Pam, If wood chips were readily available here, I'd get them, but our electric co-op in general only does a big tree trimming about once every 10 years out here in the sticks where I live. However, I have about 10 acres of woodland full of raw material so I can gather all the wood we need even though it isn't neatly chipped. Susan, In the sandy soil on the east side of the pecan tree, our four o'clocks make humongus roots. I've seen them roots get as large as the head of an 8-10 year old child. Once the roots are big, the plants will grow as tall as 6-8' tall as long as they have something like a tall garden fence or chicken coop wall to lean against. Mine do come back reliably in the sandy soil and in well-amended clay, but do not come back as well in unimproved clay. Lisa, When I started making hugelkultur beds when we lived in Fort Worth in the 1980s, I didn't know it was a method that had a name. I just knew that my black gumbo clay needed major soil improvement, and we had cut down a tree so I stacked up that cut wood behind the shed for a couple of years and then used it to improve the flower beds and veggie garden. It was amazing what a change it made, so I've used wood and other woodland debris to build soil ever since. Pam, I first read John Jeavons' book in about the 1990s or so and employ many of his biointensive techniques, which allow me to get a huge yield from my gardening space. I believe you'll love the book and will find his methods offer many benefits. With regards to teaching people in difficult conditions to grow in buckets and bags......I am not sold on the idea unless they otherwise have no land in which to plant. I think it always would be preferable to teach them (as Ecology Action does) how to improve the soil they have in order to increase its fertility over the years. There are sustainable mini-farm techniques that can be used for food production even in very difficult climates. Any method used to teach people how to grow food successfully is good and helpful and useful, but growing in buckets and bags wouldn't be my first choice unless there were mitigating circumstances that made it impossible to grow in the ground using biointensive methods. It can be difficult to keep container plantings happy in extreme heat, and we have the advantage of having drip irrigation lines that can be placed on a timer. I cannot imagine trying to grow in those bags in low-rainfall areas or during drought periods accompanied by extreme heat. It seems like it would be hard to keep the growing medium moist enough. With regards to adapting our gardening practices to the changing climate/weather conditions, I think we have to be flexible and willing to push the limits in order to achieve success despite the weather. The recurring droughts of the 2000s make soil improvement even more important than ever before (and it always has been very important anyhow), and mulching makes a huge difference. So does careful watering using methods that don't waste water. Providing plants some relief from the sun in periods of extreme heat helps them remain happier, healthier and more productive. I use many more 'protective' techniques now than when we first moved here, and I think they make a huge difference. The first year I bought a roll of shade cloth to shade the tomato plants during extreme heat (I think it may have been during the drought of 2008), Tim was not fully on board with the idea. I am sure he was asking himself just how far I was going to go to protect those tomatoes. A few days ago he told me that he wished there was a way we could put shade cloth over the entire garden during periods of excessive heat. So, even as a non-gardener, he's learning what it takes to help the plants give the maximum production during difficult summers. Of course, our garden is far too large for it to be practical to shade all of it, but I do shade peppers and tomatoes with shade cloth during periods of extreme heat, and I also plant interplant rows of shorter plants with taller ones so the tall plants can partially shade the shorter ones. After we'd lived here 6 or 7 years, I thought I had our weather and climate all figured out, knew how to deal with it, etc......and, then, it started changing. Every year that it remains very hot and very dry, I learn more about how to deal with it. We all have to constantly adapt to whatever challenges the weather, climate, soil, pests or diseases are throwing at us. Waurika, It is always interesting to read Dr. Albrecht's writings. I spend a whole lot more time on soil improvement than on anything else and the most-improved beds always produce best whether we're in or out of drought. Last year I triple dug one large bed that is roughly 40' long and 5' wide and amended the soil as I went along. Triple digging in dense clay soil is very difficult back-breaking labor and is very time-consuming, but it is a wonderful way to improve the productivity of a planting area. I hope to double-dig or triple-dig a few more raised beds this winter. That triple-dug bed gave us a huge output of veggies this year. It grew tomatoes from March through July, southern peas from July through early November, and is growing carrots, turnips and collards now. Newspaper inks used on newsprint are non-toxic, but we shouldn't use the glossy inserts or any glossy magazine pages because they have a different kind of ink. I've used newspaper ever since we moved here and it is wonderful. Both newsprint and cardboard attract earthworms like mad. I like to put them down on the ground as the first layer of mulch and pile grass clippings and shredded leaves on top of them. As these materials break down over time, they further enrich the soil. I'm going to link the website of Ecology Action for anyone interested in learning more about biointensive, sustainable mini-farming or gardening. I also buy some seeds from Bountiful Gardens, which is affiliated with EA. (Bountiful Gardens is where I first found Piricicaba broccoli.) When I first read John Jeavons' book, it changed me so much as a gardener and the more that I used biointensive gardening techniques, the better a gardener I became. At the Ecology Action page, there is a link to Bountiful Gardens in the upper right-hand corner. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Ecology Action Website

