Hi Anna, I understand about the electric fence. You don't want to discourage all the wildlife that comes to your pond. How about encouraging all your neighbors to get ponds too, so that the otters can take turns at the various ponds!? Your pond sounds great. Do you have any pictures you could share? I have no idea how aggressive or shy otters are. Have you ever seen those motion-detector scarecrows that shoot water out when they sense motion? They probaby would scare away other creatures too though. Well, maybe this "attack" was a one-time occurence. That would be nice. Would the otters come from just one direction? Is there a way of putting up some sort of trip-wire that would activate an alarm in your house, so you could at least try to scare them off, if they showed up again? Are they mostly active in the day or night? Surely there are other people around with ponds who have the same problem, who might be able to give you suggestions? At least its not alligators!

Three wedding in one weekend? I would lose my mind. But, nevermind because I think I already have. We've been working in that 90 degree temperature. Then yesterday when we went to market, it was 58 degrees, overcast and windy. At 11:30 it decides to rain. We're not complaining about the rain. But, man was it cold especially after 90 degree temps. And, we still don't quite have enough flowers to cover two Saturday markets. They all have to go to our market that started in May. People are a little ticked because we aren't at the touristy market on Saturdays yet. The don't understand why we don't have flowers because the "reseller" down the way has them. She had some rather odd looking roses yesterday. I have never seen anything quite like them. They looked like red velvet. Actually, they looked fake. I am pretty sure they aren't grown anywhere around here. I am almost certain they are not grown in this country. They were awful. The pathetic part was that some customers actually bought them. I ranted about those things all evening. I am pretty much over it now. This would be the same vendor who last year would send her friends down to buy straight bunches of celosia, Green Mist and/or whatever. She would take the flowers home and blend them in with some of her flowers, and bring them back to the next market. I hope she has other plans for this year because we intend to control some of those purchases. Some people stoop to nothing. And, I lost my faith in mankind for a little bit over it. Back to weather. It has been so windy here all season. I am certain they have move Michigan to the Rockies. Anyway, that is how we got rain -- We picked more than we could possible sell, drove an hour and a half to market, set up in the wind. The good news is we really didn't have a bad selling day. And, a father-of-the-bride talked to us about coming out to the farm the end of August to pick flowers for his daughter's wedding. Hmmmm. I am the person always screaming, We don't do weddings. We are rethinking this one..........

Unlike the advise given by inexperienced gardeners who mean well but lack the necessary knowledge experience is hard to beat when it comes to growing tomatoes successfully. During 40 + years of growing vegetables and fruit I experimented with just about any method, gadget and variety known for great flavor. It took some time before I realized that the secret to successfully growing vegetables and fruit including my beloved tomatoes is to grow my plants in harmony with nature. Many years ago I adopted the biodynamic concept of growing crops and my scientific background (chemist) allows me to understand how and why this method works. Nature does not drop bags of cow manure and tons of compost onto the soil. Instead, leaves cover the soil in winter, preventing nutrients from being leached out of the soil, allowing worms to feed and loosen the soil and to leave fertile worm casts as food. Nature does not supply an abundance of nutrients. When tomato plants have used up most of the sparse Nitrogen deposits in early summer they no longer put all their energy into growing and convert their energy into fertility assuring a good and healthy fruit set. Like people plants have to work in order to stay healthy. Tomato plants have to send out their roots to search for slow release mineral fertilizers and some made from organic matter and thereby they establish a large root base. This in turn helps the plants to survive when their roots are waterlogged or suffer from drought conditions for prolonged periods of time. And unlike their overfed couch potato cousins who never had to establish a strong root base because they were fed with plenty of compost or fertilizer healthy plants do not wilt. Please note insects love wilted plants and will search out the weak because their natural defenses are down. Rock Phosphate, greensand, and horn chips will create the right environment plus add a little ancient rock powder for trace minerals. Tomato plants will also benefit from a few morning showers with a good foliar feed formula based on brown algae. Last but not least forget the stories you heard about sunscald unless you live in the hottest climates of the USA. Learn from the fruit world and realize that tomatoes need light and can survive quite well with sparse foliage so make sure you don't grow dense bushes but rather well thinned and trimmed plants. Flavor will also improve remarkably when light reaches the tomatoes. This goes against conventional wisdom but then again, how much myth vs. truth was spread by famous gardening book authors who just copy from each other (remember the burning lens effect of water droplets, so tell the sun not to shine when it rains). There you have it, Mother Nature - nothing more, nothing less

I have no ability or patience to do such decorating but really love to look at them. I'm sorry you get the headaches Michelle but what a lovely 'recovery' idea. One hint I'll add that I got from a professional baker... roll your cookie dough out on parchement paper or the rimless sheets they used. Cut your cookies out ON this and just pick up the scraps, rather than try and lift cut out cookies ONTO a sheet. Of course they also were uber-efficient in making use of all the space of the rolled cookie dough and did not have many scaps at all. I have a zillion cookie cutters but never make rolled cookies. It figures, doesn't it !?!?!?!! I must need camp again. Maureen