Josh, Many thanks, as always, for your support. For me, like so many others, you are the catylist that sparks advancement and innovation. A special thanks to Al, as well, for making all of this possible for so many of us who would have never made it this far on our own. Stev32k, Nothing fancy bud, totally low tech! Skewers, skewers, and more skewers. This link is the backdrop to this thread, check it out if you like ;) PJ Here is a link that might be useful: Interpreting the Dowel

Ask ten people what your watering schedule's should be and you will probably get ten different answers. Thing is each growers situation is unique, and that's really something each grower figures out whats best for their plants through trial and error. But for that type of system where the roots will be hanging in mid air I don't think I would want them to go more than 15 min between watering. If it were me I would get a timer with 15 minute increments and start with 15 on/15 off, and go from their. As for connecting the flexibly hose to the 1/2 in pvc, in the irrigation section of most hardware stores they sell connectors that are barbed on one end (for the flexible hose), and threaded (to connect to the pvc) on the other end. I find here Lowe's has the best selection. Unfortunately I can't post pictures in this forum without going through too many hoops but I have pictures of the ones I used in another forum here: Third system (scroll down a little to see the images, and you can click on them to see the full size image) "I'm not sure of the terminology but i plan on flooding the top of the pipe and letting it drain back down to the resevoir. should i do this once evey hour and one time at night? " I'm not sure how you can flood the top of a vertical tube, but it sounds like if it truly is a vertical tube, you plan to use sprayers at the top, and let it rain down through the tube watering the roots on the way down. If so the 15 on/15 off cycle is what I would start with. It wouldn't need to be on for 15 minuets, but you will be limited to the timers settings. You may find a cycle timer online that you can set a particular on and off cycle (like 5 min on, and 15/20 min off), but I doubt you'll find them in any local stores. Digital timers have customizable settings, but most likely wont have enough settings to last through the day. At 3 on/off cycles per hour (5 on/15 off) that's 6 settings per hour. In a 18 hour period that's 108 settings. I have a digital timer that was supposed to have 144 settings, but I found out is over a 7 day period (and includes sunset and sunrise settings). Bottom line is it really only has 14 settings per day. 7 on and 7 off. So be careful and ask questions before you settle on a digital timer. At least be sure you can take it back (mine was on clearance so I couldn't).

"The thing is that SD is almost 14 and has a life of her own now too" So, honestly, and without pressure from you, how does your stepdaughter feel about spending more time with her mother? Her mother's comments make it seem that the mother is under the impression the girl wants some extra time there. Often children of divorce will tell mom one thing, and tell dad something else, because they dont want to go against either parents wishes ( because they love both parents) ITs a lot easier for your SD to tell her mom that " stepmom and dad wont let me come" rather than to say that she actually is the one who doesnt want to come. Conversely, its a lot easier for your stepdaughter to say to you and your husband " mom is insisting I come" than to say I want to be with my mom more. FIguring out what she really wants for herself is the hardest thing to do, but necessary in order to make good decisions for everyone. The ONLY way to do that is if real mom and dad, and daughter all talk together at the same time. Then nothing can be hidden, her true wishes will hae to come out. Its also easier for us as parents or stepparents, to believe that the other parent is the one causing our child to act the way they do. If it is a case where SD actually wishes she could see mom more, allowing it will help curb the desire to move out. If stepdaughter doesnt want to because she is busy with things that she chooses to do instead of seeing mom, then that is perfectly appropriate to tell mom, or better yet, have a conference call between your husband, your SD, and mom, in which activities are discussed and your stepdaughter can articulate her wishes, with both parents present so there can be no misunderstandings or accusations of bias later. If its a case where the daughter wants to visit mom, and its inconvenient for you and your husband and disrupts your family plans, well you will have to suck it up. 4 weeks in summer is not unreasonable, if your SD wants it,and at 14, you REALLY dont want to go against your SD's wishes. The hardest part is figuring out what those wishes really are, and to what extent those wishes are being influenced by either parent.

