Good Morning, All!! How's everybody doing? It seems to me like there have been a lot of folks MIA here lately - how about a check in, here on this thread? Fill us in on what you're doing; or just let us know "still here", okay?

We've been having rain off and on - mostly on!! The only thing that we've been able to get done in the garden lately is put wood chips in the pathways. Well, I did plant some broccoli; I think it might have been Friday, maybe? Pop has been mowing every time it gets dry enough, to try to keep ahead of the grass; and I've been out weeding garden and flower beds when I can. We got a series of those bad thunder/wind storms last night - the kind that send you reaching for the flashlight for the run down the stairs.

I bought some of those hanging flower pouches to replace my hanging baskets on my porch posts this year; I need to get the soil in them and get them planted today. I couldn't believe it when I saw them selling for $16.99 each at the greenhouse!! And they weren't even pretty yet - the plants were tiny! I think I gave $1.19 for each bag; figure that I'll use a quarter's worth of potting soil and maybe $2 worth of plants (store-bought) in each one. There's you another money making idea, Jay! With your worm cast and greenhouse, your only outlay would be some seed and the bags - and I'm sure they'd be cheaper in bulk.

I may go out and move some more wood chips - still have the first section of garden to re-chip; plus the whole last section to do up. Need to level some beds out there first, though; they've sunk a bit into the soil with all this darn rain. If it rains (which it looks like it's intending to do, here soon) I guess I'll just stay in and clean house. May start a few more tomato seeds, since I can't find any decent plants in town. Jes is bringing her graduation announcements out for me to address later this morning, so I'll have that to do sometime this week.

Bummer - thunder is rumbling; time for me to shut down and unplug! You folks take care - think SUNSHINE!!

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2002

Answers

Polly send the rain we need it so very bad! Yesterday we had are annual family reuion and had a wonderful time eating and having a wonderful time together.Of course everyone loved our new home and can't wait for the party when we move in. Today it's oil change and maintance for the car and truck.Have a wonderful week!!!!!!!!

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2002

Windy, stormy, rainy, cold.............DAMP!!!! NOT a good combination and certainly not much fun to be outside in. Since just my basic chores these days are close to three hours daily......that's all I really care to do outside. I sure hope this all passes soon as I want to play outside again in the worse way.

My baby girls are doing great and growing so rapidly. They are so fun to watch play and I am anxious to get them outside. I am still working on trimming all the goat feet and getting the barn looking such that I would not be embarrassed when the state vet comes to do the TB testing. Still have two yearlings to tattoo; I didn't do them last year cause I was not ever planning on showing and knew that I most likely would never sell those girls as they are the last of the combined bloodlines of my friend Val and I (she was the friend that died last year). Now that I have to have the vet in and they will have those ugly metal tags in their ears if they don't have tattoos, I am going to tattoo.

I now have a tank full of baby guppies. I always heard that the adults would eat the babies if you didn't provide one of those breeder things. WRONG!!! Now what ever am I going to do with all these fish?? Gary says let them loose in the creek, but I don't think they could survive in the cold water. I have had guppies before, but always with an Angel fish and never but once even SAW a baby, much less actually grow them.

-- Anonymous, April 28, 2002

had a jewellery party/show yeaterday. My friend has started selling Fifth Avenue Collection fashion jewellery so I hosted a party to give her some business. Lotsa snacks, wine, gossip and chatter from the gals..it was nice to have a girly time. Got earrings, a necklace and a pin for my jacket. Made mini hoop houses of poly pipe and plastic the other day (did I mention this before?) and planted carrots and radishes. Since then its been bloody cold here..even some snow! Yuck!! Richard is away all week on business..3 days of it in Newfoundland. Hope he has some fun while he's gone. If I feel better later this week I have promised to take the boys bowling. They love it. catch ya later.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2002

Hi everyone. I was out of town this past weekend and then worked like a maniac at the end of Sunday (finally got some good weather!). I've been digging up sod and expanding the perennial beds. Sore today!

