Yes, guides with arrows pointing to field marks aren't the ultimate in identification. Guides with notes about other birds with similar characteristics and then explanations about what to look for the tell the two apart are helpful. I have found that in most cases where IDs are difficult it's really beneficial to research more than one resource. We really have some tools now that weren't commonly available even fifteen years ago and that's access to the internet and cheaper digital cameras. I keep a digital right by the regular birding window. I take rapid frames of the birds in question from as many angles as I can. Sometimes you don't have time to focus and be fussy. Getting a less than perfect picture is not always a failure. If it helps you to catch the target sitting next to a known bird, immediately you have a handle on size. I also prefer real photographs I find on this forum, because painted representations just leave too much to artistic license. LOL. I sometimes wonder how many really cool sparrows I missed by logging them as something common? So many folks just causally dismiss them because they look similar. This is where you sometimes find your lifers! Keep a notepad handy to your observation station to mark down anything you notice on field marks. I have a good memory but the image in the brain can play tricks on you quickly. Draw a pic if you must, and try to catch some photos. Document, document and document.

Dear Deb, My heart goes out to you as you try to belileve in a life after this one. My faith was stringhtened by being with my Momma when she died. Not because I was just with her. But because I witnessed something I can not explaine, to myself or to others. I was sitting on the sofa that day and I noticed that my Mom's breathing was odd. They call it 'fish out of water breathing'. It went on for a while and we could not get her to rouse up or respond in anyway. We knew it was her time to pass and my sister and I sat on either side of her, each holding a hand. Just before she died she opened her eyes, focused on something over our sholders and shook off our hands, and raised her arms, then in weakness her arms fell down, once more before her very last breath she shook off our hands and reached up her arms, like a small child asking to be held, her eyes opened and tears sprung into them, she had a look of complete surprise, then she smiled a small smile and exhaled. That was it, she was gone. I looked at my sister and said 'did you see that too'? And my sister said she had. I was stunned. My Momma saw something or someone I could not see. I remember looking back over my sholder to see what she was looking at. I know she was reaching up to hold someone, she was happy to see them. Was it my Dad who had died a year before, or her parents who had been gone many years? I guess I will not know who came to get her until I see her again... I only know without doubt that my Mom died in front of me and she went from our hands into the arms of someone unseen by us. I believe it was my Dad. That expierence changed me and gave me a stringth in my faith like nothing else I have expierenced so far in my short 50 years. So I can tell you without doubt, I know there is another life beyond this life. I hope this can help you. I do not tell this to many people because in the retelling with just mere words, I can not convey the awe, or magnitute of the expierence itself. I pray that you will find comfort soon. For me, grief has been like the sharp edge of a knife that cuts away at my soul, and time has been the only substance that has been able to dull the edge of the knife. I send you love and positive energy for healing.

saragene. stay away from mobile homes. 1. they treat it like a car. 2. it depreciates rapidly. 3. it is over priced. 4. most who sell them are crooks. if you decide to buy one of these poorly constructed so-called homes, do the following; 1. get your own appraiser. 2. get your own inspector. not someone the dealer/seller knows. 3. investigate the companies back ground. check for dissatisfied customers. there are plenty of links on the web. 3. investigate the dealer/seller background. 4. check local and state laws regulating how the home is to be sold and set up in your area. 5. get background references of the guy who installs your home. wouldn't hurt to get that about the dealer/seller either. 5. how many complaints were made against the dealer/seller/installer? These is plenty more to check into BEFORE you buy a mobile home. I will leave it at that for now. I'm waiting for the industry people to chime in on how you should not listen to me. You'll know what i mean when it happens. Good luck, and think about buyinh as Jim Walters home or something like that. You will be much happier in the future.

We noticed how electricity has gone up in this last year. Sigh. This new house is just a slight bit larger than our last house 1290 verses a little over 1300 SQ FT and the electric rate now is about 50 dollars more per month. I am not doing anything different. House is well insulated. Really glad we do not have more house to heat. I use our guest room as a sewing room and also a den for me to nap in when I choose to if hubby is watching TV in the living room. We have a futon in the guest room and I can nap comfortably on it when it is in the couch position. BUT if I had it to do different I would buy a small ,love seat size, hide a bed. I think for our room it would be easier for me to arrange the room. Also easier to set up the bed for company. The futon we have has to be turned around in the room to set it up. That is a pain on my back. The fold down couch futons might be a better choice. At the time I got mine I could not find one. One great thing about the futon we have is the available storage under it.So................. Chris