I have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds like me trying to build a house after two major hurricanes. A thing to remember is, no matter how difficult it seems, the sun WILL rise tomorrow even though you may not see it, it is there. I wish you all the luck possible even though I don't think you need it. Believe in what your doing and it WILL work out. ;-)

Oh, congrats, Sandy, I'm so happy for you that you finally have SBSTs again! I've never raised any but have spicebushes for them. From the pics I've seen of them, I think they're the very cutest cats! I do like quite a few others though too. Can I assume that you're going to raise the cats? Being that those kinds of cats make a leaf roll, does that make them pretty safe from predators? Do you take a cutting off your bush and put it in water? I'm really glad to hear that your wrists are coming along okay, and I hope that you will be able to do everything soon that you like to do and also of course the necessary things in life that we all take for granted until something like that happens where you can't use your hands. Susan, How awful that you have a pitbull running around loose in the neighborhood! So did it actually look like it was going to attack you? Our neighbors have a pitbull but it's not mean from what I can tell. It's the 3rd one they've had now. I can't say I'm especially fond of them, and we don't like this one because it's a barker and it gets loose sometimes. It broke our screen door the one time. Neighbor said, "Sorry." Ooh, that really helped...not! I call the dog warden now when it gets loose. I've put up with it for 3 years but no more. Not much I can do about the barking. I really hope that they soon catch that pitbull that's been around your place! Be on the lookout...I'd hate to see you get hurt! I wonder if a person should carry around pepper spray or wouldn't that even do anything? Oops, sorry for hijacking your post, Sandy. Cathy

This morning I found several drops of honeydew on the areolar glands of 2 of the pads, and I have been keeping the soil slightly moist for a while, so this could perhaps be an indication the pads are progressing! Also, I have this amazing little M. matanzanus that is a real trooper! I had it out in my garage overnight with some of my other cacti, and I found it quite pale in the morning. Funny, it wasn't shrunken at all like my Ferocactus and E. grusonii were! Within 24 hours, it healed up and looks just as healthy as before! After I saw this, I checked what the low was supposed to be that night, and it was 43 degrees! That had me quite worried right there. I know they are supposed to be kept above 64 F at all times, but this surprised me! I've heard the younger specimens are more tolerant of cold than the older ones. I am making sure it doesn't happen again!

Yoyobon, I thought it was my fault because for the first time I bought the family pass at the local cross country ski center. However, it may also be my hockey coach's fault because he bought a snow blower. Now, one year our first big snowstorm was in early November, and we didn't see the grass until the end of March. This was my fault because right before the snowstorm, I was playing soccer with my son in the back yard and unbeknownst to me, my car keys had fallen out of my coat pocket. I did not see them again until Spring.