Terpguy, I'm grinning about the Dr. Bronners. In the 70s, when all the back-to-the-landers first got going, anything "natural" was way in, and nothing was more way in than Dr. Bronners peppermint soap. We used it full strength for showers - poured on rough loofahs, of course. :) Washed dishes with it, cleaned floors and windows and cars - it was ubiquitous. I feel more grounded w/ a small bottle in the cabinet at all times and have never minded the strong aroma - probably still influenced by the mindset of the time. When the eucalyptus and almond Dr. Bronners came out - well, the stratosphere was a better place. That said, a commercial grower offers this recipe for a homemade insecticidal soap: For a gallon of water - 1/2 to 1 cup alcohol 1 tbsp cooking oil - Canola being preferred 1 tbsp Dawn dishwashing soap One question - what are people's thoughts about 1600 X-clude? It's also recommended by one of the commercial growers. The label says active ingredients are Pyrethrins; Piperonyl Butoxide, Technical (equivalent to 1.76% [butylcarbityl] [6-Propylpiperonyl] ether and 0.44% of related compounds); and N-Octyl Bicycloheptene Dicarboximide. All these are under 3%. It's swell to use - in the garage (if it's gotten too cold outside), outside w/ no wind and in late afternoon (no direct sun), or in the greenhouse, put a lot of plants together, stand a couple of feet away, and spray with a few sweeps back and forth. Repeat in a week. Supposedly, it's okay to use in the house, except for fish and birds, but I won't do it w/ our 3 cats and 2 dogs. The can has those warnings about if it's swallowed, if in the eyes, if on skin or clothing, and if inhaled. Nope. The label says it kills just about everything that attacks indoor/outdoor plants and ornamental trees, including ants and gnats, plus kills cockroaches, spiders, flies, crickets, silverfish, fire-brats(???), and moths. There are several pdfs available online that give complete label info, but I don't know how to link to them here. This last summer, my plants stayed inside. The 2 summers before, they got sprayed w/ the 1600 X-clude twice before coming in, plus a couple of times during the summer. This year is the first time I've had problems w/ pests. Dunno if it's cause and effect. Spider mites got going before I even knew it - barely beyond newbie grower. Since then, I've used lots of Safers or equivalent and have wiped a lot of leaves w/ alcohol. Another factor may be that I used to wash leaves w/ my fingers under running water whenever plants were flushed, and I've cut way back on that for several reasons - too many orchids being one. Bottom line is so far, I've been reactive, rather than pro-active. Good topic, Kevin, esp. because orchids have to be inside in the Northland. Whitecat8 Here is a link that might be useful: 1600 X-clude

Your present lights could work if you exposed them on your lawn on the day (hopefully sunny) of the party, then moved them back to the tree. Gardener's Supply has several lights that come with a 15' cord to a solar panel - I don't know if that would give you enough room or not? There are oil-fueled lamps/flares, both that sit on the ground (which may be run over at the end of the evening - been there, done that) and which are on stakes - most are large enough to burn for 6-10 hours on a filling. Tiki torches are another possibility. Lee Valley has railroad style oil lanterns, which pose not much fire hazard. If you could get glass jars with metal hangers, they would lessen the fire hazard of candles - put a couple of inches of sand in the bottoms for stability. And there are battery-powered, LED, stick-up lights (similar to the 'hockey-puck' ones for under a kitchen counter), which might work. They wouldn't be weather-proof, of course. I think I would avoid the battery powered X-mas tree light strings - the battery lasts usually only a few hours, and there are less than 20 lights per string. Granted, most of these would have to be placed, maybe filled or batteries checked, lit, and then removed at the end of the evening or in the morning, but they would supply light to the tree, and give you piece of mind.

Jan, I assumed they were under contract but given the important role they're filling in the lives of those kids, I bet your son and daughter-in-law wouldn't pack up and come home tomorrow even if they could. I so admire the work they're doing and hope and pray they remain safe. I am glad your volunteer firefighters were able to stop the fires that burned onto your place from doing worst damage than they did. I appreciate all our volunteer firefighters too. I see them put themselves on the line time and again to stop a fire, save people from dangerous situations like fire, flooding, icy highways, etc., and even venture into lakes and rivers to search for drowning victims. They have a remarkable kind of courage and "can do it" spirit. Through my involvement with our fire department, I've met so many remarkable heroes from all over our county and from outside our county as well. Down here along the Red River, it is not uncommon for firefighers to cross the river to help their fellow firefighters on the other side of the river, and I know that is true in all border counties as well. When I take our firefighters cold drinks, snacks and meals, they always are so grateful that someone is looking out for them. I tell them over and over again that we appreciate them and that making sure they have cold drinks and food is just a tiny way to say "thank you" for all they do. I am in awe of their willingness to protect not only people but also their property and wildlife as well. Carol, Tim uses OKFire a lot, and I've used it for other info, but haven't used the satellite maps much until the last couple of days. When you're at the OK Mesonet page, clicks on the "Programs" category. From there, click on "Wildland Fire Managment" and that will take you to the OKFire main page. Once there, you can click on "Satellite" and use the menu it brings up to see various satellite images of fires. I haven't spent enough time on those pages to understand what all the data shows, but I could tell it was showing us a lot of fires and smoke. We have used the Prescription Fire Planner pages before, and I often use the OKFire page to check the fire conditions from my phone when we're out at a fire and the Incident Command officer is wanting to know windspeed, humidity levels, etc. The satellite stuff is new to me and I'm going to try to figure out more of what it shows when I have time. Dawn

I'm sorry I haven't responded and thanked you all sooner. I tried twice but for some reason it didn't post. As far as the property line I think it's 5 feet in our city. And the fact that we're in the city makes neighbors close to eachother. We do have an unusually wooded lot however and these particular trees were weed trees and (boxelder?) and were crwdingother trees. they probably would have to have gone sooner or later but it was not a priority for us at all. In fact as I've said I've been doing everything I can do to create a screen so that I don't have to look at their big stupid Mcmansion that they've built in a neighborhood of turn of the century homes. Of course it was their right to do this but it says something about their sensitivity to their surroundings.They built this house and primptly went deeply into debt and were unable to complete landscaping(like retaining walls) or even a garage (they park their cars on the cement foundation that was put in for the garage.) Anyway, after building this house which they obviously couldn't afford in the first place the husband became unemployed in 2001 and hasn't worked or really even left the house since. So, the wife tells us regularly about the fact that they have only one income etc etc. So I was trying to be sensitive and reasonable. Until she called me and basically threatened me about the trees. I figured I'd let her cut them down but she'd have to pay. She was either ignorant to the fact that we weren't obligated to let her remove the trees (let alone help pay for it) or she deliberately tried to mislead us by saying "the city could cite you" I said that's not true but that I would allow her to remove the trees that were leaning towards her property. Of course they started to lean because their roots were exposed by the excavation for their house. I think at this point she thinks we should have contributed to helping with the trees out of sympathy or something. I don't know if the floodlights are some sort of revenge (since they didn't used to leave them on) or they think we shouldn't have gotten a new hot tub when we wouldn't help pay for the trees and so they shine lights to make it unpleasant for us OR perhaps they are trying to catch us skinny dipping I don't know. Believe me we have fantasized about the bb gun thing while sitting in the hot tub. I have since found out about something called light trespass which is illegal and THEY can be cited. I plan to call them this weekend to talk about it. I'll let you all know what happens.