I soaked mine in tepid water till they puffed up, then drained the water off, leaving the peas very wet, covered them and let them sit a day. There was a very strong odor when I opened them. Planted the peas in rows 2 inches apart and two inches apart in the row and they came up a lot faster for me.

Hi, What you did for the seeds, rinsing and drying, was absolutely fine for those types of seeds. The wilting you had/have came from events that happened after planting from bugs in the garden. It didn't have anything to do with the seeds you saved. There are some squash that are resistant to squash vine borers, but many types popular types are not resistant. About being a cross or not coming true from the seed, so much depends on what variety of plant you took the seed from. If you took the seed from a grocery store cantaloupe(it sounds like this is what you did,) the cantaloupe was probably a hybrid and though you may very well cantaloupes, they might not be exactly like the cantaloupe you took seeds from. Te seed could be crossed with another type of melon and you will get strange looking fruit if the farmer was growing other types, but some farmers just grow huge fields of cantaloupe, so you could have your fruit be regular cantaloupe. I hope that made sense, lol. The same is true for your squash. I do have to say, I've saved seeds(spaghetti squash) from a local farmer and had the squash come true. So it is possible to be successful with seed saved from stuff bought at the market. If you saved the seeds from plant you bought and grew in your garden last year, I can explain all that to you. Remy

The closer one definitely looks like catfacing. I took out a Gold Medal today with really severe catfacing problem. The bottom had tunnels into the flesh and I just didn't think the tomato will survive possible bug attack that way. All things considered, your tomato doesn't look too bad. :)

I just threw it away. I didn't even try to smell it. Better safe than sorry does seem to apply. It was about four dollars for the chicken, but I throw leftovers away all the time so this time I just threw it away before it became leftovers! Thanks for the healthful advice! I've never frozen garbage btw! Maybe the next time I finish a carton of eggs, I 'll freeze the empty carton just to see what it feels like!