tracydr most of the melons I planted are short vine melons like Yellow Doll, Minnesota Midget, Emerald Gem and so forth. When the vines are only 3-5ft long you don't need as much space. My bush beans were planted 8 days ago. I soaked some pole beans last night and will be planting today. And yes I have seen the crazy weather coming. If the beans fail I do have plenty more to replant in two weeks. mister_gin They are not all from eBay but the melon seeds are all from small melons and the seeds are smaller than standard melon seeds. My guess is being much smaller they did not have enough energy to get to the surface planted as deep as I did. I paid $ 7.00 for the Yellow Doll seeds. Ouch!!! The cucumber seeds were Armenian cucumber seeds from an eBay vendor. I have Early Prolific Straightneck seeds but did not plant any. Most of my seeds were from major suppliers Like Johnny's, Baker Creek, Seed Savers, Southern Exposure, The Sample Seed Shop, Territorial Seed and so forth. I know the window to plant is closing. I can't imagine planting seeds when its hot enough to cook an egg on the ground. Time to get to it. My guess is the problem I'm having with germination has mostly to do with the one unseasonably cold day and night about four days after planting. The cooler weather thats coming is still about 13 degrees warmer than what my failed seeds experienced. There is a saying I did not pay attention to that I will next year. "I would rather plant two weeks after my neighbor than have to re-plant with him."

Ah, well, it seems I have survived the composting process myself! Anyway, for a cheap source of compostable litter, get 40 lb bags of stove pellets for wood burning stoves. It is about $4 a bag, as opposed to $8 for a 7lb bag of FelinPine®. As for toxoplasmosis, it is not pregnancy that is the issue, per se, rather it is only a VERY small time window (two weeks in the first trimester) during which the disease is transmittable to the fetus, and ONLY if the mother has not had prior exposure. And ONLY if the mother has a new cat, who ALSO has not been previously exposed, because th organism is only present in the feces during a brief window after initial exposure. I.e. it is almost impossible to get the toxoplasmid from cat feces. In fact, a study of the organism had to be scrapped and totally redesigned, because it was based on a sample population of cat owners, assuming they would harbor the organism. Instead, they found that there was no evidence that ANYONE had EVER contracted toxoplasmosis through this vector. Instead, they found that the vast majority of cases (close to 100%) resulted from pica.

Layering will not work if the soil surounding the wound is not kept constantly moist. If the soil dries out it has a tendency to die or more likely form a callous and heal. The moisture is the primary trigger for the plant cells to create roots. Layering in a top layer of loose mulch with out irrgation is prone to failure. Also the wound should be no more then a scratch, if not at all, as mentioned above. I layered about 25 plants the summer. Layering creates the best quality plants. This plant was created through layering last August 2004 and the photo taken in November of 2004 sometime. The root system seems to go crazy in the fall. dave

Air source heat pumps don't make sense in areas where winter temps frequently fall below 32 degrees. Once you get below freezing, you will be running the auxillary heat a lot. If you decide to go the air source route, you will want a second stage gas fired auxillary heat. I live in the mid-atlantic region in the mountains and selected GT. That choice was coupled with a blown cellulose insulation package. My other choice was a propane heat/electric AC with a foam insulation package. Both options were roughly the same install cost. Both would have provided similar energy efficiency. At the time we selected, propane was 3.75 a gallon and rising (with no end in sight) so we went with GT. The delta cost for the GT system (above the cost for a HE propane heat and electric AC system) was $15,000 for the heat pumps and loop plumbing (including pumps) plus $17,000 for digging the pit. The pit excavation should not have cost as much as it did but it is a 12 ton system and the hole was gigantic (120' x 48' x 6'). We live on a mountain and hit a bunch of boulders that required special equipment to get out. Rocky soil also required a 1' base of stone dust to cover the loop piping. The total cost for the GT HVAC system including all ducting was $50,000 plus the pit excavation cost of 17K. It is a large investment and I would only recommend it if you plan to live in the house a very long time. My heating bills are great - maybe 300 dollars maximum a month during peak winter for an 8500 square foot home (5900 living and the rest a condiitoned but unfinished basement). Make sure that whatever equipment you choose can be maintained by more than 1 very qualified HVAC company who has many years of GT experience. In my area there is only 1 GT company who has over 20 years of experience but I am stuck with them for maintenance. There have been times when I wanted to fire them but cannot. Local competition is a good thing. Also - if you build a tight home make sure that you consider ventilation and dehumidification in the HVAC design. I wound up adding both a whole house dehumidifier and energy recovery vent after we moved in becuase we had basement moisture issues as well as stale air in the winter. Tight homes are great for energy efficiency but can create health issues too. It is easy to deal with as long as you plan for it. Good luck with the build.