I sure didn't miss the equinox, i'd been counting the days...a long, hot, dry summer, a WAY overly ambitious garden and toooo many projects, combined with my lousy genetics had me ready for a change of seasons. But I've got the honey harvested, tomato juice done, and maybe one more batch of sauce to go, the chicken house is finished, except half the shingles and some paint...and nest boxes...and better roosts than the skid they're using now...and on and on.... My late corn did pretty well also, but i only did three rows and didn't have the energy or time to set up the electronet fence, so the coons got most of it. They got 5 of my chickens, too, despite the electronet(which claims to repel dingoes and wolves in addition to the masked marauders). Anybody have a good recipe for raccoon?? I'm thinkin shish-kebabs or maybe coonburgers? Coon pie? Still need to freeze the last of the green beans, pull up the dry beans (canellini, black, yin-yang and soy), want to make some sauerkraut... wish i could get the gardens cleaned up before snow...just once in my life... THe flocks of migrating robins are frequent visitors to my couple acres of grass, and the bluebirds, goldfinches and doves are already in their winter flock-together mode. Add power-washing the feeders to my To-Do scroll...Kerouac's got nothin on me...well, except that he got somewhere with his... Oh well...gotta take time to smell the grandbaby, only a couple more swimming days left, I'm just waiting for her to get up from her nap so we can go outside and play on this gorgeous fall afternoon. She's just like Grammy, well-insulated against the cold water, the pool is an inviting 66 degrees and nothin could keep her(or me) out of it! lynnie b

I have got to disagree somewhat. I don't know for sure why your fish died but it wasn't just that it got cold. I am sure that I have got AT LEAST 8 inches of ice on my pond now and the fish will be fine. They have gone through 5 winters and I don't think that I have lost more than a couple of fish in the winter. You may want to consider just shutting off the pumps when it is cold. Circulating the water too much can prevent the thermoclines from developing and the water on the bottom gets colder than if you just let the surface freeze and not stir up the water. Perhaps swimming against the current in the skimmer was part of the stress that killled them. When the fall weather approaches freezing I turn off the waterfall and the skimmer and wait until spring. I use a home made de-icer to keep a hole in the ice. But even that has gone out and I have had the hole freeze up for 2 weeks at a time without any loss of fish. Most recently the GFI tripped and the hole froze over for a week or more. The tropical fish would need to come in but comets, koi etc can take the cold if they don't have additional stresses and you aren't super-cooling the water by circulating cold water from the surface to the bottom.

So sorry to hear about your Blues, Nina. How very sad. Like Bluebars said, you will probably never know what happened which is too bad. Sparrow spookers are a great invention. I have to tell you a story about one this year. I had it on a house that the Blues started laying eggs in. After the 4th egg was laid Daddy Blue disappeared. Momma during this time was so very skittish. One day was a pretty windy day and you could see she didn't like the noise the spooker was making when the mylar strips would hit each other. She kept going into the box but then right back out several times. I decided to see what she would do if I took the spooker off so I went down and took it off. Got back to the house and looked at the nestbox and there was a TRES looking in the box. That fast there was another bird at that nestbox, nothing ever bothered it once the spooker was on it but as soon as it was down, bam something was checking it out. Needless to say it went back up immediately. I didn't intend on leaving it down, just wanted to see if that was what was bothering momma so much. Thankfully on day 5 of Daddy's disappearance he returned and momma settled down. Take Care Donna

I wear my contacts with swim goggles or snorkel gear, but never open my eyes or let water run into the eye while a contact is in there. I've worn contacts for 17 years. Last year in preparation for Cancun, I went and bought a pair of prescription RayBans. The place I went to (LensCrafters) let me pick out a really cool looking pair of RayBan shades, and they put my prescription in them! No one knew/knows they are prescript . They look 'normal'. I then bought one of those huggy things for the stems of the shades, which wrapped around my head. Even with some nice waves and getting dunked, the RayBans stayed PUT and I could see. I just wiped the water droplets off when I surfaced. I cannot swim without being able to see, I am that blind... I'd panic, even if it was in a pool I knew very well. - darkeyedgirl p.s. there is also Lasik surgery.. no more contacts OR glasses. Once my eyes quit changing I'm going to fork over the $$$ and get it done finally.