I like the small ones. I am pretty small myself. Three Amigos Aloe Bonsi Rescued leaf or pad starting One of the babies. Loving the fall color. CC, Erin, That Brillo Frog was probably one of the best sellers for Duncan. It is glazed in 'Spring Bouquet'. I still have that mold in the garage. The ceramic fad dropped out in the late '70ies. I bought a defunct ceramic business in 87. If I could not plant in it the mold went. I love to combine my hobbies. Still do. Good pots are hard to find and I think the market has junk. Good to see an oldie but goodies come out. Great photos everyone. Paula

Woo hoo! My chock-full package of wonderful seeds arrived today, and what a fab lot they are (mostly veggies, too)! -Beans- Kentucky Wonder Appaloosa Pinto -Peppers- Siling-Labuyo (hot) Red Peter (hot) Tepin (hot) Balloon (hot) Pimiento Habanero (hot) Purple Beauty Bell -Tomatoes- Black Mountain Pink White Beauty Snowball Big Rainbow Pink Caspian Mortgage Lifter IXL Bolgiano's Extremely Early -Squash- Acorn Waltham Butternut Zucchino Rampicante (a.k.a. Tromboncino) White Bush Scallop Patty Pan -Other Veggies- Rhubarb Thai Basil Leek - "Lancelot" Parsley - Dark Green Italian Parsley - Italian (commercial) Long Purple Japanese Egg Plant Dill - "Grandma Einck's" -Non-Veggies- Blue Potato Vine Burgundy Sweet William Maltese Cross Hopi Red Dye Amaranthus Amaranth - "Golden Giant" Great fun stuff! Thank you, Ann, so much for hosting this! And thank you, everyone, for being so very generous!!

Kathleen, That happened to me years ago, but I couldn't avoid him. The deer come down from the mountains here because they can't find water. One ran right out in front of me and I hit it pretty hard. It darted off but I'm sure it didn't get far. Was probably in shock (I was too!) and collapsed somewhere close by. Lots of damage to the car, but seat belts saved us. Luvs, your find is very cute. Just like Jane, I thought of Thumper and Bambi immediately.

Well, I like this forum! I rarely post, consider myself a great cook but am far from fancy or traditional with my cooking. I've gotten great results from postings when needed and have not been insulted once. Hey, not bad! I enjoyed reading this topic especially since I have a great deal of trouble using packaged foods due to sodium content. I DO use packaged foods though! I've never made my own yoghurt--never even tried to. Same with butter, cream cheese, aged cheese (I have made paneer by heating milk and adding lime juice), pasta and that is all I can think of that I need packaged food for. I've made lots of things by just trying it out. Ketchup wasn't that hard, no-sodium tomato paste, vinegar, garlic and onion powder (actually, I like the dehydrated granules), black pepper, cumin, dash of lemon juice, dash of water. I just read the bottle to get an idea of what went in the stuff. And, yes, I buy the packaged no-salt ketchup quite often. So quick and easy! There is no way I'm going to pay for packaged dressing; I make my own even though I almost always just use straight balsamic. My guy makes a great vegan Caesar dressing using nutritional yeast, almond meal, lemon juice, vinegar, no-salt stone ground mustard and an unbelievable amount of fresh garlic. Think of all the oil we are avoiding this way! I do love olive oil though~ Canned soups are a no-go mainly because of the salt. I can't actually taste the can but sometimes I can taste the plastic when I buy things in plastic bottles. We made our own "power bars" for the first time a few weeks ago. We had made granola bars and similar things before but never with the intent to get protein, carbs and low calories all in one bar. They are great for hiking! Yesterday, my guy made bagels from scratch for the first time, just for me as they had no salt and almost zero sodium. Did you know that a regular sesame bagel has over 600mg sodium?! The ones he made were topped with black sesame seeds and tasted very good. They were missing that salty taste but, oh well. I think one of the biggest factors with packaged foods is that they are very inexpensive, especially mixes and things like rice a roni or hamburger helper. They can also make things go very quickly in the kitchen for those who have limited amounts of time to feed entire families. There are lots of things we make that cost more than buying pre-made but there are also lots of savings involved in making things ourselves. We may not be rich but we make the effort to allow a good food budget so we can eat as much natural and organic things as possible. We try to stay away from preservatives but that is hard to do with packaged foods. I'm pretty darned impressed by some of the things people make on the board. Pickled veggies and other home-canned items are the most intriguing to me. It was a good read. Thanks, Jennifer