It is hard to find a good place to garden at most homes, I think. I only have one choice to garden in the ground and that is my fenced backyard. My neighbors have told me that at some point it was all garden, but I am having a hard time getting it ready to garden again. Someone planted virginia creeper along the north fence line and that stuff is awful. It sends out runners both under the ground and on the ground surface for 5 or 6 feet. The vine is pretty, but it is a nuisance plant as far as I am concerned. On the south fence I had climbing sweet pea vines, and on the west I had something that was kind of briar looking, but no thorns, and a spot that always had poke, no matter what I did. It has all been killed but I am still working with root problems. One year my neighbor saw me in the back yard and came over to visit. He knew I had been trying to clean up the fence without cutting down the Virginia Creeper. He sat there awhile and then he picked up my nippers and headed for our fence. He cut for just a minute and chopped some large stuff. He came back and sat down and we watched one of the vines just "croak", right then and there. He was so worried about it, and I was thrilled. That plant had covered half of the fence and it was the half nearest the planted area. Then he got married and his wife didn't like it any better than I did, so we have gradually taken it off the fence. Of course, the roots hadn't all died so every year I was pulling up roots. Although I covered the entire area with RoundUp last spring, I am still fighting old roots and they get hung up in the tiller. Once when Bill (gonefish'n) was alive he saw a picture of my garden. He told me my garden looked great but that he would be worried about having a tree so close to the garden. What he couldn't see in the picture was that I had three trees just around my fence line and two of them weren't mine. That winter the ice storm broke so many limbs on the tree west of me that the neighbor had it taken down. Aww, too bad. A couple of years later, my neighbor that cut the vine, had a tree split during an ice storm, and the half that fell landed in my garden and was so huge that it almost touched the three fences and the house, so now that one doesn't shade my garden. Aww, too bad. The one left is a smaller tree and is mine. Dealing with the roots is kind of a mess, but I sure like the shade when I am working and need a place to rest. Now that I am old, I seem to use that more often. LOL I have several areas of my garden that are shaded by two of the neighbors storage buildings in the late afternoon, but the plants have had enough sunshine by that time anyway and it offers them a little protection from the intense heat in mid-summer. I can work many hours of the day in my garden by just starting early in the spots that get no shade and working my way to the shade as the day progresses and the heat intensifies. We built a small chicken house that has a pen on the bottom, and a house above and they can go up a ramp to get inside where the roost is. It is narrow and sits with it's back to the neighbors shed. I bought the lumber today to extend the run 16 feet down the fence line from the coop. It will only be 3 feet wide but will provide a barrier from the grass that creeps in from next door. It will also cover the area that has the poke patch that never ends. Since I have had the chickens, they trim back the few plants that have come up since I sprayed. This 3 x 16 part is only going to be a couple of feet high. It will only be for daytime use, and at night they will be back in the coop. Some love the roost upstairs, but the Sultans like the ground, or the ramp. It has wire on the floor but it is vinyl coated with about 2x4 openings. You can't see the wire, but it is down there to keep out other critters. We still have a few things to do to the chicken coop, but they are living in it anyway. They get out to run for an hour or so everyday in the garden, so it has worked out OK for them but they are growing fast. We still have to put the metal on the roof and build the nest boxes into the end. The metal probably will get put on when my neighbor is home since he has a plasma cutter that makes things a lot easier. Besides that, I can't do the metal by myself. We have it, but just haven't gotten it on. So far the rains have been light so they are only getting a few drips down through the roof. For the run, I am building 8 foot sections with lumber on all sides and wire in the center. Maybe I can finally keep the grass from creeping in by letting the chickens keep it cleared. Most years that I have had a garden here, I have planted about half of the backyard because I still had lawn on part of it and then because of all of the roots it was hard to go up to the fence with anything. This year I started to reclaim it all. Most of the grass is gone but I still have other things coming up, so it's not done yet but I think it is to the point I can plant it and just mulch heavily and weed it for awhile. We are talking about changing our fence so that it goes all the way across our back property line and comes out far enough to enclose our sheds and things into the backyard. Some of it has buildings on it but I could probably plant some of it also. It would include the area where we had the cedar trees taken out this year and where I plan to have a greenhouse someday. Someday is far away, because this is the year of the kitchen. Diane has "the year of the corn", "year of the bean", at our house we have the "year of the renovation" of this or that. I hope we aren't too old to enjoy it by the time we finish. LOL Anyway, the moral of this story is, that eventhough the land may be flat, you still can't plant in all of it. I am blessed that the back yard soil has been improved and has almost no rocks, but that is not the case in parts of the yard. I have one flower bed that I wonder how anything grows in. I guess the roots just work there way around the rocks. I also have a septic system and a large leeching field. I plant in containers also, but my big old nursery tree pots are probably seeing their last year this year. I have lots of smaller ones, but the big ones are about gone. My DH asked down at solid waste if they ever got feed tubs. They told him they did, but they all fought over them and took them home. LOL I don't have fruit trees and really don't have room for any. I bought two small blueberry plants in the spring and grew them in containers until a few weeks ago. My DH dug the holes for me and we just kind of dropped them in the ground with all the soil and peat that was in the pot. Just after we planted them, we had a huge rain, so they seem to have settled in nicely. What does all of this have to do with planting corn, and stealing Diane's thread. Only this -- I think I finally have cleared enough area that I can plant a small patch of corn. HeeHee Diane, like you, I am going to be planting corn for grinding instead of sweet corn. I bought a pack of yellow Hickory King dent corn, and if I like it I am going to try the white one the following year. Either that, or switch to the one that George grows.

