I am glad to hear there is a developing interest in putting together a swap at my house. I figure we can wait until Febuary to set an exact date and still give everyone time to get the day off and make travel plans. I like the idea of a Saturday "Lunch Swap" so that we can swap, munch, and hang out before hurrying home with your goodies! Then have Sunday to settle your new babies in! Please, anyone who has been to a swap where they partically enjoyed something, let me know so I can work it into the plans. Do you like the idea of nametags? How about a prize for the one who travels the fartherest? Would it be alright if I supply an main dish and beverages and ask for a covered dish? Should we prearrange trades or just bring what you have and trade here? I am already looking forward to this! Send me or post your suggestions here and I will try to put together a swap that everyone will enjoy!!!!!!!!! Thanks for your support! Susan

Exciting news! I just found out my 9 year old grandson will be in a new Warner Brother's movie! The movie is called, "Unnacompanied Minors", that will be released soon. It's a Comedy/Drama. They are filming part of it in Salt Lake City and vacinity. I think the airport scenes (and maybe a few others were filmed in Chicago at O'Hare, but the rest will be filmed in Utah. Plot Outline: A group of kids bond while snowed in at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport the day after Christmas, and ultimately create a makeshift holiday for themselves. As it is still in production, the data is subject to change. Unaccompanied Minors Starts Production Source: Warner Bros. Pictures March 16, 2006 Production is underway on the comedy Unaccompanied Minors, directed by Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks) and starring Lewis Black (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Wilmer Valderrama (That 70's Show), Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris) and Dyllan Christopher (Seabiscuit) for Warner Bros. Pictures in association with Village Roadshow Pictures. The announcement was made today by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. It's Christmas Eve and five kids have just been snowed in at the airport -- and there isn't a parent in sight. Unaccompanied Minors follows awkward Spencer (Dyllan Christopher), rich-girl Grace (Gina Mantegna), tomboy Donna (Quinn Shephard), geeky Charlie (Tyler James Williams) and bashful Beef (Brett Kelly) as they try to outwit a disgruntled airport official (Lewis Black) and reunite with their families. Using "borrowed" golf-carts, a canoe on a snow hill and the help of a reluctant flight attendant (Wilmer Valderrama), these kids are about to prove the holidays aren't about where you are, but who you're with. The comedy will also feature Rob Corddry (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) as Spencer's dad, as well as cameos by Donny Osmond (Donny & Marie), Al Roker (Today), Teri Garr (Friends), Jessica Walter (Arrested Development), Tony Hale (Arrested Development), Rob Riggle (Saturday Night Live), BJ Novak (The Office), David Koechner (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy), Dave Gruber Allen (The Naked Trucker) and comedian Nick Thune. Unaccompanied Minors is produced by Lauren Shuler Donner (the "X-Men" franchise) and Michael Aguilar (Constantine) from a screenplay by Paul Feig and Kate Kondell (First Daughter) and Mya Stark & Jacob Meszaros. The executive producers are Ira Glass, Julie Snyder, Carrie Morrow (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), Michael Lambert and Bruce Berman (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). The director of photography is Chris Baffa (Nip/Tuck, Running With Scissors); the production designer is Aaron Osborne (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) and the editor is George Folsey Jr. (The Pink Panther, Animal House). Unaccompanied Minors will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, and in select territories by Village Roadshow Pictures. I'll let ya'll know more as I hear.

