Well guys, We still live in the house we bought to in 2014 in order to move Donna's aging mom who was (at that time) showing symptoms of dementia. The dementia progressively took its toll on her mind, and then in October of 2016, she was diagnosed with stage 4 bladder cancer. She lived until early February 2017 and died here at home with us, as she wished and she had made us promise not to let her die in a hospital or nursing home. She died surrounded by family and a hospice nurse was present. I only relate this story because Donna's mom's health situation was the reason we bought a house big enough for all of us to live in, under one roof.........and the subsequential multiple projects and renovations.........were the reasons I dropped off of the forum. As soon as we moved into the house, I had a long list of things that HAD to be done, and a long list of lesser things we WANTED to do......so my time on the forum just could not be justified.....I simply had too much to do. The first things to be done were to come up with safety measures to help prevent an elderly woman with dementia from injury by being proactive about preventing her from "escaping" the house. I had to equip all exit doors with a deadbolt lock keyed inside and out (all keyed alike) and we had to come up with a nearby "hiding place" close to each lock location for spare keys in case of emergency. This house has a full basement with stairs, and we did not want her mom to have access to the stairs, so I included the same deadbolt on that door too. The sliding door to the second floor deck was a challenge in that it had a key lock on the outside ONLY with just a paddle lock lever on the inside. I had to come up with a way to make that door lockable with a key from the inside. My solution was to remove the lock assembly from the door and "reverse" location of the paddle lever plate and the key tumbler plate, so that the key tumbler would be on the inside. I stripped out the guts relating to the paddle lever and covered the hole where the paddle shaft came through with a small brass plate.....heavily epoxied in place from the backside (inside the door). All you can see from outside is a small hole blanked off with brass. The deck is on the second story on the backside of the house with stairs leading down the the pool, which is enclosed inside a fence, so we never use the sliding door as a "key entry" point anyhow. Then there is the attic storage space epic adventure. The attic space when we bought the house, was almost non-existent. There was a total of 4 sheets of 4' X 8' plywood (128 sq. ft.) on the joists at the top of an extremely rickety pull down wooden stairs. Stairs were the first to go. Replaced with a sturdy aluminum pull down folding stairs. Then I hauled 22 4' X 8' sheets of 3/4 OSB into the attic space.(each sheet was cut in half lengthwise to fit through attic stairs opening). We now have about 800 sq. ft. of usable attic storage space. I built 2 inverted trusses (strong backs) to attach to the joists on the sections spanning the 12' kitchen and the 18' den. These trusses ensure that the load imposed by the extra OSB and stored material are ultimately borne by the load bearing walls at the hallway, den, and both walls of the kitchen. The addition of the trusses assures that the ceiling joists do not assume a sway back shape over time resulting in cracked ceiling gypsum board. I assembled the trusses in the attic and fabricated them to have about 1/2" "preload bow" on the 18' truss and 3/8" preload bow on the 12' truss. This was to ensure that the trusses were actually carrying some load right from the start. After I got the trusses built and fastened onto each joist they served with metal strapping, I built a 30' long, 2 tier shelf system into the truss structures. Shelves are 24" wide and the bottom shelf is 20" off the floor, while the second shelf is 46" off the floor, so you have the attic floor under the shelves, and the 2 shelves themselves for storage, That yields 180 sq. ft. of space, plus the remaining 720 or so sq. ft. of attic at various head space. The tallest overhead clearance is about 6'2" at the rafter collar ties (and I added collar ties so that every rafter has a tie, instead of every third rafter as the house was built). There were 4 rafters that had "split" open due to improper orientation by the rough carpenters. They had placed rafters with knots situated on the lower chord of the rafter (tension side), which is a no-no. These rafters had to be jacked back into place and reinforcement panels of 3/4" plywood "scabbed" onto each side, glued and screwed. The original scheme had the ventilation exhaust fans from both bathrooms simply dumping into the attic space, another no-no. I extended the exhaust hoses over to the gable area of the house and busted through the brick and installed 2 bona fide exhaust hoods with insect screens. On the longest hose, which was a 4" hose....I built a booster fan box in the middle of that run and wired it so that it turns on when the original fan turns on. I felt that a 16' run of 4" hose would probably need all the fan power it could get to keep from simply "stalling out". The other hose was 6" and only 8' long, so I felt it was adequate with no additional help needed. I could go on and on about other projects, but these were some of my most major undertakings, Now, about my employment. I no longer work as a forklift mechanic in the shop. In midsummer 2015, I took over running the parts department when our longstanding partsman retired. This was challenging in that it put me to the task of acquiring and dispensing the parts instead of installing them on vehicles. It has also been challenging in that I was the first partsman in our history to actually have the capability of searching the Volvo and Daimler websites to look up parts. It was in the summer of 2015 that the company finally got onboard with software to enable this. Prior to that advent, our method of ordering parts involve looking the parts up in hard copy paper parts manuals, or talking to a vendor/dealer on the phone and trying to describe what you wanted, it was sometimes a crap shoot whether you would get the right parts or not. The outgoing partsman never had to use the computer to look up and order parts, and when it was introduced, he refused to do it saying that his time was too short to need it, so he told me to get all the training and he would just watch. LOL He and I worked side by side for 3 months while he showed me most of the ropes before he retired in October 2015. That is a summary of what I have been up to. I know this was completely off topic, but since the request was posed here, I felt OK in responding here.

