IronBelly: Thanks for your immediate response and the recommended link, which I've already checked out. When I arrive "home" this weekend, (more on that below **) I'll check out the University of Wisconsin and see if I can find out further information on the subject and either obtain a booklet from them or print out the information from the link you provided. A "Rain Garden" sounds like an interesting and worthwhile project. I am not certain that it may be entirely suited for our particular yard, since parts of our yard are rather "wet" during the spring - the moisture does drain slowly - at times. I don't know if it is because the water table is high and/or the ground is made up of heavy clay and/or if there are some minor springs around or a combination of several things. I'll have to ask my wife, Sue, who along with her former husband, bought the house many years ago. Speaking of Jock - time passes by so quickly - it must have been a few decades ago when I met Jock and saw his slide presentation. He showed one photograph of someone's house out on the edge of a city - I think or the country - the owner didn't wish to be a "horticultural drug dealer" any more (my phrase) and/or be over involved in the grass game (fertilizing, watering, grass cutting on end throughout the summer) and so removed the grass, etc. and planted prairie plants and grasses. Rather impressive when it finally came into full maturity. A "Rain Garden" project interests me for another reason. Sue and I have been thinking about putting in a small, hopefully inexpensive, water garden of some sort. Perhaps - a combination of the two might be something worthwhile to explore as a possibility. I'll have to do some extensive "homework" on this idea and see what Sue and I can come up with. As you indicated, the construction of this combined project, etc. or even a stand alone "rain garden" and finding suitable plants, etc. might be a "tall order in reality". I've been up to the Quad Cities a number of times - to visit and photograph the John Deere Headquarters; take a AVA (American Volkssport Association) hike; to check out the library at Augustana College, where I applied for a position shortly after graduation - see below ** - etc. Having been born and bred on the tallgrass prairie, I often miss its openness, but not, necessarily, the heat and humidity of prairie summers. ;>) ** FYI - I am a Librarian (MLIS - Rosary College - now Dominican Unversity, 1994) with the Michigan Department of Corrections and work in the St. Louis/Alma area of Michigan during the week and go home to Manistee during the weekend, holidays, and vacations. Did my undergraduate studies at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. (BA - History/Political Science, 1964). Again, thanks for your quick response and, especially, for your generous comments on my posting regarding the "Pro Gardening Auger System", which I have been using to plant bulbs and a few other plants before winter sets in. One or two folks in the Anitique Roses forum really got their underwear caught up in a bundle over my posting! Kind of surprised me in a way. Oh well. Thanks again and I'll talk with you later. Bill

Are you closer to the bay or ocean? Are hills or mountains nearby affecting the weather differently? The temperature, cloud cover and resulting sunlight intensity, and fog or humidity that the local landscape creates may be quite different than where you were previously. The few times I've been in the area I've noticed a big differences in weather conditions when driving only short distances. Tomatoes, squash, and basil all do much better for me when we have a warmer summer...ie. lots of 80-90 degree days instead of 70 to low 80 degree days. Five to ten degree temperature differences could be part of what is going on. If I remember correctly, the weather in the whole area out there has been different lately, too. After years of low rainfall and drought conditions, I recall that quite a bit of rain has come. The water is much needed, but it may have also brought cooler temps, less sun, and more fungal pressure. Obviously, I'm guessing at all of these, but any of them could cause at least some of the differences you are seeing.

Has anyone mentioned The Woman in the Windowby A.J. Finn? I searched the forum before posting, but it's not turning up. I can hardly believe this one hasn't been discussed here. Several people at my book club meetings have been raving about it, although it's not been on our reading list. I decided what the heck, I'd start it, and I cannot put it down. It absolutely has me on the edge of my seat, and is very well written -- the kind of story that just draws you in from the very beginning, with bizarre happenings that leave one guessing and wondering. I can't wait to see how this plays out, and hope I won't be disappointed at the end. I also just learned that the author is a young man, which surprised me, because of the depth of emotion he gives to his female character. Besides that, he's rather adorable.

