During the noon hour the weather guy comes on. He is very entertaining, he shaved his head and painted it purple to support the B'more Ravens. When he has some time to kill he gives gardening advice. Although he is not very credible I will say he keeps us laughing. I would expect him to lump cabbages, petunias and maples all together. Barerooting maples in mid-May is something he might recommend. Here is a reality check. Tree growers make a considerable capital investment in cold-storage units. The only use for these buildings is to store bareroot trees and keep them dormant until shipment or planting. Working in there is dark, cold and muddy. In my area field-digging has come to a screeching halt, everything has put on several inches of growth. Field-growers don't start their summer digging schedule until after the solstice when the growth has hardened off. A tree which is barerooted when it has fully leafed out is a dead tree in a matter of minutes. Here's a novel idea, if a containerized tree has circling roots why not reject it? Why should the customer butcher up the roots of a newly purchased tree? Have the pot removed at the nursery, if it is rootbound find another tree. Rootbound trees likely have been held over from the previous year (or two). Even when they are marked down, they are no bargain. If I bought an appliance, found it defective, I would return it. Only Homer Simpson would correct the problem by kicking it around. The preoccupation with barerooting container trees is entertaining, but like our weatherman, hardly credible. Sam

Those Bormioli jars should be fine for high-acid product. They should be made in Italy (assuming those at your link are not a knock-off) and replacement gaskets are available, both Italian originals and Chinese copies. What you would have to decide is how much you're willing to invest and whether you plan to ship the empties back home if/when you return. For a few jars or small batches it should not be a problem. Can you obtain or have someone send to you citric acid? Perhaps a local pharmacy could obtain it. You need something to acidify those tomatoes and given where you are that's the easiest option. If mailed, make sure it's sent in the original sealed container. Obviously, white powder might elicit suspicion in customs. The pressure cooker will work if it's large enough to accomodate 4 1-quart jars. That's the size limit for a pressure canner as opposed to a cooker. With the citric acid it would not be an issue as boiling water bath would be an option. Carol

Brickeyee, Apparently there was some mis-communication about the use of plastic boxes with metallic clad cable. I knew that the clamps were rated for NM and presumed you were talking about the entire box. Spencer, Interesting question regarding bonding. Obviously we're talking about cable like type MC with a separate grounding wire or flex with a separate grounding wire. AC couldn't be used because there would be no way to ground the device ruling AC out immediately. If there was a fault and the jacket became energized the current would have to travel down the jacket until it reached a metallic box. I don't understand your comment about 100 ft up and 100 ft back. Seems like it would be a straight shot to me but maybe I'm not seeing something. If the code requires both ends to be bonded (I don't know) then a bonding lock nut seems to be the only way to accomplish that.

Hi y'all -- sorry this thread got away from me and I never looked back after a certain point. I know there are fellow inveterate plastic-rescuers around. But it's ironic to find myself in this position because there are few who hate plastic as much as I; I hate it so much I can't throw it away because that will generate more pressure for it. It's the bottomless cup-paradigm - if you don't like the drink, draining the cup won't put a stop to it. Or something. I have confusion about the issue of safety and plastics. Much of what I read I believe is not true. I would never heat any plastic-encased food, really, in a MW. Having no kitchen for a while I've resorted occasionally to premade costco foods in plastic containers that can nominally go in an oven. But they melt. How scary is that?? However the stuff about washing bags leeching vinyls or whatever it is that's claimed -- I don't believe that. I think age can start vinyls to fall apart, but washing? nuh-uh. Food grade plastic: did you know most of those "tshirt bags" are not rated for food? You're not supposed to put food in em. I gave up worrying about that long ago; life's too short. Everyone does it. I try to remember not to, but frankly that particular scare has been pushed out of my forebrain at some point. BTW I love how the ones most vocal in "sharing information" about how washing plastics results in unsafe plastic to use are ... water bottlers. My kids regularly get scolded by teachers for reusing water bottles. It makes them feel badly. And I try to spare them the public humiliation the teachers sometimes put them through regarding this. I think the humiliation is likely far worse for them than the supposed vinyl slough-off. I think mold in plastics can certainly be a problem; it can be hard if not impossible to adequately clean plastics of mold if not food residue. But disintegrating plastic? I don't think so, not usually, not unless heated. Much of my feelings on this subject are generated by a friend who is a much-awarded materials chemist. Anyway... there are lots of good hints in this thread that I thank one and all for. More tales from the war zone of neurotic inability to throw-away: I have been - not once or even twice but several times in the past - been threatened with arrest for refusing to take a bag for goods purchased at a store. My kids don't believe me about this, but it's true: not so very long ago (and more so in certain parts of the country) it was considered just shy of insane, certainly unpatriotic and utterly criminal, to wish to leave a store without one's purchases in a bag. When I forget to bring a bag into a store or don't bring a large-enough one, my "punishment" is to leave the store with everything in my cart: I tell the cashier that my car is a big-enough storage vessel for it. This usually gets a smile. BTW, part of this neurosis is wanting to avoid purchasing a container when there are so many orphan-containers around. If you have recourse to a perfectly acceptable in-want-of-reusing container and instead go out and buy one, that's generating unneeded demand and pressure on resources. That's how the neurotic argument goes.... And finally: books. They are clearly their own species and worthy of building houses for, are they not? (another primary reason for renovating here!) But I have recently discovered PaperbackBookSwap. If this isn't better than sliced bread I don't know what is. You can swap your done/disliked books for someone else's. There are so many books out there I'd like to just have around in case I ever found time to read anything again -- this is the way to do it. I cannot tell you how much fun this has been. It's not just for paperbacks either. If you want me to send you a signup link, I think you or I or both of us get a free credit or two. Email me and I'll send you the link. No worries if you'd rather sign up independently; I have more credits than I can likely read through before I die! Here is a link that might be useful: Book exchange site