Hello Tom8olvr! I've never told you before, but I LOVE your online name! Winter Sowing is a very simple and penny-pinching method. It works with seeds from Temperate Climates which we sow into vented containers made from recycled items, like milkjugs, soda bottles or take-out containers. We sow the seeds during the season of winter, usually starting with our Solstice Sowing Ceremony and ending about the time you no longer need to wear a jacket and scarf at night to keep warm. But when that happens we roll over into Spring and Summer Sowing--the successes and joy never has to end. WS has been here at GW for about a decade now. It's taken very seriously by Winter Sowers who are very passionate about WSing and sharing the method because they want beginners to experience the same successes that they did. WinterSown.Org is a member of USDA/NAL/AgNIC.Org, freely providing quality information to the public. WinterSown.Org has FAQs, Photos, Free Seeds, and few other things I've tucked away into it--all nice. I'm sure you know me well for my seed distribution programs which I started some years back as a way to get folks to try Winter Sowing, but now that it's established I still give away seeds as a way to help beginners and those in need of seed. I'll paste in the link to the FAQs which are all illustrated and have links to supporting info at other quality sites. I will warn you now, and it's very true, Winter Sowing can be very addicting. Welcome to the Winter Sowing Forum--we're a very friendly group, some folks call us the warm and fuzzy forum, and in general, you can ask just about any gardening-related question, because if we can sprout it with WS then we have to grow it and care for it. There is a WS seed exchange, photo galleries and a convo-pit for off-topic discussions. Kindly, T Here is a link that might be useful: WinterSown.Org FAQs.

I'm hoping to get to an Apple store to ask questions; in the meantime, the website makes it look easy as pie. My question would be the same as yours, for example, if I go on ABC.com and want to watch the latest free full episode of Brothers and Sisters, can I make it appear on my tv, or would I have to buy the episode on ITunes for it to work ?

First, this is one of those times where a few hours with an experienced attorney or CPA can really help you. Setting up your business as an LLC is simply not enough. For the liability shield provided to be of any real use, you have to run your business as an LLC. So it is a lot more than filling out forms, you have to set up the accounts of the business and conduct business in a specific way. The very short version is that your business funds must be kept separate from your personal funds. You can't do things like make your boat payment out of your business checking account, which so many people do. Personally, I have a consulting business and it is an LLC with the S corp tax election. I highly recommend that form of business for small businesses. It avoids most of the pitfalls for setting up a corporation and most of the income distribution pitfalls of an LLC. There have been many articles written on this and it will serve you well to do some research on Google. Here is a good place to start. Edit: To briefly and roughly answer your question - There are basically 5 things that we look at when considering the advantages of business types (1) Ease and expense of formation and operation (2) Agency - who can bind the business to a contract (3) Liability - who is on the hook when things go bad (4) Taxes (5) Capital generation. Partnerships & Sole proprietors - (1)They are by far the easiest to form and operate. (2) Any partner can obligate all partners (this really doesn't matter to a sole proprietor). (3) They have unlimited liability, you are personally responsible for all business obligations. (4) They have lower taxes as all the income of the business flows through to the owner and is taxed at his normal rate (there is only one tax paying entity). (5) It is pretty hard to generate paid in capital so big projects mean loans. Corporations (not S corp). - (1) More expensive to form and harder to operate (2) Officers of the corporation can bind corporation (3) Liability is limited to investment (4) Two taxpaying entities - the corporation is taxed and the owners are taxed when they get money (5) Easy to generate capital - you just issue more stocks. Limited Liability Company - (1) cheaper to form than corporation, more than partnership - cheaper to operate (2) Members (partners) can bind the company (3) Liability is limited to investment (4) Basically the same as a partnership (the IRS doesn't have an LLC tax status so LLC's pick how they want to be taxed). (5) Allowing new members is harder than corporation but easier than partnership. S - Corp (for taxes) - Mostly the same as a corporation within certain size and revenue limits but enjoys the flow through taxation of a partnership.