Vent away! I'd have been livid! Though I doubt my dad wouldn't have dared such an intrusion... or had the time or desire to tackle extra yard work! My next door neighbor has a beautiful lawn and garden, and she has an entire bed of milkweed out back. It is a great and regular pleasure for us to go out back in the summer, accompanied or not by her children and their friends, and inspect the milkweed for Monarch caterpillars. We also grow extra herbs so that both we and the other caterpillars who like them (esp. the dill!) have all that we want. I had planned a rose garden in the moderately sunny spot near her kids' swing set, but images of them tangling with the thorns made me re-consider and go with a butterfly garden instead. The butterflies make me happier than the roses would have... Perhaps you need a folksy hand-painted sign to tuck into your milkweed. Something like "Monarch Nursery: No weed whackers allowed!" or "Shhhhh! Baby Monarchs Sleeping!" or something similar to point out the fact that the plants are both intentional and cherished. Eighty peonies? Lopping off a hydrangea you'd nursed from a cutting? All your daylilies? Ladies, it's beyond me how you aren't all posting from prison after having murdered the whack-a-doodles! Steve and I have strict divisions of labor and he knows better than to "help" with my stuff. The price I pay is that the edging we bury to separate his turf from mine is inviolable... which means any flowers that grow outside the line (or just lean heavily) get whacked. Grrr. Although as time goes by, he's becoming less zealous about whacking errant blooms (and I'm becoming better about re-homing volunteers who come up too close to the line...)

It is my understanding that cats and foxes do fine together. But not coyotes or fishercats which are pretty darn vicious and will tear cats into fluff balls. What I cannot understand, since New England and other north eastern locations are long settled areas, is why there is such a deer and coyote population inside the small towns and city suburbs. Down here, of course, we have no problem of deer in the towns. If they showed up, some Cajun would be boiling rice and it would be on the table for supper. Most we find are the smaller wildlife creatures, like possums and coons, squirrels and a few rabbits, and of course snakes and a few alligators. Rats? well, they hang out in clumps of bamboo. Since they feel safer at night, the owls are helpful in controlling their numbers. With the movie Ratatouille I had a dilemma because the "hero" was a rat....not a mouse, which seems more acceptable .... but an animated RAT. It was a good story though.

Yes, those little FW are so darn cute they just steel a sewer's heart. Mine is a few months older than I am and "Gracie" came from Canada. Many FW enthusiasts name their machines! I've been sewing since I was 13 and quilting for the past 24 years. My maternal grandmother who lived in Kentucky quilted, so I guess she passed her genes on to me, but I did not learn from her. I took a beginner's class after I made my first quilt and I have taken classes often since then. The wonderful thing about a quilting hobby is that there are so many avenues to explore in quilting: traditional quilt patterns, applique, modern patterns, rag quilts, oriental designs, miniatures, art quilts, etc. etc. In the past year I have added redwork hand embroidery to my patchwork baby quilts and now I'm teaching myself Sashiko, a type of embroidery and quilting from Japan.

Jill, thanks for the solidarity - definitely a puppy! Aren't back rubs part of your marriage vows? OB2B, he's not much on tile, but he's very appreciative of me :-) The delays could fill a whole new thread, but they basically go like this: I'll have a couple days next month. No I said the month after that. Eight months of this nonsense, then the New contractor broke his foot. Says he'll be back any day now, but then I've heard that before... Crl, yay indeed! Thanks for the love. Katrina, I'm so glad it all went well in the end. Cp, yeah, go ahead :-) Thanks! Zelly, I get it. Good luck! And it's true, people don't always communicate that well. I know there's life After a reno, but I'm finally happy to report there's life During a reno too.