Nice to see some activity on the list. I actually replied to a couple of the messages, but apparently my work email address is not getting through. Half the other lists I belong to dumped me because of Yahoo, now Iâm trying Gmail. Weâll see how that goes.

Anyway here in the high desert we continue in drought. We are watering just enough to keep the front yard plantings alive, but it looks pretty poor. Itâs kinda discouraging and Iâm avoiding looking at it, which I know I'm going to regret. Actually Iâm hoping for some sort of epiphany about what to do with it as it clearly needs to be redone for drier conditions. The two giant sycamores are somewhat limiting the options, and then when I think about digging up thousands of daffodil bulbs I get all sadÂand stop thinking about it. ÂAlthough lack of water may solve that problem for me.

My vegetable garden is also not so great. I planted less than half of what I normally do to cut back on water. Between diseases, drought, record high temperatures at the wrong time, and the critters all I have left is one bed of pepper plants. In a normal year I'd be spending every weekend putting up food...oh well.ÂI did get a few jars of canned tomatoes, a few packages of frozen green beans, and I canned some zucchini soup. But there are potatoes and onions in the spare fridge, those came out okay. And youâd think with nothing to harvest I would spend more time on the front but no, Iâm just riding my horse more often.ÂÂ