When I decided to stop all spraying, and all use of pesticides, I had to discard many Buck roses. They may be winter hardy, but not disease resistant. There are beautiful Buck roses that do not require spray, but Distant Drums, Prairie Star, Honey Sweet are not some of them. My Earth Song was in decline. I ordered a new one, and cut the Earth Song to the ground. It has come back now, and is beautiful. I am a relatively new learner in rose growing, and I am just now realizing the importance of cutting off old wood and encouraging new growth. I used to just let the rose go. That is what I did with Earth Song, and without my cutting off the old wood, it was just fading away. Sammy

Doug, I had a friend in MD send me cuttings a couple years ago. Interestingly the USPS thought the route from MD to FL included a side trip through TX, then onto CA, then back through CO, then finally onto FL. Also apparently they consider a package staying in a sort facility for over a week part of the trip. Supposedly they lost it, but then they found it. I mention this because the little tour of the US my cuttings took, was just under three weeks. Until it was "lost" it showed the route on the tracking. amusing in a sad kind of way. And the cuttings arrived fine, a little dehydrated, but they perked back up quickly. I still have every one of them. So, I'm thinking your package might have been left in the hot sun for a good bit of time. Did you use EMS or just regular international mail? Maybe that is the difference? When I get my order, I'll take pics, see what happens. Renee

Ada, Thanks for the vet info. I found my Natural Remedies for Dogs book and wante to list a few options. They also tlk about garlic as a supplement, but I would be careful with the garlic, because I have read many times that garlic as well as onions are not good for dogs. Anyone who reads this PLEASE do not ever give your dogs raisins or grapes, thats the worst thing for them, far more poisonous for them than chocolate. I found that out the hard way, gave my little Boston Terrier some grapes, I almost lost her. This vet also recommends the beneifical nematodes outside, and DE. Here are some of the products and phone numbers, I searched and found that you can order them on the net. Cloud Nine herbal dip by Halo (800)-426-4256, this one I found on bizrate.com and a few other sites, it was more affordable. Quantum Herbal Products by Earth Animal, they have a website, (800)-348-0398. Flee Free, a liquid flower essence remedy byGreen Hope Farms (603)469-3662. www.greenhopeessences.com cost $9. One of those had the cedar oil it, don't remember which one. I'll have to check out that other health food store if I ever go to Norman again. My DH and kids hate when I go into the Health Food Center, they usually end up just following me in for some reason. lol. It's like a health food mall compared to any other store. Dawn, I am addicted to the laptop too. Both of our laptops are fairly new, I don't know what I did to mine, DH blames me everytime one of them stops working. By the way what does D stand for in DH? I just started typing it, and assume it could be a good word or a bad word, depending on the issue? hehe. Do you know of a natural remedy for keeping flies and mosquitos off of horses. I found a citronella spray but it also had pyrethrins in it, and I think I remember you saying that the pyrethrins and permrethrins were both toxic?

I would definitely notice because I am just a tad obsessed with trim, and I consider a variety of trim to be a feature, not a mistake. In fact, in houses where everything matches, especially if it's boring trim, my eye desperately wanders the place in search of variety! I realize that's unusual. The rules of decorating to objective standards do dictate matching or at least harmonizing trim, and it can have a nice unifying effect. I think the primary question is really this: do YOU care if your trim all matches? Do you want to meet an objective standard (for example, to put the house on the market), or just your own? If you do care, then the other question is: what kind of trim do you want in your house? If you like the original, then you want to at least harmonize with that as per your plan. But if you don't like the original anyway, I wouldn't feel bound by it at all. It doesn't really sound like something that any other trim would "clash" with, even if it's not mitred. (Unlike Palimpsest, I'm not reading that you like the original - maybe I'm missing something). You could probably do a mock-up with paper panels to see if your idea would meet your standards. FWIW, I live in what Palimpsest describes, a hundred year-old house which already had a couple of kinds of trim when we moved in, the 100-year old and the 50-year old (in the addition). I love the 100, and hate the 50, although we have lived with the 50 for 16 years and are just getting around to changing it. But we lost a bunch of the 100 because we changed some of the doorway sizes when we renovated the old part of the house at the outset. We chose one primary style then to replace it, but already can't get that one any more... it's too wide for some applications anyway... and I like different mouldings anyway... so our house is (or will be when it's all installed) a mish mash. I look down my hallway (it's a linear house) and see four successive doorways with four different trims. And yes, I even have a couple of corner-blocked openings in a houseful of mostly miters. It's possible that it works because the house is old and eclectic anyway, or because it's the opposite of open-plan, or that I just can't see that it doesn't work :-) Mitering can be difficult if you don't have either good angles or the right tools (a miter saw and accurate ways to measure and transcribe), and takes some practice. There are right and wrong ways to do it, and a correct sequence in which to do the pieces - information is, as always, available on line. If you're painting, you can fill cutting mistakes, but I suspect it would show. KarinL