Kim, That is too funny. Our older granddaughter won't eat hot dogs at all (perhaps she correctly suspects they are mystery meat) but the 5-year-old loves them. Because I enjoy William Woys Weavers heirloom vegetable books so much, I read some of his books on historical PA cooking, and tried to gain an appreciation for the food of Tim's ancestors. I think I failed. Tim's great, great-grandfather came to America from County Cork , Ireland, in the 1800s. Since we know that the Irish ate lots of potatoes, that is the form of historical Irish cooking I'm good at---growing and cooking potatoes, and of course, eating them. I don't think Tim ever was a fan of traditional PA cooking. Luckily for him, because his parents both worked in the 1960s and beyond, they had a part-time housekeeper who at least started dinner most nights and had it either fully cooked or ready to pop into the oven when they got home from school (his mom was a teacher) and work, and Mrs. P. prepared a lot of ethnic food for them---mainly Polish and Italian, so that is the sort of stuff Tim likes to this day. Sadly, I don't cook Polish style food and don't even know how, though he has tried to explain to me some of the dishes he remembers, but he and I both prepare a lot of Italian food. I keep thinking I'll make him some of Mrs. P's 'pigs in blankets', also called something that sounds like halupki though I am unclear on the spelling, which are not the pigs in blankets (hot dogs wrapped in crescent roll dough and cooked) we grew up eating in Texas a few decades ago. They are some sort of meat and other stuff wrapped in and cooked in cabbage leaves. The main Mrs. P. recipe that Tim and his sisters taught me in the 1980s or 1990s was for homemade Stromboli. Hmmm. Just thinking about Mrs. P's Stromboli makes me want to make some. Perhaps I'll do that this weekend and teach the kids how to make it. They love learning to cook, especially the 5 year old. She takes great pride in helping with each meal, and loves making homemade pizza, so she probably would enjoy making and eating Stromboli, as long as we put pepperoni in it, which we always do. Last night's BLT sandwiches were a huge hit with the girls. They told me they already had had BLT sandwiches at home with Chris and Jana, using their own home-grown lettuce but with store-bought tomatoes. I assured them that BLTs are even tastier when made with home-grown tomatoes, and they seemed to agree. I tried to make the meal as traditionally southern as I could by serving southern peas with snaps and bacon, corn, fried apples and sweet tea. If I'd had more time and a can of creamed corn I would have made corn casserole instead of just regular canned corn. I think that this afternoon it will be too cold for swimming---roughly ten degrees cooler than the last two days, so we will need a project. After spending 4 hours per day in the pool the last two days, the girls may have swimming pool withdrawal today. I'm thinking we'll teach them how to make home-made ice cream the old-fashioned southern way from scratch. It will be too wet, obviously, to do any lawn or garden work, and there's more rain in the forecast for today. We were mostly missed by yesterday's storms, at least in the sense that nothing stalled over us and dropped several inches of rain or any hail either, so we just had a normal thunderstorm and are not suffering from flooding like so many people a couple of counties north of us. I understand that at one point Paul's Valley had a foot of water in the streets yesterday after receiving several inches of rain in a very short time frame. Tim had to run on two weather-related fire calls---a single-vehicle rollover on the interstate at the height of our heaviest rain, and then a lightning-caused fire a few hours later after we'd already gone to bed. Really, though, the rain was just a mild disruption here. The air feels so cool and inviting today outdoors compared to the higher heat and higher humidity we have had the last couple of days, and I'm hoping the rain maybe knocked down a lot of the pollen that was in the air. Jennifer, Ugh. Our mom made us eat liver when she made it. I thoroughly hated it and mostly chewed it endlessly as her liver was always incredibly tough (my mom overcooked all meat except for roast beef and fried chicken) and then discreetly buried the chewed liver in my paper napkin in my nap until I could convince her that I'd eaten enough of it to be allowed to leave the table. Walking to McD's wasn't an option for us as it was probably 5 miles away. Tim likes liver and onions and I prepared them once for him early in our marriage. He loved them and I told him that if he ever wanted to eat them again, he could prepare them himself because just looking at raw liver and cooking it turned my stomach. I haven't cooked liver and onions since, and I think he's only prepared it once or twice. My parents mostly used commercially canned vegetables too when I was a kid, and maybe that's why I don't like them. Once I was out on my own and could prepare fresh produce, or could use frozen produce, I really didn't buy and use many canned veggies, and I don't even like to can most of them. I prefer frozen-fresh-from-the-garden produce so much more when I am preserving and cooking produce we have grown. We do have quite a lot of commercially canned veggies right now because I stocked up on them when the corona virus was in China and I was preparing for possible supply chain disruptions. Costco sells several basic veggies by the case, so that was what I bought and what we have been eating. I just try to dress them up when I cook them. I remember that horrible chow mein from a can. My mom hated cooking, so tried to spend as little time as possible doing it, so we got all sorts of junk like that for meals. She was all into convenience meals that took as little time as possible to prepare. On the weekends my dad would cook, glorious southern