David, I paged thru their whole catalog again last nite, and I was reading the sweet potato descriptions, and very much tempted! They explain how your zone doesn't matter, it's the "heat units" that count! Digit should like that! Even with enough heat, tho, I wouldn't possibly have enough room for them! Oh, for a big old plantation like some of you guys have!!! Chickens and turkeys and geese! Oh, my! Based on my seed order, I'm not at all surprised to hear that people are happy with their poultry! They have an incredible selection, and even if I could raise chickens, I don't have a CLUE how I'd pick out just one or two kinds! When I was a kid we had just plain old white chickens that laid plain old white eggs! (Back then, brown eggs were cheaper! My, how times have changed!) I don't know what they were! They were CHICKENS! Maybe leghorns! I was always scared of the roosters, and hated when I had to try to get the eggs out from under a "cluck," which is what my parents/grandparents called a hen that decided she was gonna sit on and PROTECT and try to hatch her eggs! SCAT little kid! You can't have my eggs! Peck, peck, peck! Their tomato selection is almost unbelievable, and the main reason why I decided to order from them---they had three of the yellow/orange varieties I was considering. There are pages and pages and pages of tomatoes. Very brief descriptions, so you need to go to Tatiana's or somewhere for more info, but, boy, do they ever have a lot of varieties. They list them by color/type, and check this out! 257 Red 107 Pink 62 Yellow/gold 13 White/cream (didn't even know there was such a thing!) 10 Green 6 "Keeping" 33 Black - Gray - Bronze 5 Stuffing 44 Paste 69 Cherry/salad They have over 600 varieties! Where are you, Plantation, when I really need you! For those that aren't familiar with the company and like OP and OG seed, all of their seed is open pollinated, and much of it is certified organic now and all will be in the future, and none of their seeds are chemically treated. Sounds crazy, but I can hardly wait to order from them next year---and, yes, I will be ordering earlier next year! This year I finally got the order done and sent in on the 7th, and I got it on the 28th, so 21 days---which I guess really isn't that bad for a small company and snail mail both ways! Bonnie, I only got 18 of the watermelon seeds, and I want to keep a few of them--I don't know for what!--but I was considering giving 4 or 5 away to a couple people on the swap thread! If you'd like enough for one "hill," I'll put you down for dibs on my keepin'-track list! Wish I was coming by your way this September so I could get a taste of one of them! If I give you a few of the Harris Model parsnip seeds, will you plant them somewhere? If you and the kids like sweet potatoes, you'll like them. They're great with pot roast! The seeds are only viable for a couple years, and I have way more than I can...

Ok. Dumb question here. Is this the Texas Longhorns???? LOL I recognised the emblem, if so I gotta side with my favorite DSIL! Go Longhorns! LOL Sorry Ms G! Doesn't really matter to me, but I know he loves them and since Buffalo Bills didn't do so hot this year he needs a winning team! ;)

joanne- I think Dectron would be overkill for your application. From your earlier post, it sounded like you have a budget for this project and a Dectron system, although very effective at delivering perfect humidity and temperature, is also expensive. Yes, these systems are basically dehumidification units that use energy recovery techniques to minimize energy losses from outside air introduction as well as conditioning the air, both heating and cooling. Supplemental heat is used in addition to heat pump heating capacity when outdoor temperatures drop too low. The supplemental heat can be electric heating elements or other alternative fuel heat. If the Dectron rep was speaking of just an energy recovery unit (not sure what was meant by air to air heat exchanger), then the expense will not be that much, but this device will only exchange heat from the indoor air to the outdoor air and will not have any other heating or cooling benefits. These devices are used to introduce fresh air efficiently into a space but they do not heat or cool the air. Not sure if you are still on a budget. If not, Dectron and others make fine systems for efficient, automated and accurate temperature and humidity control in high humidity environments like indoor pool enclosures. If budget is a concern after pricing these systems, I would recommend a residential packaged HVAC unit. These units are affordable and can be retrofitted into your pool enclosure afterwards with very little ductwork required. These systems have been used for years in mobile homes and older homes where indoor duct work is non-existent or indoor space does not allow ducts. This system can be controlled with an indoor thermostat like in your house and can also be retrofitted with a engergy recovery unit that will introduce fresh air into the space. A good HVAC person locally should be able to price a residential packaged unit with energy recovery unit (called res-pak unit in the industry). The downside of this unit is temperature and humidity will not be as closely controlled but if you also match the res-pak unit with a thermostat with humidity control, it will do a very nice job with a lot less coin than a specialized de-humidification unit. The advantage of this approach is you don't have to make the decision now and can wait until the enclosure is in service and then decide what level of comfort control is needed. One other thing to consider is a radiant floor heating system. Although there will be no humidity control with this system, the feel of warm concrete on bare feet is comforting and these systems can be roughed in prior to concrete for very little money and finished at a later date. Hope this helps.

