OK, I have an answer. My butternut squash plants have continued to thrive, but the squashes topped out in size about 4-inches long, and 3-inches in diameter. They didn't get any bigger. Barrel-shaped -- not the usual shape for a butternut squash. When they were very small, they were green with stripes, but very quickly turned all tan. That too is unusual. Previous butternuts I've grown take months to get tan, as they continue to increase in size. One became badly cracked, and another was threatening to do so, so I pulled them off. I dissected the cracked one. And the answer is .... drum roll ... NO SEEDS! Not even a seed cavity. Solid meat. I didn't taste any, but it smelled nice, and as expected, and had a rich orange color. I'll eat some of the other ones in a day or two. So I think what I've been witnessing is true parthenocarpy, as I never once did any hand pollination, and the tulle prevented any classical pollinators from entering. In fact, the first four fruit were produced before there were male flowers. So we're not talking wind or ants. (The closest neighbor with a vegetable garden is one or two hundred yards away.) So I think the lesson is that partheocarpy can happen in butternut, but the squash you get are a bit unusual. They have no seeds, mature quickly, and are a bit on the small side. I guess I have no options for preserving this variety. I have no idea what makes butternut squash plants want to do this. These two plants were very happy about doing it, and produced half a dozen squash, so far, in this way. Again, the plant identification tags that came with them is buried under compost. I'll excavate them later. I don't recall them being labelled as any bizarre variety.

I think you've already answered this question, but I'm too lazy to search for the answer... What on earth was she bred to? his color is sooo odd. Are you going to steer him and beef him? I'm sure you're aware that Jersey bulls are the nastiest out there. But he certainly doesn't look very much like a Jersey! He is cute, though. We steered all our bull calves (hereford/red angus), and now we're regretting steering one of them. He's huge, beautiful and very well mannered (thus far). He's all red and would probably throw red babies if bred to a red angus. Sorry for rambling, just curious to know that little guy's lineage. Erin

Hrmmmm... this may not be the best time for you to switch pills. In fact, IMNSHO it's a BAD time to be changing ANYTHING unless the situation is truly dire. If I were you, I'd call the doctor back, explain your family circumstances, ask for three or six months' script for your previous pill, and then when life settles down some you can switch over. FWIW, vasectomies are not 100% either - I know two "vasectomy babies". Yoicks. If you're relying entirely on your DH's vasectomy for birth control, he should have a sperm check done every year. We're a weird family, DH has had a vasectomy as well as me having a tubal, but he's always had that shuddery feeling not being certain he's shooting blanks, so I humored him. Then the urologist bollixed it! He clipped the same vas deferens twice - it IS a bit crowded with the tiny incisions they're using and the bits are slippery in there, I guess those tiny tubes kept escaping *chuckle* - instead of getting them both so DH had to go back and have it done again. A lot of urologists are using titanium clips now rather than the old cut-and-burn method. I've read since that about 1% of vasectomies have to be redone. Poor DH was miserable for about 3 days both times (they were done on Friday mornings so he would have the weekend to recover) and was tender for several more. I spent a lot of time running back and forth to the freezer for ice packs. Had to get permission from his boss to wear sweatpants to work for about a week and it was about 3 weeks before he could wear jeans without discomfort (and he doesn't wear boxers so "the boys" don't dangle). He still gets twinges/pulling sensations sometimes, especially when he's running. It's been something like 5 years. Still considers it worth it though. I had a tubal because I damn well wanted one, and the laparoscopy served double duty to check for endometriosis (yes, mild, and guess what the first line treatment is? birth control pills! LOL). DLM - *chuckle* not many people know the term - it's German. Means "middle pain" I think. I had it SO often it just about drove me out of my mind, doc said "oh yeah, that's probably mittelschmertz" like it was the common cold. Middle-WHAT? Most women will get a little twinge when they ovulate, barely enough to notice (or write it off as gas), but for some of us it's whoooo-doggie, shoot me now please. I do think the gall bladder was worse though. I had frequent attacks for YEARS before anyone thought of the GB. ER and regular doctors would say muscle spasms, constipation (!), even rib problems, but never gallstones. Always got the attacks at night, remember the hours of pacing - couldn't sit down, couldn't lie down, - and could never correlate it to anything. I'd get it if I had junk food for supper, or a super-healthy supper, if I'd exercised that day or not. Someone finally did an ultrasound after several years of me repeatedly ending up in the ER screaming my head off and found that my gallbladder was the size of a baseball (it's normally the size of a walnut) and cram-full of nasty stuff, thisclose to peritonitis. I had the BEST surgeon though. Normally it's a quickie surgery, in and out in an hour and a half, but he took FOUR hours to make sure he could stick with the lap' instead of just filleting me like the assisting surgeon wanted to do. (He knew it would take me a year to come back from that - as it was it took three months for me to completely recover from from the lap'.)

Having been a Labor/Delivery nurse for many years, I can see how it would have happened several years ago- the banding/footprinting of babies was not done on such a stringent timetable, with the safeguards that are implemented today. Especially at a public/community hospital I can see it happening. Unfortunately, with the severe cut in nursing staffing in today's world- I can see it becoming more common again. It is usually the fault of the nurse- it is her/his job to band both mother/baby IMMEDIATELY after birth. The bands are usually made up ahead of time- all you have to do is put the 'fe'(for female), time and weight on the bands. If there is a complication with either mom or baby at birth- maternal bleeding, infant slow to start breathing, the banding gets delayed in order to care for the imminent problem. It used to be that there were always 2 nurses involved in a delivery for safety reasons- 1 for the care of mom, the other nurse for care of baby. With the cutback in nursin staff that is not always the stanard now- 1 nurse doingthe whole scenerio herself is common. Not safe- but of course the hospital could care less- it is money that the hospital cares about. When my child was born- 1970's, the nurse tried repeatedly to bring the wrong baby at feeding time- the baby was even the wrong sex. There WERE arm bands, but she never even checked t see that the names matched. I hate to say it, but there are some lazy, sleazy nurses out there- boy could I tell you some stories...... I have often wondered how many 'switches' are really out there.