I am playing cat and mouse with the sun this morning. At local noon I want to check to see if the sun reaches the proper mark on the sunroon floor as the rays slant in. The weather is the same as it was yesterday. Random thunderstorms and such. We have broken clouds to the north and east and inky dark thunder clouds to the south and west. Every now and then the sun will break through and shine for a moment, inching closer to the proper mark. The weather is unsettled. There were tornado warning issued last night. I had the tv and weather radio turned off. Most of the warnings were well to the east, toward the Georgia end of the valley. I will feel a bit of relief knowing the earth is still spinnning properly about it's axis, and the earth is still spinning properly around the sun. One finds comfort in what one can......

Ah Autumn - you made my day; I temporarily ran out of things to stew over LOL. I did forget about power outage possibilities and have read several posts, but usually in relation to loss of oxygen for fish. Highly unusual here but of course possible when we have the blizzard of 08 and four feet of snow obscuring the pond! Not buying a generator, maybe a treadmill for local kids to "play" on. There's one of those uncontrollables. I have seen pictures of your pond/stream and it is really special. You have a great setting with the distance and twists and turns possible with topography. I enviously took inspiration from your pictures. Sandy, I can tell you some of those slabs weigh close to half-a-ton and getting them to the site and in place was awful--give me a lever long enough and I can move the world. Whatever. You had to be a very good girl to get some of those. The cliche, be careful what you ask for. I sort of understand what you are saying about heat loss, top to bottom. I remember an irony from physics that changing state from liquid to solid actually involves heat somehow. I removed all the stones that were causing splashing in the summer, generally those covering the liner on the side of the stream, on the outside of the bends. I also cut back water flow modestly in an attempt to keep water on the stream bed. My uninformed thoughts about volume and velocity of flow were that too slow could get covered over easily but faster would always move snow or go beneath it, flowing. It worked this time--but even a blind dog can tree a critter once in a while. Horton, I do understand your arrangement now. One of my handicaps was that I had no room for any buried barrels, containers of any type. Had I known! we installed a patio before I decided on a pond, it could have been smaller and the pond environment larger. Otherwise constrained by walkway, fortuitous storm water drainage system and slope. and more ground water than can be imagined (why the ground water system is there and no water evidence in an 85 year-old house, knock on wood). I started a modest 6'x9' pond and ended up as you see. So by-passing the falls would require a whole different approach, if possible even. My skimmer quite circulates the surface water as I observe everytime leaves fall in. I was banking on that fact to keep the pond surface ice-free. I have a pump ready if I need to pump down some, another hose ready to top off. Now I add extra care looking for ice dams forming, thinking of measures to protect against freezing if I lose my power--and that is probably the short list of what I should know--the unknown awaiting. It is thawing now, almost back to "normal" conditions. You can bet I am saving this post for the next freeze. The die is cast this time, better informed or foolhardy as I may be. Hopefully smarter when I re-vamp in the spring? Time for a swim-the microbes must be inactive right now, right Sandy? Mike

We all have different definitions of organic and different opinions about what's the right thing to do. I never use any synthetic materials. If I lived on your lawn I would apply everything I already had in the garage so that I did not carry any organic fertilizers over the winter. If you have no fertilizer now, I would carefully measure the yard and buy enough to apply 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet this weekend and at least one more time toward Thanksgiving. If it looks like you are going to have leftovers, apply it rather than store it. Why? Bugs get into it. By the way it appears you have at least one fairy circle in your lawn. I see a circular brownish shape in the green about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom and possibly another larger one between the front and the flower bed back by the house. The one in front looks to be 10-12 feet across and is more distinct. These are caused by a fungal "disease." If that is not just an artifact from the photo, I would get some ordinary corn meal down at a minimum of 20 pounds per 1,000 on the entire lawn ASAP. Corn gluten meal is not the same material.

Many in my garden whose bloom time doesn't match up to their registration are ones listed as early/mid and all bloom LATE every year..... Frank's Star of Bethlehem, Janice Brown, Desert Icicle, Cousin Suzanne, Tiffany Gold, Laura Harwood, Autumn Red, Acquire the Fire, Marilyn's Dimple, Mountain Bluebird, Lady Neva.....to name a few off the top of my head. On the other hand, I don't have ANY that are listed as mid or late that bloom early. I always wonder if it's because I'm in such a cold zone (4) and my regular daylily season doesn't even begin until July. I've always wondered why my plants don't conform to their stats. Apparently I have some rebels.:)