The decision has been made. Hubby called and although he didn't admit that getting the box was a good idea (he would never give me the satisfaction) he said he had been thinking about using it to store the kindling. Since it has a lid on it the kindling would stay dry and it would also keep it more tidy. I think I can live with that. Although I was kinda thinking of how to make the coffin idea work ....

PREPARING FOR FALL: You should be doing what is needed to get your soil ready for fall. In my garden, that might include adding compost (purchased or from one of the older working piles), composted manure or Plant-Tone plant food to any areas from which I've removed a spring crop and am planting a fall crop. You also should remove all sprouting weeds and grasses because they'll compete with your crops. If you don't have mulch, you should be saving it and stockpiling it so you can add it to beds after you've transplanted plants or after your seeds have sprouted. You indicated that Mel's Mix didn't work for you, so now is a great time to add to it to correct what you think is wrong with it. If you aren't sure what to add to correct whatever problems you had, let us know and maybe someone will have some suggestions. I am not sure if you found Mel's Mix to drain too quickly? too slowly? Was it lacking in nutrition? We have to know what was wrong with it in order to help you figure out how to fix it. TOMATO SEEDS: It is too late to start tomato seeds now since your fall tomatoes need to go into the ground in July. I'm planting my first fall tomatoes in the ground this week from seeds started 5 to 6 weeks ago. It will take me about 3 weeks to get all the fall tomatoes in the ground since I am putting them in, one by one, to replace other plants that are finished. For example, the small section of Texas Honey June Corn is done now and I am going to put 9 to 12 plants in the area once occupied by it. For the rest of what you're planting, I'm going to give you the dates I would most likely plant them here. If you are in OKC, you probably should plant about a week earlier than me. If you are further north than OKC and have an earlier first fall freeze, then plant up to 2 weeks earlier than I do. LEMON CUCUMBERS: These grow great here, and I'd plant them here in southern OK between August 1 -August 15. Be sure to pick them while they are a bright yellow. If they start turning an orangey-yellow, you've left them on the vines too long. KENTUCKY WONDER POLE BEAN: I'd probably plant pole beans for fall anytime after July 15th, and probably in your case as closely to that date as possible. SEQUOIA BUSH BEANS: Aug. 1 - Sept. 1 here SNOW PEAS: Sept. 1 Oct. 1 GARLIC: Sept. thru Oct. SWEET POTATOES: As soon as possible since they take roughly 85 - 110 days to mature and you need to have them harvested before freezing weather arrives. COW PEAS: Now. Anytime from now through August 1st. BLACK-SEEDED SIMPSON LETTUCE: Aug. 15 - Sept. 15 BUTTERCRUNCH LETTUCE: Aug. 15 - Sept.15 BUTTERNUT SQUASH: Anytime in July TOMATOES: July 1-15 is best for tomatoes with longer days to maturity, and by the end of July for tomatoes with shorter days to maturity. The earlier you get them in the ground in July, the larger and more ready they'll be to flower/set fruit when cooler fall temperatures arrive. Summer-planted tomatoes need more water to get established and grow than spring-planted tomatoes, so keep a close eye on them and keep them moist but not soggy. CARROTS: August 15 - Sept. 15 CHIVES: These are more of a cool-season crop and I usually only plant them in late winter or early spring. To start them in summer, I'd start them indoors in a flat or in paper cups in a sterile soil-less potting mix in a cool room (approx. 60-70 degrees) that doesn't especially have a lot of bright light. That way, they'll think it is early spring and will sprout. Pre-soaking the seed will help it germinate more quickly. Once they sprout you can move them into light, and gradually expose them to outdoor light and harden them off before transplanting them into the ground. I probably would start the seed in early Sept. and hope I could get them into the ground in late Sept. or early Oct. Or, if you know someone who has chives and will give you a clump, you can divide them and plant them anytime. Just cut back the tops by about 60-80% when you divide them. They'll regrow just fine. Mulch can be anything that covers the soil surface to keep it cool. Well-mulched soil can be 20-30 degrees cooler than bare, unmulched soil in our summer heat. I use whatever I can get my hands on because I have a big garden and it takes a whole lot of mulch to cover all the ground. I add mulch just about weekly. You can use bagged mulch and it is one of my favorite kinds of mulch. It looks nice and it decomposes into the most gorgeous dark brown compost that enriches the soil. Just be sure you use it on the surface of the soil and don't work it into the soil. If you work it into the soil, it can tie up oxygen so you want to avoid that in general unless you're adding extra nitrogen to the soil to compensate for what wood chips will tie up. You also can use straw, hay, grass clippings, compost, shredded paper if you shred your old bills, junk mail, etc. I like to put down a layer of newspaper or cardboard around the larger plants and pile mulch on top of that. The paper or cardboard will keep weed seeds that sprout from working their way up (if they sprout beneath the cardboard) or from working their way down (if the sprout in the mulch). As the paper and cardboard decompose, they turn into compost which further enriches your soil. Do you see a pattern here? Every bit of organic (with organic in this case meaning "once alive") matter than you use as mulch will decompose and enrich your soil and you don't even have to use a trowel or mini-tiller to work the compost into the soil because over time, the rain and earthworms will carry it down into the soil. In the fall, you can ask your neighbors to save their raked/bagged leaves for you. Then, stack up all the bags and save them for next year and use them as mulch. If you want for the whole leaves to be decomposing into leaf mold, shred or chop them, put them into black leaf bags, wet them down good, tie the bags shut, and poke several air holes in them. Pile them up in an out-of-the-way place and let them sit there all fall and winter. In the spring you'll have lovely partially decomposed leaves to use as mulch. Conversely, if your soil needs improvement, you can till them directly into the soil in the fall (chop or shred them first or they won't break down), but then you'll need to be stockpiling something else to use as mulch. When we mow (and we mow anywhere from 1 to 4 acres most of the time so we get lots of clippings), we catch the clippings in a grasscatcher and dump them wherever we need more mulch at the moment. We mow the acre around the house weekly, and the other 1 to 3 acres closest to the house anywhere from 1 to 3 times per month. For us, clippings are our primary mulch during grass-growing season, but I use more hay, straw and wood chips in spring, and chopped or shredded leaves in fall and winter. If you will heavily mulch your beds this fall after your crops are done, and by heavily I mean several inches, that mulch will keep weeds from sprouting in your beds all winter and early in spring, and the mulch will start decomposing and 'feeding' the soil, so it is a win-win situation. Dawn