You need to research your comps...Are homes in the area being remodeled and sold or lived in, or are they being torndown and newer ones built? Or are people just biding their time and not making improvements--hoping the market will deliver a profit when they sell? Some neighborhoods don't really make a tear-down a feasible choice because of cost of rebuilding is really above the neighborhood comps... Hard to get mortgage in area like that if you want to build newer but not that larger house. What are the buliding restrictions? Any HOA or city regulations for height, house size to lot size??? Have people sunk serious remodel money into the neighborhood to upgrade homes and then lived there? If there are not other people doing it, then it is same situation--you are putting money into home and you won't see that extra appreciation for heavy remodeling... You might get a quicker sale but you likely won't see a dollar for dollar uptick... the fact that you are renting on AirBB is not a guaranteed form of long term income to pay a mortgage... You can't count on that if you can't afford to move w/o that rental income...

Wow, JTerri, that does look nice. Looks like hotel developers noticed the same thing I did ... the hotel stock in most of the Keys is a little long i n the tooth and they need some new investment. OTOH I am reluctant to choose an unopened hotel and the last time I did so it was not finished in time! Anyway, the Eau Palm is booked already for the dates I want!? And my family thinks I am crazy for planning so far in advance.Hrmmph. Now I have my heart set on something with a fun, hip PB vibe like that. Which I find more on Air BnB. I don't care so much that they won't be oceanfront (we see plenty of that already) but worry they will flake on me in high season! Funny, Bonnie Ann, I remember being in KW and being told ... its only 90 miles to Cuba and it seeming soooo exotic. ETA ... OMG, look at this listing! I thought there was a person in the family room. I would never rent this unless it was dipped in Lysol first. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/12782884?guests=8&s=EQGRvyCN

elmer, that entire area used to be part of Mexico, so should we refer to it as Mexico rather than South Orange County, El Toro, or Lake Forest? Although Lake Forest did not incorporate as a City until 1991, there is a specific area that was most definitely known/called Lake Forest in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Sacramento County, the areas known as Carmichael (population 61,762 as of the 2010 Census), Fair Oaks (population 30,912 as of the 2010 Census), Orangevale (population 33,960 as of the 2010 Census), Folsom (population 78,038 as of the 2010 Census), and Gold River (population 7,812 as of the 2010 Census), to name a few areas, are all unincorporated and known as "Census-designated areas" but they each have their own ZIP Codes, and I can assure you the residents would argue with you if you told them that they don't exist. Oh, let's not forget "the Pocket." If anyone in the greater Sacramento area says, "I live in the Pocket," everyone else in the greater Sacramento area knows exactly where they're talking about. (Population in the Pocket is somewhere around 30,000.) Also, it's just as easy to look up UCI Medical Center as it is to look up Disneyland, and I mentioned the three freeways only as a point of reference to the fact that it is easy to get to.