My son bought the coolest caulking gun from Home Depot - it was only $10 . The beads came out smooth & it was dripless,too. Even the tip turned so you could change the direction of the bead while keeping it smooth. It had a gizmo to cut off the tip of the caulk tube,too. Talk about builing a better mousetrap ! LOL ***** It's the little things in life that make us Happy !!!

I give up! :O( My once robust and healthy roses look pitiful now. I spray and I spray and the bugs just keep coming! I'm still going out to find those same bugs still chewing and sucking the life out of my roses. The jps are increasing in number on top of it and the bs is getting worse despite me spraying for it. I've spent a bunch of money already trying to combat the problems and don't know if I should keep trying or just give up and let the roses try to fight it on there own. Duchess de Brabant looks the worse and she is one of my very favorites. She bearly has any leaves on her and the ones she does keep getting attacked by bugs. I have always raved about how healthy this rose was and now you wouldn't know it to look at her. Everyone one of my roses now are effected and look just terrible. :O( I'm just hoping that they can bounce back from this. Mrs B R Cant also has little leaves left as does Hermosa. Their would be tons of blooms I could be enjoying but all and I do mean pretty much all the buds on my roses are being chewed by either thripes, jps, and or those sucking insects. Everytime I go outside to make my rounds of picking and squishing bugs, plucking the bs leaves that have yellowed and cutting infected buds I just want to cry. I'm sorry for blubbering but it is so frustrating and sad to see them looking as they do. I've just never seen it so bad like this before. I don't know what it is. ~Meghan

ya, rebel people rebel. Its like in the state of Oregon, they are trying to pass terms for selling prune trees as dried plum trees....and when someone is eating filberts and someone else says "How are your hazlenuts",,,or ya, like when you go into the grocery store and see tomatoe's in the vegetable section, ya, that should be outlawed...or labeling that says Proven Winners or Gro-Great, and then they die, whats with that...or when you go to these big name places that are tearing down mom and pop nurseries like Home Depot or Lowes, and you buy a annual and it dies after the year, and there plant guranteee says any plant, and they don't replace it, whats with that( I actually pranked them once and called them up,,,,they weren't nice about it either, and no, I didn't buy an annual either.) or how about people debating on actual gallon size and getting a petition of ideas to bring legislators in on horticultural products and selling practices.....now thats priceless.....thanks for the comedic blog.......happy gardening and successful gallon measuring....!

One more comment. Many gun death accidents happen with *unloaded guns* So even keeping ammo in a separate location from the gun in not foolproof, because all it takes is for one time to *think* the gun is not loaded when it is. My Dad was a gunsmith growing up. We were taught all the gun safety. On the way back from a Utah deer hunting trip (from So CA) all five of us kids in the back of the van and my parents up front. My oldest brother was carrying in one rifle into the house and blew a hole in the living room ceiling through the roof with the *unloaded* rifle that had traveled home from Utah to So CA in the back of the van. Another incident. Guns were locked up. My twin brothers were crazy anyways as in always doing stuff they shouldn't. One time after school I remember seeing my brothers in the utility room Showing one of their friends some handguns or one handgun. They were handling it. I think they were talking about shooting it in the backyard (can't remember exactly) but I was SCARED. All us kids KNEW not to touch or break into the guns. Period. It was drilled into us. Ummmm teens (boys or girls) have hormones raging through them, curiousity.. they Cannot see the danger as they have immature brains. That is all there is to it! Lets see .. one boy in our neighborhood lost his eye to a BB gun. ANY way to rationalize it and try to make a clear argument there is no excuse for locking away guns. I KNOW it defeats the purpose to have a gun for personal protection if you can't reach it quickly AND it be loaded .. but there is no easy answer! Thought I would share my stories