Yellow leaves on pumpkins, as on virtually all other plants, are merely a sign of stress. As gardeners, it is our job to figure out what sort of stress is making the pumpkin leaves turn yellow. So, you know, when I see yellow leaves on pumpkin plants, the first question I ask myself is whether I see signs of any disease in addition to the yellow leaves. (Look at the leaf portion of the attached TAMU Cucurbit Problem Solver to see what various pumpkin diseases look like.) If I do see disease symptoms, I treat the plant for the disease, if there is a viable, organic treatment that will make a difference. If I don't see any signs of disease, I think about how dry or wet it has been and whether or not the plants might have gotten extremely dry or extremely wet. If plants get too dry, the leaves indeed can turn yellow. Usually if that is the only reason you're getting yellow leaves, you can increase the irrigation and remove the yellow leaves and you'll get tons of new green leaves. I only have had pumpkins get too wet in a couple of really wet years---2004 and 2007. Normally, they are such big, rampant, thirsty growers that their root systems suck up all the water they can get, but in a very, very, very wet spring, I've had them do poorly in slow-draining clay. I've never been one to fertilize the pumpkin plants once they are up and growing, but I say that with the following caveat: I work extremely hard on soil-building in fall and winter so that the pumpkins are growing in well-enriched soil that is high fertility and should be able to give the plants all the nutrients they need. My philosophy is to feed the soil and let the soil feed the plants, but it does take years to get your soil in that kind of fertile state if you start out with very poor soil, as I did. In our earlier years, I did have to fertilize the pumpkins regularly to keep them growing happily but now I don't as long as I plant them in areas that were given copious amounts of compost prior to planting. You have to be careful with the fertilizer and feed them something that doesn't have too much nitrogen, or you'll have big monster plants running all over the place and filling every inch of space you have but they won't be producing too many pumpkins because all their energy is going into leaf and vine production. Sometimes, too, I think we all tend to forget that with almost all plants, it is normal for the oldest leaves to reach the end of their normal life and to yellow and fall off the plant. So, if the yellowing leaves are the older leaves, that might be all you're seeing. Hazel, There can be a big problem if you lose too many leaves and pumpkins do set, so keep that in mind. What happens, then, is that as the pumpkins enlarge, there's not enough foliage to keep the sunshine from hitting the pumpkins directly and then they get sunscald (sun burn) and begin rotting. If I see that too many leaves are yellowing after pumpkins have formed, I'll give the plants a quick shot of a water-soluable fertilizer to push more leaf development and then I water them well to help those leaves grow. So, after you have tried to evaulate why the leaves are turning yellow, keep an eye on the pumpkins that do form. If you start getting little pumpkins, and you feel like there isn't enough foliage to keep the intense sunlight off of them, you always can feed the plants them to increase foliar growth. Sometimes when leaves near a pumpkin fruit die and there aren't any nearby loose vines I can rearrange to cover the pumpkin, I set a plastic lawn chair over it and let the chair shade it. Sometimes the solution that works isn't the first one that comes to mind. I've also used a patio table umbrella to shade a larger area that had several pumpkins that were in danger of sunburning, at least until the plant could make new foliage that would help shade the developing pumpkins. Like George said, often the first flowers don't form pumpkins, but the plants will keep flowering and will form pumpkins. Just wait patiently and it will happen. I've never yet had a nice, healthy (or even semi-healthy) pumpkin plant not produce pumpkins. If, by chance, you are in a part of Oklahoma that has had a lot of rain and a lot of cloudy days the last couple of months, that might be holding back your pumpkin plants a little. Unlike many of the plants we grow here, they tend to love the heat and sunlight and can be a little sluggish in rainy, cloudy periods. Or, if you keep getting both male and female flowers and no pumpkins, you may not have pollinators visiting your garden. If that is the issue, tell us, and we can link George's great thread that tells how to hand-pollinate squash. Larry, If they are otherwise healthy and disease-free, I don't worry too much about pale leaves because the plants produce well anyhow but in your case, since you've had so much rain, I think they might need some more nitrogen. At this point, it