Sounds interesting, Scott. I love to try to ID cats. Pecan being in the same family as Walnut, will have many of the same larvae feeding on them as Walnut. Many moths, on the other hand, are "generalist" feeders, and use so many different larval hosts that it is extremely difficult to ID them. Yes, the Walnut Sphinx is known as the "squeaking" caterpillar. I have never heard any of the ones I've raised make any noise, though. Darn it! I have lots of Pecan and find them on it. I've been sitting on the porch off and on while at my daughter's caring for my GD and watching the neighborhood squirrels run up and down the Walnut tree and scavenging those nuts that have fallen. It is amazing how fast they gnaw off the outer skin and the inner skin before they run back across the street to bury them somewhere. I enjoy watching them, but my daughter has a cat, and they sit in the tree chattering at him until he moves elsewhere. Boy, do they give him a talking to. Most people don't like squirrels, but I find them quite fascinating to watch. I love watching the young ones in the spring. They are very acrobatic when playing with each other, lol! Susan

(1) Home-made mac & cheese with roast chicken (2d dish) & maybe a salad (and a succotash could be nice). (2) Chili? Popular -- can be done with beef, chicken or ground turkey, fresh corn bread on the side is quick and easy to do in volume. Corn on the cob -- halved maybe. A salad -- nothing time sensitive if you're concerned about cooking for a crowd and not accustomed to it. (3) Pasta -- easy to do batches on the pasta itself and a nice basic fresh sauce is easy -- saute chopped/minced carrots, celery, onion and a sweet red pepper in olive oil, for a few minutes, then add chopped garlic for a minute, then the tomatoes (good canned tomatoes are way better than bad fresh ones, although if you have good fresh ones at volume that's terrific -- 3/4 in the food processor and 1/4 chopped or cubed). Kosher salt, a little pepper. Some white wine a couple of minutes before the end. It's easy to augment this with meatballs or pan cooked sausages for people who want meat (chicken -- any meat that seems right). Good bread, a nice salad, maybe some oven-roasted asparagus . . . easy meal for 10 or 20 or 30.

A cool front has passed through southern WI and is headed to the east coast. Relief is on the way. Behind the front, day temps are 70s to low 80 with drier air: Dew point 60 F. No wind to speak of so can not tarry outside because of misquitos - have to keep moving or get eaten. We've had our share of rain the past 3 days. The problem was the rain clouds were strung over 200 miles and were aligned with the direction of travel. The rain front was not exceptionaly wide. The result was 200 miles of rain clouds passed over the same spot. Menomonee Falls and Milwaukee, WI got flooded. Nicolet High School in Glendale, WI got flooded: 6 to 8 ft or water in the basement and 1.5 ft of water running down the halls on hte first floor. The gym floor went under. They had just gotten in new sports gear for the fall term and it was stored in the basement. Official's preliminary estimate is $1 million to clean and repair. They think that if crews start now and work 7 days a week, the school may be in shape in time to open for the fall term. And of course by now, you have heard about the Cadillac Escalade swallowed by a sink hole. The vehicle pulled up to a stop light, the street caved in dropping the vehicle into a 15 ft deep hole and to add insult, the stop light also fell and leaned on the car. Its going ot be interesting to see how the insurance companies react to this one. I can hear it now: This was flood damage and your policy does not cover flood. The real sob story goes to a the owners of 5 to 7 homes on the north side of Milwaukee. Their basements caved in; the city condemed the properties as uninhabitible and has ordered immediate demolition. One woman lamented: "I bought this house not long ago for $120,000 and have 20 more years of mortage left. I'm loosing my house this week, but the mortage lives on." She'll get nothing from her home owner's insurance because it is flood damage, and most homes in that area do not carry flood damage because they were not in a flood plain and up to now, it was not needed. A number of cars parked in underground garages were flooded. If the water level got up to the relay box under the hood or the fuse panel under the dash, these will be totaled by the insurance firms. Yes sireee, the is the second time in 15 years that we got a 100 years rain.

