You can start peppers and eggplants inside now. You probably would be OK starting tomatoes now and transplanting them outside in late April. For everything else that can be grown from transplants, look at the spring planting date for your part of the state, and start your seeds 3 to 5 weeks prior to that planting date, with 3 weeks being ideal. THE FALL GARDEN: You can plant almost everything in the fall garden that you would plant in the spring garden. Some plants do better when planted in the fall than in the spring, including brussels spouts and (for me) cabbage and other cole crops. The hardest part of planting a fall garden is that you must, by necessity, start new plants and seeds during Oklahoma's hottest, driest, most miserable weather. You can get around that by starting seeds in peat pellets indoors where it is cooler, hardening them off in semi-shade and the transplanting them into the ground, preferably on a cloudy day (or in the evening, so they have all night to recover). You also can give new plants some shade while they are getting established, using shadecloth and other methods, including spraying them with Wilt-Prufe. If you keep them well-watered, the tiny summer-planted transplants will catch hold and grow although you may not see a lot of topgrowth until the weather cools a little in September. Here's approximate planting dates for a fall garden in southern Oklahoma. If you are significantly further north, you may want to plant 2 weeks earlier so you can get a harvest before frost arrives. June 15th-July 1st: Cantaloupe, muskmelon, watermelon and any other European, Asian or American melons (seeds or transplants) July 1st-15th: Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers (all from transplants, not seed) July 15th: Sweet corn (seed) (I pre-soak it in water overnight to help it germinate more quickly, especially if the soil is very dry. July 15-30th: Cilantro (seed or transplants), pole beans (seed), southern peas (black-eyed peas, crowder peas, cream peas, etc.)(seed), winter squash (seed or transplants), pumpkins (seed or transplants) July 15th-August 15th: okra (seed or transplants) July 15th-September 1st: Summer squash (including zuchinni) (seed or transplants) July 25-August 10: potatoes (seed potato pieces) August 1st-Sept. 1st: collards (seed), brussels sprouts (seed or plants), cabbage (seed or plants), swiss chard (seed or plants), kohlrabi (seed or plants) August 1st-Oct. 15th: spinach (seed), mustard (seed), August 1st-15th: Rutabagas and turnips (seed), carrots and parsnips (seed), broccoli (seed or transplants), August 1st-October 1st: parsley (seed or transplants) August 15th-Sept. 10th: lettuce (seed or transplants) August 10th-20th: Bush beans (seed), lima beans (seed), cucumbers (seed or transplants) Sept. 1st-15: beets (seeds) Sept. 1st-Oct. 1st: peas Sept. 10th-Oct. 1st: Leeks (seed) Sept. 15th-Oct. 15th: Garlic (for a spring harvest) HEIRLOOM TOMATOES: I'm going to list the ones that not only have great flavor, but that have great production. Some that have INCREDIBLE flavor, like Brandywine, might only give you a few fruit per plant so they are VERY frustrating to grow. Black Krim (maroonish-greenish-reddish fruit) Cherokee Purple (or Cherokee Chocolate or Cherokee Green)(all taste about the same to me, only difference is skin color) Nebraska Wedding (Orange-gold fruit) Hillybilly or Royal Hillbilly Aunt Gertie's Gold Dr. Wyche's Yellow Mortgage Lifter (pink fruit) Dr. Carolyn (ivory to yellow cherry) Arkansas Traveler or Traveler 76 (not technically an heirloom, I suppose, but has been around Arkansas so long that I think of it as one) Earl's Faux (flavor almost as good as Brandywine, not technically an heirloom, but a sport or cross grown from at least one heirloom parent) Porter, Porter's Pride or Improved Porter (pinkish-red) Bradley (pink, an Arkansas heirloom) Marianna's Peace (pink) Snow White--another ivory to pale yellow cherry, fruit are larger than Dr. Carolyn Black Cherry--relatively new on the market, so I guess it is not an heirloom, but it has that special heirloom-type flavor Sungold--is not an heirloom, but it the best cherry tomato ever If I could only grow 5 heirlooms, I'd grow Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Snow White and Arkansas Traveler OR Nebraska Wedding. And, if I could only grow 5 hybrids, I'd grow Brandy Boy (flavor incredibly close to Brandywine's), Better Boy, Sweet Million, Sungold and Porterhouse. If I could only grow 5 tomato varieties total, I think I'd grow Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Sungold, Better Boy and Mortgage Lifter. That's my list of favorite tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid. And, if you asked me on a different day, you might get a different list. Each heirloom has a flavor that is unique and special, sort of like fine wine. And, flavor can vary from year to year and also varies due to soil and growing conditions. You didn't ask about paste tomatoes for canning or cooking, but some of the best ones are Opalka, Amish Paste, Grandma Mary's Paste, Martino's Roma and San Marzano Redorta. For sun-dried tomatoes, you can't go wrong with Principe' Borghese.

Sounds as though there are lots of animal lovers in your new neighborhood, but not a lot of animal caretakers. Some people just don't know what they don't know. THey know they want the cute and fuzzy, but not that they grow up and might need work! So, it sounds like you have an opportunity here! You can be an example for your neighbors as to how to care for an animal at the very least. You can also take it one step further and maybe provide free literature on vet clinics and low cost spay and neuter to your neighbors. If you don't have those services available locally, you can work to make those services available by joining a rescue group and working with other like minded folks. What I'm trying to say is what some other posters have said: there is POWER in numbers. Join a group. Found a group. Get the local kids involved in educational efforts and maybe they won't grow up to be their parents! You feel overwhelmed and a little alone now, but if you make contacts with other like minded folks, your effectiveness as an agent of change multplies! One person can't save them all....but a dozen people can save a neighborhood. It's like the old shampoo commercial. You tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and they tell two friends..... and the next thing you know, your county is actually opening an animal shelter where none existed before and the deputies just shot stray dogs (true story!).

Anyone with a large-throat bandsaw could make them for you. Whether or not they'd want to is another issue. Most of the commercial pedestals are turned or mostly round. Another source is Adams Wood Products. I'd like to see you put a proper finish on your table project; those RH tables are just one red wine Kool-Aid spill away from disaster.

i-chic: I want a tree like that! The pic of your son asleep under the tree with all those stuffies brought tears to my eyes. So, I can finally post my tree. As the chaos of our life continues I wasn't able to do much, but I really like it. It's the first time I've been able to do a "theme" tree - all red and silver. Sadly, the topper (a silver star you can just see) is too heavy for our little rosemary tree. From Christmas2008 Should I switch the angel and the frog to balance things? BTW, the tree is sitting on the hearth of our hideous fireplace (that will be completely redone some time in the hopefully near future. There's no mantle so our stockings are hanging from sconce holders on either side (you can see a bit of one on the right).