wouldn't hurt to try it. We rarely get too much moisture here, but when we do, I see yellowing like that sometimes. I feel like, as you improve your soil in that new area, your plants will do better. My Seminole pumpkin plants in the 2-year-old back garden in relatively unimproved soil are nowhere near as large, healthy or productive as the Seminole pumpkin plants in the front garden, whose soil has been improved every year since 1999. I hope to eventually get the back garden soil as healthy as the soil in the front garden, but until then, the pumpkin plants never will be as happy back there---especially in a drought year like this one. I really don't fight spider mites (as if I could). It seems like a battle you cannot win without heavy duty chemicals that I won't use. They're like grasshoppers here---so widespead in all the acreage around here that even if you can knock back their population a little, more come in every time the wind blows. I think the spider mite population peaked about two weeks ago and is dropping. They never really go away, but I think I'm seeing them spread more slowly now than they were earlier. Bon, I totally understand your frustration. It is so very hard to raise cucurbits organically here, particularly with all the pest and disease pressure combined with months of relentless heat and, often, drought. Some years I give up and let the squash bugs win. There's nothing wrong with that. When fighting them is more trouble than it is worth, just stop fighting them. However, do remember this---if you abandon living squash plants and let the squash bugs and borers reproduce freely in and on the plants, they are sowing the "seeds", so to speak, for next year's infestation. So, when you're done with the squash pest battle, yank out the plants and dispose of them so that they don't lay around and serve as a squash breeding ground from now until the first freeze. I either burn them or bag them up and put them in the trash. I don't compost plants infested with squash pests or diseases. I have thought long and hard about all the squash pests this year and for several years, and what I really would like to do would be to build a hoophouse, but using netting of some sort instead of plastic as the cover. I could grow squash inside of it, but without the hassle of lifting row covers to pollinate, and then replacing them, etc. Or, what if I made a new squash garden area and only planted squash there, and then sprayed those plants with a chemical pesticide? Would the world end? (sigh) I don't like using pesticides, but I am starting to wonder if that's the only way to be able to grow squash here without having to fight the squash pests tooth and nail. Dawn

With respect to the low cost estimate, $ 27,975.00 was the original estimate from our first bidder, the lower end kitchen design shop. When we sent in a list of questions, we received the following (appended to bottom) . Note that this does include 6 more rollouts, but moves the peninsula back to MDF rather than plywood upgrade and does include probably $2k in permit fees. I am a bit stunned because this is about an $8000 increase in the price of the bid. (For non-CA residents, Title 24 is the requirement to increase energy efficiency in new construction. This means ripping out the ceiling and removing any incandescent bulbs and replacing them with new flourescent fixtures that cannot accept standard bulbs. Welcome to California!) Note that the new estimate only includes Merillat "Classic" cabinets with veneer inserts in the doors. I have now received TWO preliminary bids including custom cabinetry at less than this price. I have to admit, I am actually stunned because I never thought I would be able to afford custom cabinets. For what it's worth, some other comments to respond to the posters (Thank you!) The remaining walls can't come out. The one next to the Fridge can't come out. The reason is that it actually is not well drawn by the kitchen designer and is actually in the hall. It would involve doing a lot of work in the slab to remove. Also, we can't take out the remaining wall next to the peninsula. It contains a lot of HVAC and it would be too expensive to move. If we take out the wall stub next to the dining room, it increases the span of the ceiling beam. Since the span is bigger, it would require an engineering permit and inspection as well, which is quite expensive and would require an engineer's certification of the removal of the load bearing wall. That would increase the cost for the remodel by several thousand dollars. Sears Outlet: We have been looking at the Sears Outlet. Our learnings are as follows: 1. It is a great place to get refrigerators. Fridges are 50% off retail. Many have handle issues- broken handles, etc. You can purchase new handles for any fridge Sears sells from Sears for under $200. 