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2002

Here I am...checking in! Seems that so much goes on over the weekends here that I never get to this OTFC til Monday or Tuesday.

Your weather, Diane, sounds just like ours...windy, damp and just plain crappy (opps..can I say that here :-)?). Last night we had another one of those snowfalls where the flakes were as big around as golf balls. But it was forty degrees! Very wet snow. Now it's all gone and cloudy. My peas and onions are coming up, though, inspite of this wet spring! I'm really hoping we get all this rainfall done with through the spring and have a nice, dry summer. Haven't even attempted to mow the grass...soon we'll be able to cut hay in the front yard :-)!!

We've been getting the boat ready to have the bottom paint put on. With our other little boat, we used to haul it out of the water and bring it home two or three times during the summer to clean off all the algae and barnacles that accumulate. But this boat is just a little too big for that!!! The bottom paint helps sure helps keep the boat clean! Went down to the dock yesterday with our granddaughter and helped her catch some starfish and little baby shrimp. She wanted to bring them home in the worst way!! Hey Diane...maybe you could raise up your guppies and pan-fry them when they get big enough :-)!! Just jokin'!

Remember I was wondering whether or not my bantam roosters would be able to fertilize my full-size hens? Today I heard peeping sounds when I took the cover off my incubator! I'd forgotten that the due date was tomorrow and hadn't removed the auto-turner yet!! There were several "compaints" from disturbed chicks when I took the eggs out of the turner. I usually have a bag of layer mash around for the babies...but like I said...I'd forgotten the due date! Guess I'll grind up some of the layer pellets I have. That always works in a pinch!

There goes my timer for my chocolate chip cookies ...gotta go!!! Have a great week everyone!

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2002

Is there some law that states that young children may only be messily ill between the hours of midnight and five in the morning?

Well, I'm sore and tired but in spite of some minor illness in the family it was a good weekend at DunHagan. I'm with Sandy in that we could sure use some rain! For a short while there we were doing OK in that department but now that it's regularly hitting 90+ every day and breezy we have things drying out pretty bad if you can't irrigate them. My brother works for the forestry dept and is getting antsy because the fire danger is creeping upwards again.

Woke up Friday morning about 1 a.m. when the baby made a strange sound and then started crying. She'd been slightly feverish when we picked her up from her daycare Thursday afternoon so I got up and went into her room to see what the matter was. We keep a dim nightlight (one of those glowing panel things) in her room so I could see well enough to sit down on the end of her bed. I reached out to touch her and put my hand down in something warm, wet and thick... Well, never mind, I reckon I know now what that strange sound was and why she's crying. Mama and I got everything cleaned up, comforted the baby back to sleep and fortunately she didn't throw up any more that night so we went back to sleep. Cost me about two hours of sleep so we slept in just a bit and when we got up just before seven the baby had one *huge* liquid b.m. Sigh..., well, clean that up. Still feeling feverish. No daycare today. Who's staying home with the baby? Neither wants to volunteer so we hem and haw and ultimately decide we'll *both* stay home! Don't ask me how we came to that decision.

The baby was a little sluggish all day but didn't repeat either of her two experiences of the morning so she occupied herself with mama and daddy and we got work done. The weather's getting hot and it's not raining so anything that can be mulched is being mulched so I can cut back on the amount of irrigation I'm doing. I want to save that water for encouraging grass growth in selected areas. In the winter I'd planted this wildlife seed mix that consisted mostly of various kinds of rape and wheat. The rape was only an indifferent grower for me but the wheat came up thick and strong so I used it for greenfeed for the poultry while there wasn't anything else. It had served its purpose and the veggies needed mulching so I began hoeing what was left out of the garden and feeding it out. Found an amazing number of white grubs under the wheat roots which the chickens naturally relished. Poor old Cogburn the rooster learned a hard lesson about it being no use trying to be a gentleman when it came to sharing these treats with his ladies. Those high-protein intake hens would knock him over to be the first ones to get their beaks on those tasy little morsels. The one and only rule to that game is that the grub isn't yours until you've swallowed it!

