My 2 cents worth. We have occ. prolonged periods of below zero temps, mostly less than a week, but below 20F for up to 3 weeks at a time. 2 years ago I dropped my plants to the bottom, left my eight 4" goldfish/comets in and had a 100w de-icer with a tiny airstone about 18" under it. My pond is 5'x5'x28", 300ga. Everything survive and flourished, except a couple tropical type plants. Last winter, I did the same thing, but when we had a long stretch of sub-zero temps, my de-icer froze over for almost 3 weeks. When the temps got above 15F it opened up again. But I lost all my fish, several hardy water lilies and all of my pickeral rush. We had no snow cover to help insulate the pond. It didn't freeze to the bottom, but I think the toxic build up killed the fish. THIS winter, I'm going to use a 1000w stock tank heater, and put a sheet of insulation or plywood over most of the pond, as well as use my little air stone. Yes, tank heaters only run when the temps are below their thermostat setting. So while they do cost money to run, not as much as most people think IMO. I run 2 or 3 for the sheep all winter, and my electric bill isn't that high. Certainly not as much as replacing plants and fish. An added note - no matter which way you go, please be careful if you have children or pets if you have open water or thin ice. The birdies love it, but you don't want a serious accident! Again, just my 2 cents!

Irawon, And they make very pretty, interesting terrarium pets, too. I kept some that I caught on LI in a 30 gallon long tank with a 3D ledge background, some branch sections to climb and bask on, using a substrate of microfine coconut fiber (comes under various brand names). They are very cute, although aggressive to one another. You can only keep ONE male per colony or they'll fight to the death. I found that even females can be aggressive to one another. I was taking a summer class earlier this summer at the city college down the block. Every single day, when I'd walk home from class, there were 2 Italian Wall lizards on the same exact ledge, in the same exact place, every day. It was cute having "my" lizards waiting for me each day!

LOL... one word... CATNIP! Lots of it! I think I've contacted everyone that I needed to today. If not, someone drop me a note. We're forecast for severe thunderstorms today through tomorrow night, so my computer time may be limited. I don't like being on when there's lightening even though we have cable internet. Fran, please let me know ASAP whether you hear from Carrie. That will be the deciding factor in what I set up for Joan. By the way, Jamie emailed me and is still trying to get in touch with Kim. I let her know that officially, I'd dropped them from the swap, but if they complete it, both of them, and send me DCNs and post contents, it will have them clear for the group with the condition that they will have to send first in the next MNF swap they join. I felt this was the most fair way to deal with it, if they both complete the swap. I invite her to hang about and get to know folks and she's assured me that she will :) I'm very happy about that! Oh, and I called the company I ordered from and they're putting a rush on the order, and I found out that it's always best to call the order in and request a rush. Have a really nice conversation with the young lady I spoke with. We discussed my theme gardens and she's going to be checking into GW. She's interested in seeing my Gargoyle bed and Naughty Garden and I'd bet she'd be interested in seeing some of the other Goth type beds and any of the themed beds. She was really interested in the possibilities of those. I told her she'd need to check back in a couple months to see pics of mine since they're still pretty dormant at the moment and it will take some time for the kids and DH to get everything tended to, especially in the new beds that we just started working on. Anyway, she was a really sweet young lady and we had a nice conversation and she tried to see if there was more she could do to get my order here quickly. The rush was all she could do, but I should have my order here sometime late next week or early the following week. So I'll be able to have Nikki's box to mail out then. Everything else is ready and packed. Or ready to be packed :) Though the longer I have to wait to mail it off, the more seeds I find to tuck in ... for cushioning, ya know? Kathy

Nope, not a GTF...after toads, we have more GTS here than anything else this time of year and I am totally familiar with their calls, especially when it's a droughty year and they make those calls from under the rim of the toilet. They can certainly locate the nearest water when necessary. I actually found the suspect making the new calls the other day and it sure looked a lot like one of our chorus frogs, and I know their springtime clicking-the-teeth-on-a-comb call. One thing I don't know is what their non-breeding calls are like. Do they have a rain call? This thing sure could put out a lot of noise for such a small frog.