Tues sounds good--want to try to hit Teas Nursery on Bellaire? I haven't been there since the last time I was in the building I'm in now (which was 9 yrs ago)...they used to be HUGE and had a lot of tropicals then so you would probably like it!
Adventures in Suburban Gardening...
Tuesday is good. Love Teas, though it has changed in the 9 years since you were there last. When I 1st went to Teas, lets see that was before the civil war, no only like 15 years ago, they had huge amount of roses, went on forever, but they have decreased the area that is dedicated to roses over the years. They have good tropicals and I have always found nice bulbs when I needed something, though not unusual stuff; but always nice stuff!
Well, I'm all for decreasing the rose area...and its really close to where we are going.
Tuesday is great - what time? DW adn I will meet / join you.
Tuesday is great - what time? DW and I will meet / join you.
We are on our way to E.Bernard - Kolache / Kilbasa festival today 10:30 - 8.
Debbie I work in the professional building at St Paul hospital. My boss went downstairs in the courtyard to eat her lunch and read the paper as usual. When she came back upstairs, she was all grossed out because she had seen an Opossum down there. I freaked out and asked how did she know what it was. She said her daughter lives near a creek and always have them on her property. she pays someone to come in and trap them. She was over there when the trapper came and he had three of them in a cage to show. These guys get big bucks for traping those opossums, I dont live in the Highland Park area, but I am scared to go out in the courtyard now. I never knew thos things were in the city limits! Anyway those trappers arent allowed to kill them, they have to take them someplace and turn them loose! Can you imagine? ..and did you know there are people who eat them too?
I heard the Beverly Hillbillies eat them...lol
Don't know about Possums being in Highland Park, but I do know they have raccoons - must be all that rich food going to waste ;P My boss lives in HP and just trapped his third Raccoon. They keep finding a way into his 1940's era house, though he's blocked one possible entrance. The third one he caught himself with the haveahart trap. He took it to some field somewhere close to Bachman Lake. I am sure it will find it's way back to civilization to bother some family in the Bachman Lake area. His Pest Control guy usually takes them to the Trinity River Forest.
I never knew Trinity River had a forest ... no wonder they were finding so many dead bodies! I rarely go that way... thank goodness, the river smells terrible. ... if I am thinking of the same place.
Yes there are lots of foks, though I am not one of them- that eat oppossums, squirrels and racoons too. But oppossums are big rats, as are squirrels and I would have a hard time eating rodent. Come on they are just not supposed to be people food.
That's because your first name is April not Beverly...
I saw my grandpa playing with one, I dont know what the deal was, he had it by the tail. We use to see a lot of things when we went to the country to vist our grandparents for the summer. Any I was told... when they catch the possums they cage them for a while and feed them nothing dried fruit and nuts to clean them out ... as if that would kill a disease! and they serve it with sweet potatoes. ... or maybe they feed them sweet potatoes and served it with dried fruts and nuts? LOL
Well maybe we can get someone to come pick this beast up and take him to dinner. I'll even throw in the sweet potatoes, dried fruit, and nuts. :)
LOL! Right now I would probaly eat anything someone would put in front of me. I am having a procedure in the morning and I havent eaten all day!
My sister has rattlesnakes and armadillo. I will take an occassional opposum or raccoon anyday!! She and her previous boss had a competition one season as to how many they could shoot. She ended up killing about 18 armadillo and a shrub that got in the way! LOL!
My BIL and his DB got over 20 snakes one year. Most were in the sand box under the kids playhouse!! Thankfully the kids were grown and no longer played there!
Sylvia....Hope everything turns out well tomorrow. I will try to get to a dmail tomorrow and let you know my diagnosis and how my back is progressing.
Great! I want know everything! I am going to bed now, i am so hungry, i dont know what to do.
I must admit--snake sightings (heavon forbid) would unnerve me more than even the possum...but I do look carefully around going outside now.
I used to see tons of snakes, not so much here, but when I lived in Lake Olympia- my neighborhood must have been near their sacred burrial ground- as long as they weren't poison I was ok w/ them, trouble is I couldn't tell the venomous from the non and had to rely on others to identify. Not sure that I trust many people.
You can tell by the shape of their heads.
How is that Debbie? ...not that I am going to hang around looking at the shape of their head! lol
I'm with ya Sylvia--rounded front of the head = nonpoisonous and arrow shaped head = poisonous...now I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule.
