Michelle, it sounds like a great setup for a little custom gardening on the side - you read about the restaurants that serve specialty salads or dishes from local farmers - any opportunity to branch out a little in your growing and improve the food quality in your community? If I ever get my garden to a point where I can consistently produce extra, I'm going to see about sending it to our local food bank. Or set up a fruit stand at the bottom of my driveway. ;-D

My ex has been patiently waiting to see how my sweet potato growing experiment worked, hoping that as with the Irish potato experiment, there will be extra to go around. Yesterday we took a spade fork out and I dug a little closer to the middle of one plant and we found a few of the potatoes. I covered them back over and I'll harvest them after the vines die way back, well before the first frost. Something is eating up all of my cantaloupes - I'm going to have to get a rat trap and see what it is. Rat, squirrel, some other rodent. Possum? It could be just about anything.

Another lovely cool morning. I took a hoe to the area where the kennel used to stand and leveled out a few built up spots where the fire ants had piled dirt. Didn't get the bagged top soil yet, maybe today. I need to fill in a few dog holes first so I don't break an ankle back there.

I'm glad you heard from your friend, Mary.

SRS