....plumber opened wall a few inches (Light will cover opening anyway), cut pipe and insets rubber sleeve over pipe and clamped shut. He said this way should rain somehow get in it should remain sealed. THANKS!

Awww Deb, I feel for you. You did the right thing talking to the "big boss" You don't have to take any crap from anyone and just because Larry helped you get the job shouldn't matter in the least so don't let that bother you. If they didn't need help in that office they wouldn't have hired you. Take pride in the fact that the boss said you are being complimented on your good work. I worked in one of the bank branches on a 6 month contract. One of the tellers that had worked there for a long time took a disliking to me. I was trained on how to do the job the right way but the tellers at this branch did things "the way they always did them" which wasn't the way I learned them. Everytime I asked this teller a question she would answer me then turn her back and hum "if she only had a brain" from the Wizard of Oz. What a Btch. I took it for a couple of months then got her in trouble for not following proper bank procedures - the way I learned them. She wanted me to cash a cheque for someone because "they always did it" I didn't want to do it so I went to the Manager and after further checking found the transaction was fraudulent. I was in the right and that really PO that chick off. LOL She hated me even more after that because doing the job the right way meant asking questions of her customers and not automatically doing every transaction because "they always did it". Everyday of that contract I hated going into work at that branch. I loved working at all the other branches I worked at. After my last contract was up with another branch I was offered another contract to go back to that branch and I refused if that Btch was still there. I never renewed my contract with the bank. I didn't need the negativety. I'm sorry Deb you have been under so much stress from your job. Just do your work as best as you can and at the end of the day leave the job at the door. Home is your sanctuary. Anne

The ones with green on them probably got a little warm or wet at some point and started to come out of dormancy. Not necessarily a good sign. On the plus side it means you know they are alive, but it could mean they may have started to come out of dormancy or used some of their energy stores already. They are supposed to be dry, and I don't believe there was any green on any of the liatris I planted. Onions or garlic are a good analogy. Mushy ones is what you look for. Genetics for fruit set isn't really an issue on this plant because they don't have fruit, we grow them for flowers. They do have seed, which birds like and can cause them to spread. Only reason you would care is if you are trying to plant them for wildlife in a wild area.

I used to burn all of mine in a wood stove when I had one. So the fire pit should work fine. And cold will have no bearing on your being able to start a fire.....wet could :-) Ideally, you want a fire that would burn on without constant attention and so would need some wood to keep things going. But since you need to be present to keep feeding your papers into the blaze, you can skip that! btw, you do not want to dump all the papers in at once or fill the pit. Start a small fire using just a few crumpled up papers (or some of the shreds) and then continue to feed it more to keep it going. Not something I would just put a light to and walk away from!! Also a fire of mostly or entirely of paper will create a lot of ash - some pretty good sized - that will drift up on the heat currents and fly off. I find it is helpful to use some sort of poker to break things up as they burn to avoid much of this.