Dog scent would definately help. Neighbor up the hill often has raccoons. The fact that he has made a deer feeder and keeps it nicely stocked makes his land a place that raccoons like to visit. Deer too, of course. It's even a visiting spot for the occasional escaped pet rabbit. We're right next door and have never seen a sign of a raccoon on our land, and it's very rare that a deer crosses our land. Even though both of our dogs are females they routinely mark the fenceline and strategic spots on the interior of the land. It has to be the marking that's helping because the dogs only have free access to the big yard a few hours per day. (We have a puppy in training for livestock work and it will be a while still before she can work with them without supervision.) That's long enough for them to patrol the fenceline and leave plenty of evidence that dogs are on duty. And that they are well fed. :) We do find evidence occasionally that a possum will meander through the land, but it genuinely odd how we just don't get raccoons. Even winter tracking is indicating that our visitors are limited to the occasional possum, even less occasional deer, and a fox that seems to have worked out an agreement with the dogs about when and where it's allowed to cross the land. The fact that we don't have any attractants like bird feeders, food waste or drippings, or accessible livestock grain stores certainly helps. But in our back garden areas we've got those 92 tomato plants and in the front we've got tons of squash, soft fruit and edible ornamentals like sunflowers. The dogs don't even go into the garden areas but they still must be close enough to keep most animals away. Only one rabbit has pilfered produce this year and he's now entered the bunny relocation program. Now in previous years we've had more bunny visitors. I think the amount of times I walk through the gardens to look at my flowers has done a lot to keep them away. In past years the best way to get rid of them was to put the live catch trap out. We didn't catch many, but I guess looking at the trap in the garden ruined their appetites and they moved elsewhere. Good luck with the raccoon. If you do catch him and don't know what to do with him I'm sure we could find someone up the holler who'd like to have him for dinner. Lynda

The way the particle size distribution of the gritty mix is supposed to work ensures good water retention, but with no or negligible volumes of perched water to affect root health/function. It's important that the small particles be removed to accomplish this lest they filter in between the large particles, rendering the soil supportive of perched water and eliminating one of the most significant advantages of the mix. Another significant advantage is the aeration inherent in a well-made gritty mix, which would also be a casualty of neglecting to ensure the sizes of the particles are appropriate. If you don't screen the particles, what you end up with is a mix that will perform like a lot of other mixes, and whose only essential variance from most other mixes would be its structural stability, a derivative of the fact that it has a 2/3 mineral component and the organic fraction (bark) breaks down very slowly. This is one of the less significant attributes of the soil though, because inevitably a plant needs repotting long before there would be even a hint there was a hint the soil had structurally degraded. In fact, with a 2/3 mineral fraction, even if the entire bark fraction was to break down or gas off, the soil would still be perfectly servicable. I don't think I've ever really listed the attributes of the gritty mix, so: A) No or very little perched water - the most important (root health) B) Excellent aeration (root health) C) Extremely forgiving and easy to grow in D) Adjustable for water retention E) Serviceable indefinitely - won't collapse (root health) F) Easy to make, once ingredients are located & you're set up to screen I love to see people using it, but I have to be honest. If you can't find the ingredients or suitable substitutes, or don't want to screen them, I don't think it's a good investment of time/effort to make something that will perform similar to a from the bag mix. More important than a recipe, is the concept. The gritty mix is simply the best way I've found to implement the concept described in the thread I'll link to below. I honestly feel that an understanding of the information in the thread represents the largest forward step a container gardener can take at any one time. Root health is often overlooked or given short shrift; but it's very important to realize that a healthy plant is impossible w/o a healthy root system. Roots are indeed the heart of the plant, so it pays to keep them happy. ;-) Best luck. Have fun at the party! Al Here is a link that might be useful: Learn about soils .....

Larry, The good thing about meal corn is that coons don't bother it much. The last variety I planted was Peaches and Cream, but since it didn't know it was last and was supposed to mature last, it is tasseling and silking at the same time as the Kandy Korn and Country Gentleman that were planted earlier than it. They all three are in separate areas though. The game camera sounds cool. I'm pretty sure I don't really want to see what is wandering around our yard and garden at night. It might be scary. As it is, I regularly see paw prints or hoof prints, as well as animal fur and scat, so I already know what is visiting...or at least some of what is visiting. It is not a bad coyote year, so we have tons of rabbits and a few bobcats, lots of deer, but not many armadillos, no coons, and far too many skunks. For years we had two owls that sat in the pecan tree every night and hunted.One was a big hoot owl and the other a little bitty screech owl. They were together all the time, and I guess we saw them often for 4 or 5 years. The hoot owl disappeared first and then the screech owl. We haven't had many owls lately---the crows follow them around and hound them incessantly, and I think the owls just move on to get away from the crows. Dawn

We are going to host a "housewarming" BBQ when our place is done. We will probably call it "The Linoleum Palace Coming Out Ball" or something similar and cheeky. Most of the attendees will have attended our wedding 2 years ago and I doubt most will bring gifts beyond maybe some champagne or something, which is always welcomed! We entertain a LOT so I doubt people will treat it differently than most of our other larger parties. We will probably invite our GC/PM and architect as I can confidently say they've actually kind of become friends at this point! In regards to the explanation cards- I do think that's a bit pretentious, however I am planning a gallery wall for our entertainment room that includes the history of the house and some pre-construction photos. Our house is over 160 years old and we've found old photos of it from the 30s, newspaper clippings referencing it and some of the old inhabitants and have traced the property records all the way back to 1848 when the original farm was sold and cut up into residential lots. People usually have questions about the history of the house the first time they see it (it's quite dissimilar to most other houses in Brooklyn,) so I think that will actually be a nice talking piece. Plus, when someone asks "oh do you know anything about the history of the house?" I can just point them downstairs to the wall instead of retelling the story for the 50th time ;)