I haven't commented yet and had tried to stay away from it as I try to avoid politics and policies on garden forums. Also till recently I hadn't studied it a lot. I did know most of the farmers here were against it. I have some concerns. Not about what will happen immediately but in the future. One of my concerns is why Monsanto and a few others lobbied so hard for it and also spent a fair amount in support of some legislators. I don't feel it will impact the small garden grower saving seeds for a long time if ever. Another concern is it may in time affect small seed vendors. I remember when Cargill and a few others got laws passed that eventually forced many of the small locker plants out of business. I was good friends and did business with several of them and know what happened. The initial law didn't do it but allowed the means to gradually tighten the screw till many were forced out. I can remember in the 70's when there were 8 locker plants within 60 miles. For the last 10 years there has been 2. Now with the increase in demand of people wanting either to fatten their own or buy meat they know how it was raised and also some easing of a few regulations there has been another open up. The goal of any corporation is too obtain a bigger share of the market. Whether that be a packing plant or a seed business. One way to eliminate competition is by legislation. And one way to get laws passed is too say it is for food safety. I have emailed one of my legislators asking questions. Other than that not a lot I can do but keep informed and watch how it plays out. Personally I try not to get too worked up over things I have no control of. Jay

Today, for the first time, I imagined what it would be like to run away from home (we are 37, married 15 years, have 17 year old sone and his girlfired age 18 living with us). I even started thinking about how I could do it logistically would I need to take time off work, or could I still go to work each day? Hubby would be alright theres enough reserves in the bank to get him and kids by. I could move to our coutrny proeprty (no power or house, just an old caravan in a paddock) and I could take 3 months unpaid leave from work. All I would need is a few tins of baked beans, a few boxes of matches and candles, some access to music, and my paints. A few good books would be good too. Id have all the space and solitude I needed and enough air to breath and think and relax. No rules, no children, no housework. Dare I imagine what that would be like? no one to offer support to, no one to care about, no one to worry over, no one to smile at, be polite to, struggle to converse with. Wow. I could make my own rules because Id be the only one to follow them. I could eat out of tins and spend as much or as little as I wanted on the things around me. It would cost me nothing to live! This fantasy has blossomed in my mind because of a dream I had this morning before waking. It was a bit mixed up, but there seemed to be people who were talking in a spaceship but had no control over what they were saying or doing. I was hurled out of the spacecraft and was freefalling towards earth. Frightened and panicked, I noticed I had in my hand a small square vinyl package with instructions of how to turn the package into a parachute. But I was too stressed out to read it properly and I hit the ground before I had any chance to save myself. Waking, heart thumping, my brain told me simply, "you should run away from home". Wow, i think I'm suffocating. has anyone dared do the "cave" thing? I would love to hear from anyone who has left her old world behind and learned to live simple, solitutude life. Did it fix her problems? Was she able to return home after a period of time?

Whew! I'm tired just reading. DH and I got married in our late 30's and had to combine stuff. My son and I were moving into "his" condo and it just didn't occur to him to do any more than push some clothing down the rod. It was more like he gave us the space of an overnight guest. It took us several years to really make the transition. Of course, my biggest interest was in getting rid of his bachelor funiture and he fought me all the way. I just got rid of the last piece this summer. Much easier to decide which coffee pot was the newest and best to keep. But deciding if my fabric got space vs his books? Oh, man, that caused a few go-arounds. Luckily, he had an office building and we knew we would be househunting fairly soon, so quite a bit went into storage. I really shouldn't have kept any of it. Gloria

Slugs aren't an issue in our garden ... we don't treat for them nor see significant damage from them. We do containerize all our tomatoes and peppers, though that's a different matter unrelated to deer. The space in the L of the house is generally less bothered by deer, but it is small and filled (large hosta, faucet, and space for tomatoes and peppers). The yew next to the door gets munched, though primarily in the winter, so still not entirely safe but less appealing when there are options. We have plenty of coyotes/coywolves, and they're not new. They can be heard nightly and seen periodically running through the yard. (There's a pack to the north that probably lives on the aqueduct about a quarter mile away; they're the noisiest. There's another pack to the east that is likely a bit further away but not far; that may or may not be the same pack that can be heard to the south, which would be in the preservation land a quarter to half mile away. I haven't seen the pair of coywolves recently, but they're probably still around ... they come up from the back (south).) There's a fox that lives by the wetlands behind our property; it generally doesn't come up past the pines in the back of our yard. We know the canines are around ... we don't want to entice them to come closer or more than they do ... hence the question in regards to attraction. They're already around; we don't want to give them a reason to come here beyond their normal pass through, etc. Fencing the property isn't an option ... we're not taking out the stone wall, and we'd like to have an open view. We cage some plants, and it offers them some protection, but who wants a garden where all the plants are in prison? We have a small garden with a mid-height fence and raised beds that is generally safe other than some minor reaching (the blackberries are probably an additional protection), but it's only 5 4x4 beds, three of which have established blueberry bushes in them. The remaining sun bed is full (well, it has one hole that already has its transfer plant assigned). The shade bed is a challenge (it's pretty much under the enormous Juniperus virginiana) but could probably accept a couple hosta divisions. I can't fit an entire garden (or three) of plants into a couple raised beds.