Up around Tulsa the highways are not sprayed and only mowed after the wildflowers go to seed. Miles and miles of wildflowers bloom along the highways. I cannot vouch for the how it looks on the off roads - dirt roads - but at least you see the Tulsa area officials taking a stand for Nature. They are more progressive thinking up there. Over on the West side of Stillwater the same is true to a lesser extent, but only because of the university faculty and students. The local yo-calls don't seem that "into" the local Wildlife or preservation that I have ever seen, other than shooting it and making trails with their three wheels and other rec vehicles. The land on the west side and an area on the south side of Stillwater belongs to Okla State. They have a large experimental garden there that is open to the public. They also have lots of experimental sites dotted around in Payne county where they grow new crops, varieties of fruit, fruit trees, herbs & flowers. Once a year the plants are sold to the public. Too pricey for me, but all proceeds do go back to the school's horticultural or agricultural studies. On the west side is where Lake Karl Blackwell is located, which I believe was built by students many many years ago and is operated by the University. Loblolly pines were planted there about 30 years ago. There are little log cabins that can be rented and some are perpetually leased, so the families keep them for generations. My kids and I spent one Fourth of July at one of the cabins with a friend and her family. They were small, spacious and VERY NICE. In the spring the wildflowers along the highway are quite pretty. They were almost all seeded by university students. One year they seeded the median with Oxeye Daisies and for more than two miles they filled the grassy median. Sure beat just old Bermuda grass. It was lovely. But down this way...not the same story. As for the farmers and ranchers who leas that land....uh...well. They spray with herbicide. They use chemical fertilizers and they us pesticides. On the days they spray, I keep all the animals inside and you cannot go outside else you might choke to death on it. I am serious. Yes, I have called the authorities concerning my complaint about the herbicide and etc. I told them how it killed off all my wildflowers and even my herb garden. They smiled and told me, "Hey lady. This is farm country. What do you expect the farmers to do? They have to do what they have to do to make a living, and if that means spraying, then they spray. And I seriously doubt you would find any lawyer who would be willing to take your case, and if they did, it would end up costing you more than you lost." He was right. However, I have put the word out with lots of the locals about what I am doing out here, especially the owner of the local feedstore in town, (who is the one you call when you want to know ANYTHING around here), so I am sure Jim has told the local men about me and my "funny ways a doin' things". This town is like Mulberry USA, except that instead of going to the barber shop, they all meet over at Jim's feedstore and stand around jawing about "important stuff". I talked to the new guy who leases that land about the herbicides. He said 'Why sure little lady!" with a big cheesy grin and then 2 days later he sprayed anyway. However, this year he didn't spray herbicides and he left a wide span of wild vegetation between where he plowed and sprayed fertilizers and planted his crops and our 2 stretches of fence that borders his field, so I am HOPING he is being considerate. At least I will act like that is why he did that. Probably just left those areas to prevent erosion, but whatever. It works for me! As one of the locals sages here likes to to tell me, "Things here is the way they always has been, and there ain't no a'changin" how they is, don'tcha see?" And that is the truth. :) Have a good one whoever you do. ~Annie

Here's a photo of the trees i planted in the yard. I plan on using BYOC (back yard orchard culture). Again all function and no form. Not pretty, but functional. The trees will be kept at between 6 to 8 feet tall with summer pruning. Part of the BYOC plan. Also trees ripen at different dates, providing fruit all of the growing season. In the back is a trellis of 8 blackberry bushes. They should produce 20-30 pounds of fruit next year. All 8 blackberries, and all 5 trees are different cultivars. I'll be adding one or two more trees. This garden, and all plants were put in this spring, so the garden is new. All cultivars ripen at different dates so I should have fruit all season. The trees are starting in front to back then left. Indian Free peach, an heirloom peach grown by Thomas Jefferson. Arctic Glo nectarine, 4n1 pluot tree, Spice Zee neactaplum, and on the back left PF Lucky 13 peach. I want to add Old Mixon Free peach. Another grown by Jefferson. In the front yard for looks and function a Weeping Santa Rosa Plum will be added. Since it weeps, it doesn't need to be pruned, grows to 10 feet tall. This post was edited by Drew51 on Thu, Oct 17, 13 at 9:09

-17 this morning and the electricity went off. Been off most of the day but the temps climbed to 12 now. So miserable in the house I left around 1100 to go eat and drink hot coffee in the next town at Cracker Barrel. It was 59 in the house when I got home and the power was off...it came on twice apparently when I was out. Warm water in the water heater and KU told me the power was knocked off twice by power surges. I tried to turn my space heater on in the bedroom but it's dead. I think the power surge must've killed it. Decided not to turn the other other on for a while. I don't want to contribute to another outage.

What is on the upper level? Is that space included in the 800 s.f. ? Make any desirable changes before moving in. Consider an architect.