Wow! You guys are great, thank you! Okay, I potted the two small plants in a cactus mix. May not be the best, but it's all I have an I know it's better than what they were in. I got as much of the old soil off as possible without losing too much of the roots. They both had really good root systems, so I must be doing something right! The two Jades didn't come apart easily, so I left them. The little one lost a few leaves, so we'll see what happens. I'm going to wait on the bigger Aloe until I get a more porous soil. I trimmed back the brown tips, but when I cut into the leaves with brown on the sides they were leaking brown fluid, so I started cutting them off (but my Mom who stopped by at just the right time) stopped me and said I should probably ask someone who knows what they're talking about. So I'm asking. :) I cut off two and there is one more that is brown inside. Do I go for it? As soon as I figure out a better mix, it is getting re-potted. I'm excited to learn about the Aloe Variegata! Cactusmcharris, what an adorable plant muncher! Is she a long-haired calico? That's what my female is. Same colors, different mix. SHE knows how to leave the plants alone....or at least knows how to be sneaky about messing with them. :)

newhostalady, if my experience can be a cautionary tale, then, yes, that is a good thing. But they told me that they'd be dropping all the shingles into the dumpster on the driveway and you see what happened in the back. Get things like bird baths, feeders, pots of plants, etc. safely put away because you don't know for sure where things will land, lol. But a solid roof, ....gotta have it, right? Good luck on yours! Phil, I was just thinking that I should get my windows washed because how much worse can it get now with more ladders out there?.....a roofing nail in your shoe, and ilovetogrow finding nails nine months later, those are both good reasons for me to wear better shoes and get a magnet out there. As the plants die back this fall I'll probably be able to find a lot more. Just today I found a piece of shingle and a nail close to one of the bird baths I was filling. For one moment I thought about how bernd said the nail is good for my soil. Then I imagined hitting that nail with my shovel some day and tossed it in the trash. littlebug5, I understand the apprehension that goes with any projects like this. My DH still thinks we need new gutters, ~sigh~. When they built the decks, I got some of that bright caution tape and bamboo stakes. They managed not to ruin some shrubs I had blocked off that way. Maybe that will work for your cherry tree and hydrangea. Good luck to you, too!

Yes, his method is very specific and full of pitfalls. I never meant to imply that you didn't do it right. Only that it looks easier than it is because a lot of details aren't shown. The spoken directions could work, but it's easy to see how they could fail. I asked all of those questions to see if I could find a pitfall. It could just be the flour. So, re flour, it's much better to start with whole grains or the whole grain flakes Linda did or grapes with must than a factory milled flour. It'll be much easier to catch the yeast. I recommend whole rye berries from the bulk bin. They're just so easy! You can use them whole (but that's actually harder because you have to deal with the lumps) or grind/mill them or whirr them in the food processor. It's easiest if you have a scale, but you can do it by volume. You don't need to be to the gram. It's just flour and water as you said. Volume--use a cup of the rye and half a cup of water, stirred together and covered. A glass vessel is nice because you can see what's happening. Remember the water will flavor your bread, so use water that tastes good. just let the rye sit Once that's all bubbly, add some White Flour (unbleached is fine) and water--the same cup and half cup. That is, add the water first and stir until the starter dough is dissolved mostly, which makes it all a lot easier to handle, then add your flour (this order isn't necessary, just convenient). Mark the level on the outside with a piece of masking tape or a sharpie (alcohol removes it from glass). When it has risen to double or 8-12 hours have passed, pull out a cup and a half of the dough and discard the rest or put it in pancakes or something, and feed again. Always feed the same amount as the amount of dough you're keeping. Weight--same as above, but do equal weights of flour and water as opposed to the volume proportions. Keep discarding and feeding until your dough will reliably double in size within eight hours and hold its height for a couple of hours. Now it's ready to use. N.B.: Sometimes there's a die off of unwanted micro-organisms that ends up smelling fishy. It's normal. Just keep feeding and that'll go away in a day or two and it'll start smelling like bread dough. To use; Divide and feed your standard portion, put it in a jar, and right into the fridge. Feed the discard as you did the part you saved, with an equal total of flour and water to the amount of dough you have. Check your recipe for how much you need to make your preferment and keep feeding until you have that. You currently have "100% hydration". If the recipe requires something else you can adjust how much flour and water you feed with. Remember, longer ferment time with less starter means more sour taste. Shorter ferment with more starter means faster rise and less sour taste. If you want to bake with whole wheat flour, I'd still encourage you to use white flour for your starter until it's well established. It would help, as well, to use part white flour for the loaves. You can transition the starter to whole wheat in stages, with a larger and larger portion of WW, but don't do it all at once or you could shock your yeast and have to start feeding it several times a day again. For the first few months, at least, you should discard and feed your refrigerated starter at least once a week. Once it's good and happy, it can sit dormant for a long time. If it looks dark on top and smells boozy, it's just hungry. You can pour off the booze or stir it in (or drink it like the old farmwives used to do), and proceed with feeding. If it's very sad looking, discard the gray, and leave it out to warm up for a few feedings before putting it back in the fridge. It's not dead until it's warm and dead. :) It really is that easy.

Gardengal spoke of " ... living in the far north ... ", which is rather relative, depending on your viewpoint (more or less the topic of the sermon this morning, delivered by our minister just returned from leave due to replaced hip). "Far north" to Canadians gives one about 3 mos. of unrelieved dark in winter ... and 3 mos. of continuous sunshine in summer. Imagine how tough life must have been for the Inuit, back in the early days, with no iron to make a knife, a stovepipe, a needle, etc. During World War II, after our farmhand had gone to war, when Dad could find a day labourer for some extra work, he didn't like daylight savings time, for it meant that they'd show up just after dark had departed ... and leave, as Dad used to say, " ... about the middle of the afternoon!". During those 6 years, for ordinary work, what Dad, this pre-teen, then teen-ager and a couple of younger sons got done ... got done, on our rather large farm: the rest didn't. One learns rather early in life about prioritizing (if that should happen to be a real word). Our British Columbia is wanting to stay daylight savings year-round, as is being discussed all along the west coast, it appears. As Grandma, who lived with us as a widow, and Dad used to say, "What problems we can dig up when we can't find much else to do!". ole joyfuelled