Squash bug eggs!!! I just got done inspecting my butternut plants for them and found five clusters. Inspect all of your leaves and you are sure to find more. Like others said soak the plants and the adults will crawl up to dry out on the leaves. That is how I hunt them. lol.

Most of the time stiffness is due to laundry detergent build up or hard water conditions. It can also occur with lack of breeze. Laundry flapping in the wind is less stiff due to the fabric constantly moving. I live in a hard water area and still hang my clothes outside. I do not mind the stiffness, even in my towels and have not found the stiff towels to be less absorbent. In fact, I read somewhere, can't remember where, that still fabric is actually good for your skin as it exfoliates there in by keeping your skin healthier. Besides most stiffness goes away with wear and/or use. As for the smell of the clothing line dried, it has been my experience that unless you use a heavily perfumed detergent, the fresh air pretty much removes any scent. Now if you live in an area where the air stinks, then you may end up with that smell on your clothes. I had a prob with that a while back due to a near by resturant and all their greasy smelling cooking. My clothes were smelling like old hamburgers. Thank God they moved their business else where and I have had no further problems. Detergent build up and using fabric softner can make your clothes smell nasty too depending on what you are using, aka ingredients in them. Type of fabric can have a factor as to scent too. On a final note regarding odor in lined dried fabrics, many people are so use to the smell they get from detergents or their driers, which actually alters the smell of clothes even washed in perfume free detergents, that they have absolutely no idea what actual fresh clothing smells like. Clothes washed in a scent free detergent and then put in the drier smell different from those that are lined dried. Once you learn what an actual outdoor fresh smell is, the rest is a piece of cake.

After you listening to you people blab for years about this witchcraft of actually using the sun to bleach whites, I tried it last weekend. One of the vintage linen tea towels I bought had a yellow stain that survived multiple boil washes and soaks in oxygen bleach. I took it out of the washer, still wet, and hung it over the railing in direct sun light. Gaga as my witness, the stain was gone in under a half an hour. I've never seen anything like it in my life. And Larsi, I'm moving in (even if it's just to the driveway).

Sorry to disagree, but no, one shouldn't necessarily cut back on watering these Aloes in Winter (or maybe just cut it back a bit). Many Aloes can grow all winter long & since they bloom in Feb. I definitely wouldn't cut back watering in winter -- unless you're keeping them, pretty cool. In NYC, next to cold window over warm radiator, my Aloes stay in growth all winter.