Spent the hot part of the afternoon driving around pricing rototillers and electric fencing supplies. Sears has their 5.5hp front tine rototiller going on sale May 1st so I wanted to see if it was a bargain or not. Ultimately decided that the price was only so-so and was uncomfortable spending the money just now so I'll make do with spade and hoe for a while longer yet. Could not find the fence charger I want anywhere so looks like I'll have to mail order it. If anyone knows a good source for the Parmak chargers feel free to speak up! I want to free range my birds and the livestock panel set up is too clumsy for frequent moves. They're OK for moving two or three times a month but with forty five birds they really need to be moved about every day. I can run a four line hot wire and keep the birds in and the dogs out I think and fence it a couple of acres for under $200.00.

Saturday was largely more of the same - the baby threw up again in the night (just once, like the night before) and another b.m. like the morning before and still had a slight fever but seemed otherwise chipper. She came outside to play and watch me hoe out more of the garden, rake up and spread more mulch. The Spring leaf fall is largely finished now with our evergreen oaks so I've got truck loads of mulch waiting to be collected. My brother had to work so his wife came over about 5 that evening for supper and afterwards we all went into town for a high-school rodeo. Haven't been to a rodeo since *I* was in high school so it was a blast. I reckon there's not much chance that I'll get my daughter raised and gone without her wanting a horse (we're much too close to Ocala for that!) so I'm hoping I can get her into something practical like roping, team penning and what not. Those horses have to have at least a modicum of brains and aren't so high strung and I wouldn't have to hang out with the equestrian and show horse types. Board fences and jodphurs give me hives…

My wife is a good New England girl and I don't think she'd ever been to a rodeo before and probably never saw one on TV either. I think she liked it well enough but was horrified with the last event of the evening which was the bull riding. She said, "in the future we must LEAVE before the bull riding starts because I do NOT want our children to see it!" I think she's afraid one of our sons might want to take it up or something. Of course, it didn't help one of the best rides was this huge Charolais-Brahma cross that the announcer said had been attempted 265 times previously and only successfully ridden once. When he finally threw the boy he missed putting his hind hoof on the boy's head by what looked like an inch or so. Made me wistful that I'd never tried it myself, just once, when I was young enough to have some hope of surviving the experience. Of course no forty year old man who wants to stay in the gene pool has any business trying to ride a bull so I'll have to remain a spectator.

Saturday night and Sunday morning came and went with no further untoward events with the baby's gastrointestinal tract and the mild fever faded. Got the last of the garden hoed out, mulched in and it's good to go. Spent the rest of the day raking and have a very respectable amount of mulch ready to use for other projects. There's more bare dirt than anything else but there was more grass under the worst of it than I first thought so I ought to have a decent stand by winter with some lime and fertilizer. I'm too tired to do much tonight after work but tomorrow night I'll go back at it.

Hope everyone's weekend was tolerable…

………Alan.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2002

Hello All,.....My husband is gone to Winnipeg for two weeks,and I am renovating the kitchen!!!!!He has no idea!!Hee hee hee.We were to close on our land the 1st,and lo and behold we cannot due to a strike by some of the government civil servants.Thats cool though ,we have our farm to sell and I am not in a real hurry to build.My son is getting married the 29th of June,so my brain is pretty occupied.I would like to thank you all for your prayers and thoughts this week.We are having a wee ceremony on the new land ,and we will name the baby.( I believe in my spirit that it was A girl,we may find out soon,through the pathology report)We will bury a tiny pair of beaded deerskin moccasins that all my babies wore,and the children have written letters to the baby.I was given the most beautiful musical angel that plays Jesus loves me,she is holding a baby.My spiritual mother brought it to us and told the kids "this is the angel that carried your baby to Heaven""The angel is trimmed in Periwinkle,which in itself is not strange,but I had a dream which I recorded,3 days before I started bleeding,and it was of a baby,dark hair and eyes like mine,,laying on a periwinkle blanket.I am blessed to have a church that comforted us ,and brought us meals for nearly the whole week,and just really loved on us!They were so excited too,and grieved with us.I was told not to tell anyone about he baby ,cuz it was too early,my age,blah,blah blah...but you cannot grieve what you do not celebrate. We were able to celebrate the short time that we were priveleged to carry her with others ,and when we lost the baby,I found it gave value to her life to know that others including you on the forum celebrated with us....thanks teri

