Thanks for posting these Konrad, thats a clever idea. I think there might be a way to have a noisemaker as well as keeping the string up to block the deer if other deer come along after it was tripped. The general idea is to put a strong spring inline which triggers something when pulled with a certain number of pounds or pressure. Not sure what kind of gizmo like that could be rigged. I can tell the deer are still looking for openings in my fence. Last night they pushed against one of the lines and managed to reach a cherry branch which they munched to nothing. That was the only damage they managed to do. Having some noisemaker thrown in could add to the deterrent. Marc, I live in too urban an area for an electric fence, not even sure if they are legal. If nobody minded I would go that route. Maybe the fishline with some noisemakers rigged to it would be nearly as good. Scott

ltruett, I sent you an email. I'd definitely be interested in a loquat oak and a canby oak...do you think they'd do well in my alkaline soil? I put in a mexican white oak this past weekend, along with a mexican plum and a lacey oak. There are 2 bur oaks the folks we bought the place from had planted-they're about 10 feet tall, but about right under an overhead powerline. I hadn't thought about chinkapin oaks, I'll most likely put one of those in as well. Another tree I'm looking for but can't seem to locate is a Texas Hawthorne. Buggy01-The auricacias look interesting, but what I've read on them said they dislike dry heat. Regarding mesquite and acacia...I love mesquite in the right setting. We have some old growth mesquite that are gorgeous, but at my wife's ranch they are weed-like, I would guess due to historical overgrazing and lack of fires. They've choked out everything except the cactus. On our smaller property, they've taken over about 5 acres, and rather than fight them, I'm going to let them grow and try to contain them. I have no experience with acacia other than huisache, which is a beautiful tree but can take over as well. Same for retama/jerusalem thorn. I don't think water will be an issue...I run drip irrigation to all my trees and mulch heavily to stretch what water I do put out. So far this year I've planted shantung maple, shantung maple 'fire dragon', bald cypress, montezuma cypress (2), loquat, lacey oak, mexican white oak, bigtooth maple, arizona cypress 'blue pyramid', deodar cedar, kiowa pecan, pecan seedlings (2), mexican plum, peach 'john fanick' (2), fig 'alma' 'green ischia' 'celeste', pomegranate 'wonderful', orient pear, keifer pear, methley plum, hachiya persimmon, fuyu persimmon, italian stone pine, 3 different olive cultivars, and I ordered 2 'yates' american persimmons. Trees planted before we owned the property or that are naturally occurring are pecan, red oak (not sure if Texas or shumard), pines (loblolly I think), ash (texas/white I think, not sure), live oak, cedar elm, hackberry, texas persimmon, mesquite, chinaberry, spiny hackberry, and bur oak.

Well I took mine apart and checked all the clear hoses and little T's where the hoses hook up to and all were clear of any food or anything. Just before closing it back up and giving up I noticed there are little legs on the lid that stick into these holes on the bottom part and those had little rubber covers over them. One of them wasn't all the way to the top like the other one was so I removed it from the under side since I had it opened up and it had some food around the little rubber thing. I took that off and it went back to the top like it's suppose to. I think if it's not shut just right it went work and that was keeping mine from shutting right. Anyway it's working perfectly now. I googled and watched a boat load of you tube videos on how to fix them. One guy added a bit of hot glue to the little leg thing because his had broken off or something and it worked when he let it dry. They are just VERY sensitive and cranky. lol Anyway yesterday I found another F.S. at a garage sale for 5 bucks with almost a whole roll of the bags so I bought it. It was a church garage sale and come to find out it was my nieces F. S. She said she had used it twice and had tried to vacuum seal some blueberries and it started sucking the juices up into it and she stopped. So I don't guess she used it anymore after that. It has a button to push that has wet or dry. Anyway it's one of the upright ones more up to date than the one I had. I am still keeping my other one though since i have it going just for a back up one. ALSO you might need to take the rubber things out and wash those so they will swell back up so it can make the seal. Mine had powder on them it felt like so I just took a damp rag and wiped them off really well. I hope you get it figured out and haven't tossed the other ones. You may figure out what's wrong with some of them by watching the video's. :-)

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I love hearing everyone’s opinions and greatly appreciate it. Looks like there is a decent consensus on the Sweet 100 so I will definitely give that one a try. Although, I have to admit, the purported size of the plant intimidates me a bit. I had originally hoped to try to stick with just determinate varieties this year but I am going to just scrap that. I will just give the Sweet 100 a 20-30 gallon SIP to itself and invest in a sturdy staking setup. I am not really interested in tomatoes for “slicing” I don’t think my landlords are either; although they are very excited for cherry tomatoes. Any other plants I choose will be used mostly for salsa and sauces which makes me initially lean towards planting a Roma. BER worries me but I am hoping that a SIP will help me in keeping my soil moisture as consistent as possible. Do you think Cobra, Lemon Boy, or Sub Arctic would work okay for sauces? I think Lemon Boy would make a very interesting salsa. I can’t say whether or not I like yellow tomatoes as I have no experience with them. Do you think Sweet 100 would work for a sweet basil marinara? Our nursery always used to carry Early Girl but, for some reason, they don’t have it this year. We had a farmer that used to come up biweekly to sell produce and he often had Sungolds. They always sold out fast and really helped me start liking fresh tomatoes. (I had no idea they could taste so sweet!) I will be haunting the local Cnd Tire and other stores closer to planting time to see what they have and if any of it is worth paying money for. Unfortunately, I have no space available for starting or nurturing plants like toms inside. I am currently renting a small bachelor style basement suite that walks directly out to the back yard. I have one large east facing window but no room for any type of grow setup at the moment.