My thoughts, well Summer here is always a failure, so shade cloth is what's behind my tunnel and new fight against nature with my new tomato thingy which I know from the start doesn't have a great chance to work in this weather. I'm just going to mohawk the minimum shade cloth on top of the hoops to cover during the hot part of the day, at least that's the plan. But my situation is usually worse because the humidity is out of hand here and it is always raining. So I got to put some plastic under the shade cloth, enough to keep the rain from keeping the leaves wet, but have as much ventilation as possible because wet leaves in this humidity and no super ventilation = infected dead plants. I'm the one who needs the suggestion! If my tomato project meets disaster, maybe I'll try one like yours after playing hoops. Mid-day Texas Sun is going to cook the heck out of the roots though for you. Did you paint yours or do you think you want to put foil around it? Small projects are real inefficient when it comes to braving the summer. I considered making free standing 10 ft PVC shade cloth roofed cubes but it would probably take off into the neighbor's pool or something. Eventually I decided on the hoop tunnel for stability and cost reasons to hold my shade cloth like that. Another idea about the res that bobbs out in the floods, if you don't mind pouring a bag or two of concrete into a frame and set a big version of a deadbolt with maybe two pieces of bent rebar. When you wanted you could arm the dead bolt thing with the rod going over the reservoir ;-), or just be sure that the res is topped off as much as you feel comfortable adding, and not let a storm catch you when it's getting low.

Thank you all :). Luvs: It was quite easy to get the beads just so, I just start at one end and work my way along. It took much less time than I spent trying to get the little birdy to sit correctly peeking out of the yellow roses. He kept wanting to "fly the coop" apparently.LOL I don't know if the vase on the S.C. will be making a reappearance for SPD or not as I have a couple of others that I've thought about using instead. Choices choices..lol The blue birds on the table are a set of salt and pepper shakers I found on Ebay. Nice and plump and probably something that will remain on the table for the rest of spring just because I find them so cute. The plates were a clearance find at Big Lots a couple weeks ago. I bought the smaller salad plates as well but they look odd to me when on the bigger ones. It covers most of the pattern up and I just didn't like it so I'm keeping them and hoping to find a solid color square plate to go with them instead.

Love that you use solar panels. OMG you would freak if you seen my electric bill. In the winter its around 140 in the summer around 170 . I blame the electric hot water heater, and that's another thing I want to replace this year as mine is entirely to small for a family of 5. Always one thing after another. But I want major things done before the hubs and I die lol..Amiee owns thisplace and I ddon't want to leave her stuck with having anything major needing done. That's a big problem of mine, I worry too damn much.

The weather has been all over the place this winter. Yesterday it was in the upper 40's and sunny. Today, it's clouds and snow squalls. Then Friday, we're going to have a warm spell in the 50's. Only had to shovel snow a couple of times this winter, which gives me a break from an already busy schedule. I love seeing the snow cover everything since it brightens up the dull, lifeless landscape. I saw bulbs starting to peek through already out at the theatre. Brad AKA Moonwolf