-- Anonymous, May 01, 2002

Hey...BTS is back!! I got up this morning and just figured I'd check and wow...it's back! But for how long?? I'll be back later. My goats are hollerin'! Haven't even been outside yet....

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Yesterday was my fifth wedding anniversary and it was a good day.

It's been our custom to take the day of our anniversary off from work so we did and all of us slept in until the baby sprang up and rousted the house. Had a leisurely morning doing chores and what not then took the baby off to daycare. On the way back we stopped by a nursery specializing in daylillies and bought three nice color varieties to go in the new flowerbed we're putting in, dropped them off at the house and then headed on down to Ocala. There's a little Italian restaurant down there by the name of Bella Luna that we're right fond of which we go to for our anniversary if we don't go to St. Augustine and eat at Columbia's. Had an excellent lunch (a bit too much of one actually) and then headed generally north again towards Gainesville.

The plan was to see a movie in the afternoon but we ended up with more of a homesteader's holiday instead. We took U.S. 441 back instead of going the Interstate (boring!) and stopped by the big farm supply place in Sparr where we bought some minor hardware, fertilizer for the blueberries and camellias and some Roma tomatoes. Headed north again and stopped by a feed and seed store in the little town of Micanopy that I'd been meaning to stop by for years and bought 250lbs of fertilizer they had for a good price. Left from there and headed on into Gainesville and stopped by a garden supply place in the northwest part of town, ostensibly to look for fertilizer for the pecan trees (high zinc) and ended up buying blackberry plants as well! All the time we were doing all of this we were talking and just generally getting caught up again. It's been a long time since it was just the two of us driving all over creation in the truck talking about whatever came to mind and we had a good time. Never did see that movie but that was OK since neither of us had any idea what was showing or whether there was anything worth watching.

We picked the baby up at the usual time. We decided to take her to McDonald's since she really, really loves playing in the playarea, particularly if there's other kids to play with. Had a minor, but embarrassing, potty training accident and ended up having to pack the food up with us and take it home. Cleaned the baby up, took a couple of the porch chairs out under the trees near to where I'd let the chickens out to free range for a while and ate out supper there talking about chickens, turkeys, pasture improvements, sustainable agriculture and how to find valuable lessons out of all of this to use in homeschooling our children.

To make the day even better my wife was offered a new position on Tuesday that she really, really wanted but at a salary we thought was a bit low so after we discussed it she asked for a higher salary. She and they negotiated for a while and met in the middle. We're tremendously excited because it's a 50% raise over what she is presently making and has the potential to jump us ahead in our long range planning by a good five years or more. Of course, the new position is not without its drawbacks but we've been discussing and thinking about it for weeks and have decided that in the balance the advantages outweigh the disadvantages sufficiently enough to make taking the job worthwhile.

My, but I've been really wordy in this thread this week! Reckon I'll shut up now.

………..Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Happy Anniversary, Alan! Mr. S's birthday (big 5-0) was yesterday, too! Ah, May! Our twentieth wedding anniversary is next week, followed by my 50th birthday (I share it with Mother's Day this year, so I'm celebrating with Mom and the rest of the family that day). My brother and sister-in-law's third anniversary is on the 15th! It's a busy couple of weeks for celebration. Lotsa cards and cake...

Glad to see the forum is back up. Everyone seems so busy!

Drizzly weather here today. We had some nice days lately, but it sure seems like a crummy spring so far...

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

teri, it sounds like you have a lot to look forward to. I like your idea of the wee celebration, too. Glad you are doing well.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

We had a very interesting Monday. Around 4:00P.M. all the lights went out in Jacksonville. It was so funny watching people not know what to do. We had a blast.The lights didn't come back on in our neck of the woods after 11:00. It was very hot in our place since we only have 3 windows and all on the same side of the building so no cross breeze. But it was still fun coming up with things to do. Since we live close to another county my mom wanted to go see how many people were going over to eat,so we loaded up in her van minus my hubby and sat back to watch the people. The people was on the verge of craziness!!! That was why Mike decided to stay at home,he was scared someone may come over since alot of people know we are prepared for lots of things. I was grateful that there were no reported looting or anything. We didn't get to watch Frontier house but we had our own!!!!!

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Glad you had a nice anniverary Alan......I asked about your tiller (or the one you were thinking about) on the back up forum. Did you end up getting the Sears?? Where the heck has Polly been??? Never saw her on any of the back up forums.........you o.k. girl?? Wind didn't get you did it??

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Well, I made it out alive, at least for now. Things in the office are really hopping, got one project four months into construction, another getting ready to bid and another project with construction documents due to go out next week! To top it off, Greenspun goes down and leaves me hanging without something to relax during lunchtime.

But things are much better now, got my blood pressure back down to normal, now. Have a great week.

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Happy 5th anniversary, Alan!! Sounds like you and your wife had a perfect day. Ya know...you're buying and planting things that we pull out of our garden as weeds!! We're constantly fighting the blackberry vines and wild daylilies. And wild blueberries keep popping up, also!!

Sheepish...May is my busy month for birthdays and anniversaries, too. Cards are too darn expensive now, but lots cheaper than a phone call!!

Boy it's great to be back here again! I suppose the back up forum is better than nothing, but it sure will take awhile to get used to it!!

What a miserable day here...rain and drizzle! It's beginning to look like a d... jungle around here :-)! We've had so much rain over the past few weeks. This weekend is supposed to be in the 70's and sunny...perfect weather!!

My hatch is complete...out of twenty eggs only six hatched. Guess the little bantam roosters aren't quite getting the "job" done! But, that's okay. All I want out of these six chicks is a couple of roosters. They'll be larger than the ones I have now and they're half araucana. Have to remember to get my meat chicks and turkeys ordered on Saturday.

I've been wondering where Polly is, too!!! She is always so "talkative" :-)!! I miss her adventures. I also wonder how Jim is doing. Anyone know anything??

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Hey y'all!! With all these dad-blasted storms, I've not had much of a chance to get online. Then, the forum has been down; and the back up forum kept sending my posts to some cyber void - damn thing WOULD NOT let me post; not under my name or as an unregistered. Grrrrr.

I had to work a couple of extra shifts - ended up pulling a 1900-0030 shift Monday night; then got called yesterday afternoon - a much despised co-worker resigned, effective immediately - so they needed someone to work 07-1900 today. I usually refuse day shift, but the news of the resignation cheered me up so much that I agreed! Got in a wee bit of trouble for coming in the door this morning singing "Ding Dong, the witch is dead..the wicked witch is dead."; but it's kind of hard to take the boss seriously when he's trying not to laugh at your Munchkin immitation. Besides, he was wearing his Pinky and the Brain tie we got him for Christmas; and since he's kind of tall and skinny like Bwain....well, need I say more?!

Had a really good day on Tuesday - got up early to a call from Jes; kidney infection no better, so I had to call the doc and get a new script. Went uphill from there! Went out and hoed my new strawberries and counted the peaches that had set on the peach trees. Put some more wood chips down in the garden pathways, argued with Pop over where to plant some hen and chicks that co-worker Cheryl gave me. Planted some Lily of the Valley pips under the purple clematis on the East side of the porch; then planted a small bed with beets, carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach and chard. Had lunch with Pop and argued over the hen and chicks some more. Thought about doing some more weeding. But not for long! Decided to go mushroom hunting with Pop. Stopped by the pond on the way, to check out the tadpole population - none yet, but lots and lots of eggs. Thinking - real seriously - about putting one of those ornamental type ponds in the garden, so I'm looking at plants and critters for it. Came home from morel stalking with 33 morels (I found 3), a rusty old white enamel dishpan from a dump back on the Corp ground, and 1 blacksnake. Argued with Pop about the blacksnake - it kept looking at me - but finally agreed that having mice run up my sleeve when I went to scoop dog food was more annoying than having a snake in the shed. Watched Pop put the snake in the shed. Vowed to stomp my feet - a lot - when entering the shed from now on. Planted the hen and chicks in the wash pan and put them on the West side porch. Sifted three wheelbarrow loads of compost and mixed them with store bought stuff; then filled the grow bags that I bought to hang on the front porch. Showered. Baked blueberry muffins and a coffee cake for work. Smooched Hubs on his way in the door and my way out the door. Stopped at Sonic for a chili-cheese dog; and the bookstore for the new Jean Auel book (up to page 400 already!). Went to work - low census - good night. Wednesday morning - drove home, eyes almost all the way open. Kept trying to go to bed, people and the phone kept waking me up - Pop called to tell me about the tornado watch, etc... Finally fell in bed at 5 pm, Hubs tried to wake me at 6pm when he got home from work - no dice, totally incoherent, he says. Slept through one hell of a storm, apparently the worst one we've had this year - high winds, hail, torrential rain, etc... didn't move a muscle, per Hubs. Woke up when the alarm went off at 0500 this morning - felt great! Forum was up - had to go to work - @$&!&^%#!

So, anyway; that's what I've been up to! Sounds like the rest of you have been busy as well.

Teri, I'm really glad to hear that you are allowing yourself to grieve, by celebrating the little one's life. I am still a bit despondent every year in November, when the first baby I lost would have been born - 22 years ago. I lost him at 3 months, the second one at almost 5 months. I allowed myself to grieve for the second one, and I think that it helped me to heal.

Alan, Happy Anniversary to you and the Missus! Hubs and I made it to 5 years this Valentine's Day - once we got over the shock, it was kind of neat!

Sheepish, tell Mr. S we wish him a belated Happy Birthday! 5-0 eh? What a landmark! Remember being 20 and 50 seemed sooooo old?! Now it doesn't even seem middle age, does it?!

Well, I'm off to peel off the pantyhose (man, I hate day shift!) and get into a comfortable nightshirt; then stick my snout back into my new book. You folks all take care - sure is good to be back "home" with "family"! Hugs all 'round!

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Like I said...I've missed Polly's adventures! Whew!! I'm worn out just from reading all that :-)! Sure is great hearing from ya, Polly!!!!!

-- Anonymous, May 02, 2002

Checking in briefly....I still can't get the virus out. The horse is doing worse with the founder and we don't know why. The vet is taking more x-rays and drawing blood. This has been going on for over a month. Had to take one of my guinea pigs in for surgery today and am having to syringe feed her -- she had a nasty bladder stone, but it is out now and hopefully she will be on the mend and not form another one.

Joy is obviously still not back. Her cockatiel died & she's not in the best mood over it. Too many dying too close together.

It's Frogscicle Season here. You know, the Spring Peepers are out and the temps go down below freezing. We are having sporadic snow. I went out with a broom to sweep it off the lawn in looking for dandelion greens to tempt Zinger's appetite back (the guinea pig).

