Laura, There is some reason you have spider mites in such large numbers then. It wouldn't have to be that you specifically are using pesticides. It could be that you're in an area of town where pesticide use is heavy (or, even worse, the city sprays pesticides to kill mosquitoes and wipe out lots of beneficials in the process) and that wipes out the beneficial insect population that normally helps keep the spider mites under control. I had a lot more trouble in town where neighbors were big pesticide users. Out here in the middle of nowehere, pesticide use is way down compared to what it was in town (except in a bad grasshopper year when the ranchers spray like mad) but herbicide use is up. It also could be you get nitrogen runoff from overfertilized yards if you're in town and your land has rainwater run across it from elsewhere. There's lots of possibilities. I just know that every time someone tells me they have massive spider mites, something is out of balance in their own little ecosystem. The reason plants that are overfed nitrogen are so appealing to certain pests is because they are high in carbs and sugar. That's why too much nitrogen is bad, and I avoid it for that reason. The reason pesticides hurt is because they wipe out the beneficial insects. It could be you have a low population of beneficials for a reason that isn't your fault or too much nitrogen for the same reason. I'm not saying it is the fault of the gardener that spider mites show up, but just that certain practices allow them to get out of control. Because none of us has a protective bubble covering the air space over our property, we are affected by what people around us do. Several years ago in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, some cities went crazy spraying for mosquitoes because of the West Nile virus. Horrible things happened. Organic gardeners who'd spent years building up a good population of beneficial insects lsot them. People who had fish in lily ponds, and some of them were very expensive koi, lost them. Those folks weren't doing anything wrong--they and their ecosystem just were negatively impacted by someone else's action. It happens all the time. Several years ago during a severe grasshopper outbreak, ranchers sprayed seemingly nonstop to combat the grasshoppers, and we lost many songbirds including all the local bluebirds. I wasn't spraying anything, but noticed a definite decrease in bird numbers because birds travel from place to place. Think of your garden as an ecosystem. In a healthy ecosystem, everything stays more or less in balance and no one insect becomes too dominant. That's because every insect pest is eaten by some other one (or by birds, toads, etc.) and every insect eats something or someone. So, if everything is in balance, no particular insect gets out of control and overpopulates. When something, like spider mites, runs amok, there's some reason why. The key is to analyze it and figure out what is out of balance. I have a perfect example from our garden. This year we moved the potatoes out of the main garden and into an unfenced auxiliary area. It seemed to be working just fine, until I realized that every time I hilled up the potatoes, the hens got in there and did their 'digging and scratching' looking for bugs and un-hilled the potatoes. So, I hammered some fence stakes into the ground and put a 3' tall chicken wire fence around the potatoes. Just a couple of days later we had a huge explosion in the population of Colorado Potato Beetles, which normally aren't a problem for us. I hand-picked them forever, but was wondering what was 'out of balance'. Well, first I moved them from an area where they'd grown forever and it is likely the beneficials that feed on potato beetles were still over there in the big garden waiting for the CPBs to show up. In the meantime, 20 or 30' away, the CPBs were in a garden with a low population of beneficials. One night, as I was leaving the potato garden, there was an agitated turtle trying to get in. A light bulb went off in my head. Every year that turtle lives in the potato bed and probably was eating CPBs. Because I'd fenced him AND the chickens out, nothing was in my potato garden eating the CPBs. So, I opened the gate and let him in. I also have let the chickens back in on a limited basis. They seem to be controlling the CPBs again, and I've been reminded that the beneficial garden helpers have to be able to do their jobs. If I move a crop away form the beneficials, I have to take care of the pests myself until beneficials can relocate themselves to the new area. Whenever I have an issue with pests that I normally don't have, if I think about it, I can figure out what has changed. This year we have grasshoppers galore. Normally they aren't a huge problem, but this year they are. What changed? Four-legged predators killed off our 30 guineas last year and we made a conscious decision to not replace them this year in case predators are hanging around wanting to eat them again this year. (We're going to get some again next year.) Since one guinea can eat up to two pounds of grasshoppers a day, that means we're really missing those guineas and it shows in the huge numbers of hoppers we're seeing this year. This probably would have been a bad hopper year anyway, but not having the guineas has made it worse. I have noticed the songbirds are hanging out in the garden more this year and I assume they're bug-hunting while in there. I don't know exactly what it is, but for some reason, you seem to be lacking the beneficial insects that eat spider mites. The solution is to buy and release some or try to attract some. All I did the first three years here was work to improve the soil and to attract beneficials and build up their population. Once I achieved that, the pest problems diminished considerably. I use a few 'tricks' to help me manage the spider mites, and I'll talk about them tomorrow. Dawn

