I have a spring horse we bought for my son (he's now 44) and I have it cut in half lengthwise, with the intention of having the two halves face each other, mounted on my board fence. I intend to fill the cavity with spray foam insulation, so there's no place for hornets to nest. What kind of paint should I use? Is there a primer that I should use? This horse is hard plastic and has been through a raft of children and still looks pretty good, so I'd say it's sturdy. My house is federal blue with yellow trim, so I want to have one horse blue with yellow and the other yellow with blue. Does that sound dumb? So far, this is just in the planning stages, and I don't find anything else in the Garden Junk forum exactly like what I've got in mind. I'd love suggestions....

Violetta, I love your random post showing your sproutings. I wouldn't worry too much about the reddish colored leaves on one of your Palettes. The first leaves a clematis throws up in the spring may be adversely affected by alternating periods of cool and warm weather. Let the plant mature before attempting to decide whether it is a mislabeled clematis or not. Like you, the warm weather here is prematurely causing some of my clematis to begin pushing up new growth. I have several that are already 4 to 6 inches up and we are still about a month away from our last average frost day (April 15th). I have gone back and forth about whether to pinch the tops out since doing so is just going to encourage more growth. I finally bit the bullet yesterday and did pinch back a couple of the taller ones since if I wait, I know I will be hesitant to do it later if we don't get any more frosts this year. I guess it is a wait and see game from here on out! Once again thanks for showing pictures of your spring growth.

We signed a simple contract (no fancy company form) with a plumber. They did not show up, nor called until I called them. They said they will show up some other day, not sure when. A long story short - they rescheduled, but seemed uncooperative after I wanted a county inspector to inspect their work (after they would be done in the future) and after I asked them to pull a work permit. They seem not to be licensed with Residential Builder's Commission. Now they told me I must wait nearly 2 months to get my money back as they say they already bought the materials for the advance payment that I paid them. I said it's ok to refund part money and part materials for the job, but they still unhappy and they now told me the plumber went to a hospital for 1 month. I think they are liars and they just trying to keep my oney, but they don't realize how big of the trouble they got themselves into since I'm gonna file a complaint of unlicensed contractor to the State Investigations and Enforcement commission etc. I guess I hit the scammers yet again... but I know what to do: report them, they get fined, cease and desist and prison time, then sue them in Small Claims Court and go to the end until their property gets sold and I get compensated. The money they got from me is over $1000 (for buying materials). I also will write and post my story in the forums and on a blog, so their plumbing company gets really damaged and hopefully they will not get much business anymore. Once I go after someone, it's for life. Any additional suggestions or experiences?

In our school district..each school has the option of using the robocall. You will usually get a call for elementary age kids around 11 am...if your child was marked absent and you either didn't call ahead or the secretary didn't a chance to get them entered. If I child is absent on a day and they aren't often absent..they will NOT be tracked down. If however a child is absent and it's a "typical" thing some schools secretaries will make a personal call. It's a history type thing to turn into the child court for truancy issues. Yep even in elementary. Now if the child is in middle school or high school and you don't call in, you can expect a robo call in the evening letting you know what periods your child was marked absent. Now if a sub is in..likely you'll get your child was absent periods 1,2, 4 and 6.. because sub sheet absences are entered by the attendance secretary at the end of the day or the next morning. Like I said the only time a personal safety call(live person) is made is if your child has quite a history of absences. And only the "main" number is called. Emergency numbers are only used if their is an emergency on the child's behalf and the home and parents cell numbers are not reaching the parent. I don't think I've ever worked in a school where the principal has time to make "safety" calls.