Despite the original posters overly extensive post, with certain questionable content, the central point is still quite vaild. We as a nation spend more money on grass than on any other crop. That by itself should be reason enough. Read up on the history of lawns and you'll find that they were orginally created as a means of demonstrating wealth (aka, I have this big area and I can afford to do nothing with it except grow grass I can't eat) Regarding the comments of junegem13 and zachslc, you might want to read up on the legal history of this movement. As it turns out, most weed laws (ones based on hight, not on noxious weeds) are unconstitutional. Nonetheless, if you are in a city or subdivision and decide to do a wildflower meadow where there is not an reasonable ordinance, then you should notify your neighbors and the city about why you are doing and the legal preceedants. The EPA has all this information. Regarding property values, that was the original complaint neighbors made against one landowner when she converted her lawn into meadow. When they were unable to demonstrate an actual decrease in property values, the city ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Afterwards, the neighbors decided if they couldn't beat her that they'd join her and replace their own yards with meadows. Property values in that one neighborhood are now some of the highest in the city (Specific names and places, are available if you want them). Time and time again, lawn alternatives done correctly have shown to raise values, not lower them. In Charlottesville, VA local government is working on an ammendment to exclude native meadows from our weed ordinance. Other cities are doing the same very quicky, especially since the weed ordinance as written by many localites constitutes a legal liability to local governments.

Lists give me a false sense of order. Life is chaos right now, so indulge me... First, let me share some images with you: I got manically enthusiastic over this spring's first bee sighting... and laughed out loud when I saw . She's fast asleep (maybe dead?) on a flower after multiple frosts so far this fall... I had to go inside and get my camera because there was something about her "pose" that reminded me of that snapshot every mother has of her toddler asleep on the potty chair. Here's a view of . (Caution! This bullet point is rated PG-13!) Earlier this month, I called my unsuspecting neighbors into my yard one by one to scandalize them with some that startled me. ! I have to work on Halloween. I only work one Friday a year and this one is it! As both a nod to the holiday and a gesture of rebellion, I want to wear a costume... but I really have to wear a business suit... so I came up with an ingenious ... (I'm going to be the witch the house fell on... who just happens to wear a business suit in real life...) I've got a lot of irons in the fire right now. They're "fun irons" but energy-draining nonetheless: Our front patio project starts this week The living room furniture we ordered last summer is being delivered any day now, and we are completely reconfiguring our TV/stereo setup in the process My big tradeshow is next week Steve and I are going to France (Paris & Nice) next month (two weeks of business for him --- ten days of pleasure and reminiscence for me) I need to put a couple major work projects to bed to prep for a long Thanksgiving/hunting trip to visit my family... Fun story: I got an email (and subsequent phone call) from a former coworker/friend last week. We moved away six years ago, and it'd been three years since we last spoke. At that time, we talked at length about a guy who was asking her out. (She was single, and we enjoyed talking about her dating life.) She was interested because he was intelligent, kind, interesting, attractive, a successful commercial pilot, and very in to her. But she was reticent to go out with him because he was divorced with kids. For that reason, she was going to blow him off. Apparently, I chastised her and told her that being a divorced father wasn't sufficient reason to write off an otherwise-interesting guy. I said if there's no drama between him and the ex, and if he's mature about the whole deal, it might even be a plus. I summed it up by saying "For crying out loud! He's not asking to marry you --- he's asking you out to dinner! Shut up and go already." She got back in touch to send me their...

A forest will choke out a thicket, I often recomend that fruit and nut trees be planted on purpose, so that we lock up carbon and produce food for ourselves, and chocke out the brush plants that are unpleasent to walk through. When you go on a hike along a tail it seems that you are always either bordered by clearing/lawn or by a thicket, but once you break through that thicket you can useually travle quite quickly and easily and have plenty of space to move about. The main reasonfor removing trees and brush historicly wasn't to make things more pleasent, it was to open up land for agricultural use. with a field we can grow staple cerial grains, or legumes, or use it as pasture for animals, while some trees may provide seasonal food for some critters it takes alot of work to survive off of them year round (and trust me when I say thing, willow does not taste that good) . Our modenr day lawns were not contrived from thin air, you need to look at were they came from to understand how they fit in. Lawns are popular mainly in the south (sure, lots of people like them, but in the south they are sick for them) the south had a large portion of its caucasian inhabitants come from scotland (the southern drawl is very closely related to the scots accent) in schotland they have huge green field that are kept down to a few inches all summer long, this is because there is alot of rain and people raise sheep. Now, in the south there isn't as much water in the summer, and there aren't as many sheep, but people still liked the look of home so a lawn with mowers and irrigation is what they came up with.

I've been Wooting for a long time (primarily under a different username) and have gotten bunches of stuff. I've gotten stuff from Woot.com; from Wine.Woot.com; from Kids.Woot.com; and from Shirt.Woot.com. Haven't yet gotten anything from Home.Woot.com. I wouldn't say that "most" of the stuff is refurbished, though. It seems to be a pretty good mix between new and refurbished. It used to drive me nuts if I wasn't near a computer at 10:00 p.m. (Pacific time), because that's when the offering changes. But for quite a while now I've been getting an e-mail from them every night at 10:00 (or a few minutes thereafter) showing what the new offerings are on the different Woot sites. It's great. Now I don't have to be anywhere near a computer because I get the e-mail on my BlackBerry, and I can immediately go online from the BB and purchase whatever I can't live without! :-)