So, any chance of a non-blurry image so that we can see what these are? Mealies were not the first thing to come to mind when I saw the pictures, but one of the cottony scale insects. A decent picture is important. No matter what pest it might be, the plants don't have to be touching for them to spread quickly from one to another. We help carry eggs and tiny nymphs on our clothes, hands, watering containers, tools, dust cloth, etc. Best practice is to isolate a new plant in another room and practice the best houseplant hygiene you can muster. A very good treatment for many houseplant pests is an alcohol mist. Simply mix one part isopropyl to three parts water, or even stronger. Use a hand sprayer to treat the whole plant, leaves and stems. Most plants tolerate the alcohol perfectly fine, but the soft bodied critters don't. Another excellent product would be one of the many types of horticultural oils on the market. They are very effective at smothering the pests, from eggs to adult. The oils need to be a commercial brand and not home brewed.

My two cents: Aside from the flickr picture re-sizing issue that some are experiencing, I don't mind the new format. All website designs are updated at some point. Change is not always easy to accept but if GW does not update their website design, they will become outdated. This site design has not been updated since I became a member 4 years ago and I'm sure many years before that. I think it's time for a change. Just imagine if there was only one variety of hosta and the characteristics never evolved. A big pro that I see with the update is that the pictures are smaller so I don't have to wait for the pictures to load before I can scroll to the bottom of a post (especially if there were 50 posts and I've already read the first 49). Before the change to the GW design, I had to scroll up and down to see some of the pictures as they were posted so large that they were bigger than my screen. That was annoying. Now if I want to see the picture in a larger size, I can simply click on it. In regards to the font, it is Arial and is one of the most common fonts used. It looks clear, around a size 11, and it is easy to read on my screen. Vanessa

Where we live, there is a question of soil contamination in the surrounding area, so we don't plant a garden. This package makes me extra jealous! Truly a gift that keeps on giving. Karen, the fact that you can steep some tea and just drop one of those dried rounds into it - mmmmm, what a way to start the day. Very creative and thoughtful package, Barb

> The logs would be laid in place, and then broad axes > and/or adzes would be uses to level them. > Our house has logs, some of them with bark still on > them. It is the most solid, square house I have ever > lived in. That's what this looks like: Some of the logs did in fact have bark still on them. And the ends looked hand-cut. > the fact that upper floor is OK, probably means it is > more the under framing of the first floor rather than > the sills and collar beams. Spacing that far part may > require not so much sistering as inleting additional > supporting members under the floor. This is what it's seeming to be, to me: That the structure overall is fine, but there wasn't enough to hold up the first floor once they turned it into a kitchen that had a refridgerator, an oven, a hot water heater (and not just to the side either - kinda just THERE), and at one point some kind of furnace unit. I think it was just all too much for that kind of span without any type of joist underneath it. I'm setting up a time for someone who has experience doing this kind of work to come look at it. It sounds as if my idea of going through the top is potentially appropriate, and could save us on labor cost, and allow us to do some of the sweat work - namely, tearing out the old floor, then installing insulation and vapor barrier, possible run some new circuits across to the other side while we have the opening to do so, and put in a new t&g plywood subfloor - though the budget is looking as if the subfloor might get a coat of sealer plus get covered with something like an indoor/outdoor carpet remant until we're caught back up financially from the contractor expense, before we take on the rest of the kitchen remodel. And Molly, I very much appreciate your candor - I'm making everyone I know promise to be really direct in telling us their concerns about our considering doing this, and there's nothing you've said that isn't realistically a problem. But here's how we're looking at it so far, and answers to some of your questions: > under the circumstances can you get a mortgage with only having essentially a life estate but not title? Nope. No mortgage. However, we are prepared to sell our current house in which we have probably 70k or more in equity which would cover most of the big contractor projects (roof, this project, and my parents have said that they will consider setting up a 20k line of credit for us to use for this as well. We also have no debt except for two car loans that will be paid in 1 and 2 years (though the cars will last much longer), and a relatively student loan that will be paid in three years - no credit card debt. We live a simple life with experience in keeping our basic living expenses low and with living amid the ongiong chaos of renovation. > And if not, then you would be sinking your resources > into this house, and perhaps not able to extract them > should you ever decide living there isn't what meets > your needs. Yes, that's clearly a risk that we take very seriously and have talked about for hours. Our final decision came down to a few different things: First, the house we're in now is already a risk, because it is on leased land without a long term (99-year type) contract, and we could lose absolutely everything if the family that owns the land in this community decided to sell this extremely valuable bay-front area to high-end developers, so we'd only be transferring a risk instead of eliminating it, but we'd be transferring it at least to something where at least we'd be guaranteed the option of staying there for life. Second, we are both in jobs (me in particular) which are both almost guaranteed will be there for as long as we want to work there (we're state employees, what can I say) plus at least my job is my absolute dream job - teaching at a community college, summers off to do some very focused work on this - so I have over 15 years before I'd consider retirement, so we know we're not going to move. And last, with all the work it needs, we just can't discount that it's been our dream to do this - get an old house in the country and fix it up. Except this way we don't have the fix up expenses on top of a hefty mortgage, we just have the fix-up expenses. And ultimatly we'd be living in a beautiful old house on 10.5 acres of land in the country. > Could you transfer your interest and recoup some of the > costs? Nope. If we walk away, we walk away. > These are the kinds of projects that lead to hefty > second mortgages ....! (And sometimes second marriages > when the first one flames out under the stress of > unending, and expensive, renovations.) Oh, yes, we know. Which is why we're doing a contract about what would happen with the house if we were to end our relationship! We're no fools. But we also have good support systems which from our experience can make all the difference inthe world, from people to call on to come over and help when a project gets too overwhelming and we need it to be DONE a lot faster than its going, to good friends who will take one of us in and help both of us work things out if we need a day or week or month or two of breathing room. Plus, as I said, we've done this. Both of us have things that make us nuts when things are in chaos, but still we've lived with that chaos, and know that some things that would make other people nuts - such as our friends who said that they couldn't even move in until every bit of plaster was repaired and every room was painted and the kitchen was fully remodeled. Those things don't get to us, as long as we have a way to escape it, which we do.