Carol, I'm glad, too, that y'all were home when it happened. I wonder what it is about y'all's little neck of the woods that keeps attracting the lightning? I put in my muskmelons a couple of weeks ago when I pulled the snap peas. They have not grown very much in the endless heat, drought and hot, dry wind that plagued us for so much of May, so I am hoping they will perk up now with the abundant rainfall, slightly cooler temperatures and (hooray, hooray!) lack of strong winds. I'm growing Carole, Super 45 and Hale's Best Jumbo. I planted the watermelons to grow as a sort of ground cover under and between okra plants since that worked out so well last year. If I remember them all correctly, I planted Blacktail Mountain, Yellow Doll, Yellow Baby, New Orchid and Tiger Baby. They're all small refrigerator-sized melons since I was afraid we wouldn't have enough rainfall to grow the big melons and I didn't want to irrigate endlessly all summer. Actually, I try to avoid watering watermelons at all after the fruit is sizing up for fear I'll water too much and ruin their flavor. I may have planted Sugar Baby. I no longer remember for sure if I actually planted it or just intended to plant it. For winter squash, I planted carefully-selected varieties that should withstand the onslaught of SVBs: Old-Timey Cornfield Pumpkin. Long Island Cheese, Seminole, Tahitian Melon and Waltham Butternut. I might plant some winter melons if the SVBs take out the excessive number of zucchini plants I planted. We're getting far too much zucchini (who in American doesn't get too much zucchini, at least until the SVBs arrive?) but I wanted to shred and freeze a lot for zucchini bread, cake, and cookies before the SVBs took it out. Now, with it all producing so well all month, I am tired of it. Where are the SVBs when you need them? (Note to SVBs: if you arrive, feel free to attack the zucchinis but please leave my yellow summer squash alone. Thank you.) Larry, I take watermelon (and all other)DTMs with a grain of salt. For me, and I think it likely is because of our heat and our intense sunlight, many melons produce a couple of weeks earlier than the DTMs, which are just estimates anyway. I'd think any watermelon planted now should have lots of time to produce well. Our first frost, at the very earliest, should be at least 120 days way. My soil is not watermelon soil either, but I've always had really good luck with melons in well-amended clay. Even last year with all that incredible heat, the melons did really well. Hi Ezzirah, I think it is likely too hot for brussels spouts to make their sprouts now, unless this week's brief cool spell helps them out a bit. When I grow them, I usually grow them in the fall because the cooler fall temps as they mature are more conducive to flowering than the hotter temperatures they encounter as spring warms up and summer arrive. In a perfect world, Brussels Sprouts mature and produce the most tasty, highest-quality sprouts when the air temperatures are in the 55-65 degree range, or even a bit cooler. When's the last time your daytime highs were in that range? If your weather has been like mine, it was a long time ago. If you plant them for fall, start them from seed indoors and set them out about 10 weeks before your average fall frost. To give your fall transplants the best chance of producing, you would want for your brussels sprouts plants to be about 6 weeks old (and 7 or 8 weeks likely would be okay too), and have at least 6-8 true leaves and be healthy. Starting with plants that old in summer should put your plants at the right age and size to be forming flowers (the sprouts we eat are flower buds) in fall's cooler temperatures. You have to keep summer-transplanted brussels sprouts moist for the first couple of weeks, and may even need to shade them to get them through the hot summer weather and to allow them to quickly become well established. After the pampering that first week or two, they usually can hold their own against the elements. However, you'll need to keep them moist at all times because they are not terribly deep rooted so can dry out quickly. For me, cabbage does just fine even in the hot weather. Some years I don't even harvest it until June or July, but in other years it is harvest-sized by May. I think it is likely your cabbage still will produce just fine for you, but not so sure about the brussels sprouts. This has been a hard spring for cool-season crops since the cool season was not very cool for very long. I still have potatoes and carrots in the ground but likely not for too much longer. I think some of my potatoes have begun to die back this week, and based on their planting date and DTMs, I think it is time for them because they are a pretty early variety. I've planted southern peas in the raised bed in the Peter Rabbit Garden where the onions were growing until I harvested them a wee bit early to get them out of the ground before the hail fell. Then, even though it hailed within a couple of miles of our house, no hail fell here. With the onions though, I think it was better to be safe than sorry, so I'm glad I went ahead and harvested them. Dawn

Thank you all! Mtn, yes! Your suggestion was perfect for a quick getaway! I really really need to start researching possible places to get reasonably priced art mementoes while traveling. I do look for things while on trips but really don’t have a direction and often end up trying to find something in touristy areas, without luck. I should have at least bought a small framed butterfly here http://www.butterflypeople.com/ You cannot tell by the pictures how lovely these are in their translucent magic unless you see them in person. Although I still haven’t given meditation a real try I have to say that just walking into a full gallery of this art form with the soothing music in the background puts one into a zone. Here is a link that might be useful: Butterfly People This post was edited by jterrilynn on Sat, Sep 7, 13 at 14:24

I had the same experience as Larsi with the Cheer for Darks liquid. I had crazy suds with it! Also with the Tide Vivid liquid. Tide Vivid powder works fine, and the Woolite for Darks liquid also works well. I'd love to give the Cheer HE powder a whirl but have not seen it in my area, including at Sam's Club. I have heard many times that Cheer powder is low sudsing, but hesitate to buy a box as I wonder if there's more to being an HE powder than low suds--isn't HE formulated to work well in less water? I love the Tide Vivid powder for my whites and dish towels, and I use Tide Total Care for nearly everything else. I don't care for the smell much, but it's not so strong that I can't ignore it. :-) I have a box of regular Ultra Tide powder for those times when I need some extra cleaning punch, but I know it's pretty aggressive stuff so I don't use it regularly on everything. Interesting link, Whirlpool Trainee. I may need to check that Tide Coldwater out, though I almost never wash in cold water. Cj

Hi kell0382 I've seen the cork floating floor used in a hunting cabin in your neck of the woods. When it comes to the big swings of temps/humidity cork can handle it SO LONG AS the gaps at the walls and the transition strips at doorways are observed. Cork floating floors are VERY dynamic. They LOVE to expand and contract which is why the 1/2" gap at the walls is super important in your situation. If you are worried that the temp swings are a big concern, the installer can use an adhesive on each of the click edges. The short edges being most important. If you are going to use the bead of glue on the edges, then ALL the edges of ALL the planks will need it. This makes sure the ENTIRE room will move as one unit instead of stressing just one or two joints. Talk to Anne at iCork (not the people at head office in Canada...I've heard they have ruined a few floors). Tell her that you sent a message to Stephanie her old colleague on the Houzz website. Get her to WALK YOU THROUGH the install. She's the one who helped the gentleman install cork in the hunting cabin (which is why I know about it). Ask her how that install is going. She helped put that floor in 5 years ago (or so). She gets feed back from that owner from time to time. And remember: Tasmanian Burl looses all the beautiful light brown colouring when exposed to sunlight. That's normal. That is to be expected. The 'black tiger strip' stays nice and crisp looking for the entire life of the floor. If you want to keep the darker colouring, then look at the Walnut Burlwood. The Mahogany Ripple will also loose 50-80% of it's colouring as well....but it should keep SOME of the colour after a year or two. Ask Anne about her experiences with fading. I know we have faded a few colours in our windows over the years and have come to different conclusions for each colour. If fading concerns you then a quick chat with Anne will help you find the floor that you want.