Couple of strong guys and an appliance hand truck and you should be fine. Don't let the weight and difficulty of a one-time move put you off cast iron - it's worth the effort! A buddy and I wrestled a 320lb cast iron tub by hand up a "winder" staircase for my remodel project just last weekend. I wouldn't want to do it again but I'm glad we stayed with the cast iron. (My buddy wasn't too amused when I called him the next day and told him that we needed to return the tub because it was the wrong model - can't understand why he lost his sense of humor over a little ole bathtub.) Dave

Got the washer. It's great. Clothes get cleaner, dry faster, and it's so quiet you can barely tell it's running. (I do wish that the end-of-cycle signal was louder - I'd like to be able to hear THAT upstairs.) With the pedestal, it's a great height, and the pedestal even works well for storage. Also, the 120V hasn't been a problem at ALL. This machine uses so little water (yet still washes great) that it can still heat up the water QUICK even with the smaller heater. Even on the most aggressive cycle (Sanitize + Extra Soil + Extended + Sensitive) it's still much gentler on clothes than my old TL on Delicates. The controls are just simplified enough that they don't confuse anyone else in my house, and aren't missing anything significant to me. I'm still considering a new dryer. Will need either a left-opening or hamper-style door. Also, I want a real moisture sensor (instead of the simple temp-based system my old dryer has). A drum light, reversing tumble, and a real countdown timer (with good estimating logic based on moisture) would be nice too. Unfortunately the T9800 doesn't have the timer. Right now, I'm using Persil Sensitive, 1/4 to 1/2 cup in the main wash and under 1/4 cup in the prewash. Also 1/2 cup DWV in the fabric softener compartment (for cat odor). I've tried using LCB a couple of times - 1/2 cup on the Sanitize cycle for whites REALLY blasts the stains out. And there's no residual odor like there was when using LCB in my old TL.