To top it all off... When we blow the leaves, we blow them across the road because there is a big field right across the road. Well, yesterday I decided to go grab some more leaves before they got taken up by the park manager or waste management. I would suck the leaves back up with my blower, dump them back out when it was full, suck them back up again (which shreds them even finer) and then fill the leaf bags. My neighbors all must have thought I was crazy! A lot of people around here don't understand the value of their fall leaves. They just blow them all out on the road and forget about them. I must have looked like a crazy woman yesterday as I stood there sucking back up the leaves from across the street that were just blown across the street, dumping them back out again and sucking them back up! lol I don't really care what they think, because next year when my garden is flourishing with the help of some leaves, they'll all wonder how I did it! lol

About Dixie - I'm confused. Deutsche Drahthaar translates exactly to German Wire-haired. So are her parents the same breed, just one is said in English and the other in German??? An inquiring mind wants to know. Summer is here. Highs in the 80's and 90's (98 yesterday, yee-hah!), lows in the 50's and sometimes 40's. I'm irrigating, irrigating, and irrigating. And then irrigating some more. The drawback to our comfortable no-humidity air is that everything dries out VERY fast in the heat. But I'm not exactly complaining. The annuals are exploding and giving me some good market days. I thought I was going to have a lily lull this week, like flowerfarmer, but the outdoors Triumphators and dark red Orientals (don't remember the name at the moment) are starting to open, so there will be a few, anyway. We escaped the heat yesterday, went up a mountain to pick huckleberries. It was MUCH cooler up at 6,000 feet, there was a gorgeous view, and we were in a huckleberry patch so big and rich, we called my sister to bring her whole family up to pick also. When we left, they were starting to wind down, but all agreed it was the best patch they'd ever seen. It got nowhere near picked out - we all just got tired eventually. Even the richest patch takes a long time to pick, and I think it would take at least a week to pick that one out. Knowing about that patch was stroke of luck. It's a big privately-owned area, not developed yet, that my husband's company is currently surveying. My husband is the boss surveyor - his field party chief tipped him off about the berries after working up there. We called to get permission from the owner, but as it turns out, he just doesn't care and anybody can pick there. It's a long way up a primitive road, so I don't think that many folks find it. It will be a great year for the bears, anyhow. And the moose and elk. One of the kids found moose poop that was full of huckleberry seeds. At least we didn't need to be concerned about bear encounters. There was plenty for everybody - no black bear is going to come near a group of humans if they can get food elsewhere, and boy oh boy, was there food elsewhere. There was food EVERYWHERE! Oh, and goldenrod, too. Here I spent money amd grew the seeds to be sure to get plants tall enough to cut - then I go up on the mountain and there are plants identical to mine, everywhere I look. Brother. But they were very pretty in bloom, along with the Pearly Everlastings and the fireweed scattered around. Gotta go irrigate- Jeanne

Oh...I wish I had the nerve to answer stupid questions like that, I always think of a good come back at a later time. My husband works in retail at this time. He always wants to give a different answer to stupid questions but shows restraint. He is always telling me the answer he wish he gave. jasdip,,,,very funny!

Oh that's hilarious! I just woke up my dog laughing!