I don't have any ideas on the attic but thought the "ladder to "no where "was interesting. Long ago I was in a couple of "Underground railroad" houses. 1 had false wall upstairs. GF asked if I noticed anything strange about her closet. I sure did, you never put molding in all around the back wall, I slid my hand down the edge & the wall opened to show a passageway. Papers in basement told about how scared the family was as soldiers were hanging out at their home while black folks were in the passage. Gf wanted to know how I knew right off. My dad built all of our houses so he taught me as we went along. I often held flashlight or light on end of cord, until I was old enough to hammer! Other house is why I'm curious. It had a birdbath out in yard,nice perennials around the base & large yard. Lovely large old house with wrap around porch, I loved it. Then 1 day we were in basement & I looked at walls & wondered why they were such a mess. GF told me good reason,stone in 1 area, brick in another, old dark stone,didn't match up with rest of house. The pretty stone part had a little latch & you could open a door that was so silent & moved so easy I couldn't believe it. inside was where her mom used to store canned goods but no longer did as the sod & timber roof didn't seem that "safe" any more to her dad. As you looked down that tunnel it was an optical illusion as it seemed to be a straight tunnel it was not. It went off to the right & then if you were to go in there it came back to the left thereby hiding many people even though they had found the door & tunnel they could go out birdbath opening & try to run. I knew at 1 time how many people you could hid in there. It was about 4 ft wide or maybe wider. You have all seen coal mines. It was supported by these old timbers with some cross pieces. I tried to figure out how the illusion worked, my dad showed me but that was 50 yrs ago so have no idea but builder was smart. So sapphire, you could have a strange assortment of walls in your basement. The latch was very close to the bottom within a ft. of the floor & I think the workings were all brass. Also no one would talk about it in town & people that had these houses kept quiet. I told dad & he told me never to talk about it I while I lived there. The houses were couple of miles apart. Could have been lots of houses around then or maybe just those, would have to do lot of research & if owner found papers in basement & didn't like what he saw might have destroyed them. So some warm summer night you might want to do a close inspection of your basement. Or the ladder to no where could be ladder to go up with hooks off to side to hang bikes or something on to get them out of way!! Enjoyed this thread!!

What a fun thread. I love the playing card idea. You can get clear labels in many sizes to print on your computer then stick it onto a vintage playing card or what ever and the design will show through. I have some clear labels here at the office, elephantear. I'll take some home tonite and see if they stick to concrete. Something else that occurs to me is you can probably print on masking tape if you buy the wider one and really stick it down good on a piece of transparency film or something with some bulk that you can remove the tape from after. I've done similar with scrapbooking - that is printed on a little piece of paper that I've already cut out by sticking it onto something 8.5 x 11. Here is a scan of transparancy film with masking tape and printing that I just quickly did this in word as an example. I kind of like the rustic look of the masking tape. In order to get the space right you would type up a full page of what you want in Word and print it on plain paper to check if it is spaced right for your masking tape "layout" then adjust. The transparency film with tape pressed carefully down would probably also go through a copier and be more water proof than an ink jet printer. I just put one piece of tape at the top, but clearly the page could be filled with them. And it is perfectly straight, as printed, I just scanned it crooked :). kathy

Looks to me like Orange-Fleshed Purple Smudge. They are high in cis-lycopene. I grew them this year. Started too many and placed several free seedlings out by the mailbox with a sign "Free Tomatoes". Maybe you are my neighbor! "Orange tomatoes contain a different form of lycopene, known to scientists as “cis-lycopene,” that’s easier for our bodies to absorb. Drinking only one glass of orange tomato juice will give you the same health benefits as drinking eight glasses of red tomato juice. This advantage is maintained when the tomatoes are cooked, too." http://www.motherearthnews.com/natural-health/nutrition/lycopene-in-tomatoes-zmgz16fmzsto.aspx http://tomatogeeks.com/product/orange-flesh-purple-smudge/

I have been burned several times buying seed from big box stores ! ........Many times its because a weedy "off type" grass ends up in a seed blend, which pretty much ruins the whole blend ! 'Scotts' perennial rye was one such blend. Most of the blend was beautiful , dark green, and low growing- but 10% or so , was a common pasture type rye. The same thing happened on two occasions - with Bermuda grass blends. 'Vigoro' bermuda seed- burned me super bad ! This blend contained the most god awful off type bermuda plant i have ever seen in my life!