In the last few years I've mostly been making jams and jellies, Ana's raspberry vinegar and Annie's strawberry rhubarb jelly are a couple of my favorites. I'm definitely going to try Natals Berry Berry Hot Pepper Jelly, it looks soooooo good. I freeze more than I can nowadays, always used a water bath when I did can so that limited what I could put up. I used to do a lot of peaches, pears, cherries and plums, they taste way better than what you can buy, especially peaches. We've got a propane burner (for want of a better name) which we take out and fire up outside either in the courtyard or lathhouse where it's cool and do any water bath canning there, no need to steam up the kitchen. Annette

Scully, yep - we are a bit warmer here, but it's the overnight hard freezes that crack birdbath basins. On cold winter days, if I notice an ice skim forming, I'll add warm water too, but if I'm gone for the day the risk of freezeover escalates. The heater works 24/7. We've had a warm fall too, but if the Old Farmers Almanac is right, once it gets here, we're in for it this winter. Btw - Everytime I open this thread I get a mental picture of Woodstock ice skating on the birdbath - brings a smile to my face ....... thanks! Another little aside is that in the heat of summer, I take a pitcher full of ice cubes out to the birdbath - the flapping about definitely increases when I cool it down! :o) Love my birds!

I have one like this that will fit any bath, I paid about $50 at a pet store, but been using it for more than 10 years. I'd like to try one of the ones that are submersible, the flat circular ones, they're cheaper too, but i can't say how they'd hold up. This one can get knocked over on busy days, but I have to fill the bath everyday anyway, so it's no biggie. I'm convinced that water brings as many if not more birds than food in winter, I have flocks of bluebirds, finches, doves, sparrows, everything all day long lining up for a turn at the bath. When we have long below freezing spells, i often have to fill twice a day. Another Lynn in IN ;~) Here is a link that might be useful: the type of heater i have.

I am in the same zone as you are and last season I tried growing melons for the first time ever. I had moderate success with them (about “moderate” - see below). First of all, I selected earliest melons recommended - I grew hybrids “Halona” Muskmelon and “Uncle Sam” Honeydew. I started them In peat moss pots inside and then planted with pots in the garden under the row cover somewhere early in June and the soil was covered with IRT plastic mulch also. Somewhere in mid-June, I removed the row cover and didn’t use it anymore. The first problem I faced: cucumber and squash beetles. I had a very bad infestation last year - they attacked my cumbers, squash and melons - this somewhat slowed the growth of the young plants, because I could not keep up picking them off all my plants and they are very voracious. Finally, melons outgrew the bugs and started to grow fast. I wonder if I should’ve kept the row cover longer just to keep bugs away? Second: I made a mistake by replacing one plant that died for unknown reason with thea melon transplant of unknown variety bought at the store. This was a BIG mistake. The hybrids I mentioned above are supposedly resistant to the powdery mildew, but the transplant I bought was not - in August, the PM infestation started on this single NOID melon which eventually spread on other melons. Third: wildlife. When my melons started to ripen, first ravens and then raccoons discovered them. I wasn’t sure how to keep them away - every day several most ripe melons had holes in them or were completely devoured by hungry creatures. Wild beasts destroyed a good half of my entire crop of melons. Despite all these misfortunes, I had a very decent crop of melons: Halona melons were first to ripen in mid-August, but they are smallish in size - some are the size of a man’s fist or a bit bigger. Couple of weeks later, Uncle Sam started to ripen - these were generally twice as big as Halona and for a few weeks we ate melons every single day. So, I learned from my mistakes and I am willing to try again… Few pics of my melons: This post was edited by green_go on Fri, Feb 6, 15 at 20:23