Thanks for the replies everyone =D! I had 3 watermelons that were doing great on one plant, 1 growing awesome (pictured) and the other two seemed to have stopped growing much and they're starting to feel soft. I think I'm going to pick them off but I'm not totally sure yet. On my other plant, I've had more vigorous vine growth with plenty of female buds but they don't seem to mature well even after I've hand pollinated them. Not sure what that's about but I'm at least getting one good looking one so far from it that I didn't take a photo of.

Wow--thank you everyone for the suggestions! I did call the Lake County nursery about their "Biblical series" after Sue mentioned the "Galilean." The man there was obviously knowledgable about the trees since he grows them (in zone 5) and these particular trees are hardy to zone 4. I think I'm going to go with a variety called "Prophet" (similar to Galilean, but with smaller bracts.) Samzan (as another had suggested has variated leaves--which I'm not as partial to.) It really is amazing to me how a "dogwood" can be so many things. Is it an American Dogwood, or a Japanese? If it's a Japanese, there are a hundred or so varieties to choose from to suit your needs. How big do you want the flowers to bloom? How big do you want the flowers to be? How disease resistant? So many factors to look at before choosing. I didn't realize going in that there are actually different cultivars of the kousa. No one at the local nurseries ever mentioned that---it was simply: Here's a kousa, and here's a florida. Which one do you prefer? Thanks again for sharing all of your knowledge here---I have learned so much from you all.

We always cut it all off the rind and chunk it. Save the chunks in a Tupperware container in the fridge. It saves time if you can peel the skin off and cut up the rind, put it in another container at the same time. Cut watermelon with just plastic wrap over it seems to go bad pretty quickly and takes up more room in the fridge than a bowl of chunks. One small watermelon only yielded enough rind for me to make 3 half pints of sweet pickles and 2 pints of lemon-ginger pickles. HTH

My apologies, I refer to rafters as trusses. The trusses are all engineered, I meant the rafter construction and walls were all site fabricated. Thanks, that name sounds familiar. We already have an inspector hired specifically because I did not like the plumbing etc showing daylight. We hired them about .. actually I think 2 weeks ago. There is nothing that looks out of the sorts enough to stop them at this point. The issues I have are things that need better support on one end, but that is a pretty easy fix at any point. The major areas are already supported, actually more than most homes I have seen / had experience with. My concern was, had anyone else seen the sort of framing like this. That answer would be a "no" lol. The pictures I showed are the areas I went through last night. One had already been resolved with a new beam being placed and support being placed above that to the end of the beam they needed support for. The second one was being done today the same way. What they did was bring in what appears to be a 4x6 manufactured beam, similar to the large beams they used for longer spans, and they placed it across multiple walls and supports. Then they brought up a 2-ply stud to support the end of the rafter beam, 2 wrapping it and 1 underneath, all nailed together. Pretty solid work. I told them I wanted the same thing done with the 3rd and they agreed it needed it, so those 'strange' supports, according to them, were temporary and not permanent. The last piece I wanted reinforced was the center beam. I am having them bring up a 3-ply load-bearing support all the way down to the slab to replace that one support. That should be in later today. BTW, if I sound defensive of them, I am not. I am totally with all of you. I love the input and I totally appreciate the help and guidance. Frankly, as I stated to them, the likelihood of me ever getting on that roof or the likelihood of a real "load" on that roof may be small, but the point is, I want to sleep well in the home and I cannot do so if it is not as safe as possible and so no matter what an engineer says, I want extra reinforcements on certain things, THEN.. we will let the inspectors tell them where else they need to add stuff. The bottom line is, they are willing and glad to add any changes I want. That makes it easier. They are not balking at anything I am asking for and welcome (or at least say they do.. heh), the inspector, so we will see what the inspector says. To their credit, they even found a couple things I missed, nothing structural, but it is good to see they are looking at all of it. I'll keep you all updated. Oh, one other note. I let them know.. "you fix concrete with concrete.. you fix wood with wood.. you do NOT "seal" things with anything other than what was meant to be there in the first place. You CAN come back and add an extra sealant.. but you do not make up aspects with a different material". I had a builder in the past that tried to tell me the crack going all the way up my brick fireplace (outside) was going to be "caulked".. I was like, "you fix a masonry issue with CAULK? Tell ya what, go get the engineer to sign off on that in writing and we will see what the manufacturer of the brick and fireplace says"... they came back and redid the entire fireplace.. lol. I have zero problem holding people's feet to the fire. This was step 1 of getting the issues resolved. Prior to sheetrock, the entire house will be safe and secure. R