I consider myself a country bumpkin, too. I have lived in very rural areas Greenville and Presque Isle Maine) and I have lived in small cities (Peoria, IL and Lewiston, ME). I grew up in rural Maine where my dad owned a hardware store. At the time I was not impressed with the store but now I am grateful for all I learned from working there and my dad, who was an amazing man and could fix just about anything. I now live in a small town on the Kennebec River in Maine and own an old house and everday put the knowledge gleaned from my childhood to use in restoring and repairing my old house. Just today I cut some glass to size from the inventory in the barn to replace a window. My skill with glazing compound isn't pretty but it works! I love rural life but do enjoy a visit to the big city now and then -- great museums, exotic restaurants (i.e. ethnic cuisine) and the buzz of a city. That said, I'm quite content to watch the hummindbirds from the breakfast nook and lie in the hammock in the backyard and watch the bald eagles flying overhead. Mabel in Maine

LOL, Taryn, well now I try to come in now and then, right now I am on break from trying to get hundreds of plants in as well as a couple thousand bulbs,, have 122 roses to finish planting,hmmm seems endless,but oh so enjoyable,, pond is still going in but getting close,,they have been stacking rocks along the edges I helped set a couple of boulders in the middle yesterday,,, inside,,hmmmm, hehehehe We are working on it,, we do have a May deadline however, thats when the magazine comes to do its shoot,,,I have the actual roof finished other then a couple of planters the guys need to stack, Spent Saturday with Andrew, he has been working for NASA all summer mapping mars,, makes me feel,,makes me feel old ,,somedays,, okay okay more happy that they have all been growing into such nice young men,, well I have to get my butt back outside and get my cliffside planted little by little,, HUgs Girl Mary

Drought Lands Doubled By LiveScience Staff posted: 11 January, 2005 9:45 a.m. ET The amount of land ravaged by droughts has more than doubled over the last 30 years, and the key factor, according to a recent analysis, appears to be the rise in global temperatures. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) studied the widespread drying trends in Europe, Asia, Canada, western and southern Africa, and eastern Australia. They found that the fraction of the Earth experiencing very dry conditions rose from about 10-15 percent in the early 1970s to about 30 percent in 2002. The researchers claim that almost half of this drastic change is due to global warming as opposed to a decrease in rainfall or snowfall. In fact, the average global precipitation has increased slightly over the past few decades. "Global climate models predict increased drying over most land areas during their warm season, as carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase," said Aiguo Dai, lead author. "Our analyses suggest that this drying may have already begun." Warmer temperatures cause more evaporation drying out certain areas, while drenching others in rain and snow. Evidence of the latter is the United States, which has become wetter overall especially between the Rocky Mountains and Mississippi River over the last 50 years, says Dai. Other parts of the world showing a moistening trend include Argentina and parts of western Australia. "Droughts and floods are extreme climate events that are likely to change more rapidly than the average climate," Dai said. "Because they are among the world's costliest natural disasters and affect a very large number of people each year, it is important to monitor them and perhaps predict their variability." Dai will present the new findings on Jan. 12 at the American Meteorological Society's annual meeting in San Diego. The work also appears in the December issue of the Journal of Hydrometeorology.

Sons of the Pioneers - they didn't mention Roy Rogers. Maybe they were just nice enough to let him "sing along" with them !LOL One of my favorites #51 Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine