A recent update from the person who received the yucca is that it is green and doing well. The transplanted cholla are doing well, of course, but it will be a while before I know if any sacaton survived. We have been making progress but not as quickly as we hoped. (No surprise there! ;-) ) We have the foundation blocks for the outside beds in place up to ground level and filled with dirt. Pavers have been placed, but not yet leveled, between the existing shed and the north edge of the foundation. We have the water and electrical stubbed in. We have the SHCS tubes in place for the outside beds of the east greenhouse and hope to start filling that section soon with the removed dirt. We have removed all planned use of poured concrete from our plans and have made this planned structure possible to remove easily while still unlikely to be blown away. (Mostly due to bolting the foundation via J-bolts to rebar under bond beam cement blocks.) DH will be checking to see what type of permits/inspections we will need for electrical, water, and structures. I suspect that it will be just water and electric. We won't fill in any more until we find out. It is getting hot already so we will be putting in the outside structure and shade cloth before the central shed and greenhouses. That way we can work in the shade. :-)

Up, up and not away!

Ok, first of all, the vivarium hardscape is awesome!! You have such a good foundation for adding epiphytes. Now, I am *assuming* that the background is made from expandable foam with coco bedding siliconed over it. In that case, you are set(if your background is different than this let me know). All you need to do is buy some stoloneforous bromeliads. Basically, they are broms that grow from sticks. The best type to use for vivs are the miniature neoregelia types. All you do...it's so easy...you just clean off the brom, stick its stolon (stick) into the expandable foam, and keep the center of the plant filled with water. Good beginner broms: neo fireball, neo superball, and any other mini neo species. Go to www.tropiflora.com, click on the "cargo report" and you're in bromeliad paradise. Bromeliads are very hardy. They can take a beating and it's hard to kill them - just water them a few times a week so that their centers stay filled with a little water. Now, for your lighting situation, why are you using actinic bulbs!? Those are for saltwater aquariums. They give off a weird looking blue light. My advice: use between 5400K and 6800K lights (basically light that mimics sunlight). As for the heat issue, just shoot for tons of ventilation inside of the light hood. Vents, fans, anything to move air through. Just be sure that you're not sucking out the nice humid air inside your vivarium. Hope this helps. Danny

Oh Aunt Jen.............you are definitely NOT as zig-zaggy fast as that wand! You are blond and cute, but not ziggy fast. I know. It hurts to hear, doesn't it? Check out the youtube video. No, it's not me. But I should do youtube videos, huh? Well, heading into day II of the MAC foundation. DD loved it on me. My 29 yr old (too cute for words) boss loved it on me. But again...........need my dead flat look. Going to try again and see what I think. And I have another review. I bought the Maybelline Color Sensations lipstick in Coffee Craze yesterday. The color is so close to the MAC verve I just got. (Can you tell I was excited about the MAC counter???? Been in Macy's 1200 times, but never ventured over to MAC till this week. Favorite part? No perfume smell at MAC.) Anyway, the color was good, but the smell...........! Whoa. Color Sensations smells like old paint. And the MAC smells like chocolate vanilla. Double the $$ but I do love this lipstick. Red and oh my goodness......while searching for a short little youtube video on the ziggynes of PP for Jen, I found someone reviewing it, who was worried about inserting the battery in the tube...........wow. wow. Here is a link that might be useful: Pulse Perfection Review on youtube