The Michael's near me had very little stencil patterns, they are stocking more of Martha Stewart's products but didn't see anything that I could use, so I'll check A.C.Moore and I'll be close to Joanne's on Tuesday after bowling, so will check there. Couldn't find any book on stenciling but when I took some items to a Thrift Shop this afternoon, I found a nice hardback written by Jan Dressler on Stenciling for only $2.oo so I bought it and my friend was telling me about Donna Dewberry's show on MPT that she watches..got on public library system and reserved her book called One Stoke painting..so I should be able to get some ideas. I would love to take a class like Donna Dewberry teaches..maybe some of the craft shops will offer it or Dept. of Recreation or Senior Center.

This option may not work as well as the file, bench, and/or angle grinders, but it does help to maintain an edge and you don't have to remove the blade to use it... but it does require that you have a dremel tool. http://www.amazon.com/Dremel-675-Mower-Blade-Sharpener/dp/B00008Z9ZR I've used this quite successfully over the last few years to maintain my blades. I strongly suggest that you don't really grind down on any certain area as to not overheat the blade and/or take off too much material that might throw the blade out of balance. I have multiple blades for my mowers so I can keep one sharpened and hanging on the wall and I'll swap them out ever 2-3 months. When I remove the blade from the mower, I'll go through the full sharpen/balance act... -mike

lbpod, you got it all right, except for the straight screwdriver. Its proper use is to place it blade up in your back pocket and ventilate leather car seats (please note that this does absolutely nothing for marital harmony). Thanks for the laugh. I needed it after spending the entire day converting 10 billion oak leaves into a 3-inch coat over my entire body, and one bushel of compost material.

Yes, though I wouldn't be surprised if almost everyone who gets a pH meter eventually sticks it in distilled water to see if the pH of their distilled water really is 7. Perhaps motivated by curiosity or suspicions of the labeling of the product. My meter came with small amounts of calibration solutions. The instructions that came with it suggested storing the sensor in tap water, assuming the tap water has enough ions. Though, later I bought larger amounts of calibration solution plus official probe storage solution. Mine came in liquid form. I didn't think to look for packets of dried chemicals which probably cost less and store better. I realize the storage solution is basically salt water but seemed like it needed to be a very specific concentration of salt water. Mainly, I got the pH meter for use with attempting to do plant tissue culture or starting seeds in-vitro. Having the growth media at the right pH is important. At first I tried using pH test strips but had some doubts about using those. The meter has been useful for occasionally testing soil pH, too. However, I suspect that some of the grittier things I've tested that gave me a reading of about 8.1 might actually not be that alkaline and don't have ions to be sensed by the meter.