Finally back home after a temporary fix on my heater has it running again. Hope to get seeds out now to everyone promised. Sorry for the setback here. Got my seeds from Remy (Sample Seeds), of Salvia subrotunda, a red flowering subshrub Salvia, that is supposed to reseed here, Frank's Extra Large Dill, a dill that is supposed to be super tall, about 6-10', so wanted to try it. Dill doesn't generally like our hot summers, so usually wilts when it gets hot, so will let you know on this one, Salvia coccinea 'Lady in Red', Nicotiana sylvestris, Phlox paniculata New Hybrids, and Victorian Dwarf tomatoe. Will start seeds this week. On Austrian pines, I have two. One is about 20-25' tall, but very fat and squat, the other is about 12-15' tall. They have never lost any branches to ice or other elements so far. But they are so thick, the branches are so heavy and thick, and none of the lower branches have been removed either. I can't foresee them ever going down in a storm because of their sturdiness. Tiny Mama Wild Kitty came up for food yesterday finally. She is so precious. Very small, predominantly white with black spots. We hope to get her spayed this spring or summer (an effort of us neighbors) as she has become more used to contact with humans now and will come to us and let us pet her. Took a very long time. Wish someone would adopt her and Zena, the male Manx, who is very friendly and sweet. Kenna has been very sick with diarrhea, vomiting and chest congestion. I've never seen her down this long. She usually springs back after a couple of days, and it has been 4 or 5 now. The black birds discussed are probably Starlings. They love suet. I have had them on my suet feeder quite a lot, and of course, they tend to scare the other birds away. I have never seen the Cowbirds which don't come to my feeder or suet. They scrounge on the ground for food. especially food dropped by us humans. We had tons of them at Leadership Square when I worked there, because people would drop scraps of their lunch, etc. The grackles don't come to the feeders either. However, the Eurasian Collard Doves will come to scrounge on the ground for seeds or pieces of suet dropped by other birds. I wish I had my little white-breasted nuthatches back, but think all those sparrows scared them off, too. Have a nice day everyone! Susan

Brandy, I wouldn't have been very happy with those neighbors. Here in our county many ranchers use prescribed burning as a management tool but, while many are careful to burn only under the right conditions, some others are not. Many, many of the wildfires (I'd say most of them) in our county are from so-called controlled burns that become uncontrollable. It is extremely frustrating. It is one thing if someone burning under expected "good conditions" and with a plowed firebreak, etc., has the weather unexpectedly change on them and their fire escapes from their control. It is a whole different thing when people show total disregard for the conditions and for the danger they're exposing other peoples' property to and just go out and burn off a pasture just because they decide to do it "today" no matter the weather. Also, everyone, FYI---very high to extreme fire weather conditions will return later in the week. Rainfall at this time does not do much to reduce fire danger because cured, dormant vegetation doesn't absorb that moisture and hold it so the vegetation dries out quickly after the rain stops.

Hello Pal! I received a wonderful package today from my pal. A nice assortment of a variety of different coffees. I love flavored coffee, and will be treating myself to a pot on my day off this coming Friday. Don't worry about not sending me a bunch of plants; I know what you mean by not having a bunch ready to divide, etc. Sounds like you are really having a dry summer. We had rain through June, then a heat wave for most of July & August and now a little relief. We have set heat records here. I figured out how to use the digital camera and how to post pics, so I will post a pic that you have requested. One is a pic of our cabin as I stand on the end of the dock and the other from my neighbors dock. The one from the neighbors dock shows the beginnings of the flower bed/strip I am starting. It will be about 75 - 100 ft long and 15 ft wide when done. I have a long ways to go, and it's a lot of clay to dig through and out. Pictures make it look a lot nicer shape than it is. Needs lots of updating. Now to figure out how to make them smaller, they are way to big - sorry about this.

mitchdesj - I completely agree with you about logging the food and exercise. It is amazing how quickly it adds up. My app sounds much like yours. It tallies up how much you've consumed and how much you have left for the day - which of course increases if you exercise. I have my daily allowance set for 1/2 lb weight loss per week. I feel like I can't hardly eat anything unless I exercise. So it's very motivational in terms of exercising. Because if I've hit my calorie limit for the day I just stop consuming - that's it - unless I exercise and increase the number of calories I can have. I kind of have these dates/events in mind that keep me going. Like I want to look good for something happening Feb 4 - so just keep going until then. And then I have something in April - when I'll be done wearing winter clothes - want to be looking good then. And so on. I even have something in August that I was thinking if I really stick with this I could be in great shape by then. I've now passed my 5 lb weight loss goal to get off what crept on toward the end of 2011. Haven't been this low since September. I want to lose 2.4 more lbs and then I'm done and I'll be able to eat a few hundred more calories per day which will be nice. Then I just want to focus on continued healthy eating, exercise, getting in better shape, more muscle, etc.