Helen, It is good to hear that you are OK. So often, these afternoon/evening thunderstorm lines cross OK into AR and cause trouble. I'm glad y'all didn't get hit by any of them last night. Carol, I am watching live footage shot from a helicopter above Lone Grove and the destruction is stunning. If you look at the KXII website later, they may have it up in the video section. The ground is bare. No grass. No weeds. No shrubs. Many trees, especially Eastern Red Cedars remain standing. A lot of the taller, older deciduous trees lost tons of limbs, though, even if they are still standing. It looks like someone took a vacuum cleaner and sucked up all the plants out of the ground. All you see is brown soil for as far as you can see as the helicopter's camera pans the area. I think I saw the granddaughter on the Today Show. She was still emotionally devastated and perhaps a little in shock, speaking of how everything familiar is "just gone". DH just came in, exhausted after 8 hours of search-and-rescue in heavy firefighter bunker gear. He says the destruction is widespread. The trailer park he searched may be the one you're thinking of--it had about 60 trailers and every single one of them is gone. They did not locate any further survivors or victims there. DH is not an expert, but thinks it was most likely an F-3 and possibly an F-4. Time will tell. We did have good warning last night. KXII, the local CBS affiliate, had a storm spotted named Doug Drace on the ground in Lone Grove BEFORE the tornado hit, as it was making its way from Montague County, TX, across the Red River at the Tayovayas (sp?) Bridge at Leon/Courtney, over Courtney and Orr with a brief touchdown perhaps in Orr where two homes were destroyed. When the tornado was coming down to the ground, Doug Drace was telling us live...it is descending....it is on the ground....Lone Grove take cover now. He did a great job, and anyone listening knew it was serious and knew to seek shelter. Based on what we were hearing on TV and on the fire radios, I believe most people had 15-20 minutes advance warning to seek shelter. The NWS had issued watches and then warnings in advance of the tornado, the weather radios sounded, the fire and police pagers sounded, the media tracked it and publicized it. If you didn't know it was coming, you just weren't paying attention! The official death toll remains 8 with 14 seriously injured, and two of them airlifted to Parkland Memorial in Dallas. I believe the two that were airlifted were related to the elderly man who died in his home last night. I don't remember his name, but I have seen footage of his family members searching through the rubble of his home and they seem completely shellshocked and stunned. Now watching live press conference with Gov. Henry. Here's what they are saying: Path of tornado through Lone Grove about 4 to 5 miles long and at times up to a half-mile wide. Devastation is "just incredible, it takes your breath away" according to Gov. Henry. Gov. Henry says only 8 fatalities and only 2 are still on the "missing" list and no one knows if they have left the area or if they are truly missing. Gov. Henry asked that everyone pray for all those impacted as they have been through a devastating time. Carol, After seeing the aerial footage, all I can say is that you and your family have been blessed, truly, truly blessed. For you to have had that many family members survive this horrific weather event is truly amazing and a reminder of the Good Lord's grace. I know Lone Grove faces a long, slow recovery but the support and assistance are pouring in and I am sure this strong community will rebound and will rebuild and will take this opportunity to pull together, love one another and help one another. It is a beautiful, sunny afternoon here in southern OK and the clean-up has already begun. I am watching John, the furniture store owner on Fox News live from Lone Grove, and he's holding up very well, considering the devastating loss he has suffered. He's had a lot of volunteers (many of who he does not even know, they said) show up to help him salvage what he can. He is devastated, though, and I saw him wipe away a couple of tears as he spoke. My heart and prayers go out to him and to all affected persons. Dawn

Datura: They do much better with more sun. But part sun is ok. I've never fertilized mine and whack 'em back when they take over neighboring plants or get in the way of paths. They are also called moon flower bush. The moon flower vine is something else. I have both. I'd like more of the colored datura ones but don't have the space for them. One thing I don't like about them, (datura) is they look pretty ugly during the day. At night they are so awesome! I never noticed any fragrance until this year I happened to pull in the drive way late one night and that plant was positively glowing! Its branches and flowers were standing up and reaching for the sky. I was amazed and went over closer to it and wow... they do smell nice. I dragged hubby out there to see and smell it. I wish had the space and sun for it on my patio. :( During the day that plant doesn't look or smell very appealing to me at all. About this time of the year keep your eyes open for those green tomato worms. They devour the leaves --will strip a huge bush in 24 hours. The bush will not die, but it will look pretty bad until the leaves grow back out... by then we'll be getting a freeze and it will die back to the ground. Next spring it will come back and there will also be bunches of little babies all around where the branches reached to the previous year.

I first made these about 13 years ago. Over the years I've adapted the originals. I've not sold these in 11 years at craft shows and am going to try again this year. You use empty paper towel and wrapping paper rolls. I prefer to sew my "dress" and "sleeves". Basicly you cut the fabric the height of your roll and cut the sleeves as long as she want to make the arms. You make a tube for the dress and sleeves. I glue a piece of card board to the bottom and fill the roll with rice or dry beans. I take the dress and hand gather one end, then I glue that to the top of the tube so that the bottom covers the cardboard. Then put a pipe cleanner in the arms and gather in the middle and hand sew. Glue the arms to the back. The head is a styrofoam ball with quilt batting around it glued to the top of the roll. I used my stove eye covers to trace a circle on muslin that I pulled the edges to rip it and wadded it up to make it wrinkled. Then draw the eyes and mouth, drape over the head and tie with jute cord. The pipe cleanners can be shaped to pose the arms and that's how you attach the halloween bucket. I think they look cute on a buffet, dinning table, coffee table etc. email if you have questions. Susan in Bama Here is a link that might be useful:

thanks columbusguy! I hope the landscape comes out as "old florida" style for the period. I don't have a green thumb at all, and we had 3 landscape designers offer us plans. I really wanted to keep a lot of the old stuff, but they all said it was past the season of healthy, and needed to come out. :( I don't think it will feel "old" looking for a year or 2, but here in FL everything grows super fast... so should look okay in a couple years.