I've got SASEs down to an organized science. I prepack seeds--I don't do twenty packs, I'll do a hundred and twenty packs of a variety. I have multiple varieties packed and ready to share. Sharing is easy--I've got toms in trays and non-toms in a clear vinyl CD holder tacked to a door closet in my office. Opposite the door is a table where I fill the SASEs...which I lay out in rows and do en masse. Currently I am doing three SASEs of which the Your Choice Tomato SASE I do one envelope at a time so I don't get confused. I don't ask for bubble-mailers, I have people send me long #10 envies, but I still have to pad those seeds. I buy huge rolls of bubble-wrap and cut them to size. The bubble-wrap pieces I keep in a tray on the table I fill the SASEs, along with address labels, various stickers, etc that I need for the SASEs, including a really nice tape gun for taping over the back flap--I stuff the envies well and the envie flap glue just doesn't do it. Today I sent off a very big box of seeds to a community garden project in Milwaukee. I had the seeds on hand and ready to go--all I had to do was bundle them and list them on a letter which went inside the box with the seeds. The key to doing SASEs is to remember that you are in charge...I want to share seeds but I am not going nuts by doing it, so if someone wants seeds they have to accept what I send to them, but as I do send a large variety there's never been a complaint. I rarely ever take requests because that means waiting for a list of requests to arrive. Nada. NADA! I chose the format of Six Packs of my choice some years back and it's been very successful. I do yearly offer a six pack choice list of tomatoes but even then I do ask for a list of four defaults, so again by having that default list I lower my stress level significantly. Sharing seeds is not done casually, it's an organized process that runs smoothly because I keep large amounts of pre-packed seeds ready to go. The seeds and mailing supplies are organized and at hand. When you promise to send seeds its up to you to fulfill that promise--when the envelope or mailer arrives you fill it ASAP and send it back on its way. I fill within 24 hours because I don't know how many are coming in the next mail. I've had the PO guy stagger up the walk with mail buckets of SASEs and then it dries up to a trickle a couple of weeks later, then a month later it's another hundred on a Monday. I never know how many are coming. Sometimes SASE senders will drive me bonkers by asking if I ever got their SASE, but only give me their online name or forum, so next I have to ask for them for an address and a real name so I can begin looking through the stack of outer envies that I hold onto. When I find their envie I let them know that their seeds are on their way and I also let them know that as they sent it to me LAST WEEK it's a bit much to ask where their seeds are. Harummmph! But that doesn't happen too often. The joys far outweigh the work that goes into it. Last week I got an email from a nice lady who wants to send her butterfly bush seeds to me so that I can share them through SASEs, that's wonderful--even better is that she learned how to save those seeds with info she read on WinterSown.Org. It just doesn't get any better than that!

I don't think it's correct to say that worms "love" used coffee grounds, at least not in the way they react to melon rinds or corn meal, by visibly flocking to them while wiggling happily. I think coffee grounds just have a much longer lead time before they become worm-edible, possibly because it takes a fungal process to break down the cellulose component of the beans. I used to put my used coffee grounds in the bin still in their paper cone filter, but I found this creates a long-lasting clump of grounds that tends to dry out and become impervious to rewetting, and takes an extraordinarily long time to start breaking down on its own. The other drawback to solid masses of grounds is that they will heat up, which you can really notice if you dig around in the bin with your bare hands. Now I dump the grounds out of the filter and mix them together with the other food scraps.

I'd become addicted to the ones from TJ's so had to pass on those little fat pills! I tasted those at Costco too and thought they were very similar to the Trader Joes brand.

I don't envy you your position. It is pretty obvious that she will live with you as long as you let her rent free. You walk a fine line especially with recovering addicts My son is addicted to pain killers, he says he has been off them for a month now, but that remains to be seen. Him and his wife and daughter lived in my basement rent free for a year and a half to help them get back on their feet. I did their taxes that year and they made over $52,000, with not one penny toward savings, paying off bills, or to us. We constantly lent them money, bought clothes and food for our granddaughter etc. To make a long story short after they did move out my son decided he did not want to have any relationship with me and he did not want the grandkids to have one either. I do not see them and have not seen them in over a month. Enabling does not help them, but when you stand firm be prepared for her to cut you out of her and your grandsons life. I know you think she would never do this to you, that is what I thought also. Like I said I do not envy your position. Drug addicts do not think straight, wheather they are in recovery or not. My son is 22 but mentally and emotionally he is about 12. He is having a tantrum and apparently has no problem hurting me and my husband by dangling the grandkids over our heads and saying jump. I am sorry for you, because I am sorry for myself. Treasure every second you have with him now.