i agree with karyn. we never get tornadoes and this year we have had several touch down . the piedmont triad farmers market was hit hard . a direct hit to that area and the damage was massive . many buildings in the immediate area got structural damage , including a few at the market . it took out a 30 foot cinderblock wall , and every building has tons of crack lines going down the walls. hundreds and hundreds of trees are down . trailers thrown over 400 yards from original packing area . huge commercial freezers and refrigerators thrown hundreds of feet from their location too. it was like a bomb hit and destroyed almost everything . friday a group of us went to help clean up. when i arrived i could not believe my eyes . police everywhere , red cross , ems vans, and tons of tv stations . just amazing !! we could not save many of the farmers plants , i would guess a 98-99 % loss. all we could do is shovel everything in a huge pile and let the front end loaders remove it. really a sad day for the farmers . everywhere you looked trucks were pulling trees with ropes and tons of heavy equipment was moving trees . if one tree was down , 300 were . just unbelievable !!! we did get the market back up and ready for the farmers to sell this weekend . due to structural damage , huge parts of the market were off limits . many of the farmers had to use a gravel parking lot . saturaday i did not sell my stuff at the market. instead i decided to help some of the farmers hit the hardest. i went in at 9am and left at 6 pm . i could not help them all but i did get around to 5 farmers. i did everything from bag plants, water , to help give instructions on growing them . i did find one thing out abouut myself, i truely do not know a thing about annuals .lol i want to send special thanks out to everyone that volunteered their time to help save our market , especially the customers who came in and worked hard, and the red cross for helping feed these people and for doctoring up the cut i received cleaning up. my prayers goes out to all the tornado vicits in my state and across the country .

Ok, Grrrr. It seems not only did I exceed the bandwidth of my photo sharing site (until tomorrow when my month is over I think), but it appears that I may have crashed the Ft2Garden.com server bandwidth as well. I was posting about the photo site when it gave me an error when I tried posting. After checking Judy's blog and the Ft2Garden.com forum, they were all down. I can only assume the two are related. Who knew my 15 minutes of fame would have such unintended consequences. Oops!

Divorce takes victims - occupies time, money, emotions and there are no winners in the end. Does the husband really want custody? or does he want to punish your cousin in some fashion and/or not be on the hook for child support If your cousin has been primary care giver, he will not get custody. The sporadic support payments make no sense, in any state. It is an equation x amt % of earnings order is set by court period - Regardless of the custody issue this should be enforced - why it is not at this point is baffling & disturbing to say the least. Additionally, the court can order the husband to pay the mortgage as well. If the family was living in the home prior to the separation and he was responsible for payments they can order the same - while the permanent agreement gets hammered out. Same holds true for their schooling, lessons, extracuricular activities - they are entitled to the same level prior to the separation. If she is Ok w/leaving the house, then have it appraised and let the husband give her, her fair market share - She has right to continue to provide her children the same quality of life they experienced during the marriage - So, find another home on the other side of town, or further and rent it out - billed to the husband if the court will agree. The guardian ad litum issue is also disturbing "Some court official told them to get the guardian ad litum. Husband agreed in presence of the official. The lawyers neglected to get the order signed by a judge, and now husband is reneging and they have to go back to court again to get it signed." Sounds like a Mickey Mouse court, with Minnie Mouse attorneys - Who made the recommendation? and on what basis? - If the court records demonstrate this statement - why would you need to go back & pay more fees? If a judge ordered it, it is simply review of transcript and request he pony up This sounds like a circus of sorts, then again, divorce, courts, legal battles frequently are - the beneficiaries are the lawyers, et al - never the children. Your cousin needs to get a backbone and stop playing the victim role. She needs to decide what is best for her, and her children and move on and away from the psycho husband. If he has visitation and the children are at risk in any way, simply call the police - That would make a statement to both the husband and to her children that she means business. They need to feel safe. The 14 yr old can make the call - unless he/she has been trained to don the victim blanket - Puh..lease - The longer the victim blanket feels comfy - the longer this will drag on and the more $$ will be spent. If your cousin decides she wants to move on with her life, then she can take charge of the circus that is now taking every energy. Her children need to see a stable and strong parent - they already have the consequence of divorce working against them. When/if that day comes she can counter all of the requests -i.e. yes, you are welcome to buy my share out - $x amt, and the rent for the home is x/monthly. Does she "like" her attorney because he is expediting the job in an efficient manner or because he is helping her emotionally? Had to ask - I've seen WAY toooooo many atty's take full advantage here. Your cousin needs a tough love approach - it's not about her, it's not about him - it is about the children the most vulnerable victims in this process. She needs to set aside ALL of her own stuff and move forward on their behalf the father certainly doesn't sound as if he is capable. Forget the psycho, drinking, bad behavior issues - they went on during the marriage, she was powerless to stop them then, what makes her think she suddenly has power to do anything about those behaviors now? - It's not about his behaviors - she can be protected from them and so can the children - Only when she chooses to be GOOD LUCk

over 20" rain (the rain gauge overflowed a couple of times before I could get out and dump it). Haven't lost power at all, our property is East of the Brazos River but not in the 'river bottom', so we are high (but not dry!). Lots of low spots on the property that hold water, i.e. a mini-lake. No leaks in home, cats are hanging out on front, covered porch. Haven't left property since Friday but suspect most roads around me are, at some point, under enough water it would not be safe to drive on them, even in daylight. Very thankful this is the property we ended up with since it doesn't seem to flood. Lots of water running over it to get to the river though. Grandson is LEO in town where our county seat is and, of course, working without a day off - he has the night shift. Said it was tough to get to town (12 miles) and doubted he would be able to get back home in the morning due to roads being flooded. We do have a smallish creek North of us that tends to close the road in this amount of rain. Hoping things improved, I am supposed to fly out on Thursday heading for Cloudcroft, NM via El Paso.