Diane, Eat your okra fried and you'll love it. My dad used to mix up a garden dish that I love, using whatever was handy from the garden. He'd usually start out frying some bacon in a cast iron skillet. While the bacon was frying, he'd dice up some potatoes and onions and slice some okra. If he had peppers or summer squash, he'd slice 'em and dice 'em and add them to the pile he was preparing. He'd remove the bacon from the skillet when it was done, leaving the bacon grease in the pan. Then he'd throw the potatoes, onions and okra (and other handy misc. veggies)into the skillet and fry it. When it was almost done, he'd sprinkle a couple of handfuls of cornmeal over the top of the mixture, stir it in and fry until the cornmeal was browned, but not blackened. Then, he'd remove the pan from the burner, crumble the bacon over the top, add salt and pepper, and serve it. It was the best! Some people make a dish like my dad's but they mix together a little flour and corn meal and dredge the chopped veggies through them before cooking them, so they're basically breaded first. I prefer okra fried or oven-roasted, but I'll eat it in gumbo too. If you need a 'fancy' okra recipe, I have one for Okra Parmigiana, and you can make okra pickles too. In Dori Sanders' "Country Cooking" cookbook, there's a recipe she calls "Yankee Okra" for people who don't like okra, which is basically okra sautee'd in oil with herbs. She says one batch feeds 4 to 6 Yankees or 2 Southerners. She also has a recipe for Okra with Cabbage and Sweet Potatoes, which is a combination I never would have thought up. Dori Sanders' Country Cooking cookbook is one of my favorite cookbooks because it is full of veggie recipes. (She grew up on a farm and ran a real farm market stand where folks could buy their farm veggies and always posted recipes for them, showing how they could cook the veggies her family was selling. I believe that's how the cookbook came about....putting her farm stand recipes into a book.) If anyone is interested in any of those recipes, let me know and I'll post them. Dawn

Thanks, Marlene, OA & punk...I can't believe how fast time flies ...I never believed my Gr'ma when she would tell me that! Ha! (now I am walkin' in her shoes!) OA ... those are flat ornaments (actually tea candle holders)...a gift from a Secret Santa many yrs ago at work. & yes, some Christmas books there...the gr'kids' pic books & board books shelf is hidden by the tree ...I miss seeing/working w/new books! But I usually buy at least one a yr. I'll attach a pic w/fave books on another shelf, "Stranger in the Woods" ...beautifully photo illustrated. Santa & his 'list' is 10+ yrs old now ...& still working...a big snow globe that flies snow around & plays music. Now 2 weeks til Christmas! ;-) Jeanne S.

Good Morning! No hubba Bubba BUT I woke up to a really wonderful letter from my SO. He talked about how far we have come from our first meeting and how he loves me with all his heart. He had gotten up and cut up a bowl of fresh fruit and let it on the kitchen table with this wonderful letter. GREAT way to start the day. He had sent the most beautiful roses to my office on Friday. What I think happened is we watched Oprah the night before and her show was about the most romantic men. It must have inspired him. I feel pretty special. Now I am pissed at the DEX ( Still a swear word ). He told my DD that he was planning something special for V-day...BUT nothing happened...no phone call, email..nothing...ARRGGHHH...I hate to see her disappointmednt NHSuzanne: I hope I didn't make you feel bad by my last post. I am glad you are taking charge of all of us getting together. I am like you...and I just take charge on a lot of things...so charge away... BJ: I have been doing the same thing with cleaning. DD practices softball next to a charity store and so I made a vow to take something in there EVERY TIME we go to practice. Little by little I am declutting althought I would LOVE to have TLC's Clean Sweep come in. Our basement is a cluttered mess. I would love to turn it into an exercise room. When I was dropping off donations, I noticed a Bally Lifestepper for sale there for 35.00. I was going to get it on my next trip...BUT it was gone. Probably good because I don't know if I need another piece of equipment in the house. Raeanne: Believe it or not...I received an invitation to a wedding in LA for July 23rd. We don't know if we are going but I will keep you posted. I hope that you will be in Chicago for more than a day or so. So we shall see. IS your DD still thinking about San Diego?? Besh: I hope things are better with your DFIL and that you are happy that DH is home with you and your kids. Marci: My kids gave me another Jodi Picoult book for my birthday. This one is Picture Perfect. Let me know if you would like to read it when I am done. Patti: I FINALLY sent the books off to you last week. Keep your eye out for them. I hope you and Dave are feeling well. I wish I was closer so that I could help. I don't know if I said that I was going to San Francisco for a few days. I am going to a convention for people who use Photoshop software. It is a huge event that happens twice a year. My boss is sending me there for fun to commerate my five years with her company. SO is coming with me and going to the convention too. We are staying at the very cool hotel in the art district of downtown SF. My mom is coming up from Atlanta to take care of my DD while we are gone. She is very excited and so is DD. She loves her Grandma and says she is a lot of fun. SO and I both love SF so we are very excited to go and have a mini vacation. I went and saw my best friend who was diagnosed with Breast cancer in December. They removed both breasts because of the type of cancer they discovered she had. She had the surgery last week. I was up at her home to set up her DSL service. She was very silly from all the meds they have her taking. Her DH is a trooper because she is a handful. She said she was sad because of all the people who want to help her family. She isn't used to being on the receiving end of help. She was off to get her hair frosted one more time before she loses it. She will have to have both chemo and radiation. It is so hard to watch her knowing what lies ahead. She has not lost her sense of humor though...when my daughter asked how she was feeling, she said "Just a little flat!" She then proceeded to tell my DD that "for once in our lives, my boobs are smaller than your moms!" LOLOL Well I am off...SO and I are looking at getting a new stove ( YIPPEEE ) We have had two hand me downs and I am begging for a new one that cooks evenly for a change. We are also looking at getting new family room furniture. Wooo Hooo I love getting new things Have a great day!