, or edit photos and other images, so here I sit, using his 'puter until MDHM (My Dear House Mate) gets 'round to completely restoring mine. Gird Grape I grew from cutting - pretty blooms in Spring are a promise for grapes in the Fall: GG -The grapes taste like a grape, of course, but different from any other wild grape I've tasted thus far. They are only native to Southern California, although they have been cultivated elsewhere. Grannie made jelly and jam out of them back in the day, but I've always liked them best right off the vines. Tiny, sweet bead-like jewels. They have that wild twang to them. The jam comes out kind of brownish-purple. Not pretty like Welch's, but it tastes really good. Grannie's grapes have always tasted better to me tho', especially when I was a little girl. :) Another view of my Gird Grape: Interesting side story about Grannie's Gird grape vine. Immediately after Grannie died at the age of 102 yrs old in 1998, her grapevine began to wither and die. The last I saw of it, it was not much more than a stump. It used to cover a whole huge arbor that Grampa built as a shade over her washing tubs (and later wringer washing machine), the rinse tubs and her long wooden table he built for her where she folded her line-dried clothes and linens. Southern California is very arid, so the washing/rinsing water was never wasted, but used to irrigate the Gird grape and the citrus orchard, figs, & other trees and Grannie's big veggie garden plot. It was all planted in terraces on the slope of the hill below the house and the wash arbor. The wind blew up the hill and through the arbor and it was cool and pleasant under there. She spent many hours sitting out there in the shade on hot summer days. She often wrote her letters out there. She wrote to dozens of people on a weekly or monthly basis. You risked your life if she caught you picking her grapes without permission, tho', let me tell you! I saw how she got onto my cousins once. I never wanted to provoke the wrath of Grannie, so I always asked...but she didn't always say yes. "Darned kids, anyhow. Always comin' up here wantin' everything we have! You'd eat me and Grampa out of house and home if we'd let ya!" She actually loved that we came up there to see her and Grampa. That was just her way. Annie

OK, Steph, it's time for some name suggestions that you can run past Brent to see what he thinks... For twins, one boy and one girl: Logan Lianne Aaron Arielle Leighton can be a boy's name or a girl's name, and the same with Logan, so you could do Logan and Leighton...

My wife has a hard time visualizing things on the screen and picturing them in 3D. After a life time of making 3D objects from 2D drawings, I'm pretty good at. Her needs are very modest- roomy kitchen with the sink facing the view, attached garage, and most important- something we can afford to build and live in. The back porch and sun deck have been left off due to laziness on the part of the draftsman. They are important elements, and will be on the actual house! Yes- That roof will collect a lot of sun and rain water! My plan is to have a pond on the property as a reservoir to hold irrigation water, and of course to enjoy looking at. We currently have a small 15' pond that is the focal point of our back yard. That's another thing my wife has requested- a garden pond. I figure dig it big enough to hold say 20,000 gallons, and feed it with the water coming off of either the house or barn roof- or both, if necessary. That way, I have a pond to enjoy, and a supply of irrigation water for the dry spells. Every inch of rain that falls on the barn, for example, is about 1400 gallons At an average of 4" a month, that's 5600 gallons in an average month! A 25' X 35' X 4' deep pond will hold well over 20,000 gallons. 99% of the time, the closet, utility room, and bathroom doors will be open. I only want to make them closeable should we need to tidy up for guests coming up to enjoy the deck. Termites in SC are rated 'extremely heavy', the worst rating. Being colder and higher than much of the state, I'm sure the termites are much lighter than, say, Charleston. Here in FL, we don't say 'if', but 'when' when it comes to termites, and the house will be designed, built, and maintained with this same mindset.