Buyer Beware> I have bought items from Goodwill off and on for the past few years. We didn't have a store close by. One thing you need to check is the outrageous shipping charges and handling charges. I saw a lovely metal vintage style tea pot I would love to have....bid 3.00 reasonable............shipping 10.00........handling.....2.00. Hmmmmmmmmmm tea pot not so attractive at 15.00 and that's if you get it for the 3.00 bid. I love looking thru all the items Goodwill has but some of their shipping rates are way out of line. All these items are donated and I know for a fact it doesn't cost 10.00 to ship one tea pot. Don't want to rain on your parade just want to make you aware. I also bounce between goodwill and ebay and yes I am a wicked sniper...............LOL Does anyone remember Andy's Warehouse Auction? It was run by Fingerhut no less..........oooooooooh the bargains I got there and their shipping was reasonable. How i miss them. There were a couple others but I don't remember the names. Sigh! Hmmmmmmmmm maybe I should google. Then there's freecycle.............I can't begin to tell you all the goodies I have gotten off there. Ok so I belong to 5 different ones.............:) I subscribe to all that are within a 50 mile radius and try to pick up two or more items on one trip if possible. Anybody watch the Junk Brothers? Boy would I like to find some of the loot they find. And that Workshop............ ChelCass

Ah nature! Those look like flat millipedes. Don't worry, whenever we see an explosion of something like that, it slowly disperses. Whether by disease or predators. The first year in our house, we had tons of milipedes everywhere, the house, the yard, the pool. Now, we only see them if we are looking under rocks outside. Milipedes are eaten by other things. This is from the Kentucky Extension Office; ECOLOGY Millipedes are common in soil, under rocks, and in other dark, moist places. Millipedes cannot move very fast, and most species feed on decaying plant material. Millipedes do not have venomous stingers or fangs, but some of them can secrete bad-smelling and bad-tasting chemicals from pores in the sides of their bodies. These chemicals help keep many predators away. Despite this defense, millipedes are often eaten by centipedes, spiders, and predatory insects.

got it all worked out this morning. DS1 is off to another July 4th cookout...he was flexible. DH and I have free tickets today from a friend of ours handling the sound system for the performances at the Eno River Festival. Tomorrow -- big burger/chicken cookout by the pool with DH's family, DS1...DS2 took off to Smith Mountain Lake house with his girlfriend's family. Sunday -- friends, DS1 (maybe DS2)...brunch here on the screened porch followed by pool time...then afternoon margaritas, dips, chips, guacamole, etc. I'm going to make lavender scones; strawberry parfaits (yogurt, honey, granola and strawberries); fry up some hash browns, bake some cheese grits, bacon, etc. Trying to decide between a veggie frittata or just scrambled since one is picky.

Bout time I got off my lazy can and chimed in on this. I know EXACTLY how excited you are to see this handsome bird at last. I fist saw a pileated here about 8 or 9 years ago. Oddly enough, our truck had developed problems and my husband and I were pulled over out in the middle of nowhere with the hood up trying to get it running again. I was standing back out of the way and wishing I was elsewhere when I saw it...a pileated woodpecker flying over. I'd only seen them in books but it was like a kick in the gut and I started dancing around , pointing and screaming. Of course, when your husband is stretched out across a greasy hot engine block in his good jeans, trying to coax that P.O.S. into getting us back on the road, he isn't really in the mood to get all goofy about a woodpecker, especially, as he stated later when I was grumpy that he wouldn't look, since IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A PILEATED. And then about three years later I saw the first one here in our own woods. I doubted it even then, and ran the whole 1/2 mile back to the house through the nettle and mosquitoes to get my binocs. I could never get close enough for a good look but I was sure of it....we had pileateds. And I got the same response from my husband: Don't be silly. I soon got used to hearing their loud ringing ke-ke-ke-ke-ke-ke, but he wasn't impressed. Then one morning we were eating breakfast and watching out the window as usual and he about choked on his frosted flakes. There was a big flash of black and white and there it was, about 20 yards out on the side of a large oak. There was total chaos for a moment as we tried to locate the d--mn binocs (spot a new bird and see if your field glasses don't vaporize)and then I was doubted no longer. I bet you just about gave everybody a coronary when they heard you start hollering. I am wondering how inthe world it held still long enough for you to go fetch the camera and get a good shot. Would never have happened for me. And by the way, I did like everybody else, searching high and low through that HUGE picture, dying to see what was in there. At first I was scratching my head because it appeared to me that there was a bobcat-shaped creature casually sitting among your chickens, which didn't really make sense. Then I saw it. Congrats congrats congrats!!!! I bet it is looking for grubs and carpenter ants among the trees damaged by the ice storm you got two winters back.