Luther, as discovered by Tom somewhere in the posts above, only 20 characters are displayed. In yours, the number "9" is the 20th character, so the "b" is truncated and not displayed. You could abbreviate "zone" to the letter "z" like I did in mine in order to get your zone 9b to properly display. Carol

It sounds like there is some arrangement for someone to cash rent part of the ground. That makes sense. Depending on what the hay fields are you could have a gold mine for bees. I hear you about that land price - it's just crazy. Granted it's some of the best ag land in the world - soil as black as coal, topsoil layer about three feet deep before you get to clay, almost zero rock, 200 bushel corn is just a so-so year. Most of the buyers are corporate/investment groups with deep pockets. It is my firm belief that it's a bit of a bubble that will eventually deflate (it happened back in the 70's and cost a lot of farmers their ground). Marla - with my Adonis-like body I feel I am doing a service to the world. Now if your done choking on your coffee I'll tell you one of my favorite country living stories. I moved out here many years ago while I was in college. Had this big old Golden Retriever who was a real sweetie and quite well behaved. Late one night I was sleeping away sawing logs and he starts barking like the end of the world was upon us. Bark, bark, bark. I pulled the pillow over my head to no avail then started yelling. Bark, bark, bark. I yelled a little more. Bark, bark, bark. Ok, enough of that. I come flying out of bed cursing like a drunken sailor wearing not a stitch of clothes. Bark, bark, bark. Throw on the porch light, plow though the door and swear at the top of my lungs at the poor dog. Now I learned a lot of good curse words from Dad (he's pretty creative at that) so I called that hound everything but a Dutchman. He must have gotten the message as he laid down and wagged this bushy tail. Satisfied with my performance I turned to go back inside and to my shock standing on the other end of the porch are a young man and woman. Their eyes were the size of dinnerplates and mouths adroop. I made a mad dive for the front door and beat a hasty retreat for some pants. Turns out they had been out for a drive at 2 AM on a muddy dirt road in the middle of nowhere and stopped for some unknown reason (hehe) and gotten stuck. They came up to the house looking to find a phone to call for help. I got out the old International and went down and pulled them out. All was fine and good. Just as we were finishing up the girl walks over and says "You look familiar". Uh oh. Turns out she and I were in the same Psychology class. Finding that out was rather uncomfortable. What was really uncomfortable was Monday morning walking into that class where she waved hello and burst into laughter with half the class. Served me right I guess. By the way, I bought a bathrobe the next time I was in town. Tom

Lauseng stone is my fav if you're on the St.Paul side of the twin cities -- it's east of 694 on hwy 36 (watch out 'cause their sign is easy to miss). And go prepared with measurements of your project or an idea of what you want to do. They have some 'display' area, but mostly just yards and yards of different stone. We just did a patio and sidewalk with their cut new york bluestone and its gorgeous. (And cost less than the quote to have a contractor pour a concrete slab) They helped us with 'how-to' information, and they did deliver (for a fee, but worth it). Now we'll keep our fingers crossed this winter to see if we did the project right. Patio town is also on 36, and they have a larger selection of retaining wall/concrete wall block, and looks like they have some beautiful displays, but I've never priced them out. good luck, let us know what kind of project you're doing--

I sure do feel for you, Susan. Flowers are such a source of joy and to see them killed by that noxious weed must be very painful. I'm lately battling morning glory that must have been started by a bird dropping seed, as there are none around me. (I wrote about this earlier, so sorry for the repeat.) So far, it's in one bed that used to contain a spa and deck that we removed, and that now has three blueberry bushes and some green beans; if need be, I don't mind taking out the blueberries to get this weed gone! (The beans will be finished soon.) I am using a vinegar/salt/Dawn mixture that I read about, but I've had to reapply several times and I see they're green again. :( If applied when the weather is hot, they dry and fry immediately.....but in a week they're back again. I know I'm poisoning the soil and intend to replace the soil, if necessary. My patch is manageable so far, but we shall see if continuous sprayings will eradicate. Do you think your kids might be able to help you rent goats? Or would the weed spring back as soon as they leave? I'm sorry you're having to deal with this!