Thanks for your comments and your expertise, nandina. I do agree with you on treating the property as the natural setting it is. This is, I believe, where some of my hesitation to take a step (any step) in changing it comes from. The main things I want to clear out are the vines and other prickly things. For instance, the wild blackberries, which appealed to me at first because of the novelty of picking fruit I didn't plant, and they do have pretty little white flowers, but they've started springing up everywhere with large stiff canes. I don't know if you've ever dealt with them, but it is impossible to get them out of anywhere they are without getting stuck, and it hurts. You can't walk past them without them catching on your clothes, or worse, your skin. If I don't get them under control, give them 5 years and I won't even be able to go outside. It's a shame they have the stickers because the birds seem to love them. The wild muscadines don't produce anything much - I only know what they are because I saw some brownish grape-like things once, the first year I moved here. They are extremely prolific, and cover the ground in places and try to climb the trees. To their credit, they don't have stickers, and they're not quite as bad as kudzu. I'm very mindful that there may be nice native plants growing, and I would certainly want to keep anything that's native but not common. Anything I keep is something I don't have to replace ($$). I really need to get with someone who knows native plants and have them walk around and point out anything that I should keep. I occasionally find something that looks different and I try to identify it. This year, I found some interesting little white flowers that look similar to fuchsias, hanging down with flipped up petals (5), but instead of the fluffy, skirty part of fuchsias (the purple part on those red/pink and purple ones), this flower had a mass of yellow stamens. It was growing on a tree or a stemmy bush, and it may be a bush honeysuckle - it smelled heavenly - but definitely was not the invasive japanese honeysuckle so common here; these were short and more rounded. I have the japanese kind too, and although they're said to be invasive, they're just part of the south to me, and I'm not so intent on getting rid of all of them. The other new plants I found this year are striped wintergreen. At first I thought they might be a variety of trillium, but they weren't. I may post the white flowers to the Name that Plant forum to get an ID on them. I would hate to pull up something and then later find that it was the only known specimen of a rare native plant. ;-) With regard to the flood plain, the house is at least 12 feet above where it ends, and there is a lot of lower lying land that would have to flood before water got to me. My property is essentially 3 levels - the street level (highest), the house level (middle) and the lakeside level (lowest, obviously). The lake is actually a stormwater retention pond, but it's been here since at least 1982 because I saw it pictured on a 1982 topo map. It has life, so to me, it's a lake. :) This explains the red clay area you see in the photo. If I poke into it, I probably will find old bottles and other assorted junk, but most likely, it will be from litter that has washed into the drainage system from somewhere else. I hunted around for a topo map of the area and found a county GIS mapping system, with different layers I can turn on. I basically hit the motherlode of data for the property. I took screenshots, and will be adding this info to my overhead plan. I now have topo in 2' increments, drainage inlets and outlets for the water, sewage pipes, and the soil type. The water comes through a big pipe (3 or 4 feet in diameter) into the boggy area. I didn't get this from the GIS info, I saw it down there. There is a culvert under the across-the-lake neighbor's driveway which spills into a lower lying area on his property. Only one time since I've been here, the water has covered the lower lakeside level (the flood plain). The culvert had gotten stopped up (don't know how), and the neighbor was most alarmed and hurried and got someone to work on it that night because it didn't have far to go before it spilled over his driveway and into his yard. His house, and the subdivision that surrounds it, are lower than my house. The beaver seems to be building somewhere toward the left side of the lake (on the plan view). I've seen him carrying limbs from the near the boggy area (right side) to the left side, then coming back for more. When I first saw him, he was going after some from a dead tree that fell into the lake years ago (before I got here). I think he's more likely to be building a home than a dam. I have, however, bookmarked the Clemson Beaver Pond Leveling System - my neighbor may need it more than I. Also, from your suggested reading up on beavers, it said they leave their parents in their 2nd spring and set out on their own. I haven't seen him before this year, so I think he must be 2 years old. All the water wildlife I've seen, at one time or another, has gone to the dead tree to sit, fish, sun, preen, flirt, or whatever else wildlife does with their spare time. I have seen (regularly) turtles, Canada geese, mallard ducks, seasonally visiting hooded merganser ducks, blue herons, belted kingfishers, and (not so often) an otter, the beaver, and a green heron, all attracted to the dead tree in the lake. I'm sure the fish and frogs love it too, but I can't see them as easily. And that's just the water life. I have also seen all kinds of birds, including red shouldered hawks, vultures, blue tailed skinks, eastern green anoles (saw a couple making out, took photos; he was a gentle but agressive lover, and she didn't seem to mind - and he stuck out his red throat afterwards), tree frogs stuck on the windows at night, some kind of little splotchy gray frog that matches the concrete on the patio almost undetectably until he moves, gray lizards of unknown variety, deer, something that may have been a fox, and I've probably skipped some critters. Oh, and dragonflies, lots of dragonflies and damselflies. Lots of other bugs. (sshhh... let's don't talk about the scorpions.) I will keep the forum posted on future developments with this project. I'm planning on contacting the designers after the spring rush is over, and will update y'all once that happens. This is something I would like to see more people do, so I'd better make sure to do it myself. :) Drtygrl, thanks for the complement. I've seen log steps, and I like the look, but I'm afraid they would rot out here after a few years, with termites and other kinds of insects (and beavers) eating on them. If I do wooden stairs, I was thinking I'd use concrete deck piers to minimize the digging to several spots, and have the steps about 6" above the ground. This would keep the wood from having contact with the ground, and make replacing parts easier as it became necessary. Kind of like this, but with the piers instead of the posts directly in the ground, more rustic, and no handrails. I'd like to have enough plants growing around the sides to keep the piers from being visible. Getting the stairs built (and I am planning on hiring that out, not doing it myself) will probably be the single most expensive thing I will do. I'd prefer stone, but it will probably cost a lot more than wood, but then on the other hand, if the wood costs half the price of stone but I replace them in 10 years, I haven't saved any money, have I. I have no idea of how much any of this costs, or really even how many steps will be needed. This is part of why I want a designer, so I don't end up spending all my time researching - first, what I should do, and second, to find someone with the skills to do it well. I should be able to calculate the number of steps after I assimilate my topography data, though. More stair ideas and comments are welcome. I really think they are the first thing that needs to be done, before I decide what to do with the hill. I like these A LOT: Thanks, too, for the book recommendation. I've seen it, or something similar recommended before - I've lurked a good bit on the Woodland forum as well. I'll see if I can get a copy. Ideashare/Designshare sent me a link to one of her designs also, for the front yard. She must have been inspired by the fountain. I'm reluctant to share it without her permission (well, that, and I don't want to draw karinl's wrath, lol), but I do think maybe she is getting better. She just needs to understand better what a person is looking for, as far as style goes. It wasn't bad (no giant broccoli), but I'm not looking for so much hardscape in my natural woodsy setting. Thanks just the same for the effort, Designshare. I hope I haven't bored everyone with my late night rambling about wildlife and drainage. :)

