I know what you mean about MG making impressions. I give herb programs throughout the year. And we are also one of the homes on the Rockport Hummer/Home Tour.

So last year during the Hummer/Bird Celebration, a couple of ladies came to my house to see the hummers. When one of the ladies saw me she said, "Oh, I know you. You are the Herb Lady." I took that as a definite compliment.

so what is the Hummer tour - hummingbirds?

Penny

I am making a rock garden which will get about 5 hours of sun. Does anyone have any suggestions on what plants to put in it and how many? It is about 10x15 ft.

The Rockport Hummer/Bird Celebration is held every year in September in Rockport, Texas.

Information can be found on the following web site:

http://www.rockport-fulton.org/.

Rockport is on the Texas Coastal Bend, and it is on the Ruby Throat migration route to the Yucatan where they winter. As a rule, we don't have hummers year round except for an occasional bird. The hummers come through very quickly in the spring, usually around the end of March, but in the fall they come and eat and eat and eat in order to double their weight to make the long non-stop trip to the Yucatan.

So since we literally have thousands of hummers every fall, they decided to have an annual event here in Rockport. We are just a small town of about 7,500, but we usually get around 6,000 people that attend the Hummer/Bird Celebration. And one of the activities is we open our yards so people can come and view the hummers.

So if you like hummers, Rockport is the place to be September 16 through the 19, 2004.

For my south county neighbor Napapen. We have at least temporarily solved our deer problem. Last winter a mountain lion moved in and we have not had a deer problem since. Of course my wife has worried about letting the cats out at night since the numerous sightings. Al

Al, While effective I doubt Yvonne and UCCE would recommend a mountain lion! Have you seen it?

Penny

A lion was spotted by a Franz valley neighbor and early morning walkers at the mobile home park on hiway 128 on the other side of me saw one. My eightyone year old neighbor who walks everyday now carries a stick"for protection". So far I have not had the pleasure of a "sighting" Al

A few years ago there was one seen on Soda Canyon creek near me. It was next spotted walking down Big Ranch Rd. They do get around.

Penny

My funny incident happened when we were manning the telephones. A woman who had just moved down from New York wanted to know how to get rid of those lizards all around her house. Little did she know how many of us wanted those creatures. The same thing happened with caterpillars. Unfortunately for the caller, she got the wrong person because I promote butterfly gardening and we can't do without those cats.

I love those little lizards, tree frogs and geckos.

Back in April, my mother was visiting me from Indiana. I have an herb bed planted just outside my front door. Well, Mom came in and said "You need to come outside. Something is eating your dill." I ran outside and responded "That is so cool." I then had to tell her that it was the caterpillar of the swallowtail butterfly. Boy she looked really upset and told me that last year she had killed all of "those caterpillars". So I forwarded her a web site about butterflies/caterpillars so she would know not to kill them in the future.

A recent call I took was from a very nice lady who was totally freaked out by the "flying spiders" all over her yard. I tried to explain to her that spiders don't fly but spin a thread and float on the breeze to start a web or move to a different place. No, she insisted they were flying. I finally told her to see if she could catch one and bring it in to the office of indentification. I don't think she ever did but, needless to say, we had a good laugh at her expense!

And then there was the rather "unfunny" incident when a man brought in a dead cicada killer wasp. Well, he opened the top of the jar it was in and it immediately became very obvious that it had been dead for quite some time! Phew! It was really rank! We quickly had him shut the lid and showed him our preserved specimin. Much less offensive! Next time I hope he puts his sample in a little alcohol.

We had a lady who called saying she had caught a snake near her greenhouse. She was very upset that it might be dangerous. She said she had it in a bucket - with the lid on. She wanted to bring it down for identification.

When she walked in - the terror on her face was obvious. Funny thing - she had driven over "slowly" so as not to tip the bucket in her trunk. The poor woman was concerned that the heat in the trunk may have hurt the snake.

We all stood back as our "fearless leader" donned some gloves and slowly lifted the lid to peak in.

He had a stumped look on his face - which faded into a grin a mile wide.

It was a rubber snake, belonging to the lady's great-grandson! She had forgotten that he had brought it to her house last fall...

Meadow Lark

Meadow Lark

That is so funny! Love it, and I'll pass the story on down here.

When I first planted Butterfly weed in my yard, my husband came looking for something to kill the worms on that plant. I had to explain that it was the catapillar of the monarch butterfly. A couple of hours later, a buddy of his had stopped by, and he happened to notice the catapillars devouring the plants and told Bobby he "had some stuff on the truck that would kill 'em." Bobby patiently explained that those were good, going to be monarch butterflies. He was so proud of himself.

Janie

A lady at our office took a call where the fellow on the other end said he wanted to know what to do about the whale in his yard:
A whale in your yard?
Yep
How'd it get there?
Hit's always been right there in our front yard. I wuz just wondering whut to do about it.
Turns out he was speaking in our southern drawl and the Master Gardener Volunteer on the phone who was from up north thought he was saying whale when he was saying "well".
Struck me as funny.

Then there was the customer who came into our garden center looking to buy "perannuals"! Took me quite a lot of chatting before I figured out what she meant.

One of the MG's posted this on a previous thread:

A woman called to ask the date of the last frost in her area and when the MG told her the date, she said, "What time?" :^)

I sometimes help with the classes for the newbies. One evening I started getting one call after another from the new class with questions that they were supposed to find the answer to before their next class. I finally had to take the phone off the hook. I found out later that someone from the class before told her friend in the new class that if she had any questions she should call me. The newbie spread the word and I was suddenly in great demand. Sandy