I went to the site - you DO have to log in and it is impossible to use!

Game bird, One of the local citizens who lives here (a Love County native and rancher herself) has family in south-central Texas. Those family members also are ranchers, and they are in desperate shape. Down there in south Texas, in some places there's as much cactus as there is prairie grass and mesquite trees. Since January, they've been burning the spines off the cactus and feeding them to te cattle. The cactus are sort of a "last resort" for cattle feed. There's no grass growing. There's no hay left. They also have been "importing" hay from other states that are having more normal conditions. The south Texas ranchers are buying so much hay they risk going broke. It is a horrible situation and I feel for them. As we all know from seeing it happen here in recent years, the next step is a very bitter pill for ranchers to swallow.....having to sell off their herds once they no longer can afford to feed them. I don't know how the ranchers and farmers are hanging in there as long as they have thus far. I think you have to be very tough to ranch in the Great Plains where the weather can be so fickle and cruel. Thinking about the folks down there makes me feel like we are a lot better off in most parts of OK than we think we are. At least we've mostly had decent rainfall in the last several months. Also, I think it is easy for us to forget that much of Oklahoma was in the worst drought stage (D-4, Exceptional Drought), back in the 2005-2006 time frame too. Even worse? We're probably only six rain-free months from being there again. Luckily, we seldom go an entire six months without rain.....it only seems like we do! Dawn

[Transitional Landscape[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-landscaping-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_728~s_2112) by New York Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Todd Haiman Landscape Design This is very similar to what we had at our last house. We had ten acres with about half of it being treed with a big creek. We made a walking/ATV trail through the property which was way too rocky to really do anything else with. There were about two acres just around the house that needed mowing when we moved in which DH did by hand until one of our super generous neighbors gave him their old rider when they bought a new one. We decided it was still too much to mow so we put in a huge garden and pond to catch the springs going through that part of the property. We decided to fill in the other areas with native prairie grass and wildflowers we bought from Stock Seed Farms which has an online store and is located in Nebraska. They specicialize in native plants for the Midwest so make sure you know what is native to your area. We would burn it in early every Spring to keep the area looking nice and only mowed trails through it. If you don't burn it the area will become very thick and that I'm guessing is why they told you about the weeding. It was always nice to look at. If you do go with some wildflowers make sure to get a mix of annuals and perennials so some come up the first year. Some of the perennials may take a few years to bloom.

Hi Actually the only perpetually frost free area is Key West . Generally anything south of the lake is a solid zone 10 though the east coast is usually warmer than the west. of course the closer to the ocean the more stable the temps. I'm in Palm Beach county northern end of zone 10 and have lived here 35 years The last hard freeze was in 09 while the low for the last 3 years has been 42. though 10 miles inland from me there has been frost on several occasions. My personal record low was 27 and of course who can forget that famous snow of 78. Made it all the way to southern Dade county. has not repeated since. Much variation from year to year. Usually the west coast will be 5/10 degrees cooler during the fronts and of longer duration. Often barrier islands will be 5/10 degrees warmer depending on the jet stream. Not sure about property values over there but here they raised my real estate taxes claiming my house is worth 20 grand more lol This area was hit hard by the "bubble" with many foreclosures Judging from local sales there is a definite increase in price as well as sales I would definitely research any area your interested in and be sure to check into flood zones many areas have been having heavy rainfall as well as "KIng " tides . Also check into HOA's particularly if interested in gardening. many of them have strict landscaping rules . Good luck gary