I've been thinking that we haven't heard from Annie or Yarrow lately.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Julie...our spring peepers have turned into tadpoles already!! And I'm not happy about that...I've been promising my granddughter that we would go up to the pond in my back pasture and bring some eggs home to hatch in a ten gal. tank. Went up last Wed. and the eggs are all hatched!!! Bummer! That's too bad about your horse. Founder is such a pain to eliminate. I had a horse that foundered (years ago!) and I ended up putting easy boots on him just to make it less painful for him to graze around the pasture! Glad your "pig" is better :-)!!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Diane,

I went to every place in the Gainesville area that I could think of that sold tillers to compare prices and saw that while the Sears sale price was a good one it wasn't a great one so decided to make do with a hoe and spade for a little while longer yet. We expect to get one this Fall though.

Marcia, make the best of your wealth! Daylillies are expensive and if they weren't perennials that reproduce themselves so well I wouldn't fool with them. We have wild blackberries too but even when cultivated they don't make big berries. I'm actually thinking of planting a few wild ones with my domestic ones so we can blend the better flavor of the wild ones with the size and juiciness of the domestic berries.

Made a stir fry with country sausage and lots of veggies for supper last night including the first eggplant out of the garden. Late for first fruits by North Florida standards but I decided I didn't want to play dodge the frost this year and waited until I was certain we were through with it before I planted them out. Should be picking the first grape tomatoes soon. I've had ZIP for pollination insects so far this spring so I'm having to hand pollinate the pumpkins. I'm hoping to get at least a few fruit but probably won't get what I ordinarily would. Need to go and retrieve our hives soon and bring them home.

Thanks to everyone for their good birthday and anniversary wishes!

Teri - this too shall pass.

......Alan.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Mmmm...fresh eggplant!! Ours wont be ready til August :-(! My hubby makes a killer sausage stir fry with eggplant, zucchini, onions, peppers and basmati rice!! Can't wait til he retires...he wants to do all the cooking!!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Alan, take care with planting the wild raspberries with the domestic. Up here in Michigan the wild ones carry a disease that kills the domestics.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Delivered a baby today!!7lb.13oz.boy.First baby.Jack Timothy Dodd.It was very healing for me,the nurses are the ones who attended me last week,they knew but the mom did not.Funny the only part that was hard for me was when the delivering mom kept calling for her mother??? Planting tomorrow,and the big booksale!!!Have a great weekend everyone!!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Congrats to you, Teri. It must be totally awesome to deliver a "human" baby. So many of us help to deliver four-footed babies...but a real baby, that's really cool!!!! So glad it helped you!

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

Hello all. Thanks for the birthday greetings. I'm so far behind that I'll never catch up. So as not to forget anyone, kudos to those that deserve them. Sympathy to those that have had troubles and congratulations to those that need to be congratulated. Happy birthday to those that have had birthdays and even happier days to those that haven't! To those who missed me, thanks. To those that didn't, oh well. Just when I thought things were going to settle down a little, we have started some projects that are tiring, time consuming and of course, they never go as planned, so time is limited again. I am going to quit working tomorrow and go to Mountain Home to a woodcarving show. Got to have some fun sometimes! Besides, we broke a bolt on one of the pieces of equipment, didn't have a replacement and I have to pick one up before I can get back to work. Maybe I'll forget to pick the bolt up. Why is it there is so much more to do in the Summer? Is that why the days are longer? Well, they need to be a lot longer!

Wildman, (dragging butt)

We are all in this together... ============================== A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the farmyard the rat proclaimed the warning; "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The rat turned to the pig and told him, "There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!" "I am so very sorry Mr. Rat," sympathized the pig, "but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers."

The rat turned to the cow. She said, "Like wow, Mr. Rat. A rat trap. I am in grave danger. Duh?"

So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's rat trap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rat trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient. His wife's sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer's wife did not get well. She died, and so many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when there is a rat trap in the house, the whole farmyard is at risk.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

I love you, Wildman.

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

And we love you too, EM!! Glad to see you - how's it going?!

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2002

Nice to see you EM, glad you are back. Wildman....you to!!!

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2002