Hi Dorothy, Well, Oklahoma weather is anything but dull. I hope you enjoyed your sunbathing.....it does feel good to soak up some rays of sunshine in what is traditionally cold weather! Sometimes on the occasional Jan. or Feb. day when the high temps hit the 80s or (more rarely) the 90s, I love to put on a tank top and shorts (too white in the winter for a bathing suit--it is a sight that scares even me!) and sit on the chaise lounge on the patio and soak up some sunlight. I won't lecture you on melanoma either--you're a grown woman and you know the risks. And snowflakes.....wow! We had snow in Pennsylvania on Thanksgiving day on my first visit to meet DH's family over 25 years ago and that snowfall was a bit early even for them. I'm hoping for snow--it seems to be a real rarity here. We're lucky if we see flakes fall (and usually melt) even once or twice a year here, although once or twice a decade we'll have a few inches of snow fall and stick around for a couple of days. Last week, my face and neck were looking a bit sunburned for 2 or 3 days (and the week before, too, I think) which surprised me. Unfortuately, it was because I had spent hours and hours out in the sun at a couple of big (more than 2,000 acres one day and over 1,000 acres at the other) wildfires. It was nice to have a little color for a couple of days, but it faded fast since I've lost most of my summer "farmer's tan". Snow and sunbathing.....what comes next.....violent thunderstorms? drought? pestilence? earthquakes? a tsumami? In Oklahoma, we gardeners see it all......and sometimes in the same week. Dawn

If we have to pay for it, I'm outta luck! If the bill is being footed by someone else (i.e. taxpayers), I guess I'd splurge. My son would have to be with me. He's my dinner buddy! He gets to leave before anything bad happens (whatever makes it the "last meal"). And how long does it get to last? I hope long enough to rest some! 1) Vodka martini (chilled, straightup with a lemon twist), at least Belvedere, Chopin, etc. with salted almonds and sexy jazz playing, Diana Krall, Frank, Ella, all of them. 2) 3 cups of soup and Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio; the grilled chicken and rice soup from Demo's on 2nd Avenue in Nashville or in Murfreesboro; Crab bisque; and some chowder with potatoes, like the flounder chowder we had in Florida. 3) Artichokes three ways. Grilled, steamed and fried, with hollandaise and any wine. I am not picky ;) (Although it can be a challenge to match up wine with artichokes (or asparagus) I would try it nonetheless). A huge pile. At least three pounds of it. 4) Good pumpernickel bread, slatered with butter, a huge glass of Gerst, and oompa music in the background 5) Surf and turf. Sparkling wine/champagne, Gruet would work. Dom would be better. Chopin playing this time instead of being consumed. Seared scallops, Dungeness crabs, drawn butter, and either really good prime rib or a filet served oscar-style to continue along #3's theme. Maybe some jalapeno creamed corn, or my mom's. 6) Dessert is way too hard for me. I love it all. My downfall is sweets. Cappuccino. Michael Buble. A slice of buttercake with blackberry filling and a lemoncream frosting. Another slice of chocolate cake with some sort of ganache. Another molten lava cake. Coconut macaroons. Huge platter of that. Enough to last another 40-50 years.

I knew you'd understand! Chloe's Mom--yeah, a bit busy right now, but if you want some step by steps it's not that hard. Then you could splatter red sauce to your heart's content. :-) Remodelfla, Yes, it was very good to be all together. We had a loss very recently but were still able to have a very happy time. Patty, the courage comes from a forgiving family who would rather be together than worry about how the house looks. The boxes all over the living room and entry didn't make it into the pictures. :-) The only sheep I know anything about are for spinning. :-) The tradition for this holiday is to use the tiny whole lambs, but there's no way to do that for a crowd, even if one could afford the butcher and had a decent oven. When I was a teenager, my aunt taught me an easy recipe that's fantastic, and should be as tender and moist as anything. The goner old oven will not do low temperatures. Funny, huh, considering how slow it was cooking last night? I think it had switched itself into keep warm where I was aiming for 325. Sigh. Use a stiletto or ice pick to pierce a large roast (7 lb.) in various places, especially if there's a heavy continuous layer of fat/tissue. Put it into the roaster. Sliver a head of garlic. Throw the slivers all around the lamb. Pour a bottle of the best red wine you can afford over the lamb. Cook at 275-300 degrees (depending on your oven) for about 3 hours, basting every 15 minutes or so. Last night's was just thrown together (though a garlic mandolin helps vastly with the prep above). Once it was cooked it was moist and tender. For the three roasts (about 4.25 lbs. each), I used a bunch of sage, strewn all around the lamb, a big onion cut into eighths, similarly strewn, three celery stalks broken into thirds, and about 6 cloves of garlic cut in half, strewn as well. Plus a bottle and a half of a fruity red Italian wine which was on sale. Basted a bit when I was checking it, but not much (I had serving spoon--the basters were long packed). As alternatives: You can make lamb in an oven bag, just like a turkey. If you're spit roasting in an electric oven you can put some water or wine in the drip pan to make the oven moister. In general, cook lamb a little lower and slower than you would beef. 325 works well in a normal (not my old one) oven.