Here in Zone 7 on the Northeast Piedmont of NC it has been unseasonably mild--all season. No hard frost yet. Yarrow and calendula actually still blooming, and horror of horrors I still have aphids on the few leaves the drought has left on my roses. The groundhogs have munched my fall garden down to little nubbins, and Catspaw49, if I could catch the suckers I would gladly boil them for 2 weeks after skinning them alive (the skins make really good drum heads for small drums.)

Speaking of groundhogs--my grandmother used to tell this one on her brother Ray. When they were young children in eastern Kentucky the extended family always ate Sunday dinner at their house. Times were hard, and one Sunday their mom fixed a couple of groundhogs. She knew Uncle Clyde would not KNOWINGLY eat groundhog so told the kids before company arrived that if they wanted seconds to say "Please pass the meat" instead of groundhog. When Ray was ready for seconds he remembered he was not supposed to call it groundhog but couldn't remember what to call it. He finally asked his Uncle Clyde to "Pass the Body, please."