Carol, Down here I can see flea beetle damage on radishes and beets as early as February of most years, and they will hit the tomato plants, eggplants and pepper plants as soon as they are transplanted into the ground. This year, I think the flea beetles have hit them in the greenhouse and when I have the plants outside sitting in full sun and full wind. (The greenhouse can protect them too much once the shadecloth is on it.) Something else is eating big holes in the leaves of everything I planted. It looks like grasshopper damage but I've only seen a small number of hoppers. Whatever is doing the damage, I don't see that insect in the garden during the day when I am out there. Maybe it is the June bugs? Who knows? Seems like it will be a bad bug year for sure. After saying I hadn't seen any aphids, they showed up on the Piricicaba broccoli around Wednesday or Thursday. By Saturday, the lady bugs had shown up, so I am sure the lady bugs will take care of the aphids. We have a lot of crickets, and before the weather turned cooler, they were making that cricker/hopper/locust humming racket in the woods at night that we hear most of the summer. I was SO not ready to have all that to listen to. Once the temps dropped, they got quieter again. Susan, We have about a half-billion June bugs and a billion crane flies. They are just driving me insane. Every time we open a door they fly in, etc., etc. and they are all over the yard, garden, greenhouse, garden shed, garage, etc. I've never seen so many craneflies or June bugs. I'll be glad when they are gone. We're also seeing tons of ticks and mosquitoes. I haven't seen any cicada killers yet, but lots and lots of spiders are out building webs, and I noticed spittlebugs on the grasses in the pastures this weekend. The fire ants are appearing in epic numbers for this early in the year. Every day I am seeing more and more butterflies and moths. I've been watching for luna moths because I usually see them in April, but haven't seen any yet. Carol, Our hummingbird population quadrupled over the weekend, making me think the first ones I saw were the early birds (pun intended) and that the main migration is now occurring. If you move your hummingbird feeders to a new location every spring, you'll quickly learn which birds are new to your place and which ones were there last year. The returnees from last year inevitably go to the spot where the feeders were last year even if there are no feeders in that spot this year. That's how I can tell if any are "returnees". I have seen a few green lacewings and a ton of tiny bees and parasitic wasps. The bird population is huge this year, and I hope they all stay busy eating the bad bugs. Dawn

Samat40: Here are some photos of our basement. These were taken when we weren't quite finished. The wet bar wasn't in. Our basement is completely done now but can't get you the finished photos. I lost my digital for a couple of weeks now and for the life of me can't find it. As soon as I find my camera or buy a new one, I will get updated photos. I have my photos downloaded on snapfish site. The first pic is the brick wall at the bottom of the stairs. That is the first thing you see when you go down the basement. The second pic is how we bricked the metal poles with leftover brick. The tiled area is where the wet bar is and the rest of the basement is carpet. Third pic is where we put all out stereo components. It was a section of the basement where the water trap/pipes (I think that is what it's called)is located. They are on the floor so my husband had to build the wall on an angle to go around them. So that left us with a little cubby section to put the components in. We painted the back of the wall black and use the darkest glass in the door that we can get and still be able to use the remote controls through it. We built the wood edge shelving so they look like they are floating. There is a light inside also. The fourth pic is how we divided the rooms with an arched doorway for the pool table room. We were going to put in french doors but decided not to. My husband thought it wouldn't be good if a pool ball went through the glass if someone accidentally over shot a ball. The fifth pic is the pool table room. My husband doesn't like the low ceiling. He was disappointed that we didn't go with the 10 foot ceilings. Next time we build we are going with the higher ceilings. The sixth pic is our fireplace. We had to put it in for a source of heat. It's a gas one but does the job. This the most cost efficient way to go for us. Since we have a two story house we would of had to put in another furnace to heat the basement and cut in all the duct work for vents (there was only one vent for heat, which is located above the furnace). We also have a bonus room upstairs and if we only use one furnace trying to heat the basement would of made the upstairs bonus room seem very cold. The fireplace heats up the whole basement. The seventh pic is a cabinet my husband built to cover our sub pump. The eighth pic is the stair rails we put in. The ninth pic is a door and face frame to cover our electrical box. The tenth pic is a door to my storage room and bathroom. When we built our house we had the builder put the furnace, water heater, central vac and water softener all in one area so we could frame it in a room together. The furnace room (as we call it) also has some storage space inside. We put up shelving in both the furnace room and storage room. When I find my camera I will get you some up todate pics.Sorry it took so long for me to post these. Susan Here is a link that might be useful: Our basement

Well, I'll suggest that not spending money on things like sheetrock and ceilings and floors leaves the basement unfinished. A finished, livable basement is worth more at sale time and is a proper living space for you while you live there. I'm not sure how putting in a ceiling will negatively affect heating in the basement; if anything, it should give you the opportunity to put more proper ducting in the basement so hot or cool air is distributed more evenly. Remnants have their place, but they won't look as finished as FLOR or some other flooring will. In my mind, it all comes down to taking a chance. If you've been in the house for three years and if you've already had a sizable rainstorm and a couple of spring thaws, you should know by now if things are going to leak. Sure, things can always change (a 100-year storm or such). Maybe you could talk to the neighbors about their experiences? Or simply plan for a draintiled basement in case the worst happens? In the meantime, you're giving up prime living space (that you did pay for when you bought the house) and that you cannot enjoy fully. Heck, by DH's logic, there's no point to doing much of anything to the rest of the house because you never know when a hurricane/straight-line winds/fallen tree will cause damage to the part of the house that's above ground. Ask lots of questions, find out what's "normal" in your area, and go for it.

Mustang, here is my first rose planting story... I read the directions and dug the 24" deep holes...5 total. Then I planted the roses. I realized afterwards that I forgot to mix in the compost, so I dug them all up and replanted them in the pouring rain!!!!!! With all the mud slop I had in the end, I doubt whether the compost did any good. The roses thrived and grew like crazy, though. :) Have FUN planting!! My 6 Perditas are coming grafted from David Austin this week!! I am so excited, I am having trouble sleeping! Rebecca p.s. I usually put the dirt in the hole halfway, then water it in well and let it drain... Then fill up the rest of the hole and make a well around it. I bury the graft 4-6 inches down because I live in zone 4. That way I never have to cover my roses and they survive my 30 below zero winters.