MissSherry, Hee hee, I had to laugh when you said about sneaking over when nobody was looking and get the pots. :) There is a town about 10 miles from here that has a big trash day and now I remember how someone described how people cruise the streets looking over other people's junk to see what they can use and jump out of their cars and grab what they want. Ha, that sounds like something I could go for. I think they might have already had their trash day this year though but not sure. Yes, I bet that nursery was glad that you took care of their unwanted pots. I'll have to look at Lowe's and see if they have any broken bags of potting soil. Sometimes they do and put it on sale for half price. Yes, I think I probably do have enough milkweed to feed an army of cats and so I'm not worried that I won't have enough this year. :) tdogmom, You make it sound like your hubby likes his Plumeria as much as you like your Monarchs. :) Does he raise them to sell or he just likes to grow them? I bet between his plants and your butterflies, people passing by your place must think that they're in some tropical paradise. That's cute how you both have your nursery friends and nice that they save containers for you. It sounds like cleaning those pots was good therapy for you. Hee hee. It also made hubby happy at the same time. We don't have a Home Depot around here, but we have a Lowe's and sometimes they'll have broken bags for 50% off. I'll have to check that out. I forgot all about that. Susan, You sound very resourceful and I could do that too if I can't find any pots anywhere for free. Yeah, I saved my plastic pots too that I purchased plants in. I don't even know anymore how I ended up with 20 some one-gallon pots. Those already have swamp milkweed growing in them (they're just poking their heads through the soil...just soil that I used from our place). I don't know why I didn't even think of the gallon size jugs...we have some of those that we bought milk in and I could use those. Jill, Yes, I'll definitely have to buy the potting soil. I just hope I can find some for half price. I know the SuperWalmart has real big bags of it for something like $9, I think. I never heard of Freecycle. I just learned something new again. I had been buying the small bags of potting soil for convenience. I have back problems and can't lift a whole lot like those bigger bags of potting soil at Walmart, but surely I could get hubby to do it. MaryAnn, That's a good idea too, using the half gallon milk and oj containers. I imagine that some of the plants that I'm starting later than the others won't get real big and I could put them in those. I wish I could get big bales of potting soil like you describe. I never saw anyone around here have those. They'd last quite awhile! Well, for me, that's a month or so. Ha. That's for sure, at least starting the plants myself is much cheaper than buying all of them. I can just imagine that if I'd go to buy all the plants that I started from seed this year, they'd cost hundreds (maybe even a couple thousand) of dollars. Paul, I wonder if I'd be able to keep milkweed in pots up here year-round without them freezing considering that I live in PA. I'd do that if I knew it would work. It would save some time. If I'd try keeping some over winter and find out that they don't make it, I could at least use the soil over, I guess, rather than keep buying new every year. I wish I knew for sure if I could keep them over winter without them dying. That's a good idea you have about mixing the potting soil, sand, soil, lime, and fertilizer granules. I do that sometimes when I feel adventurous. :) I also built a new cage but didn't get it finished because of all this plant stuff. I hope I can find time to finish it this year yet or else I'll have tons of caterpillars on our back porch this year. THANKS, EVERYONE, for your excellent advice!! :) Cathy

I also had pavers installed and was worried about them sinking so I wet them every day to see if they settled. They held up until the first heavy rain and they sank in some areas. I was able to get the PB to fix them and give me a year warranty on them if they sank. Since then I have let it over flow and they are rock solid after a couple of areas sank. I'm glad that I was able to test the pavers before I finished paying the PB. I knew once I paid him and had problems he would of fixed them but at his convenience. Since I owed him money, he took care of them the next day.

Sas, I'm so glad your crew likes it. My guys just devour it. I still haven't found anything else that they will eat so I rotate the lamb, venison, and the rabbit and lamb.. I think I will start getting the lamb on autoship from Chewy because their price is 2.61 a can for lamb and 3.17 for the other flavors. Our local pet food store charges 3.05 for all flavors so it is more economical for me to buy it local except for the lamb. I wish I could find another food that they would like as much so I could give them a can of Z.P. at one feeding a can of something less expensive at the next. It sure hurts the wallet when two cases of food runs $75, and a case only lasts six days. I bought a few different brands for them to try but they just turn their nose up at it so my local SPCA is going to get a donation of canned food from me.

I wanted to give an update. Since this all happened, 2 weeks ago. I've been very strict with her and watching her like a hawk at the dog park. I gave her back the raw hides and she experienced no ill effects from that, that was a week ago. Then, just yesterday I decided it had been long enough to try giving her ONE of those Old Mother Hubbard treats, they are very small...like a puppy sized biscuit. Today she has diarrhea again! I think I found the culprit! Hopefully just the one tiny treat will just work its way through her system and she will be OK. I knew that I had just opened a brand new bag of these right before she got sick, she has been eating this same brand and variety for a couple years now. It was one of the only things she could eat without issues and she LOVED them. I don't know if they changed the recipe and added something that makes her bowels upset or if they are contaminated? I just contacted the company to explain what happened. I'll let you know how they handle this.