I know a few ways to cut a bottle on the cheap and easy, with mixed results... All of them require a heat source. 1. take a glass cutter and score a line around the bottle. take some cotton string, kite string works good if I remember right. soak it in some alcohol. tie it tight around the bottle right next to the score you made. Lay the bottle on its side, propped up so that it has room to burn. Light the string on fire and let it burn out. Dunk te bottle into cold water and it SHOULD crack along the score. 2. head to a hardware store and buy a roll of masons string. wrap a layer or 2 of scotch tape around the bottle where you want it cut. tie one end of the string to a door knob or a nail or something to keep it stable. tie the other end to another stationary object keep a dip of a few inches in the middle of the string, do not make it too tight. wrap the string around the bottle, over the tape, where you want it cut. going slow at first slide the bottle back and forth to wear a path through the tape and act as a guide to keep the string in the right place. begin moving faster and faster and pulling up slightly on the bottle. as sson as the string melts in two or breaks, stick the bottle in an ice cold bath, it should break right along the line traced in the masons string wear mark. 3. with some long THIN wire and a car battery you can cut a bottle. The wire needs to be thin enough to glow red when its made a direct short. wrap it a single time around the bottle where you want it cut. do not let the wire touch itself where it comes full circle. if it touches itself thats the end of the short and it wont work. keep it as close as possible with out actually touching. use a heavy glove like a welders glove to tension the wire pu pulling the bottle. Have another person make the connections to the battery. One end of the wire to each terminal. The wire will glow red in a matter of seconds and heat the bottle along its path. Most times the wire will burn in half because of the direct short. Immediatly dunk the bottle upto the score mark in cold water. I can see an idea in my head for a votage controller, a battery and a spring to keep the wire tight that would allow you to make a bottle cutter with the wire method. Off the top of my head Id think it would run close to 100 dollars though and not be worth it if you were not going to be cutting very many bottles. With all methods use some common sense. heavy leather gloves, a face shield or goggles, long sleeves. basic safe practices. Also while they will all cut a bottle, they will also leave some sharp edgeds, and maybe a lip. You should use some wet sandpaper to take care of this problem. I would attached some metal sand paper to a board, face up, wet it down and move the bottle back and forth across the sand paper to finish off the edges and smooth it out and make it safe to handle with out cutting yourself. When I was a kid we used to cut bottles with a wire hanger and a camp fire. I dont recall exactly how we did it? Im sure we were not the originators of this idea and someone will have a more complete memory of it. I know we wrapped the bottle in the hanger, twisted it tight with some pliers nad if I recall correctly, let it sit in the fire long enough to heat up the hanger to red hot. After that Im not sure how we made it cut through and got the bottle half back out of the fire? too long ago but any excuse is a good excuse to go camping as summer moves upon us. Maybe Ill play with cutting bottles agin over camping trips into the mountains this summer, see if I can gain some old knowledge from ym child hood again.

Lettuce is something I've always wanted to try in the garden. I like your idea Tiffy....using the styro cups. Now I know what I can use those clementine boxes I've been holding on to! I've started saving 2L pop bottles and plan on asking some co-workers to help me out if I don't get enough. I almost stopped today and pulled a big plastic lettuce container out of someone's recycle...but I didn't quite have the nerve. :-) Tiffy, you mentioned you live on the NS coast. I'm headed to Truro this Sunday to visit my parents for a week. I've got my Dad interested in WSing too....so I'll be passing on some adice....from this forum of couse, since this will be my first year. We'll be able to compare notes next year. My Dad has a nice big garden....fenced off against the deer and rabbits. He is excited to save a few dollars by sowing from seed...more variety to choose from too.

Freezed plastic bottle won't be dangerous. The freeze plastic water bottles will release dioxins when frozen is entirely unfounded. The vast majority of plastics used in food wraps, packaging containers and beverage bottles do not contain the chemical constituents that form dioxins. In addition, dioxins are a family of compounds that are produced by combustion at high temperatures. They can only be formed during combustion at temperatures typically above 700 degrees Fahrenheit; they cannot be formed at room temperature or in freezing temperatures. According to FDA, “ With regard to dioxins, we have seen no evidence that plastic containers or films contain dioxins and know of no reason why they would.” http://www.plasticsmythbuster.org/Main-Menu/Plastics-Rumor-Registry/Freezing-Plastic-Water-Bottles-Releases-Dioxins-into-Water-

Filtering water removes chlorine pretty much. The cleanest water is distilling. This news is not new, health nuts have been warning all who will listen to avoid tap water as not all is known of what's in it. We get a report of what's in our city water and there already is a list of long worded chemicals, usually in low parts per million. But, when fish and frogs are being born with extra limbs and male and female organs, etc. if I were of child bearing age, I would think twice about what's in my water. But, there are certainly a lot of things we cannot avoid and better not to live in fear, just do the best you can. How many people die or are maimed in auto accidents per year and yet no one really worries about that.