Ladies & gentlemen: growing pumpkins is a lot of work. But I may finally have a keeper. It is perhaps 8 inches around, and some animal has done some minimal munching on it, but I think it will survive. It is currently surrounded by a cage of chicken wire. In an uncaged area, I am noticing a couple other pumpkins forming. You know, I've got the closed flower and under the flower is the little pumpkin. I did not have time to protect them with a cage before work this morning, but I will fence them in tonight. Raptors have returned to my area to hunt. I can hear their cries all day long, so I think their prey (the annoying little squirrels who were damaging my pumpkin flowers and stems) are in hiding. Go raptors! Now I may get a nice fig harvest to boot. Isn't Nature wonderful with its checks and balances? So my pumpkin plan is to do some fencing and keep up the water and fertilizer. There's about 2 months of hot weather left. I will gladly accept any size pumpkin I can manage to grow & protect. I'll take this year's experience to the bank, and next year...look out! Thanks for the encouragement and pointers. Cheers. deep.

********************Hey every one,gather around************ I just got my box,Come on, sit,have a glass of refreshment, and i will show you every thing i received, man, what a GREAT BOX, First and formost, i will thank my gift er, A big thank you to Dawn,who is a new kid on the block,and was worried she would be a disappointment,Dawn, you choice of goodies is perfect,just perfect! This was in my box you guys, 1. A very nice letter ya all know i LOVE a hand written note,she told me a little about herself,which i love hearing also. 2.The most wonderful gardening gloves, i am going to want more of these, saved the label,so i know where to order more. 3. A HUGE, tub of Moisture Therapy hand cream. 3.Some nice eye glass cleaner with a little towelette to clean them with, i am always looking to clean my glasses when i am on the computer. 4.A thoughtful Lighthouse Pin, to light my way, so i never get lost,now, how sweet is THAT. 5.A new tube of lipstick.the right color even,:0) 6.A pair of Bathing Gloves,you use these like a wash cloth,lather up and exfoliates your skin,cool. 7.Poppy Seed*RED**I grew poppies last year, really didn't like the ones i choose, and was wanting to try these Red Ones, I can't wait to grow these,Dawn, are these the big red ones? 8.Lavender seeds 9.Curled Chervil;herb;yeaaaaaaaaaaaa,for my new Herb Garden 10.Genovese Basil,another herb,yeaaaaaa Cat Grass, another one i wanted to try, my 2 cats will love this one. 12.Blur Morning Glories, I Love Morning Glories 13.Cleome seeds 14.Nasturtium seeds 15.And Moonflower Thank you so much Dawn, this was a great box,you put a lot of thought into this box,and made this gardener,very happy.(this will only be my 2nd box i sent.)I know how it feels,:0) I know you are all happy for me, can't wait to hear from the rest of you. cAROL

To me it sounds like you should get the surgery but I'm not a doctor. There isn't much more you can do, any strenuous movements will set off an attack so you won't be able to exercise to lose weight until the hernia goes away. Apple Cider vinegar is just a tool to re-train your stomach when to make stomach acid and in what strength and what amount. It doesn't do anything to acid reflux. I was told that as we age our stomach lining gets lazy about stomach acid production (part of this could be due to H. pylori bacteria which is everywhere and pretty much everyone over the age of 40 that drinks city water has it). Splashing the walls of your stomach with tiny amounts of acid help to re establish the right acid at the right time. For me it took a solid year of sipping to see permenant results. All the pills available are acid supressors meaning they either stop completely or cut in half the amount of acid your stomach makes. This isn't a great thing for your stomach or food, since the acid bath your stomach performs is an important function - BUT, you don't want extra stomach acid splashing up into your esophagus either which is what normally happens with a hiatal hernia. So I would keep taking acid reflux pills if you are. You need to slow down acid production until you solve the hernia thing. It sounds to me like the top of your stomach is poking up into your chest cavity like permenant hiatal hernia does. Either the stomach gets pinched by the muscles of the hiatus and this causes pain or the opening (hiatus) itself gets stressed by all the object poking through it (also painful). The surgery they used to do (10 years ago) was to simply go into your belly through tiny little openings (no big incisions) and take the top portion of your stomach (which is like a floppy rubber sack) and stretch a section of it up and around the junction where the stomach and esophagus meet. This little wrap around of stomach tissue makes the top of you stomach stay below your hiatus which would end the pain. It works like thick rubber band around the bottom of your esophagus. Your stomach adapts after a while to it so you can then eat normally (stomachs are stretchy and flexible). Everyone I know that had this surgery loved the results. It was considered a minor ordeal with minimal time under anesthesia and only a few tiny scars. In their case it was covered by insurance and not that expensive. I don't believe they will do the surgery without first performing a endoscopy of your esophagus, which is similar to a colonoscopy but without the 'cleaning out' chemicals.

I sure am sorry. that on top of all you have going right now that you have a sick baby too. If you need help from your family, don't hesitate to ask them...Don't get yourself down sick too. I know you can't do this right now...but when my babies were sick..I always made a bed on the floor and slept there with them...If they even moved at night I knew it and was awake to check on them.And if they got sick during the night it saved the carpet...(I covered it with blankies...lol) I hated having my babies sick. Then even when my kids got a little older and sick, they would ask me to make the bed on the floor and sleep with them. And I did. I loved sleeping on the floor. I quit making beds on the floor for myself when I found out , that living in the country , there were a lot bigger spiders than in town....lol When the gkids come...I have 4 inch foam mattresses, they make beds all over the livingroom floor. Even before Jeff moved back home and took over the upstairs, they would sleep down here. I guess I taught them my old habits. Sounds like your Reunion was a huge success. I think I would have like to be there too..lol patti