I'll be thinking of you all tomorrow. Our T-day is going to be on Friday this year, because of various travel schedules, not to mention the several people who wanted to have dinner at their in-laws AND wanted to have dinner at DD's. I'm actually pleased ~~ for once, I won't be rushing home from work to start the prep for all the veggie dishes. Five vegs this year: cream-cheese/chili corn, harvard beets, gingered carrots & pears, snap peas (a change from the spinach squares), and a broccoli/cauliflower dish that has a nutmeg/cheddar sauce. Tried this last year and it was a success. 1 big bag of baby carrots, thoroughly rinsed, and the fat ones cut in half lengthwise. Dump in big pot of lightly salted boiling water, let boil for 10 minutes. While the carrots are cooking, open and drain a can of sliced pears -- this year, I'll have to slice halves, no pre-sliced in stock at the store. Put about ½ cup of pear jelly [or pear jam or apple jelly] in a small bowl and nuke just until warm and mostly melted. Stir ½ teaspoon ground ginger OR 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger into the melted jelly. Taste jelly and add more ginger if needed (you should be able to clearly taste the ginger). Depending on how many carrots, you may need to double the gingered jelly. Drain the carrots and dump into a large bowl. Pour the gingered jelly over and stir until all carrots are coated. Fold in the pear slices. For the dinner, it does very well on a warming tray, not going mushy. Have a good day, and may all your Thanksgiving dishes be wonderful.

Shucks, I didn't even think to check Amazon.com. I think mine was $27 with close to $10 shipping. Oh well, it got here pretty fast and works great. I'll just chalk it up to supporting a good company... Anyways looks like I got this pile going just in the nick of time. We were supposed to get some snow last night, instead we got quite a bit of near-freezing rain. I had the pile covered of course. I took the temp yesterday right before covering and it was pretty close to 100F (a little bit above) so I'm hoping the new food added will get this sucker really cooking. Read on for a clue as to how much I'm into this right now.... :) So I wanted to add a batch of food that has been sitting around in my fridge for a while (about a pound of raw ground beef and some shrimp pasta among other things), but didn't want to risk cooling off the pile if I dumped all of this cold food right on top. So I put all the to-be-composted food in my oven and warmed the food at 170F for 30min or so. The food never got to this temperature but was nice and warm when I took it out. I then put it in the pile knowing that it won't cool the pile off! Sounds crazy? Probably, but at this early stage and the cold weather coming back I didn't want to kill the pile's heat so soon. I then poured overtop of the covered pile the products of my beer for the day, which was right at body temperature :) and covered the pile with a tarp. I'll be interested to see if the added food and covered conditions during the rain positively or negatively affected the temp.

Susie, first of all the rain is not the tree's problem. A potted citrus tree setting in the rain, even a lot of rain is good, as it helps adjust the pH and also flushes the soluble salts from the container. Your tree's problem is the potting mix the tree is growing in. If the medium was a well draining mixture, as is required by citrus, the tree would have benefited from the rain. Unfortunately, your tree's potting mix did not drain as a mix should, and held the excess water instead of passing it through. What your tree suffered from, was not all the water, but actually from a lack of air in the root zone. The air was replaced by the excess rain that was held by the containers "soil", and the roots suffocated. You need to transplant your tree into the proper potting mix. There are several worthwhile formulas. An excellent medium is CHC's. You can see hundread of threads on this forum about the use of CHC's as a growing medium. Use the search box on this forum. Millet

Brian, Of those you want to see I would rank their likelihood in this order: Southern Black Racer, Mississippi Green Water Snake, Green Tree Frog, Mud Snake, Bird-Voiced Tree Frog. I've seen all but the Bird-Voiced Tree Frog there and Racers and Mississippi Green Water Snakes are reasonably likely finds on any given day. The swamps along the road are the best spots for Mud Snakes and Mississippi Green Water Snakes (for Mud Snakes especially the swamp near the South road block...the end opposite Winter's Pond). That entrance is also the best place for Green Tree Frogs. Racers I usually see on the bluffs.