You can either buy your plants from nursery or you can start them from seeds, which I recommend to reduce risk of bringing home diseased plants. Starting seeds: You want to know what is your "last frost date", this is the date when you are no longer risking frost in your area. Start seeds indoor around 6 weeks before this date. This will get you a healthy seedling large enough to transplant into the big pot once it's warm enough outside. You can start seeds in a sterile potting mix, don't water too much. As the seedling grows, you can begin to water with a weak diluted fertilizer. When you first bring it outdoor, try to not give it too much direct sunlight in the first week while they're adopting. Choosing the type of containers: There are many different container growing methods. My favorite type right now is "fabric grow bags". Grow bags have very good aeration and drainage ability which allows the plant roots to grow very well and reduces the risk of over watering, which is a common mistake for new gardeners. And they are affordable. If you want something nicer looking, wine barrels and terracotta pots allows better drainage and aeration compared to typical plastic containers. There is also self wicking containers which have a water reservoir that holds several gallons so it water the container by itself over time and is low maintenance, such as City Pickers and Earthbox. Growing medium: For containers, you want to use "potting mix". The potting mix should be not too heavy and drains well. Do not buy "potting soil". Some brands of potting mix are very water retentive and acidic since they are mostly peat moss, so you need to add dolomite lime to balance the pH. I try to find a potting mix that have pine barks in them which improve drainage. There are many ways to go about making your container mix. Some people are completely against using compost in containers and uses 100% potting mix. I personally use a mix of 75% potting mix and 25% compost in plastic pots. Though lately with fabric grow bags, I go up to 50/50. Poor quality compost can have disease or herbicide contamination. Fertilizers: To keep it basic, you mainly don't want to feed tomato too much with fertilizers high in nitrogen. Too much nitrogen will produce lots of leaves and little flowers. Two main type of fertilizers are water based which are fast acting or organic slow release. Personally go for slow release, there are many brands to choose from such as Ecoscraps, Espoma, Jobe's, or whatever is popular locally. Sometimes if a plant is deficient I might give it water fertilizer for a quick boost. You don't want to abuse the plant with too much fertilizers which would be detrimental to it's growth. Many synthetic fertilizers have salt and using them too often can be bad for plants. Just follow the instruction on the box. Other than that you want to buy a tomato cage or trellis to help it grow. --- The only kind I have heard of is Beef Steak There are many varieties with different sizes, colors and flavors. If you look up tomato seeds catalog you will be overwhelmed. For starter, you want to grow something standard and popular that is known to be productive to give a higher success rate. Beefsteak is a good start. This is the most discussed aspect of growing tomatoes, so you will get all kind of different recommendations. I recommend Jaune Flamme. It is an orange salad sized tomato that is very early and prolific, but you will have to start from seeds. How long does it take to grow until you can eat it. It depends on the variety, how healthy the plant is, how much sun it gets and many other factors. Each tomato variety have a different time it takes to bear fruit. Look at the "days to harvest", this is the estimate days from when you transplant the seedling until you get the first ripe fruit. Some variety are early as 45days, these are usually cherry tomatoes, larger sized tomatoes tend to take longer up to 100 days or more. So it's important to choose the variety that will give you harvest before it's too cold. What kind of insects are likely to attack? Each region can have slight variation, but the main ones are moth caterpillars. I recommend "bt" sprays which will kill them and is an organic approved method, a popular brand is Thuricide. Here in the south we have lots of whiteflies which sometimes carry "yellow leaf curl virus", once a plant catches this virus it's incurable. What insects or diseases should I watch for? There are lots of different tomato diseases. Having a good draining grow mix is key to minimize it imo. It is generally agreed that tomatoes much more likely to get disease if their leaves are constantly wet, so water the base of the plant, not the leaves. Pruning can be very important, you want to prune the bad yellowing or diseased leaves in the bottom of the plants as it grows, this let more air pass through the bottom. One issue you may get is "bottom end rot". This is cause by the plant lacking calcium, but actually due to pH issue and uneven watering, where the mix is too wet or too dry for period of time. Do the flowers mean that is going to turn into a tomato? Tomato flowers are self pollinating, just a bit of wind or shaking the plant will allow the pollinating to happen. Not all flowers will become fruits, there is an optimal temperature range. Too cold or too hot, diseases, lacking nutrients are some of the things that will prevent fruit forming.