I can't wait till spring!!! Hopefully I will have a job by then, crossing my fingers, and I will have plenty of plants to keep me busy on the weekends!! That is if I get weekends off, heck I was so desperate for a job I told them I would work any shift and any hours, LOL. I have a feeling I may be on thirds, oh well we gotta do what we gotta do!! Cross your fingers everyone that I get the job, that means I may be able to move, eventually!!

Hope you get rain soon - I don't know what official was since it lasted past midnight (I think) and my rain gauge was cracked, but Weather Underground station near us recorded 0.18", TWC says 0.28. Guess I'll have to get the wheelbarrow on level ground and measure how much was in that (DH leaves it upright - drives me crazy but I don't always catch it and til it over before a storm). I'm using a double layer (uncut bags) of burlap covered with bark mulch, hay, whatever I can get my hands on, between rows near the house. Out in the 3000sf area with raised beds that we just fenced, I started putting wood chips but only got about 1 cy and the weeds are growing up through it even though I put it on about 3" thick at the end where the weeds were the worst. I didn't pull them, just tried to smother them - didn't work. We have something really tenacious that even started growing (weak and spindly-looking like bean sprouts) under the burlap on the beds, but practically have to dig *those* out, stems just break when you pull. I haven't been out there to check potatoes and onions, but the greens, strawberries, peas, blueberries near the house look fine, not flattened, no berries knocked off. Looks like a deer nipped off a couple of shoots of 1 of my raspberries though - spit 1 out but I didn't find the other. Guess I have to fence/net off those 2 rows while they're growing. I hope they won't bother them once they're tougher and spinier - though I don't know about the TC blackberries since those are thornless. I don't really want to have to fence off the whole area since we have grass/weeds growing between the mounded rows (24 ft long), just the width of the lawnmower. But if I have to I'll put burlap and mulch down there too, try to smother everything (after mowing first!). And make a gate at 1 end between the 2 rows (was going to add a 3rd eventually) so we can get in. I hope a 6-7ft wide x 25 long area sloping downhill (rows run across the slope) doesn't need to be fenced 7ft high to keep the deer out. That's why I haven't left my tomato plants out at night - take them into garage - the wildlife around here is so bold, the motion sensor light doesn't deter the bear getting into garbage right outside garage, and the deer and turkeys will come right up to the house at night, and into the backyard during the day. Found deer prints going over my potato bed (1ft high) and a couple of seed potatoes pulled out of the ground before we put the fence up. Of course, down there (1000ft from house) it's like a deer/turkey/bear/coyote superhighway, from all the tracks we find.

Yea Andy It's actually very surprising to have such a long streak of 80ish plus with the amount of rain we have had-some days even with heavy rain it would stay in the upper 70s while it rained and the sun would come out for a few minutes and we would pop 80-then more rain then back to the 90s= truly a tropical summer. "Cooler" weather coming-next week I can actually stand outside and look at my plants for a change-looking forward to it! We are so lucky to have had the rain we have had,I think I watered 3 times this year and that's amazing considering the hot temps! Already almost 5" of rain this month and 36-40" since May 1- unbelievable growth this year!

Thank you so much for asking! The party was great - had a few last minute cancellations since there was a softball tournament the same day and their kids were on teams that kept winning, but I am thrilled that the girls did well so it was all good. The menu was everything listed above, except I skipped the ice cream sandwich thing - it was overkill, and I am glad I did. Several friends (who know me well) know that dessert is usually not my thing, so they all brought desserts! The contributed a pecan pie, a walnut caramel cheesecake (OMG it was delish!), a strawberry cheesecake, and a huge plate of chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered pretzels. Everyone had a blast and the hat parade was a riot. My GF had been in San Diego on business a few weeks earlier and bought a fascinator there. It was incredible - purple, black illusion lace, black feathers... just amazing and she looked so beautiful in it. I was happy she won, since she has had a tough year battling breast cancer. I am already looking forward to next year! Alexa