Doing some work on clearing fences, we put in a couple hours a day every couple days. DD is helping with cutting and pulling the brush out of the fence. She saves me a lot of time not having to move every stick myself. Being only 12, she does get distracted rather easily! We found two batches of wooly bears today, each contradicted the others in winter with color predictions. These were the first 4 color wooley bears I have ever seen! Brown nose, then 3 segments of black, six or so of brown, with a black tail. Winter will be INTERESTING with those predictions! They were also very fast crawlers, I have NEVER seen wooley bears hustle across the ground, usually they just roll up in a ball. She also found a couple of Walkingsticks and various other wildlife that needed to be observed and poked, relocated. We have filled the manure spreader (40bu)three times with the brush to haul out of the field, piling it onto the brush pile. Lots of honeysuckle, grapevine, some rosebushes that we cut out. Getting a pretty fair sized brush pile! Fence is looking VERY NICE. Can't burn, way too dry. Whe have had some showers, they just lay the dust down, no measurable precipitation for any of them. Raining off and on all around us. Foal is growing like a weed, almost armpit high. He is getting handled a lot, led in and out to field a couple times a day, been to the vet several times trying to get his mom bred back. He came home this time with a bald forehead. Obviously was greeting everyone at the vet clinic and they rubbed his face. Not actually hairless, just shed off the new coat color. Going from red to dark brown, very distinct, peculiar looking marking right now. So far no luck with her. Foal is leading very well, getting a little independent from mom. She has moved up from one field friend to 3 now. We put the young gelding in the group last night. She had no problem with him in the group, just got quite angry with him as her only friend at turnout time today. She is turned out in daylight as much as possible, no night turnout. Very cool today, cloudy 70F felt good, so out all day. Foal thought gelding was COOL, wanted to visit him. It turned into quite a circus, Foal following gelding, with snarly looking mare following him! She moved forward, gelding tried keeping his distance from foal, who ran faster as gelding trotted away, then mare got cantering to catch foal. Gelding is moving MUCH faster as mare races after foal with her ears pinned, head snaked out!!! She was actually flying along behind foal who was STILL trying to catch the gelding! Gelding is zipping along now with his head turned to see behind, trying to prevent being cornered, running up the other side of field. I have NEVER seen that mare run so fast except in competition! She looked scary to us watching! I would have run away myself! Foal finally got tired, slowed and stopped after a number of circles around the whole field. We turned out the other 2 buddies a little later, no crabby problems then. All 4 big horses spread out to eat, foal visited everyone, mare just grazed or walked nearby. No chasing, running at all as foal ran all around field alone. Funny old mare. Foal really likes having other horses to visit, they are pretty nice to him, no hurting him, just correcting inappropriate shoving or biting with a nip. Foal is getting really mouthy, tasting everything. Wants to hold his own lead rope on walks! Husband and DD are going off on their getaway vacation. Husband needs a break from summer work pace, DD starts school next week. Heading up north to Lake Huron to campout on the beach for a couple days. Got some new swimming masks, snorkels and fins to do swimming with. DD did swim camp earlier this summer, got a bunch of new strokes, improved speed, so she gets to show Dad her stuff. Maybe some fishing too. He thinks just vegging out, sitting on the beach will be fun for a couple days. I will be getting some time off just staying home! No meals or cleanup!

Wow... I'd be quite worried as well. It's beyond late, so I have to think the chance of this hummer making it to central America is pretty small. Heck, if she has remained in Connecticut through October and November maybe she's just not programmed correctly. In that case, there's not much anyone can do.

Hi, to you. Yes, I really like Beatline Nursery - the owner is the kindest person, and they are all helpful there. I called the antique roses place a few weeks ago, because several people here online recommended them. She was very nice, but said most of her business was done through mail order, and at the time I called her garden/nursery was still kind of a mess. She did offer to meet with me on an available weekend to help me make some rose selections. I haven't had time to take her up on it yet. I think it's going to take a long time for this area to recover from Katrina. We were in Long Beach and lost it all, so have just moved into our Pass Christian house in November. I have missed working in the yard so much, and seeing things bloom and grow, so I'm rushing springtime as much as I can - ha. How nice that you have an escape place near Pensacola. The Thanksgiving after Katrina hit, we were desperate to get away, out of the camper, so splurged and booked a condo with my sister's family in Perdido (Windemere?) They had a great holiday rate offered, so it wasn't a bad price at all. It was the most beautiful condo we've ever stayed in, but Ivan's wrath was still very apparent all around us. The highlight of the trip was taking a bath in the soaker tub (first bath in a real bathtub since Katrina!) and I was in heaven! (It's the little things - ha!) Thanks so much for your input!

This is too funny not to share.... My husband came home early from work today and realized he forgot to deposit an expense check. So I said, "let's run to the bank, I'll go with you, it's a gorgeous afternoon, blah, blah, blah." So we pull into the nearest bank (definitely post-Katrina built - basically double-wide trailer with very skimpy parking lot.) He goes in, does his business, and comes out. In backing up he notices a pickup truck that has parked crookedly in two spaces. In his attempt to miss hitting him, he grazes the car on the opposite side. That owner has left her car running, because she's had car trouble, and her son in the backseat. My husband gets out, with his insurance papers, and looks up, and this older gentleman in a Volkswagen Beetle is backing up and hits this woman's same car! The son gets out, and the doors automatically lock, with her car still running, keys in ignition. It takes forever for Barny and Andy to show up and file a report. I stay in our car while my husband handles the rest. As things are winding down, I feel this "bump" and darn if someone hasn't hit US! Some jerk in a rental car with an earphone on the size of Dallas! Well, he doesn't even stop, so I jump out and alert everyone that we now have been hit. They stop this guy and read him the riot act (no real damage done to our car, so my husband says let him go.) I came home and quickly chilled a bottle of wine - to heck with Weight Watchers. My husband is determined to find out if the parking lot was built to code. He had his camera and took lots of pictures, including one of the truck that took up two spaces. Glad it was his car and not mine - ha!