An all-at-once harvest might work for bush limas, since all the beans on the plant generally ripen at close to the same time. For pole limas, the harvest is spread out over a longer period. To harvest pole limas, it is best to treat them like common bean shellies, to which they are similar. The pods may - or may not - change color when ripe, depending upon variety. Ripe lima pods also do not soften as much as the ripe pods of common beans, since the hull is more fibrous. The best indicator is a translucence to the pod; if picking with the sun in front of you, shining through the pods, this is more obvious. I grew "King of the Garden" in San Diego, and the pods would usually turn yellowish or brown-spotted when ripe. So does "Sieva". Other limas, such as "Hopi Pole", go from green to brown very quickly, and are more difficult to harvest as shellies. The small limas can go from shelly stage to dry very quickly (a day or two in warm dry weather) so they must be picked often for use as shellies. For "Sieva", the ones I miss are usually enough that there is no need for me to save dry seed intentionally. This year might be an exception to that, though, since flooding has stunted their normally rampant growth. Barring a warm Autumn, I'll be lucky to get more than a couple of meals from a 50-foot row. So much for my first attempt at growing a small-scale commercial seed crop. :-(

You could have bought the disposal of your choice online, including the so-called Insinkerator "commercial model", and gotten a very good price, with free shipping and no tax. The Insinkerators and the Waste Kings are both very good, as long as you get at least 3/4 hp size. The Waste King disposers have 10-year in-home warranties on both their 3/4 hp and 1 hp batch feed disposals (though the 1 hp Waste King is so large, that some have difficulty fitting the 1 hp size with their plumbing). The Insinkerator's 3/4 hp batch feed has a 7-year in-home warranty. I also prefer that the Waste Kings offer a 3-bolt mount, while the Insinkerator is a "QuickLock" which I do not prefer, but it's not a bad thing. I myself have the 3/4 hp Waste King batch feed 3-bolt mount, #9900TC, for 9 years, and not one problem, and it grinds everything. I understand that the Waste Kings may be louder than the Insinkerators, but the Insinkerator batch feed's chamber is smaller, so it depends what you would prefer. Regarding your comment that he should have judged better the time it took to do the work: he was probably including in his time estimate the possibility of needing to move the plumbing outlet to accommodate a larger disposal than your 19-year-old one. That happens pretty frequently. If he had to do move the plumbing outlet, his time estimate is accurate. It sounds like the new disposal fit fine with your plumbing, so it took much less time. If he had told you upfront that it would take 30 minutes, but then he had to move the plumbing outlet which took an hour and a half, you would be on here posting about how he didn't inform you how long it would take. I think since the work has been done, and you did not settle clearly the dollar amount of the disposal upfront with the contractor, nor seek to buy it yourself online and have him just do the installation, you have to chalk this one up as a lesson learned. You said "he should have told me the price". You should have asked him. You didn't ask him his hourly rate either. The contractor is entitled to his mark-up for the time and money he has taken to purchase the disposal, keep it in his inventory, and install it for you. Waste King 9900TC 3/4 hp 3-bolt mount batch feed at Walmart - with power cord Insinkerator Evolution Cover Control 3/4 hp batch feed - no power cord Insinkerator Evolution "Pro" Cover Control 3/4 hp batch feed - no power cord This post was edited by akchicago on Sat, Nov 1, 14 at 11:27

I travel to Oahu quite a bit. I will only stay at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. Directly on Waikiki beach, walk to all, good shops/restaurants in hotel or nearby, very reasonable rates, free phone calls to the mainland, free wi-fi in rooms. I just love this hotel! Check it out on the web, or try Tripadvisor.com Carol

Hi Lavender, I love your characters and the promise of this story. You've got a nice start with writing it. If you were writing in my category (young adult) you'd have a REALLY good start. Every genre has its own set of expectations. When writing for teens and young adults you'll almost always find short, snappy sentences. You'll also find a lot of new sentences that start with transition words like so, and , or but. That's what you've done at the beginning of your story. However, this isn't a novel for teens; it's a Victorian romance. Romance readers, and (I think) historical romance readers in particular, seem to like a more formal, wordier style. The words you choose and the way you structure your sentences can help establish tone and set the the story in the proper era. I played around with the first few paragraphs to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, but I'm no victorian romance writer so -- if I were you, I'd consider researching a few popular novels in the genre to get a better idea of what readers might expect: She would be coming to his classroom that afternoon. Henry Lastname set to putting things right, shelving a book here, straightening a pile of papers there as he tried to think about something, anything else. His opportunity to teach had come at the grace of a wealthy neighbor. Despite being born deaf, she’d thought him a bright child and had paid for his education. The chance to find books, to learn to communicate with others like himself, to establish a career as a teacher, it was all more than his family could have dreamed for him from their small tenant farm. Henry inspected his classroom with pride. He’d done well for himself, had gained the respect of the headmaster and the entire community. He knew he should be satisfied, but memories of the farm often crept in as he graded papers and settled petty disputes between the students in his charge. The lovely way the sun rose over the hills in the morning, the brilliant colors as it sank in the evening, and his horses -- how he longed to have his own horse again. Some days it was all he could think of … when he wasn’t thinking about the girl. The way she braided her lovely blonde hair around that pretty head of hers seemed to fill his own skull with all manner of indelicate thoughts. The yearning to run his fingers through those braids was chief among them. He reminded himself, yet again, how inappropriate this would be. Not only was Clara Lastname a student, she was also the daughter of an influential mayor of a nearby city. He was so involved in pushing away his thoughts that he jumped when he felt a soft touch on his shoulder. I hope you can get the idea from my pretty pitiful effort, lol. I don't read a lot of this genre, but I do read a lot of aspiring writers' works. You have a big head start on a lot of them. You have a nice way with dialogue and, even in this first chapter, you've already established the most important thing in romance writing -- chemistry. These two are full of it! Figuring out the voice of your story is all that's holding you back. I hope you'll accept my advice in the spirit it was intended. If I didn't think you had the ability to take this story to another level I wouldn't have bothered chiming in. Lavender Lass, you've got a good story to tell and the talent to tell it. P.S. A word about marketing if you don't mind. Just like there are genre expectations in the writing of the book, readers have expectations about the way a Victorian romance novel should look. Pretty women in beautiful dresses (and a bare chested man if you can find one) seem to be the norm. You might want to take a look at canva.com In just a few minutes I was able to put together this: To Share A Dream With You