What a hair pulling time I have been having with my computer

getting errors that there was something still using it to download something. I never could get it to work. My computer is now reformatted and I have lost all my addresses, Netscape 7.2 browser and the whole ball of wax. What a head ache. I cannot even get the phancypages any more for the links that you had emailed me were lost with the rest. I had to wait to get this email from you which came in last night. I had almost 500 emails to download once I finally got a program installed to handle my email. I have Netscape 8.0 for my browser but cannot get it to work for email like the 7.2 did. I am now relegated to use outlook express which I am not happy with at all. I loved the Spam filter abilities of my Netscape 7.2. Alas it is now residing in some computer dust bin somewhere in cyberspace.

I saw all the news reports of flooding in Texas and really worried about your new house. Oh how I hoped and prayed that it stayed dry for you.

When we moved into our summer home, I planted about 7 cucumber seeds in a small mound of field soil that the prior owners had left near the pole barn. I am now hauling out of that little patch bushel baskets of cucumbers that are really great tasting and crispy. I am keeping the neighbors and my whole family well supplied for sure.

One thing I am going to finally vent about are the rats that we bought this house from. The only positive I can say is the land and location are to our liking. There is nothing positive I can say about the people we bought it from.

I could see that they had been using that soil near the barn to fill near the house where they had cannibalized a porch from the front of the house after we had signed the contract to buy it. They knew we were 1500 miles away so those dirty rats did play. What a long tale of horrors I could tell. We are now left with a pelefera of bill collectors dunning for their money from those rats, holes in the walls where shelves used to be, a gas range that came from somewhere else for it is at least 20 years older that the house and has no oven thermostat that works for it broils everything and a fridge that we had to use a credit card to replace for it wouldn't cool anything. The door wouldn't even close for it had no seal. What a nightmare. I am just now able to write about it all for it was too painful to put into words.

Well that is finally out of my system!!!!!!!!

I planted a new type of tomato this year. It is small like those little red grape tomatoes and very sweet but it is yellow. I am going to start gleaning some seeds from those little sweet orbs and hopefully can save enough to have enough to share around. I am letting a few of those lushes cucumbers turn yellow and mature for their seed also. I hate to have to turn over almost 2 dollars for a little packet of seeds. There is one positive I can say about that ancient gas range I have: the pilot light in the oven keeps it just right to dry shoes in and seeds!!!! I just scrape them onto a paper towel and let sit overnight in that oven and they are ready to bag and tag.

I planted the last of my purple people eater seeds that I brought with me near my side door and they were just to the flower bud developing stage when I suddenly realized that something was nibbling on them big time. This morning I could clearly see the signs that they were being consumed big time. I searched diligently now to find the culprit. I found that rascal: a big [no huge] green horn worm!!!! YUCK!!!!! My eye will be on them and my tomatoes big time now for sure.

We have been watching the hurricane near Haiti this morning and am so glad we are in Michigan right now where there are no hurricanes and the nights are in the 50s and the days near 80. Perfect weather to keep the windows open by. I love the fresh air and sound of birds singing in the trees. There is a lake within a couple of miles of us and every morning we hear the geese and swans flying over us heading that direction. I of course love to stand outside while they go over and listed to them. Once in a great while we would see a family of pelicans fly by our winter home like that.

Donna