Dsnine.. okay.. well.. I just have to get you caught up on something I am sure about! You are going to experience a lot more bugs than Alaska! I am familiar with upstate NY, near Buffalo, Rochester and Finger lakes. We almost moved to Ithaca but the taxes ;). The summers are really lovely in that zone more than VA! The summer; the heat, bugs, humidity, but I still have lots to do with kids. Plus still need to keep gardening for me (food, harvest, sowing again for more susscesions like lettuce, sometimes carrots (a bit later) and radishes and beets.. but eventually, life suddenly tells me, to go inside and drink some ice tea and homeschool the kids! Take them to the pool, etc. It seems like my choice not to do summer is also based on native annuals that are super happy! And some others like daisies. I guess I was trying to say; I don't try for summer but I keep up with what is going on; watering. I don't like to weed unless a weed is going to flower because the earth gets like a sun burn (top soil death)! And I relax in the heat a whole bunch to protect the roots of the plants I want to stay happy near by. I should have had all my weeding done but, nothing is perfect! Summer to me is a time to get busy and relax too! Lol! It is lovely weather for all kinds of fun in the evening here at least and some days; telescope out, campfires etc. Spring and fall for people that eventually grow green thumbs are a big deal and people that grow cheaper thumbs- FALL! Not only cheaper but surpirsingly well established plants had the luck of fall planting or seed sowing. Many native bulb like plants (perrienals) that will be gorgeous and give you so much interest and spread well, are almost unknown to me without fall seed sowing. Many annual seeds I tried sowing in the spring for our fenced garden showed up the following year due to, my layman's guess, a freeze! There are some nice bushes and bulbs (you will see Lillies in Ohio I bet in summer) that love summer. That is absolutely worth a try! You have figured me out by now that I can't stay away from the plants lol. We were suppose to not garden this year for house! But I was trying to voice that I threw seeds; tickseed, echineace and echineace and daisy keep on each year like almost wild flower annuals here. This is how I define my "no summer gardening plan" (starting self sowers (annuals, each fall, or when a free seed packet comes, even in winter under the snow sometimes.) I want to water the fruit trees and veggies on a timer one day! But we have to share the well for now and too tricky. The summer flowers and ornamentals need to be totally independent plants and they absolutely are! Drought tolerant or just not me tolerant. Watering in the spring and fall is so much more enjoyable with breaks with the rain and cool weather. Summer watering is so hot too, and basically, we feel irresponsible if we do more than for our food sake; very minimal for other plants. Small trees are okay to help start. Winter gardening is a new book topic (and fall too, but that book points mostly to color and sometimes to fall blooms, but chances are if it is foliage, the plant will be thriving in the spring too.) I love talking winter gardening! This is still new to me but what it says to me is mostly about form, evergreen and surprising blooms! The winter garden can be so everlasting! Elegant and besides sourcing the plants, easy! It is lovely to think of still forms placed carefully that add enough grace year round that the garden feels like a familiar room. Much like a favorite tree and a bench or swing. I don't see winter gardens that often and I know I will be one of the first in my circle. Many people have them if you thought about it a tiny bit.. like all the landscaping basic installments that people line their homes with. That is almost exactly it. You just take those plants and make them in front of your and on a path that you focus your attention on instead of something hugging your house or porch, like walking down a brick, or mulch, pea gravel path to a bench and a winter garden delighting around you. That is what it felt like to me anyway! You need to go to more historic gardens than most to find some. Here is the book! It is like a catalog and very few pages are the same but chapters do hold the similar ideas together. https://www.amazon.com/Cultivating-Garden-Style-Practical-Personality/dp/1604694777 Praire nursery is great eye candy too! (And a teaching and design catalog if you read it right.) It can help you sow wildflowers seeds on your septic leach field. We didn't buy a mix from them of it, but have gotten seeds from them before. (It can be pricey but easy and a good source for seeds; they always tell you the mix). They have your style for sure! And btw, you might like some purple grass! A sedge is like a grass (but not) and a wonderful mate to iris and others if you have water spots or gutter runs.

Hi Wintercat and Barb: I'm glad to see rose-growers here in Cooking Forum. Roses are NO longer important to me ... already have too many (60+ roses). My focus is taking care of my family through healthy cooking. I agree with everyone that daily exercise boost up the metabolism. Yesterday I spent 1 1/2 hour shoveling the ice .. was sweating & hot for hours afterwards. Grainlady has a good point that healthy fats like Coconut oil raise metabolism. Omega-3 is used to treat Raynaud syndrome: defined as excessively reduced blood flow in response to cold, or extreme pain with cold temp. My kid eats at least 1 cup of walnut per day, plus 2 tablespoons of flax oil (high in Omega-3 and Omega-9). My kid is always warm. Studies show that Omega-3 increase the "brown fat" storage with higher metabolism. My kid hates it when school made her wear her coat during recess. She never wear gloves nor hat, even in our freezing zone 5a winter. I notice the same effect when I have walnut or flax oil for dinner: very warm at night, so I only use that during the winter. The "China Study" is a landmark book by Dr. Campbell. According to Wikipedia, "Dr. Colin Campbell, Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, and his son Thomas M. Campbell II, a physician. It was first published in the United States in January 2005 and had sold over one million copies as of October 2013, making it one of America's best-selling books about nutrition." I read that book twice, it showed that a vegetarian diet resulted in higher metabolism than a high-protein diet, plus reduced rate of cancer & heart-attack. The book included lab. studies on rats which showed they are much more active on a vegetarian diet, than a high-protein diet. Here's an explanation from Wikipedia "... consuming diets high in protein and fat transfers calories away from their conversion into body heat to their storage form as body fat." On sensitivity to cow-milk, Wikipedia explained, "... autoimmune diseases are more prevalent among people who live at higher geographic latitudes, and also among people who consume a diet high in animal protein, particularly cow's milk. ... Vitamin D is important for the proper regulation of the immune system, and that for people who live at higher geographic latitudes, a lack of exposure to ultraviolet sunlight can result in a deficiency. The consumption of animal protein, especially casein in cow's milk, results in higher concentrations of calcium in the blood, which inhibits the process by which the body activates vitamin D in the kidneys to a form that helps repress the development of autoimmune diseases.[21] Here is a link that might be useful: The China Study book by Dr. Campbell This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Tue, Jan 14, 14 at 9:44