Gee, and it all started because I drove a forklift at work, lol! I tell Jim that's why he went out with me...figured if I could do that, I could adapt to a tractor ;) Deanne, I'll try to drive anything at least once. I have to admit though, it took 3 years before I'd even attempt to take that stuff down the road from one field to another, and I'm still very slow and cautious about it. Hi, Marian! Up until a couple of years ago, we had a John Deere A, and John Deere B and a four bottom plow hanging around. Just looking at the plow made me tired, thinking about all the acres we cover. Eden, I do love the wide open spaces. Only drawback is that it's hard for me to garden with that as a backdrop. No matter how much stuff I put in, it looks small and empty with all that space around :) You'll see what I mean when I post pics of the stump bed. Michelle, the Versatiles are real work horses. Not sure what year they are, but they plug along all day with very little trouble. There are a lot of Deeres around here, but not many Internationals or Fords. (I think the blue Fords are really pretty!) What's your soil like? Lots of clay? 'bug, I see the MOST gorgeous scenery at harvest time. Not to mention all the wildlife that's hiding in the corn. I feel sorry for the rabbits...think how scary it would be to have that giant combine come roaring up in the middle of your dinner. Tons of deer...gorgeous, desctructive beasts that they are. Chelone, um, yeah...it's like workin' with the Chippendale dancers...HA! There's even MORE stuff to drag around behind a tractor. Rototary (sp) hoe, in case the ground gets a crust on it and the plants can't pop through, anhydrous applicators for putting on nitrogen, chisel plows....they can keep you busy dragging something around for as long as you'll tolerate it, lol! OH, in the bottom of the tractor seat, there's sort of a glove box doo-dad. There's been the same roll of toilet paper in there for the six years we've farmed with these guys. Wouldn't use it on a BET! In my "lunchbox", I carry travel size kleenex, two 16 oz bottles of water, my checkbook-it has my drivers license, cash, etc., Excedrin, Midol, a travel ashtray (yeah, I know, I'm just sayin'...) and a container that's usually full of roasted almonds. I've been left in a field to starve one too many times. And, I still have room to tuck in any emergency necessities I might need. The guys find it endlessly amusing when I offer them a "cigar", LMAO! They embarrass so easily! It doesn't pay to be bashful around these clowns. Plus, they stay outta my lunch box for fear of what they might find ;) As per request, I'll get some shots of the gardens. Hopefully I can get some of the peonies before the rain beats them into the ground...NOT that I'm complaining...we need rain. I usually offer up my gorgeous peonies in return for it. That's also how I got the "stump bed". We were in need of rain really bad one year, and the storm that brought the rain that saved the crops took down the old silver maple tree. I already had a planting area around the base of it, so what the heck, ya roll with the punches, eh? Went from a shade bed to a sun bed pretty quick. Thanks for all the kind words..I tend to forget there are people who DON'T have all this crap parked around on their property :) Brenda

I hope everybody gets their vines going good this year! Mine really are vigorous! I dug up three of the volunteers, and I was sure they were going to wilt immediately, because I had to break the big root that connected them to the main plant. I potted them up in some good dirt, watered them, put them in a shady spot, and then it rained on them yesterday. This morning, they're still turgid and healthy looking! I did notice that they had some small fibrous roots of their own - if they can keep making more of those, then I'll have three more a. tomentosas to plant. The original four cats I brought in have all successfully pupated - three are brown and one is green. The others that I brought into another cage are starting to pupate also - when you have plenty of tender new growth to feed your PVS cats, and don't have to use older leaves, they grow SOOOO fast and pupate so easily! You should see all the cats on my vines now - you wouldn't believe your eyes! MissSherry

Not familiar with buddleia since that would be a zone pusher for me. But I've got taxus and all of them 35-40 years old - a hedge of it outside my den and a few loners scattered about in an area I really don't do extensive gardening in or take inordinate care with. (Big yard, lots of gardening spaces.) The hedge I can keep in good check at about 3 1/2' with an electric hedge trimmer. I'm familiar with Longwood Gardens and would love to have unchecked yew, but I also love to see out the windows and use the sidewalk. Sometimes things get planted in limited space. Don't know about domesticated livestock, but the local deer herd went after the hedge two winters ago and didn't seem to suffer any ill effects. Black bird netting took care of that and they regenerated just fine. The loner specimens had a lot of dead wood that I had to take a pruning saw to maybe five years ago. Extremely little regeneration so far; they might not look like much again in my lifetime. And the roots being too gnarly for me to dig out, I threw in the towel with them and put in some Ninebarks to more or less hide them. I like the Ninebarks and they can grow nicely unchecked. I love trees, shrubs, etc. without being fanatical about it. Something goes if it's diseased, severely damaged or a threat to life and limb. If something can be judiciously pruned up/shaped up I'm more than willing to get with the program - but if you don't see the benefits of that with out of control, busted up, half dead specimens and it really bothers you, maybe it's time for them to go. Just look at a yard where years ago someone planted a cute little mugo. What was once so mounded and so perfect is now the size of the ex-planet Pluto.

Also consider that deer carry the mites that spread Lyme Disease. That deer collisions can total cars and damage people (and deer aren't that logical when confronted with cars and trucks). That deer can destroy gardens, orchards, and landscape plantings. That your neighbors may decide they are cute and may begin feeding them and giving them names. That each female will probably produce an offspring every year. That many neighborhoods frown (understatement) on 'deer reductions' (a rather odd phrase I heard up in Indiana for reducing deer populations in a state park). That one cute doe may be a heard of twelve in eight years.