I think that gardeners as a group are hopeful and some of us are delusional. I am glad that I am nowhere near that store. I would get up to the register and be absolutely shocked at the total. I prefer online where my cart has my total so I can try to make better decisions. I do not save seed yet as I am trying focus more on the growing. Some of the things that have influenced my seed purchasing of so many varieties is an effort to find what I like best and what works best in my climate. I admit too, I can be swayed by novelty. Blue pumpkins? Sign me up. Also reminds me I need to find some cheddar cauliflower seeds (15 yo son loves it). The other thing is it is a cheap thrill. I do not like to buy a lot of cheap plastic stuff, I would much rather buy some cool seeds. All that being said, I probably spent about $65 at Baker Creek this year. I appreciate their shipping charge. I could have easily spent more but I do know there are any so many spaces for tomatoes. I may place an order with Territorial (although I like their prices less) for some fall/overwintering cauliflower and some herb plants that I have trouble sourcing locally, but those are a one time deal. I may pick up a few seed packets locally that are Botanical Interests. I consider them somewhat regional as they are based in Colorado. Or, there may be a few needs/wants at Gourmet Seed which are based in NM. Potatoes may not be on the agenda this year and I am on the fence about more garlic, it will depend on this year's harvest. I may pick up a few plants too from a local greenhouse but that will not be a big part of my expenditure (at least not on veggies, ornamentals are a different matter entirely).

OK, I'm just going to say what I've been thinking for the last couple of days now: What the *$!!!! Seriously! I've attempted to respond here several times, but I've deleted every attempt because I don't know how to do it correctly. I genuinely like everybody who's posted here and don't even think I disagree with you about most things... but how the heck did this evolve into a "hunters these days are evil" thread? I just wanted to get a little more info because I really don't want my dogs molesting a den of foxes that will probably be whelped on or near our property soon and I wanted to get a feel for whether or not it was something I should look out for. I really do welcome their presence in our midst. And so does my (hunter) husband, and so does my (hunter) neighbor. And so do the other (hunter) neighbors we told. None of us want to shoot the dang thing. Honest! Tonight I cooked homemade pheasant sausage, cannellini, and fried sage casserole. The day I made my original post I cooked venison chili from a deer my husband shot out of his deer stand. He hunts from a stand because (unlike in the flat, treeless land from where I hail where no one uses stands because there are no trees) when one considers the trajectory of a rifle round, and the visibility-limiting reality of shooting through trees, and the fact that the nine day gun season in WI brings out 600,000+ participants (not to mention all the innocent hikers and people who happen to live on the periphery of the wilderness), a tree stand is the most respectful thing one can do for anyone and anything in a one mile perimeter. Considering his multi-vertebral spinal fusion and age, in a few more years he'll probably need to consider taking along a four wheeler to haul the 200+ lb animal out of the woods. I'm still going to call his annual trip to deer camp "hunting." Baiting (and feeding!) deer is ignorant: It spreads disease, encourages deer to cross roads (getting hit by cars in the process), and artificially increases the carrying load of the land. Contrary to what some may believe, the majority of a hunter's time is not taken up by shooting things. Mostly my husband spends his time silently watching wildlife. He sees turkeys, pheasants, (he hunts both of these, but not out of season, and never while deer hunting), songbirds, squirrels, foxes, porcupines, skunks, armadillo (from the many years he's hunted in Alabama) and a lot of deer he can't shoot. Why can't he shoot the majority of the deer he sees? Well, it depends on whether he has an antlered or antlerless tag, whether or not the deer is too big or too small, whether or not he has a clean shot, and what sort of activity the deer is engaged in. He's not even an anomaly. I don't know any hunters who don't experience the same... though I do know "of" some, but that's different. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad. I don't even disagree with any of the points made about irresponsible "hunters." I'm the first one to call the DNR with anything I suspect of being unethical, in no small part because I know that when people are caught in the act, that everything (guns, trucks, everything) can be confiscated and I'm happier than anyone to be rid of the yahoos. I'm just genuinely hurt when a post like mine can bring out so much anti-hunting vitriol. Can we just agree that unless your hitting a deer with your combine, it's not "harvesting?" I realize this is very much a hot-button issue of mine. I'm probably over-reacting. Forgive me. I confess I feel a little put off by some of the comments that seem overly broad and have been struggling to come up with a fair, honest, and productive response. I'm not sure this is it. But it's a toned-down version of what's been floating around in my head for the last couple of days.

Rickey, Of course it was Fred. Who else his age is out driving around visiting gardeners in the middle of the afternoon? LOL If you see Billy Fred, do see if you can find out what he knows because he may know more details. Nowadays, when I ask Fred "who" he is talking about, he often can't remember names and will say something like 'you know...that guy that lives over yonder' and, of course, I have no clue who he means. Having said that, I hope that when I am Fred's age (and I'm not sure what it is but think right around 90?) I still get around as well as he does. Sometimes I do have to get Billy Fred to tell me who his dad is talking about because, while Fred always seems to have his facts straight, he does have trouble remembering names now and then. I had wondered about those goats....about how he keeps them safe because I've never seen any kind of guardian dog like a Great Pyrenees out there with them. I heard a loud growling this morning from the woods oddly enough (and I was inside the house and it sounded like it was right there in the room with me!) and it about scared me to death. As far away as your house is from ours, it is odd we've both heard that growling sound recently. It isn't like we're so close geographically that we'd hear the same growl at the same time. I've never heard this sound before and I pretty much thought I'd heard everything there is to hear around here. The dogs were going nuts in their dog yard, and I ran downstairs and didn't see a thing, but the cats were on the porch wanting to come inside. After that growling sound, I canceled my plans to work in the yard. James, I feel like much of what you say is true, but we have both good and bad government employees and always will. I know sometimes the local wildlife people seem to say whatever the 'official' story line is but their eyes and body language are telling you something else. Our local law enforcement officers are pretty good about telling us to 'do what you have to do' to stay safe, because they know they can't be everywhere at once. They also come as quickly as they can when called, but with only 1 or 2 or 3 county deputies/reserve deputies on duty at a time, their response time can be frustratingly slow. Game bird, I promise, if you tell me you see three dinosaurs crossing the road, I'll believe you. And. on a funnier note....Chris was 15 when we moved here and had a huge iguana named Alex. He built Alex a nice roomy outdoor pen, but somehow Alex would escape and run around although he always came back to the cage when he was hungry. We alerted our neighbors, and I showed Alex to Bill one day. We were watching Alex from the road and he climbed to the top of the pecan tree, which was then losing its leaves for autumn, so you could see Alex very clearly. At that point he was about 5' long. When Bill saw him, he said he needed to warn his wife and daughters because he feared they'd about run off the road and wreck their vehicles if Alex ever ran out into the road in front of them. Bill was afraid the women in his family would think Alex was an alligator. Carol, I do think a lot of people know exactly how to play the system. Tim and Chris both work at D-FW Airport, which is incorporated just like a city, and has a large Department of Public Safety consisting of police, fire and emergency medical personnel employees. Their department has several hundred employees and most are wonderful, but there are a couple that of virtually worthless. How people like that keep their jobs is just beyond me. Dawn

In my garden I used to use blood meal as a temporary solution - You have to reapply after rains but, it kept the rabbits away from most plants until the plants were large enough to be uninteresting, to the rabbits. Then, thanks to the rabbits, we ended up with white clover in the lawn. The rabbits seem to prefer this to almost anything else in the garden so, that seems to be another good solution. BUT, for the past two years we have gone from a resident population of 30+ rabbits to ZERO - a fox moved into the neighbourhood! :o) A.