Amy, Tim and I were joking that the single red branch might be turning red because it is dying. I don't think we're right about that, but I have pondered why only one branch has leaves that have changed color. I do see quite a bit of red poison ivy in the trees along fence lines when I walk the dogs. I don't care if it is poison ivy (not our property, not our problem), I love seeing the red foliage. Seriously, though, on trees whose leaves turn red, those trees need the specific combination of cool nights and bright sunny days to make red leaves, and some years we don't get that combination so we don't get much red foliage. When one branch or one part of a tree turns red and the rest doesn't, scientists believe that the part turning red first just happens to have the perfect microclimate. I am not sure I buy that explanation. Why one limb on a tree that's 30' or 40' tall? Why not 2 or 3 limbs or 6 or 10? (sigh) Mother Nature has many mysteries we really do not understand. Today we went to the CostCo in Southlake, TX, because I wanted to go to Central Market just up the road a bit after that. I'd forgotten how gorgeous that specific CostCo's landscaping is. You can tell their landscape architect must have specified trees that have good autumn color because most of the trees planted in the parking lot medians have great autumn color already---mostly Chinese pistache is what is red there right now, but also some sort of cypress trees, sweetgum and maybe some Shumard red oaks (that aren't red yet) along the perimeter. I was looking at the pistache trees today and loving their foliage and red berries. Why haven't I planted Chinese pistache here? I'm going to plant 2 or 3 next spring. Amy, I still have a lot of Red Creoles that haven't sprouted yet. Also, Copra, Highlander and Red River. Those are the Dixondale varieties that store the longest for me. That's how I get in trouble, by the way, with planting too many---picking all those long keeping varieties means I have a lot to plant in order to have a lot to store---and then we have more than we can eat fresh even after I've made tons of salsa and chopped/frozen tons more. I need to have more discipline and pick just one long keeping type each year instead of several. I think Nelson is getting scarce because a lot of places sold out of it in 2017. I think Jung still had it the last time I was looking at seeds on their webpage. Who knows if the sellers that sold out in 2017 will have it again for 2018. It could be that there was a crop failure at the seed production level since many of the USA retailers all buy their seed through the same big wholesalers, who in turn buy their seed from overseas producers. Nancy, George (MacMex) lives near Tahlequah and he posted a photo on his FB page of a cabbage covered in frost (cabbage is fine) this morning and said the low there was 25 degrees, so he must have gotten some of your cold if your garden escaped relatively undamaged. Maybe the cold didn't make it quite to your place last night. We're supposed to be about 5 degrees warmer tonight that we were last night. We'll see. Rebecca, My garden is toast. It is okay, but I will miss the Lima beans our big lush plants would have been producing for about another month. I thought about covering them up, but the trellis is 6' tall and about 25' long and I didn't want to wrestle with getting row cover over that trellis and weighed down along the egdes in yesterday's wind. I hope giving your back some extra rest today is helping it, and the fact that OSU won couldn't hurt any. We had the game on the radio while we were out running errands and doing grocery shopping. You're like me. No matter how many seeds and containers you have, you always need more. It is a peculiar affliction we gardeners have, of always "needing" more. lol. I'll tell you what makes me feel old---my nephew has a 14 year old stepdaughter!!!! Yikes. I am not sure how that happened. I believe her mom was very young when she had her, but still......it seems like the nieces and nephews themselves were graduating from high school just a few years ago (been more than a decade though, even for the youngest one) and now one of them has a stepdaughter in high school this year. That sort of freaks me out. However, the rest of my nieces and nephews' kids range from newborn to about 10 years old, so they're all ages. Still, I do feel old age creeping up on me. Jacob, That pepper plant really is a champ, or is in a perfect microclimate. I miss the green already. Everything here has gone the color of wheat except for the tree foliage. I cannot believe the difference in how everything looks now compared to just a few days ago. Rebecca, There you go, you enabler you! Go, girl, go! If you and I are going to have far too many seeds (and you know that we do, and probably Amy too), then everyone else needs to have far too many seeds as well. Perversely, not that my garden is frozen, I want to plant something. I probably won't though. Maybe I'll sow some lettuce seeds indoors. It was nice today to walk wherever I wanted and to not have to watch out for snakes beneath my feet. If we have any days that go back up into the 70s/80s, I will have to watch. They don't necessarily go down for the count after the first freeze, and will continue to be out now and then either hunting for food or capturing heat by lying on concrete until we get good and cold and stay there. I'm watching TCU play Iowa State right now, and TCU has not had the lead yet in this game. I'm wondering if ISU is going to pull off another upset and beat the #4 team in the country. It could happen. I hope it doesn't. Dawn