Well, I kinda like the "Lots of Love" idea. Heh. That year I had such great success with my candy onions -- actually great success with ANY onion -- I did something that I don't know if it helped or not. I soaked them in Jerry Baker's "Root Revival Tonic": 1 tbsp of mild dish soap, 1/4 cup of strong tea and 1 tbsp epsom salt, mixed well into 1 gallon of water. This is from his book, "Old-Time Gardening Wisdom". I had used it to soak some bushes I was planting and instructions said up to 24 hours. I didn't soak the onions in it but about an hour. They made the water really "onioney" and I was worried I'd made a big mistake. But I set them out right away and those were the best and biggest onions I'd ever grown. I also didn't set them out till April 15, the approximate date of our last frost. We got a frost after that and I went out and covered them all. What concerns me is that sometimes the frost will cause the onions to think they've had another winter, and that triggers bolting to seed. Last year, I didn't soak the onions. I put the ones I got from Dawn out immediately, which was sometime in early March, I think. And then I planted Southern Belle Red later on. Of course it was a weird year and so hard to judge because of that. Got some decent-sized onions from Dawn's plants, but nothing like the previous year, others stayed small and a few of them went to seed. The Southern Belles that were planted later didn't bolt to seed but they didn't grow any, either. I dug them back up and will be planting them around April 15 to see if they'll go ahead and do anything. This year, whatever I end up getting, I'm going to try the soak again, and wait till April 15. I know this goes against standard practice, but it did work for me that one year. Maybe I was just having "Dumb cluck luck". We'll see what happens.

Renovator8 - Thank you for that link, I'm going to try it out. The house will be located in the Triad, NC. Also, he is a really good person, he's going to help us, but it will be like I said on his personal time, so we're going to try to get as much done at one meeting as can, because me and my fiance are trying not to take up too much of his personal time. When he told us to have everything like we want it, he meant that way after he drew it, maybe we wouldn't be inclined to change it 3 or 4 more times, because we really spent time pouring over things picking them out. That's the reason I was asking what did you provide for your architect at your meetings so I can try to get a lot of this taken care of in the first meeting. I've also been reading and reading on this site all the links that I can find in the building a house section that may help us. The only thing I really can't find is detailed break-down of when to start picking things out, i.e lights, flooring, etc., I was hoping somebody could give me some of their timelines when they picked things out.

Yep, I am, was diagnosed the same as your hubby 6 or 7 years ago and controlled it by diet but it progressed and I am now diabetic. The first thing I did was eliminate everything white from my diet except for cauliflower. Then I enrolled in a 3 week class offered by our local hospital, met with a nutrionist and learned how to manage the disease. If your husband is not seeing an endocronologist I encourage him to do so. Some physicians (not saying yours is one of them) just don't give this disease the respect it truly deserves. It is serious but is easily managed with knowledge. I slowly added various foods into my diet, things like spaghetti, breads, potatoes, even cakes and desserts. But I learned how to manage them, what to combine with them to keep my sugar levels where they need to be or what to do to counteract them (the answer is exercise). So that candy bar has a price....30 minutes on the treadmill! Citrus is one of the safest fruits for me. When I was trying to figure out what I could eat I ate it then checked my sugar levels in 90 minutes, again 30 minutes later. If it was too high then I had my answer, eat in moderation. Get him to a nutritionist, they are invaluable and if he goes to a diabetic class it is often free.

OMG, Steve and limequeen, I am sooo sorry, I somehow didn't get the email letting me know they were new replies on this thread! I need to check my spam folder again. Each time they upgrade my email app, that kind of crapola happens :( Better late than never, I guess, but limequeen that calamondin is so friggin cute! :) And, O-M-G, Steve, that is a BIG watermelon, lol. You don't want to drop that on the way down (btw, have you lost your mind, carrying this canoe from your rooftop on a LADDER?) You have more courage than I, starting trees from seed. Doesn't it take, like, 7 years for them to start producing fruit? . Atheen