Well that is the standing as of now: Pat 16 Dorothy 19 Susan 18 Kim 18 Cassie 6 Ingrid 18 Eloise 12 ok those are the folks that have played today and I mailed each one of you a very own hint. Pam has 7 Tally 7 Frances 13 ....hope you are ok Frances!!! ??? Amelia 19 In the morning I will send your special hint out...it does not matter...cause tomorrow is unlimited words :-) you can post. GOOD LUCK!! Glad I am on the other end of this game ha ha ha Lucy

Aprile, I am so sorry you have such a horrible reaction to the wind chimes and I'm appalled that your neighbor treated so unkindly. I have wind chimes outside my back door and I love them. My house is very close to my neighbor's, so I did ask if the wind chimes bothered them. They assured me they did not and in fact they liked hearing them. But I would say this, if any of my neighbors came to me with a situation such as yours, I would be the first one to take down the chimes. Yes, I certainly would have the right to keep them up, but I can't believe that people cannot have compassion for someone that truly suffers from something that can be changed. I hope that if that was the case, that person would approach me. I will keep my chimes up and enjoy them until I am aware that they are a problem to someone else. I think that should be true of all our surroundings. If a neighbor blasts music, especially at late hours, it should be addressed. If someone's dog barks incessantly, especially at late hours, it should be addressed. But if no one complains or speaks up, it must be assumed that there is no problem. So don't be afraid to say something. It was appalling the reaction you got, but it shouldn't keep you from speaking up, in a non-confrontational way, of course. It is sad how little compassion people seem to have for one another these days.

Bressler, Thanks for confirming the Mexican honeysuckle is a slow starter. Had no idea and didn't want to leave it languishing for another year if poor placement was the cause. They're not seen growing or sold around Dallas much, so suspect it may be marginal during the worst of our cold/wet/clay combinations. Puppy definitely killed a smaller Texas star hibiscus by pulling the root ball out of the ground after a rain. I didn't find it in her hiding spot until after it was too torn up and dried out to replant. She also chewed the stems off of a larger one and it is showing no signs of life yet: We don't usually trim them until new growth starts because the stems have hollow cores and had read somewhere there's a greater chance of rot or freeze damage if water is able to enter over the winter (true???). Will give it more time, but our other two put up new shoots weeks ago. Pkponder, Puppy is actually pretty good about not chewing most things she shouldn't. She'll most often grab something just fallen out of a tree or that I've recently pruned off. However, she cannot seem to resist tall thin stems like hibiscus... so good chance she would also go after the pond cypress if able. Am pretty certain this chewing phase will pass, then we too will be left with just the occasional "impact damage". Baptisia seems to do okay in partial shade, but does appear to do better with 5+ hours of sun. Most likely reason ours had stayed so small was the adjacent Turk's caps had gotten so large I had trouble keeping them from shading the Baptisia from late June until first freeze. Roselee, Will look forward to Mexican honeysuckle eventually taking off if it proves to be root hardy this far north. It's funny to watch how the puppy can make her older, and usually sedate, dog visitors so rambunctious. A year, two maybe, before this winds down and then we MIGHT even miss it. Here she is with a piece of mulberry root retrieved from the compost pile for chewing..... a cage for the compost is in the works ;-)

No, we didn't flood....don't flood here usually. The flood following Harvey was the only time we've had water on the property. Harvey didn't cause us to flood....it was after it went out, turned around and came back and stalled out....did we flood.............but, we got almost five inches of rain, and that is very disheartening when I want the mud to dry up so we can get some decent pics of the place. So sorry you got water in your sun room. I hope it is an easy fix. I understand your stress. I have got to the point that I would almost prefer to move to the desert than deal with this constant rain. I was looking at the radar map and see what PKponder said about rain missing them. It went off to the south east. It never misses us though. :( The bayou is up and running fast though. We sold some land behind us, and the owner built a 2 acre pond, and a really nice dam. We can hear the water going over the dam....really loud. We walked back there to check on a beaver that has taken up residence in that pond. He has added some to the cement dam that is there. We get quite a kick out of him. I don't know if the owner even knows the beaver is back there, since he has his lodge on the side that connects to our pasture. I read a little about them....they eat bark, so he isn't hurting anything. Amazing how big a tree they can gnaw down. He is taking down trees on my side, which is okay with me.