Ok, Chicka, this is for you. About a year before we decided to get out of the Ostrich business, we decided to add to our herd with some new stock. Another bird farmer was selling some of his. We took a trailer over and bought and loaded up 2 birds. We brought them home and when hubby was unloading them into the pen, he let them escape. Usually when an ostrich gets out of a pen they won't leave the other birds, so you don't have to worry about chasing them down. Well these birds were in a strange place and around strange birds so they took off. One went one way and the other one went the other way. We chased one through a jungle of briars and bamboo thorns and then lost her in the brush. So we decided to go after the other one before she got on the highway. Well, we didn't make it. By the time we got there she was on the highway and it was at it's busiest everybody going home time. I was in the pick-up trying to head her off and keep her in the ditch so she wouldn't cause someone to get killed. People started stopping trying to help and it was getting quite a bit conjested, no one was really wanting to get anywhere near her because after all she is about 7 feet tall and fast and there's those long legs with that big ole toe nail on that big ole toe. And most of these people had only seen ostrich in zoos, pictures or on television before. But they were enjoying the show. So the highway patrol arrives. With lights a flashing. A couple of local men stop and one has a rope. He offers to lasso her if it is ok with me. I tell him to go ahead and try not to break her neck. But it that is what it takes, go ahead because we can't have her killing someone. One man gets in the back of their pickup while the other one is driving. Well here they go, he throws a couple times and misses. On the 3rd try he gets her, well the man driving stops the truck but the bird keeps going. The man on the other end of the lasso goes flying and gliding through the grass. The bird finally stops, and the guy stands up and say's "now what"?? When I said I needed something to blindfold her with so I could lead her to the house, the highway patrol officer takes off his sock for me to use. One of the bystanders asks the officer, "you are going to give her a ticket aren't you??" He said, "I would if I could figure out how to write it." Said he had been on the force for twenty years and had never seen anything like this before.. This was in Florida in July or August and the temperature was in the triple digits. The highway bird survived the exhaustion and dehydration. The one that went through the briars and stickers got her neck torn open. After we finally found her and got her back to the pen, she was too far gone. I sewed her neck up but she never got up before she died from the heat and exhaustion and we all thought we were to going to also. Glenda

Not being the worlds most partcular person has it`s advantages. I love the surprise of seedlings, what is true of plumeria is true of most plants. I really am not all that fond of ordering plants on-line, it`s hard to have plants shipped here because of the heat. I try not to do any trades in the summer, then I run into the fact it is too cold in the north. I really prefer local growers, local nurseries, plant sales, swaps. Luckily there are multiple people in our area to buy plumeria from IE: Emersons. You can get a much bigger plant for less than a cutting. I think every plant society raises money through sales, the bromeliad society has a great sale every year in Houston and the daylily socieity sales must be avoided to prevent draining of the bank account. To feed my other addictions I have a friend who raises bromeliads-Jimbos nursery in Santa Fe, amaryllis co-ops, a plant co-op, Cactus King on the north side of Houston, Josephs nursery in Pearland, Houston Garden center (70% off) for citrus!, plant swaps and of course the gardenweb forums exchanges, Maas nursery in Seabrook....I need a 20 step program! Tally HO!

I guess I'm more ignorant of loans than I thought after 30 years of financing. I didn't "choose" Citizen's Auto Finance - the Ford dealership chose them for us. (Better percentage than what Ford Motor Credit was offering) And what is interesting - this is for a $30k vehicle in which we put down $15k. DH's truck "went up" so we were forced to buy him a vehicle and since I really didn't "want" another car payment we decided to put down enough to make the payment palatible. For every other car purchase I've ever done in my life it's always been just trade with no (or very little) money down. That's why I was so taken aback at all of this. I've just never had any of my other car loan companies call. It isn't one of those side of the road deals. We've got plenty invested that we're not going to lose it. I guess I just thought all dealership car loans were the same.

Hi Bethesdamanman, My apologies then, Dave. I thought that I had recalled you posting on the other board that mortgage rates would stay low for years and years, and that we would never return to the high rates of years past. My error. Eeeesschhh .... well.... actually... kinda sorta, YES.... your apologies in this case are NOT warranted. Herein lies a case of "text failing where a verbal conversation *may* have worked better." I've never said rates would stay low "well... forever".... I HAVE said rates (30 FRM rates to be precise) will unlikely climb over 7% in our lifetimes. I *STILL* stand by that.... albeit, I am now offering that we are entering a territory of government-induced inflation at levels I (perhaps naively) thought the United States political system was above. If we continue down the path of dollar-dilution that we've begun accelerating along, there are only two end-game results; A) we reverse course back out of it before we self-destruct in revolution, B) we self-destruct (and the devil we do not know is always a potential problem.) *IF* we successfully reverse and dig ourselves out of the hole of trouble our most recent past and our current government administrations are hell-bent on digging us into... there are only two ways of "sopping back & vacuuming up" the diluted unbacked funny-money that has been injected out into the system; A) The Treasury collects more taxes than it provides to the government to spend, and/or, B) The Fed increases interest rates higher than its blended payout on the treasury bonds (and then some... the greater the positive income spread to the Fed, the more painful to the "fixed-income retired crowd" which is our baby-boomer bubble... who will rally with AARP-sponsored pitchforks.) Both A & B will be met with *MASSIVE* resistance from the only crowd that the poloticos *KNOW* will consistently show up to vote, and have almost unlimited spare time to write, call, email, and generally pester the daylights out of the politicians; The Seniors. SO.... I've learned to never rely on "common sense" when it comes to anticipating "government logic" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Obama has enlisted the original architect of option B... Paul Volcker... as a "senior economic advisor." ("Senior" may (MAY) work somewhat to our advantage here... as Gramps Volcker *MIGHT* have some age-gained sensitivity to his classmate comrade's plight.) Volcker is the one who decided to fight inflation in the 1970's by driving short-term interest rates up to the 20%'s... The late '70's and early '80's result was that Volcker recaptured (in a VERY painful way) the excess liquidity (flooding of funny money) our country created by going off the gold standard and adopting a "weak dollar" policy through the 1960's. WHAT WILL WA DC DO??????????????? I dunno.... (I know what I pray/chant/meditate they will do...) *IF* the government (both the loonie left & jackthug right) get OUT of the way of the naturally balancing markets... then my expectations and predictions stand, with virtually my 100% confidence. My fears are that the United States idea of a market-based capitalist self-righting system has been a grand and wonderful social experiment... but that the human frailties (compounded in mob psychology) are sabotaging the underlying DNA strands that made it possible to stand. My COMFORTING REALIZATION... is that despite my egoistic pride for being part of a "successful system".... even if that system turns out to be a decaying failure, INDIDIVIDUALLY I and my family, and those I guide, can still retain their own personal success and quality of life. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner