I would have reacted the same way! This is beginning to sound like "The Pet Cemetery"! We have a few skeletons in our yard as well. One green heron: Just after I'd installed our pond, 11 years ago, we had a visit from a green heron. The day he appeared, we were installing the icemaker in our frig. I shoo'ed the bird away, as DH beckoned me for assistance. So, I asked my son (then 14 yrs. old) to keep an eye out for the fish monger and shoo him away should he return. The next thing I know, my son says he got a fish and I got him. The green heron had returned scooped up a fish and retreated for lunch on the fence. My son shot him with a pellet gun. I was shocked, and asked why he shot the bird; it was a protected species and I'd asked him to shoo the bird away. His answer was he'd misunderstood me to say shoot the bird. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm an animal lover who would never kill anything, unless it threatened human life. I was flabbergasted to say the least, but also concerned. The bird had fallen into my neighbor's yard; I didn't know if he'd wounded it or killed it, but knew we had to discretely check its status. Not wanting to draw attention to my son's mistake, he barreled over the fence w/the use of our ladder and recovered the evidence. The bird was dead, but the fish was alive (and continued to survive). "Jimmy Heron" is buried in our backyard..........along with about 10 rats (probably more), a couple of fish and one oppossum. The oppossum was dog kill. That about killed me! Our Samyoid has a thing for oppossums; I've taken 2 to the vet's for repair. Thank goodness the Samyoid has gone blind...........probably an oppossum curse put upon her rather than the diabetes. The rats.......one thing the Chamber of Commerce will never tell you about, is the rats in Tampa! When we moved here I was totally disgusted! The house had been empty for 6 months, the yard totally overgrown with vegetation. Our first night in the house, we heard a noise which sounded like a herd of buffalo crossing the roof. It was 4 days before we identified the culprits, and then I was ready to move! DH decided to put out rat traps. He was not discouraged by their numbers. I swore off any responsibilities w/traps. The first night of traps, we were sitting at the table having dinner. First, you could hear the snap of one trap, followed by many more. Sounded like the percussion section of an orchestra. I thought I'd lose my dinner. Believe me, it took only that one experience for DH to decide there had to be a better way to rid the homestead of rats. The better way, of course was to clear the property of hiding places, and at the time, it didn't seem we could move fast enough. We cleared out 4 trees (I still have 17 on the property) and all the undergrowth; then the house was tented. When I mentioned this to one of our neighbors, the neighbor's reation was, "Oh, yes, grove rats" like they were domestic pets! (Our neighborhood used to be an orange grove. Rats eat the fruit off of the trees. When they developed it, not all the rats ran away; they remained to prosper.) A few days after we'd cleared the landscaping, another neighbor was alarmed when she said she had NO idea why she suddenly had rats under her decking, but would have to deal with it. I stiffled a laugh. Another neighbor told me he and the previous owner of our home used to sit in the back yard with pellet guns and shoot rats as they ran along the fencetop. Since he lived directly behind us, they always made sure they hunted together to avoid injury or damaging the other's home. They buried a few rats in the yard as well. So, that's the buried treasures in our back yard....so far.

Dave! Dave! I can't believe how great they look now. I am so pleased with the results of your had work and your trust in us here. I am thrilled at how beautiful they are. WOWOW! Thanks for stopping by. You were certainly thought of. I have been meaning to ask you to come back. So good to see you again:-) Hey Josh! Alexa..Thanks so much for stopping by and your kind words. Josh, it is cool here agin. We only broke 80 in the past month! Where is our summer? Considering it was in the 90's in the middle of winter, I am beginning to think our winter will be in the middle of summer. I must say though that this must be your favorite weather. Very cool by night and mild by day. perfect for my coloring jades and flowering citrus. I would say, southern Cailf. weather in winter. Jaybird and Buylady!! Thank you so much. Buylady, let's talk soon. I want to make sure you are alright, You will be in my prayers:-))) Mike

NZ, no dishes of water (West Nile virus) but I do occasionally wash down the plants or the cement floor under the arbor. Plus there are grape and passion fruit vines above it and grass in front of it, not to mention lots of plants. I do have plans for drip lines and probably micro misters for early morning or evening (no direct sun). Yes LL, they are from Juan's pulasan tree, I try to pretend I dont care about them, so they wont die. It would be a complete miracle if I can get them to fruit and even more outrageous if they taste as good as Juan's. Some of the PR seedlings are growing pretty well, plants in the photos are in 5gal pots. Even the mangosteen are growing moderately well, the slowest growers.........herrania umbricata and kwai muk. Charleslou, all of the lychees except the Mauritus are in pots.

We spent an eon agonizing over how to incorporate a computer into the kitchen -- the computer is where we get all of our recipes, all of our music, as well as all of our news/movies/info/entertainment. We came _this close_ to buying an i-mac and putting it on an articulating arm mounted to the side of the pantry (which is next to the prep area). Our thinking was that it could face someone seated at the island for t.v. or could be used for recipe sites in the prep area, while also being able to play music or podcasts over the in-ceiling speakers. In the end after visiting the Apple store and talking at length with an APple guy (who happens to be a lawyer by day and about to embark on his own kitchen renovation), with his help we went an altogether different route, although the new i-macs are beautiful, we realized that we'd rather search for recipies (and music, and everything else) on our individual laptops while seated in the living room and then carry the laptop into the kitchen as opposed to doing this while sitting or standing in the kitchen. By our way of thinking, the hours that the kitchen computer would get used would not be enough to justify buying a new computer for the job, and most of what we wanted it to do could be better done on a laptop (and I'd argue even better done on a brand spankin' new i-book, but so far no dice). Thus this is the route we chose instead: 1 - speakers installed in the kitchen ceiling (and living room ceiling too)and wired to the back of the pantry, we had our electrician put an outlet inside it 2 - a shelf installed in the pantry that holds the following: 2- powered amps (0ne for each set of speakers), and an Airport Express that my laptop (or any computer in the household) that allows me to opt to play through the in-ceiling speakers (I-tunes, or Pandora mostly, but could play anything the computer can get to). 3 - a slate lazy susan (ordered from Amazon) to hold a laptop on the island while cooking, the thought here is that it keeps it up out of spills, and also turns as the cook changes positions while cooking. 4 - as for the t.v., there are lots of small, high-res lcd t.v.'s at Sam's Club/Costco that would do the job and fit nicely in a small space for less than $300, it didn't seem to make sense to buy a dedicated computer to primarily be a t.v. (at 3x the cost of the t.v.). We don't actually watch t.v.(just Netflix, I-tunes t.v. shows and Hulu) so it hasn't been an issue, but if we did, say want t.v. going while in the kitchen, II think I'd buy an inexpensive one rather than buying another/dedicated computer to be a t.v. (though that could be done as well). 5 I'd till like to add a wireless keyboard and mouse tothe laptop because they're under $100, cute as a button and would allow me to not worry about having messy hands on the keyboard while cooking. Although the island is still under construction, the speakers, amps and airport extreme are up and running, and we're...