Can ya believe my DH (who is not a shopper) sat in the truck and waited for me for one of those stores??? I seen it on the way in and was about to break my neck to look. I didn't even ask him and when we left town, he pulled in and said ,"ok, hon, ya got 30 minutes." What a sweetie! Kudzu,that is so funny! I paid 50 cents for mine. I almost didn't see it, it was behind the little gate when I picked it up. oh, luna, I know! We would have a blast shopping together!! Sunny, I'm such a dummy, I didn't even think to look! All I could see was a little seat or birdbath for my gr'daughters to put in the fairy garden we are making. I will look, though when I get home tonight! Thx, for the heads-up, Karen, I'll keep a look-out for Kirk lurking around my cabin treasures!LOL!! But, ya know, it would be fun to go shopping with him and Carol,cuz we like the same decor, although we'd be fighting over the bears!!!!LOL! Thx for sharing my excitement on my new finds! blessings-sherri

I went out and ran errands most of the day after I did the harvesting early this morning, and then came home and canned. While canning, I logged on and looked at the QPF and saw the rain had shifted north, Scott, and I was happy for you. It was unlikely it would expand and catch both of us, so if it wasn't going to hit us here, then at least it seems likely to hit y'all there. Enjoy every drop that falls. Y'all don't have to worry about me. We'll be fine. We've had worse years than this one. For as dry as it has been overall, at least the majority of this year's rainfall here has fallen in June and July. That's actually better than if it had mostly fallen back in February and March and then very little since then. I just get tired of having to irrigate all the time when folks 100 miles north are flooding. It makes me want to stomp my foot like a 4-year-old and proclaim "It's not fair!" I also can think of more fun ways to spend money than sending it to the water company. (grin) I thought the grass in the yard looked a little greener this morning after I had watered it on Sunday, and then Tim mowed while I was canning pickles, and now the lawn is brown again. We did get rain here yesterday and a little this morning. It added up to 0.15". We'll try to make that bountiful amount of rain last as long as possible before we feel compelled to water the garden again. : ) Looking on the bright side of things, when only 0.15" of rain falls, you don't have to deal with muddy feet and muddy paws because there is no mud. Helen, Well, it all depends. Are they big drops or small drops? Kim, It is about time y'all have a good rainy summer. You haven't had one up there in so long. It probably is just as well that we aren't going to get heavy rainfall. I'm harvesting watermelons about every other day and if it rains too much once they are maturing, it can ruin their flavor. So, I suppose this week it is good not to have too much rain for the sake of the melon flavor. August melons usually have the most superb flavor because they ripen in the heat on low rainfall, so in that sense, we are right on schedule. As long as the cool weather lasts, we'll enjoy that whether we get a little rain, a lot of rain, or no rain at all. At least with the significantly cooler weather and lots of clouds, the soil moisture we have isn't evaporating as quickly as it was on the really hot days last week and over the weekend. Since it isn't likely to be raining much here tomorrow, I'd like to spend the whole day doing garden maintenance. It isn't every year you get a day in July so cool that you can happily spend the whole day weeding, deadheading, mulching, etc. I'm looking forward to that. Kim, I have a Mantis cultivator. It is the perfect size for me and I can do just about anything with it. I am amazed at how well it works on dense, compacted clay---as long as that clay has some moisture in it. The Mantis is no match for clay that is dry and has baked as hard as concrete, but it is great in clay with a little moisture. In the small areas of sandy soil that we have, it is awesome, and it works fine in the well-amended clay that we've been improving for 16 years now---cuts right through that amended clay like a knife cuts through butter. I don't know how it would handle caliche clay/rocks because I've never tried it on that. Sometimes my Mantis and I together can break up fairly hard clay better than Tim can do it with the big, heavy, rear-tine tiller, which is something I didn't expect. It seems like the Mantis digs in and bites into the soil with its smaller width while the bigger tiller is bouncing around on top of the clay and throwing Tim around with it. I love my Mantis and if it ever dies or breaks down to the point that it is beyond repair (in 5 years we've had no trouble at all with it), I'd buy another one in a heartbeat. Dawn

Karen, glad to hear that you are feeling a little better. I can surely relate to all you have been dealing with. We had the last of our 3 family weddings yesterday, this time my son's. It was a beautiful day and the wedding was just beautiful. It was an outside wedding and reception and it couldn't have been lovelier. She used fall flowers and deco's and her dress was ivory, and after the service, they had a lovely barbecue dinner with great food. I really enjoyed it= the fact that it waas the last of 3 in 3 months time, (also a grand daughter and a grandson) When I finally got home last night, the fibro really hit me. I was so tired and achey that I went to bed at 8:oo. My Dh woke me up this morn and asked if I was going to church, but when I looked at the clock it was 10:10, so I said "I guess not today" I"ve just been dragging all day long, and am so achey I can hardly move without moaning and groaning. I don't think the weather forcast is helping any either , we are supposed to start getting rain tonight that will last through Thursday. I thought if I could just get through these weddings, I would feel better, but I guess the Fibro devil had other plans. I am glad that you are feeling better though. Maybe what is really wrong with me is that I haven't had my "retial therapy" for a couple of weeks. Maybe I just need a few hours out of the house by myself. Take care, Janet

Yay, another full day off to work on remodeling! We finished up the last 20 square feet of tiling, and I'll do the final grout tomorrow. I put the baseboards in the laundry room part, and here's how it looks, before and after. The before doesn't show the floor, but it was the same gray berber carpet you see in other photos. How nice to finally have tile! In addition to the tile, the walls are now a soft cheery yellow instead of grayish-off-white. The cupboards have been banished to the garage. I decided the powder room paint wouldn't do, so I went paint shopping and bought a sample (Lowe's now sells 7-oz trial cans). I liked it much better, so I went back and bought a gallon, but when I put it on, it turned out it was a different color from the trial one (more butterscotch than pumpkin). Here's the confused wall with original bright yellow on the right, final color on the bottom and trial color on the top left. I actually liked the butterscotch more than the trial pumpkin, so we stuck with it. I cut the baseboards and DH worked on installing the toilet and vanity, cutting the feet down on the back and trimming the baseboard around the edge of the vanity trim. (Thanks to those who helped out with ideas how to make that fit.) Here's how it now looks! We're still waiting for the faucet to arrive (online purchase), so I'll post the final photos when we get it in. We just need to finish up the last of the grout, install the casings, do a bunch of caulking and we're done!