Thank-you people! We now have a fairly long dry creek which needs to handle a high volume of water. It has two levels - water comes in from the top and is "visual" and then directly under this is a hidden french drain - they all drain into a dry pond which will be filled with moisture loving native plants to clean the ground water - then it all goes back into a pipe and down the way. There are also funky tributaries to our dry creek to handle all the water coming down the bank, a few more areas need to be incorporated. It was made by the contractors and we just used rip rap but I will also add in my concrete "chunks" and the few nice found rocks the contractors dug up while grading. Eduarda, thanks for that article! It's perfect. Essentially I want mine to look like a cross between Cameron's beautiful dry creek and the Fine Gardening dry creek. Cameron, I will need to get some ideas from you about the native grasses you planted in here. Luckily I will have the ability, if necessary to "reverse" the flow of water from stored water back into the dry creek to keep everything moist. A pump and an underground water line that runs back up to the "front" of the stream will do the trick. So far our "project" is shaping up very well. A few more things need to happen before the patios go in - more retaining walls and drainage. I've got a LOT of planting to do these next few years. I have a feeling winter sowing will be my best friend!

I think the first real item I made was a yellow plaid roll-up sleeve blouse in Home Ec. I had no clue that matching plaids would be that involved. Since I was in high school in the 60's I remember making a 2 piece lined wool suit like Jackie Kennedy and of course had the matching pill box hat. Next I made a dress out of a pretty green dotted swiss. We didn't have room to cut out our garments in the Home Ec. cottage so we were taken into the cafeteria to use those tables. When I started making my dress I realized that I had not only lost the back pattern piece to my skirt but also the fabric. My Mother and I went back to the store to buy more but they were out of that color. I ended up replacing the back of my skirt with white organdy and applied a white bow in the back of the waist. What had started out as a rather plain dress became a nice church dress which I wore for quite a while. The dress that gave me such fits turned out to be a favorite of mine. Now I really LOVE to sew and also enjoy "thinking outside the box". Some things are made special because of the work involved. It makes you appretiate the results.

I refuse to buy from Land's End. Ordered several things for granddaughters last year, had them shipped directly--OK, but nothing fit right, one was damaged and when her mom took them back to Sears, they refused to accept them, even though that is their policy, refused to give her a Sears gift card, and credited it back to my account. I called them and they claimed it was Sears that made the mistake. She did check back again and they told her the same thing. They refuse to accept Land Ends unless purchased there. Now the catalogs go into the trash. LL Bean is better.

Did this just happen? He was the big heart throb when I was little I remember attending an Ice Capades show in Chicago and the spotlight was on him when he entered and took his seat I think he was going with Sonya Henie at the time. I liked him and thought he got better with time. In later years he was on Murder She wrote tv show. Another good performance was Elizabeth Taylor's DH in The Last Time I saw Paris