As if today's heat wasn't bad enough, we got a storm this afternoon. I haven't heard if there was actually a tornado but definitely some insane winds. I watered everything, went to pick my kids up from grandma's and when I got home, there were rose petals glued to my front door from across the street! The little cucumber that I had finally gotten around to putting on a trellis 2 days ago had blown over, one of the pepper pots tipped over, and one of the pepper plants just snapped in half. I strung up 30 little green Cayennes to dry but I don't really know. Some of them were JUST starting to turn red, some really seem like babies. If I dry them and crush them green, will they still have good flavor? Oh and the corn was COMPLETELY flattened. After scouring the garage, we went straight to Lowe's to find some way to support the corn for under $7 which is how much money I have to hold me over till my next paycheck. Got a 25 pack of 4' bamboo stakes and a ball of twine and made a little fence around that bucket. It's all pretty well standing back up now but we'll see whether it's really ok and how it holds up to the next windstorm. I know one thing...I'm definitely going to quit bragging about how well everything's doing! Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut till the season's over! @JonPalmer - I planted pretty much everything the last week in May or first week in June. Most of it is in half Miracle Gro potting mix and half Black Kow. The first few things I planted are just the MG potting mix. I've been using the MG sprayer thing about every 5-7 days or so (when I have it and think about it basically). I'm just tickled with how well it's all growing in spite of everything!

Yes, Fiona does look interesting. Too bad I'm trying to refrain from buying any or maybe I should say many new plants until we build our new house in a couple of years.

Jasdip, My DH loves trains. Especially steam trains. We frequently go to different places to just sit and watch trains. Occasoinally, we will actually chase them. Yesterday and today, the 765 steam locomotive, think Polar Express engine, was doing staff appreciation tours between two towns within an hour and a half from us. They made three runs yesterday, and two today. There are many places along the track that you can stop to get pictures. This is what we were doing. Driving back and forth between the two towns and getting video and still pics. A few years ago Union Pacific did a promo run thru Iowa, and, I think, Nebraska. Maybe another state. I can't remember. We drove to Iowa and chases, with many others, including law enforcement! Most who do this are very considerate about thier driving. The police were there for order and because they wanted to chase it too! Some were leading the pack! I drove my big Expedition with DH sitting in the back seat where he could take video and still pics from either side of the car without me being in his way, depending on which side of the car the track was on at the time. If the file isn't too big, I am going to try to include a pic from yesterday. He tends to shoot with the biggest file the camera will support, for those familiar with DSLR cameras, he shoots in RAW file, so I don't know if it will work without re-sizing it. I haven't had time to do anything to any of them. I had a bridal shower to attend today, chaufuering my mom & aunt, plus picking up a few groceries for mom & dad. My butt is whooped again! Sorry, the file was too big and message was rejected. I'll have to re size a few and post them. Tami

I like that! If I can find some small boxes, maybe I'll try it on my stacked plates. I haven't a clue how I want to do them this year, and want to get done with my Christmas decorating TODAY. (club meeting here tomorrow, LOL. So no choice.) hugs, Karen