2. Sears outlet does have stuff online. However, it bears no relation to what is actually in the stores. Since it tends to be scratch and dent, you have to actually go to the stores to look at the stuff. Some appliance have dents in the inside of the Oven. That's OK. Some have the oven door falling off. That's not OK. The website will give a bit of information, but not enough to really make a decision. For counters- I have been quoted installed granite prices from 5.7k to 8.7k for this kitchen. I still think it is high and that I should get a better price. Our other option is Ikea. For $1400, we can get a 23cft Ikea counter depth fridge. For another $800, we can get an OK slide in range in stainless steel. Sears Outlet doesn't have many slide in ranges, although we did see a top of the line GE induction slide in for more than we want to pay, even discounted. One other question: I wanted to put the microwave in the peninsula. I have been warned against this as it is supposedly not child safe. Is this really not child safe? A MW doesn't get hot like an oven. Append Quote from bid: I have gone over your project with XXXXX, our company owner and the Sunnyvale Building Department. We have determined that rather than speculate on what may or may not be required by the City we will price your project based upon what we know is requiring and what is normally involved in a project such as yours. I was aware that these upgrades would be required because when you do other improvements that require a permit then you are required to bring everything up to code. I did not include this in your original quote as we had not cover in depth the electrical and lighting plans other than moving an outlet and phone jack as well as installing the boxes for 3 pendant lights. The City requirements are to bring all of the electrical up to current code, requiring new circuitry, additional outlets and lighting is to be brought up to title 24 energy codes. This involves much more work including running power from the subpanel to the kitchen, adding new outlets and switches, determining the amount of load on existing circuits, drywall penetrations, patching, texturing and painting. Under cabinet lighting may be required if you keep the existing overhead incandescent lighting. This would then require a molding along the underside of the cabinet to conceal the light fixtures. Other smaller items required are additional prep, demolition and related items. We have revised the total proposal to reflect all of the City requirements, upgrades, deletions, modifications and to show the complete and total package per the design and specifications. Total of all work including plans, engineering and permit fees.____________ $ 37,850.00 [jmm76 note: This is 10k more than original bid!]

I understood your post, Barnmom. You're right about the food labeling, Goldgirl. It's very frustrating when we read labels, but can't really trust what we read because they're allowed to basically lie on the labeling. But, that's another subject from the original post. Whether a chicken is considered organic or not is based on the feed it's given, among other things, I think, such as hormones, medications, and that sort. However, I'm really talking out of my confident knowledge base here.. If a chicken is fed organic grain, and nothing but organic grain, it's not going to taste much different than a chicken that's given conventionally raised grain. That old saying, you are what you eat, applies to this case. It's the pasture raised chickens that are going to taste different, most likely, because they're eating bugs and grit and whatever their fancy tells them to eat, along with whatever grain they're given. At least, that's the case with the eggs I get from the farmer. Sally

I have antique ironstone, antique hutches and English/Irish pine tables found at fleamarkets and antique stores, as well as many CL finds that I've refinished/reupholstered. They're all mixed in with newer PB and RH pieces and Hubbardton Forge lighting that may be considered trendy but aren't to me because they suit my style. DD's changing table was an early American drysink that I loved but unfortunately no longer have a home for, so it was given to a family member to use in her new baby's nursery. An antique dresser that DH modified with a copper vessel sink is now a vanity in my powder room. My favorite piece of furniture is DD's antique iron bed from the 1800's, which is exactly what I would have loved to have had as a child. My second fav piece is my RH reclaimed pine dining table. I'll probably keep most of the items in my home as long as they last. Not making any effort to be unique - I try to buy only what I love. Rarely does anything leave my house after it comes in! My sister is the opposite - she gets bored with her furniture after a few years so she isn't as inclined to spend the effort refinishing furniture or spending extra on quality hardware. She has a beautiful home!