I bet there are numerous exception to this rule! Do men count? lol
Coral snakes have a round head. They are related to cobras, rather than the much-more-common-to-our-area pit vipers that have the arrow-shaped heads. Copperheads, water mocassins, and rattlesnakes are all in the nasty viper family.
I have to say upfront that I am not particularly frightened by snakes; they startle me because they do show up suddenly- but I have lived a reasonably long life based on few rules, though they are hard and fast- if I don't know what type of snake it is then I stay far enough away that I cannot determine the shape of the head. Now you are suggesting that I stop, focus on the snake's head and have enough witts about me to make a determination...now is that rounded...well from this angle it could be considered rounded but gee I don't know maybe it's arrowshapped...and what was that Debbies said, round head...no, no, arrowhead...no, no it was round...no, red sky at night sailor's delight and ...
Do you really see me as someone that cool in the face of danger?
Oh April...I'm sure you do quite well in high stress situations. :)
I personally would be in the house by the time I even thought about the shape of its head...
I'm pleased to report, thus far, I have seen no snakes this year.......
LOL Sylvia! Well I looked it up and they actually call it the "Great Trinity Forest" http://www.trinityrivercorridor.com/html/great_trinity_forest.html It's the big treed area to the east when driving south on I 45.
Speaking of snakes - I now know we have them at our new house. I assumed we might because the creek is out back, but was quite surprised by one Monday morning. I believe he was a juvinile rat snake. He was about 24 inches long and about as thick as a large Sharpie marker. He was very pretty with dark brown markings over light brown. He was stretched across the front step, which is over 200 feet up from the creek, and slithered into the thick Indian Hawthorne bushes before I had a chance to get much further. I went inside to get the camera and then lifted some branches on the bush, but the old leaves are thick under those bushes so there was no way I was going to find him.
Pretty cool! ....well, I think so. :) Now I know why the mice have not been as plentiful as I figured they would be. I love my new home!!
Sweezel--at least rat snakes serve a purpose; I fail to find one for possums--but I am pleased to report he has not been back during daylight hours that I could observe.
Debbie
Very true. Did you say you took out the tomato plant? If not, have anymore tomatoes dissappeared?
I took out about half the tomato plants. I have one that's getting afternnon shade from my rangoon creeper and is 6' and very healthy. And has suddenly started setting more fruit...which was bizarre enough as it is down here for mid-June. That one I may keep a couple of weeks longer just to see if it keeps that fruit set. I have 2 determinates that produced like crazy--no fruit on them now--so out they are coming real soon.
But no--I'm not missing any...I kinda wanted to halt food production out there and see if we can't get the 'wildlife' to move on down to greener pastures...
Sweezel can you imagine dumping 246 million in that swamp with all the possums, raccoons and snakes? Who are they going to get to work in there?
Have you guys heard about this stuff called Messenger? Its the latest rave in Coop! you spray it on the leafs of your plants and everything come alive? Well I bought some and sprayed shrubs and trees. I also sprayed some on those Poplars I got growing in tubs. My Hibiscus was blooming like crazy and so was the tree. Well the shrub stopped blooming and started developing new leaves! The Poplar dropped all its leaves and started growing new leaves.
Whats up with that? Is this good or bad?
April swears by it and has convinced me--I'm in on the coop.
Sylvia--I notice you're a night owl too--ever notice how that coop site never stops---24/7 they are....
Debbie
Apparently he is still around--someone/something tried to run across my patio with a bottle of fish emulsion last night. About 2 weeks ago someone/something tried to drag a 3' bag of Alaska organic fertilizer (smells fishy) across the patio. I'm thankful possums don't root in plants!
So far its left a bottle of seaweed emulsion alone--must have discriminating tastes.
This message was edited Jun 15, 2006 8:58 AM
we were just talking about fish emulsion in the Hosta forum, for something that smells to keep the squirrels away. What you use it for Debbi? I use it on my cactis and succelants.
I use it on all my plants at some time or other...usually in spring...or if I want to give something a little boost.
Possums are not welcome here!!! or bandits(coons) either!! I kill them with my 22 rifle-my buddy if they get near me and my chickens,ducks, and peacocks!!!..lol..I also livetrap them as well...
I'm not brave enough to live trap and am afraid of getting into trouble shooting it in a subdivision. I'm going to try the coyote urine first...then I'm going to try paying someone to clean out that brushpile/compost heap when it cools off and these lawn service companies are dying for work. I just thought of burning the pile in August as an option. Probably only get a fine or ticket for that.