home cooking every time, and we all pigged out on his meals on the weekends. My mom could have cooked that way because her mom certainly did, but she didn't like to cook so she didn't bother. She also didn't like sandwiches, so never made them for us. My dad made me a sandwich for my school lunch every day, but I don't remember mom ever making us one. I was shocked when I reached middle school age and realized how many of my friends ate sandwiches every single day, both at home and at school. Sandwiches were not something we kids in our family grew up eating, which now just seems weird to me. Ditto on meals using garden produce. My dad could harvest stuff from the garden and turn it into a meal in the blink of an eye. He'd chop up potatoes, onions, peppers and okra and pour them into cast iron skilled filled with bacon drippings. Then he'd drizzle corn meal right over the sop, add chopped-up raw bacon, nad stir-fry it all together and serve it hot. It was a delicious meal. He also fried okra the traditional way all the time. One thing he never did was stir together okra and tomatoes and cook them as a side dish. He had no love for slimey okra, and neither do I. I like to slice okra, drizzle it with oil and roast it, sprinkle a few herbs on it and then eat it fresh. We call this roasted okra okra chips. Beck's Big Buck okra is ideal for this because the pods are big and wide and fat. Nancy, We never ate casseroles growing up, so I didn't even know what they were until I became an adult and had a friend who used them a lot to stretch a little meat to go a long way while she was a young mom who still was a college student and had a family to feed on a tight budget. I liked her casseroles but they were like foreign food to me. Traditional southern cooking tends to be heavily flavored with spices and herbs, perhaps to make up for some of the cheap food that often comprises southern meals. I think the theory is that you just keep adding more flavor to it until you make it tasty. Just last night Lillie was talking about eating pickled pigs feet with her Great-Grandmother on her mom's side of the family. She liked them when she was little, she says, because she didn't know any better. Now she thinks the idea of pickling pigs feet and eating them is gross. I told her I could buy her some pickled pigs feet at the Fischer Meat Market in Muenster and she assured me that it was not necessary. Just remember that I offered to keep Grandma Ruth's tradition alive. Sadly they lost Grandma Ruth in December. With regard to shell beans and shell southern peas, I think the southern peas have an earthier flavor. I like shelled southern peas more than shelley snap beans in general, and usually harvest and prepare the snap beans as green beans. It seems to me that people like Tim who grew up in the northeast eat a lot more shelley snap beans than people who grow up in the south---maybe because our fresh green bean season is so short in the south. Amy, Your story about chitlins reminds me of high school. It was the late 1970s and our high school offered elective courses like "Black American History", "Mexican American History", etc. and a lot of us took them as juniors and seniors to fill our school day. For "Black American History" we drew group project assignments (for a team of two) from a hat and the assignment that my friend and I drew was to prepare and serve, to our class of about 15 people, a traditional soul food meal. We were in a panic because we really didn't know what soul food was. After doing research, I calmed down because it turned out I had grown up on a lot of white soul food that was not very different from black soul food. This was a revelation to me---but then I realized that if you came from a traditionally poor southern background, you were eating the same foods basically prepared the same way no matter the color of your skin. It was more of a new thing for my classmate whose family was more upwardly mobile and didn't eat what we then jokingly referred to as white trash southern cooking. We did make a dazzling soul food meal that our classmates enjoyed and we liked doing it and eating the meal. We did not, however, make chitlins. We did make crackin' corn bread and collards, among other things. A lot of historical southern food, whether prepared by slaves back in the day or by poor white southern subsistence farmers (aka as sharecroppers) like my dad's family were about the same thing, though I didn't realize that until I was in high school. It was all about using every single part of the animal or plant because you didn't have enough food to waste any part of it. My aunts on my dad's side could can anything and they did, including green weeds, and they did that because that canned poke sallet or canned lambsquarters might be the one thing you had that helped you survive the long winter's non-gardening season without going meal-less. They did grow greens and such in the winter as the weather allowed, but it was hard to raise enough in the Dust Bowl years to keep a large family fed and alive. I learned a lot from them, but never acquired my dad's family's fondness for pickling every single food item known to mankind and then eating it. Our family gatherings always seemed to include about 15 kinds of vegetable pickles of all kinds, which seemed excessive to us children of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. That's how they ate though because they always pickled so many veggies when they were relying 99% on the food they could grow. Our lives are so much simpler nowadays by comparison and we are so spoiled. I still try to grow and preserve as much of our food as possible, but I don't do it in hugely excessive amounts like I did 10 or 20 years ago. There is no reason to put up three years' worth of produce every single year, but it took me a long time to learn that. I need to get off the computer and get busy before the girls wake up. Dawn