Hi kathy, sorry for my delay in my response, I have been so over whelmed with excitement with all the stuff I've received I told my wife I don't know where to start or finish. She told me just start at one corner and go around the yard. Lol.. I am really excited tho I've gone to H/D to get soil,.perlite and now I can start filling pots and making more cacti & succulent projects :) Kathy so this greyish colored plant, is it easily propagated by cuttings the and what are the watering trixs? & does it like full sun or bright light? And thank you for your experience too, its much appreciated. Rosemarie, thanks again as always, your help with the plants names is invaluable. This last picture is a nice wheel barrel pot carrier that also was part of the load, of can't wait to get all settled in there is just so many pots and other goodies I haven't even posted half of um. Greg

I'm sorry sweet, I appreciate the article but you took the wrong information from it and came to incorrect conclusions. Sealer 101.. The pigmentation itself is not fading it is being dispersed over greater area. The carrier (alkyd/oil base) takes a long time to come to final cure therefore it continues to "spread" the pigmentation deeper and deeper into the wood fibers. This happens not just with TWP but with any oil based product. How deep it dives is dependant upon the type of driers and resins used. This is what makes TWP a good quality product. It has the ability to carry deep into the wood and condition it with mositurizing oil. This is why I tout oil based products over water borne products. There is, of course, a point of diminishing return. The wood will only absorb so much oil and so much pigment before the product starts "layering". Applied as directed by the manufacturer the finish remains as an enhancement to the wood. It will expand and contract in harmony with the wood and allow mositure evaporation. When you pile on coats, every subsequent coat becomes not a part of the wood but a top coating. There may be some bonding of the resins that intially creates what seems like a desirable finish (John describes it as a sheen) but this is merely a top finish that is now susceptible to craking, flaking and peeling. Again, TWP by its very nature has parrafins that never really cure 100% so John has been lucky thus far and the finish has remained semi-pliable. At some point, this chemistry is going to break down. Not if...when. Perhaps it won't happens if the product is applied on regular maintenance schedule but waiting just a bit too long and it will start peeling. Once it does, the finish is ruined. Understanding stauration points, Sweet, you can easily understand how layering pigmentation will cause darkening. Take a crayon and shade in a box on a piece of paper. The first layer of wax will bond to the paper and the color will be as labeled. Go over that color again and the color will darken a bit. Go over that same box again and again and what happens? Not only is the color significantly darker, the top coats of wax are flaking and if you pick up the paper and shake it or cause stress to it, some of that wax will come right off. Understanding the science of why the Hyatt Method works and why it is destined for failure is what scares me. Now as nature erodes some of that oil and the top bond is broken (evidenced by readily apparent and dramatic color shift) the wood after a full year will be ready to accept more oil. This is when R-A-D comes in. It helps to make the wood readily accept the finish by actually breaking the bond of the former finish and removing some of it. Have you ever heard of "the moisture test" which is basically placing five or six drops of water onto a finish and seeing if it beads? Any oil/based sealer manufacturer will tell you, if the water beads at the surface, you cannot apply another coat of sealer. You either have to perform stripping or wait longer fro Mother Nature to do her thing. Hope this helps clarify things. One final note.. You have to understand the millions of dolars thrown at R&D by these sealer manufacturers yet stil they come out with crap that does not hold up for more than 12-18 months at best. If the technique to superior longevity was as simple as piling on layers with no increasing odds for premature finish failure, wouldn't it stand to reason that they would suggest it?

Susan, Go out and buy some zip ties. you know, those nylon thingies you can tie stuff together with. Get them long enough to go around the fence posts (which I hope you got four off, when you got the panel). Put a fence post in the ground... by pounding on it. Tough to do by yourself, unless you have a fence post driver. I am lucky to have one. :) Then measure the distance you need for fence post number two. Should be the distance of the height of the cattle panel. Drive that one in. Now, decide how wide you like your arch. Put two more fence posts in, straight across from the first ones. Now, lay your panel so one end lines up with two fence posts. Tie the bottom to the fence posts with the zip ties. Wrestle the panel across to the other side, and tie to the bottom of the other two fence posts. Now, go ahead and put at least two more zip ties up on each fence posts attaching the panel. You can use more than three zip ties per post, but use at least three per post. I hope, my attempt of telling you how works for you. Moni

Roarah, I haven't read all of the comments that show distaste for the wedding, but yours caught my eye. I have been fascinated by the Travellers and Roma cultures and want to have a better understanding of their lives vs. what is presented on TV. I have had this book on my shelf for a long time and have only read some of it: I need to finish it. When I've watched the TLC shows, I try to see (even though we all know that reality TV is pure fantasy) what they like about their culture through their eyes. In other words, what works? Why do they have certain traditions? When I first saw the enormous dresses and such, they floored me-- but I figured that everyone has different opinions of beauty. I am certain they would find my wedding dress with nary a sequin to be dull and uninspired. As for the girls who are married at the age of 14-- it is hard to think about that, for sure. I think it is wrong and hope there are activists who are helping them see this and end it. I wonder if it is a case of a culture that has remained very isolated and therefore a throwback to a time where people just didn't live as long . . .so things like marriage and family were done at a much younger age. We see rape and they see tradition. I think it is hard, in general, too, when we are introduced to only certain aspects of a culture or religion that greatly conflict with our own values and traditions. It is difficult to find a balance of respecting others while finding some of what they do to be immoral. What I do is to remind myself of how much I don't know . . .to understand that I am only seeing one tiny piece (and it's from an ethnocentric perspective anyway). But it can still be a challenge!