jo3ponies, Hold a white sheet of paper underneath the leaves and thump the leaves. See if those little yellow and gray spots fall off onto the paper and start moving around. That would be the first clue they are insects. If you have a magnifying glass, you can look at them through the magnifying glass and see if they look like insects or eggs. Insects generally would have legs you could see. About how big are the yellow and gray spots? 1/16th inch? 1/8th inch? 1/32nd inch long? Figuring out the size helps you begin to figure out what you have. What you would, could or should do with them depends on what they are. You could, of course, spray the undersides of the leaves with a general purpose pesticide. If you do that, please do it in the evening hours when the bees are inactive. I think it is better to be sure of what you have before you spray, because even organic pesticides can harm beneficial insects so I try to avoid them as much as possible. If you have something like aphids on the leaves of your cucumber plants, spraying the undersides of the leaves with a sharp stream of water often will knock them off. If they come back, spray them again. After a few days of that, they usually pack up the bags and move someplace else. I'm going to link the Texas A&M Cucurbit Problem Solver. Maybe you'll see something on it that looks like what you're seeing. If you click on the link, it will take you to the Cucurbit Problem Solver main page. Then, on that page click on the word "leaf" if you want to go to the page that deals with foliage disorders, or click on "insects" to go to that page. Then, on each page, look at the photos to see if you see one that looks similar to what you're seeing. If so, click on the photo and it takes you to more info about what you're seeing. There are many insects that can and will attack cucumbers, but about the only pests I see on my cucumber plants are cucumber beetles or blister beetles. I think aphids are a good possibility merely because they are so common. Leaves can curl for many reasons, and the curling of the leaves may or may not be related to whatever you're seeing on the leaves. Also, you might want to google and look at a photo of lady bug larvae. They are grey and sort of orange (the orange could look yellow I think) and look nothing at all like a lady bug. If that is what you have, they are beneficial insects who are busy gobbling up pests like aphids and mites that are on your cucumber plants. The first time someone sees lady bug larvae, they tend to think they're bad insects but actually they are beneficial ones. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: TAMU Cucurbit Problem Solver

When we have a county burn ban, our commissioners usually lift it once our KBDI drops below 600. I don't know that the OFS uses that same criteria when making recommendations to Gov. Fallin, but I have been expecting them to lift the ban for some counties for a couple of weeks now, so the move didn't surprise me. We are having small fires in our county, but nothing that has gotten the least bit rowdy or out-of-control lately, so I think that they could lift even our burn ban (our KBDI is 661 this morning) right now (which they did not), and we wouldn't have serious wildfire trouble at this point in time. The trouble will come after you have a few frosts and killing freezes if it is still very dry and then you have all that dry, standing vegetation which will burn easily whether it is dead annual vegetation or dormant perennial vegetation. We need to have a really wet fall and winter so that the winter fire season isn't bad. Nothing about our soil is in good shape, Larry, except where I've been watering in the veggie garden and around the fruit trees. We're starting to see cracks in the soil near the house where we haven't had them before, so today and tomorrow I'm going to try to water long and hard in those areas to try and get those cracks to close back up. I'll probably have to water a while, let it soak in, then water again, etc. You know how hard it is to get clay to absorb water when it is rock-hard. Carol, I imagine it will be a real relief to everyone to be able to burn that piled up wood from the big storm that hit your area. As long as it is sitting there, it is such a fire hazard. I'd rather be able to burn that stuff deliberately and have it under control than to have a raging wildfire burn through the area and get it. Some of the Texas counties have been lifting their burn bans here and there along the river. One county made the announcement lifting their burn ban, then said that people should NOT go out and burn brush or do prescribed burning of land for brush removal because it still was too dry to burn. That made me wonder why they lifted the burn ban if they were going to stand there and say "but don't do any burning". That whole thing made no sense. Dawn

With the temps we have had, I knew there had to be an explanation! No need for the heated birdbath yet. No juncos so far, and haven't seen a flicker for months, no cardinals for a while either. Haven't put up any feeders yet, but they will go up later this month. Lots of resident bluebirds are still around, as well as nuthatches, chickadees, downys, some blue jays. Goldfinches have been scarce ever since they pretty much stripped the sunflowers. That will change as soon as the thistle feeder goes up. Hoping the abundant crabapples will bring in the waxwings like they did year before last...nothing last year. And there is an upside to the leaves falling...better visibility. Too bad there will be so little daylight. Trade-offs! Susan

After so many years of making the garden bigger, it is hard to give in and make it smaller. Of course, Mother Nature is helping by making the shade encroach from the west and north of the front garden. The voles help by making it frustrating to get too fancy with the back garden. All in all, I am on the right path for me. During all the heavy canning years, I promised myself that when it stopped being fun, I'd stop doing so much of it. Well, canning all the time stopped being fun, so I've cut back a lot, and I'll keep cutting back. I don't think I'll ever give it up completely because it still is enjoyable when done in reasonable amounts, but I can be happy doing much less canning than I have done each year over the last decade or so. I grew a row of mini-sunflowers right in the garden about a decade ago. I had two kinds. One was Teddy Bear, and the other one was a single-flowered, multi-branching one whose name I no longer remember. They both did great and were so cute. I want to have that sort of fun with flowers again without worrying that too many flowers will equal too few veggies-----it is okay if there's fewer veggies. George, Some years are just that way. With Jerreth's health issues and the final part of her Master's Degree program, I do not know how in the world she is finding time to help your daughter renovate her house. I bet they are having fun doing it. Like you, I hate growing food and having it spoil because I cannot get to it, but you're only one person and can do only so much, so don't beat yourself up over the lack of canning time this year. Something had to give....and, if canning was it, so be it. My solution this year is just to feed the deer when I have more than I can process or more than we can eat fresh. The deer never know what they'll find on the compost pile lately, and are thrilled with whatever is there. My Heidi seeds this year probably came from Victory Seeds, but I've ordered them from various sources over the years and never had a bad batch. They seem to be consistent no matter who sells them, so I don't worry or fret about my source. Jen, Maybe that was a children's play area. Once amended with lots of organic matter, it ought to make great garden soil, especially for plants that love sandy soil (melons, southern peas, etc.) and those that demand great drainage. Things grow well in our amended sand out back, but I do have to water it more than I water the amended clay out front. Most of the sandy soil areas around us that are naturally occurring are deep sand that drains really fast (much more quickly than ours) and are infested with root knot nematoes. Our sandy soil is not infested with rkn's, for which I'm really grateful. I've often wished I just had a gigantic mixer that would mix together the clay from the front garden with the sandy/silty soil from the back, but of course, I don't. Still, adding clay to sand can work (or vice versa) as long as you add lots of organic matter too. Isn't it fun planning for next year? I love doing it while things are fresh in my mind.