Norwayaha, First, I wouldn't assume that they are making fun of you. It might just be gentle teasing (and as stated, you can choose to think of it as a compliment - you don't have control over their comments, but you do have control over your reaction to their comments). Second, consider using this as an opportunity to educate your friends and family. I talk about how I know what goes into the jars. I am living a greener life (growing my own food) and the food I make is absolutely delicious. Plus I am saving money (when I use my own home grown ingredients). I share jars with them (with instructions to return the jars when done). When they have tasted my "tastes like summer in a jar" peach jam or fresh salsa using my homegrown tomatoes and peppers, they are sold. As to a comment like why make jam when there is jam sold in a store, my response is: Find me peach jelly. Find me blueberry peach jam or blackberry lavendar jam. You can't! With home canning, I get to make wonderful combinations that literally aren't available in the stores (except perhaps for $9 a pint at a farmer's market where, guess what? they are doing their own canning!). Most of all, I feel connected to generations of women before me who nurtured their families with home canned goodies. I'm making sure lost arts aren't truly lost. Although people may not understand loving a hobby that is so much work, many more people are receptive to the idea than you might realize, with just a little education. So often the response I receive is "I always wanted to try canning, but I didn't know anyone who did it." You might be pleasantly surprised! Now all that said, oh heck yeah, I feel overwhelmed at times. Putting up 50-75 pounds of peaches during the summer and pounds and pounds of tomatoes/peppers/etc. in the fall is definitely a daunting proposition at times, especially since I work full time.

Hi Bob, I appreciate your comments. I did want to point out to all that this was originally posted in February of 05. I have found myself posting to an old post a number of times and didn't realize it. Easy to do. I am glad this post was resurrected as it gives me an opportunity to update. Wow, it has been two years since I posted that. So what has changed since then? Well..I don't feel overwhelmed any more and I have arrived at a comfortable pace at making changes to native. My maple tree remains and I feel fine with that decision. As I pointed out before, I am surrounded by maples of the same variety and removing mine will not make a difference at all in my immediate neighborhood. I do still hold out hope of taking the tree down, but one thing at a time. We removed a 100ft shrub border of old overgrown shrubs and started with a clean slate. Have started adding native shrubs and perennials. Clethra, a gray dogwood that someone here recommended, lindera benzoin, oakleaf hydrangea, ninebark and viburnums and a small dogwood tree and amelanchier tree so far. We are enjoying the new plants in the yard, but the change has not been without cost. Ripping out that whole border has exposed our yard all along our back lot line and we have no privacy at all whereas before no one could see into our yard. That is another reason the tree has remained. So when our new border fills in enough to give us some privacy we may find we are ready to take the tree down. Has anyone checked prices on having a tree removed? I have been hearing $1,000. Pretty steep! As for perennials...we created a long 50 ft raised border along our vegetable garden and are in the process of adding butterfly plants and other natives. Asclepias, echinacea, joe pye weed among others. We are now just beginning to add shade natives. This seems to be a little more difficult because they are expensive and not as easy to start from seed as the sun lovers are. I also am on a budget so I look for seed trades and for some reason the shade plant seeds seem to be scarce. We have also started buying more and more from the NEWFS here in Massachusetts. That is new. I have also met and have started corresponding with at least two other GW members who are also interested in native plants. Plus it just seems to me I am running into more and more posts on GW that mention an interest in natives. That is very encouraging. So..two problem plants that are still in my yard are one burning bush, that is slated for removal as soon as we can get to it. The other is a spring poppy that is not the native but the import from China. I have started pulling the non native poppy two years ago, but still am getting back some reseeded ones evidently. I think this will be the year though. I just ordered some native poppy seeds from NEWFS and hope I get good germination. I am ready to pull the next generation of the old poppy and that might do it for me then in goes the native poppy and voila! lol I am enjoying it and feeling good about it. So I hope that encourages everyone in the native forums that all your time spent responding to posts and answering questions and trading seeds is making a difference. :-) adam

Well, I got that out of the way. I went against the grain and got white appliances as opposed to stainless. I think it will ultimately look better in our kitchen. Here's what I ended up doing. Samsung FD Counter Depth Kitchenaid Slide-in gas range (floor model) Kitchenaid Microwave/Hood Bosch 800 Series Panel Ready (discontinued floor model) The two floor models are basically in perfect condition. However the range is missing the burner caps which I will order online. I priced them out today. Holy cow! In black they will cost $150. In the gray that matches the grill colors, they add up to over $300. How is that possible! I went with the discontinued Bosch 800 series since the store gave it to me for less than a current model 500 series unit. Overall I thinkg I did well. I dropped the name of our contractor and the the salesperson basically gave me employee pricing. Thanks to everyone for the help and advice.

I've found that having lots of cherry toms, any cherry toms, will distract me really well from the toms I lack. When you have extremely limited ground room for plants, several cherry varieties (and others!) can grow upward very strongly. That's an awkward sentence but indeterminate plants like that might help when you're cramped for space. Three plants is cramped. if I assume you're talking about ground space, can you maybe also try a few tote bags or five gallon buckets?