Nancy, I am already beat! Another roughly day and a half of all this activity and I might be dead, but we are having fun. It is good training for the upcoming planting season. Kim, I hope the meeting with the landlady isn't about her having different plans for your house. Enjoy your time with the little man. Jennifer, His name is Frankie and we've been trying for about three years to tame his feral side well enough that we can pick him up, touch him, pet him or exert any sort of control over him. Some feral cats never can acclimate to more domestic behavior, but we are winning him over with canned food. He still looks pretty wild and is incredibly lean and muscular as are many feral to semi-feral cats, but we were able to get him into a crate and take him to be neutered (and to get his shots). He was mad at us yesterday but also at the same time relieved to be back here and no longer at the vet's office, but not so mad he wouldn't let us feed him and pet him. A lot of people say feral cats cannot be tamed, but they can. Sometimes it takes a few years to do it though, and often it is a very slow process where you're forever taking one step forward and two steps back. He and Lucky seem to know each other from their feral journeys. Lucky is fully domesticated now, and I think there is hope for Frankie to someday be as calm and gentle as she is now. Kim, I'm sorry you're ill and hope you recover quickly. Your seeds and planner are a sign, I think, that you'll be gardening somewhere. Bon, The good thing about the cold weather here is that it usually passes through fairly quickly, as least compared to many other states. I hope y'all are toasty warm again soon....without the need for the wood-burning stove to provide that warmth. I think it stays cold here for two more days and the warming trend starts around Monday. If that has changed, I don't want to know it because I'm just hanging on and waiting for the warm weather to come back. Jennifer, Great job, Finbar! He's doing his job as far as he is concerned, and I think dbarron's ID as a shrew is the right one. You have something I've never seen here. I'm not saying we might not have shrews around, just that of all the god-forsaken-wild-things that ours cats and dogs have killed and brought home, there's never been a shrew among them. Nancy, This does feel like a more normal winter although we still haven't been nearly as consistently cold as we were our first few years here. Everything seemed to change around 2005 and since then winters just have gotten warmer and warmer, except for 2010-2011 which was the last really persistently cold winter that I can remember. Rebecca, They really expected more snow and ice flurries in north and central Texas than they received in general, but it isn't because the clouds weren't trying. A lot of snow and ice were falling from the upper levels of the atmosphere but in the very low dewpoints closer to the surface level, the precipitation was evaporating before it could reach the ground. Our dewpoint here was only 12 so I'm not surprised that adjacent areas of north Texas were the same. It was odd to see the Winter Weather Advisory covering the area south of the D-FW metroplex yesterday, but I bet everyone in the DFW area is glad the precip missed them. Nancy, I doubt DFW gets much warmer than we will today, but I think they usually warm up a day earlier than us, so if we are expecting the warmup on Monday, they may get it beginning Sunday. So much flu is running rampant down there now that we are carefully avoiding going south this weekend. Of course, flu is running rampant to our immediate north, so we aren't going far from home at all since Love County seems to have, so far, avoided the widespread flu and strep that now have closed down 8 school districts in the Texoma region. I cannot believe how cold it has been the last couple of days. We are up to 38 degrees and it isn't even noon yet, but I don't think we're expected to get much warmer than what we are right now. The 4 year old is lobbying to go to the playground in Gainesville, but I think it is still too cold for that. Maybe tomorrow will be a touch warmer. Or maybe the sun will come out. Dawn