Nancy, Thanks for asking. I'm not open yet! lol We just closed 2 weeks ago.. ran into a few snags and a few more.. so closing on the house was delayed a month. Then we almost didn't close at all because the people left all kinds of stuff and very filthy!! There was even old food left in the fridge.. so we wanted to re-negotiate the price or them clean and those scum bags said forget it then, the deals off.. So we sucked it up and cleaned up their filth. Hard to believe that woman ran a day care there and what's harder to believe is parents actually take their kids to her! Every window and sliding glass door was plastered with sticky ucky finger prints! Took 2 washing to get the windows clean enough to see out of!! And they still need a 3rd!! So far the Sunroom/Plantroom is finished and my friend is working on the mural in there under the wall of windows.. looks real cool. The kitchen is done(when I say done I mean painted.. nothing else, besides clean) We still have to build work stations. Put in shelves display cases and all that good stuff. Had to throw out the stove it was so gross I wouln't even give it away. That's okay I don't need a stove there anyway. The long hall is done... The Office/Kids hang out room is finished and the, what we call, big room has it's first coat of paint... needs a 2nd. 3 of the rooms were a dark dark red/burgundy color! Took 2 coats of primer.. and 2 coats of paint to cover it up(at least in the office & big room.. so I figure the room connected to the kitchen will need that also.... so everything else is primered. Tomm I hit the big room with a 2nd coat and it should be all set. Once the painting is finished, I'm going to have to do something about the wood floors.. sand them buff them, something. Prob. going to be a lil longer than I expected to open.. but that's okay.. I want it to look right for the grand opening. You know the saying.. you never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression. I did take most of yesterday off.. but couldn't sleep last night.. DD was at the prom and then the all night after prom party the school sponsers.. and yes.. I was worried.. so I went down about 2 am for a while.. At least there I wasn't waking the house! lol And I felt less guilty for taking the day off yesterday. Lil T, I took pic's for you, but of course left the camera there... have the DSL stuff at the shop but haven't installed it yet. I'll try and remember to bring it home tomm.. and yes.. I finally fixed my a drive! lol Did that the other day when I bought the computer for the shop.. Bout time eh! lol Well 12 hours at the shop today, along with last night and no sleep... I'm a tired girl! Bed is calling. Hope you all had a great day! Rained here a good portion of the day, but that's okay we needed some. Tally Ho! ~Dusty~

Shirley, just because you said Lowe's had their bulbs 1/2 off I stopped by ours yesterday on the way home and their's were still full price! Everyone gets such good deals at Lowe's but ours hardly ever puts anything on sale that isn't 9/10s dead. I did need some manure so it wasn't a wasted trip and of course I saw other things I had to have. ;-) Can you please ask the Lowe's manager or your store to train mine? <:d>Theresa, I do the same thing when I look around. It just awes me that I have parts of so many people in my gardens. That's the way I think of it, parts of "them" because they put some much of themselves into growing those plants. My pal didn't post that she got her April package either but I'm sending everything with delivery confirmation so I hope she's getting them. I got a really great package from a trade on a differnt RR today. I've been very lucky with both my RR pals. I love this one too. I look forward every day to coming home and seeing what everyone has to say. Keep posting, it's like being with old friends. Nancy

This is a T and T recipe. It makes 2 loaves so you can freeze one for your Mexican train group Date and Nut Bread 1 1/2 C. chopped dates 1 1/2 C. hot water 2 T. butter, softened 2 1/4 C. flour 1 1/2 C. sugar 3/4 C. coarsely chopped walnuts 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 1/2 tsp. salt 2 eggs, beaten 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla Combine dates, water and butter. Let stand 5 min. Combine flour, sugar, walnuts, baking soda and salt. Stir in eggs, vanilla and date mixture just until moistened. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake 375 45 -50 min. Cover loosely with foil if tops brown too quickly. Cool in pan 10 min. remove from pans and cool on wire racks. I serve with softened cream cheese. It's as easy as making banana bread.

LOL! In my bird book with the falling-out-pages I have LOTS of post-it notes stuck on the pages with the birds I "for sure" saw, and the date when I saw them--and where, if it was somewhere besides home in Denver! A few post-its with question marks too, when I wasn't positive! Now my "new" Nat. Geo. book is starting to get post-it notes stuck in IT! I could NEVER deal with a book that had the pics in one part and the words somewhere else! Wouldn't possibly have the patience for that! It's hard enough to try to ID a bird when I'm sitting here going, "Don't fly away! Don't fly away!" and trying desperately to manipulate my binoculars and keep my fingers in several different pages of a book--or books! I way agree with the "plain old google search," but ANYTHING can come up in a search, so you need to be really careful that you're looking at the "consensus" and not just picking out a pic that looks like you "want it to look!" Not too long ago I got curious about something and I wound up googling "white people," "black people," "red people," and "yellow people," and several more similar terms, and it was pretty "illuminating" how that all came out! Pretty funny, actually, but pretty sad at the same time! So any internet search definitely needs to be taken With a Grain of Salt! The All About Birds site is REALLY good for identifying them! On the "Identification" tab, on the bottom, there are always several actual photos, plus, just right of that there's "similar species" info--that can be REALLY helpful! And then on the "life history" tab there's info about what they eat, their habitat, and more! Really useful if you see a bird eating seeds and find out what you think it is only eats insects! For anyone who still hasn't gone to that site, here's one page. I saw these last spring at the cabin where I stay on Grand Mesa. Don't have internet there, so ID'd it in a book first, and then looked it up here when I got back home! There are some elms next to the house that were just starting to leaf out--and they were FILLED with these! VERY cool! https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Tanager/id Skybird