122) Chiggers love the sweet perfume of OFF! Wear it well at clothing openings and about the ankle. (Deer ticks are optional here but plentiful.)

Rhome410...why are you cleaning up?!! :-) With 8 children I'd think one of them would be cleaning up! I'm the oldest of 6 and when I was growing up we kids rotated having dish duty for a week each. My mom did all the cooking until she started working outside the home when I was in 6th grade or so (my youngest sister was in Kindergarten). Come to think of it, most of the chores were done by us kids...they were broken down into 6 sets of chores & we each had a particular chore set for a week. Cotehele...one of the advantages of drawers, IMHO, is that they have higher sides that help keep things from falling off when pulling them out. However, to each his own! We have almost all drawer bases in our new kitchen with the exception of the "Pet Center" that has 2 FE pullouts + drawer--we'll be removing the pullouts (was supposed to be full-height/no shelves or drawer, but KD ordered incorrectly), sink bases, and two 6" filler pullouts. I do think Jessie21 has a point though...I think the two pullouts flanking our cooktop do look better than if I had had all drawers on that side. (The other side is broken up w/DW, sink base, & trash pullout) Things I do not recommend: regular shelves (adjustable or not!) in base cabinets (obvious, I know!) shallow cabinet above refrigerator...even if you have to pull a 12" deep one out to make it flush w/your refrigerator, do it! not having a utility cabinet for broom/mop/dustpan/etc. We tried to fit one in, but couldn't so now I'm trying to figure out how best to put them in our step-in pantry. We had them in our previous pantry but they were always in the way. I'm trying to figure out a better method for handling them this time other than just mounting them on the wall next to the shelves or on the door (our door has a frosted glass inset so there's no place to hang them there.)

I think this depends so much on local situations. I see ideagirl's point, and as many have stated above, many of us are willing to pay a premium to encourage local business. BUT, this is a two-way street: local businesses should definitely be aware that they are competing for business that is also offered online, often for cheaper, and actively implement the friendly, helpful service that is the big advantage they have over online retailers. Sorry but guilting me into shopping locally is not going to cut it, when I walk into stores that have a huge mark-up and can't be bothered to assist me. I understand the higher costs local business incurs and willingly pays a bit more. Hundreds more? No, because at that point I can't afford it at all. My tactic is to check locally first - go into the store, look around, and see what happens. Unfortunately, I am often ignored and/or treated with utter indifference. At that point my philosophy is that if they don't care to have my business, I'm happy to spend less online.