Thanks for the compliments you guys. One day, perhaps, I'll get a scanner and will be able to share how it looked when we first moved in. I've meant to reply to you earlier but life has gotten in the way... more Mum stuff. Yes, Marian, all those rocks are from our property. To be more exact, I have touched every single one of those rocks... they all came out the planting beds (no wonder the Maine boys moved to Michelle's rich farmland after the Civil War!). The really big ones that create the spine behind the ferns were from the excavation for the house's foundation. My late FIL asked me if we wanted to have them hauled away and I said, no. So I have an image of him, in plaid shorts a mismatched plaid shirt, black socks and canvas sneakers patiently directing the backhoe operator to place them in the soft arc I'd thought would look nice and soften the drop off on that side of the house. I think of him every time I look at that part of the gahden. Things are shooting out of the ground now; it always surprises me how fast they take off. Woody, I'm really thinking about the red Trillium for the area behind the round garden, the Erythronium is rebounding beautifully. We planted an Amelanchier out there and have some drainage issues to address, but I want to begin naturalizing that area too. I will try to get some shots of the gardens with Wrecks in them, just for you. He has gotten very good at "hanging out" with me while I work, not nearly as much explosive barking and potential "bolting". I suspect you'd like him. The success of our lawn is due entirely to the low lie of our lot. We never dry out! even in the droughtiest of times. The only lawn we water is the one over Sanitary Ridge or the terrace area and even those don't need it unless rain has been very scarce. We stay on top of the dandilions and plantain, lime it, give it some organic food, and that's it. Just mow. Wicked easy and Rex loves it, perfect for "ball". Michelle, I will try to add some shots to show the deforestation; there aren't nearly as many trees now. The big red maple was gone when I returned from work... I would have cried had I been home. Cynthia, a welder friend of mine made that arbor for me. I painted it with a "hammered finish" paint and we added the wood slats, fastening them down through predrilled holes in the metal. I have shied away from Ostrich ferns as they have reputation as very aggressive and they aren't native to my area. But they are gorgeous! the proportions they attain are magnificent. I honestly don't think there is a more perfect perennial plant than a fern. I just love them. Understated and elegant, just like a crisp white blouse.

Thank you all for the replies! Glad to know that you guys think a couple of inches is not a big deal. Good to know that baffle filters are good for grease. What's wrong with oil cups? All things being equal baffle definitely looks better for sure. What do you think of a smaller thinner hood with mesh filter, like the 400CFM Bosch DUH36252UC? Yes I am also concerned about field of view. The height of the future range is a standard size (36 inch). Our options are limited. Really don't want another downdraft -- the only downdraft range is Jenn-Air, expensive and also terrible reviews for its reliability. The only other option is a low profile hood with sliding glass visor. But that will eat up the cabinet above the range in kitchen already tight for space. :(

Its been months since I posted but I find myself struggling with issues that the long distance may have started but I just don't know what to do now! Upon my arrival it was apparent that he had fundamentally changed in his feelings towards our marriage and so his attitude towards me has been extremely hurtful. Its long so please bear with me as I really need help. Just before I came back he told me he had only 1 hour online access at work and no access at his Moms, and he blamed this as the reason he didn't respond to my messages and emails, but as soon as I arrived at his Moms he said 'you can go online and tell the kids your here safe' I asked him why he had told me he didn't have internet at home and he flew off the handle denying ever having said any such thing! I logged onto our yahoo account as it is more reliable in the middle east, he has never been tidy with the yahoo account so it was overloaded with old emails spam and the conversation list was pages long. I started to delete and generally tidy up the account when I noticed that he had over 30 emails from a woman I didn't know, I opened a few of them and they were love/friendship poems and pretty gif art featuring hearts and romantic settings. I don't know why I did it but I forwarded a few of them to another account. after an hour or so he came over with a coffee and nearly dropped it when he saw I was using the yahoo account instead of my msn. neither of us said anything. Later the same day I logged on again and All OF HER EMAILS HAD BEEN DELETED nothing else just those and she was no longer in his contact list!! rightly or wrongly I said nothing for a number of weeks as I didn't want to put even more pressure on what was looking more and more like a marriage he no longer wanted. Over the next few weeks he was so changeable he would either be emotionally shut down towards me or very loving, he became very negative about our years together saying it was a mistake for us to ever be together then he would say things like your different I think we can make this work only to change his mind again a few hours later. He started asking strange questions like 'do you think I will marry again?' or 'what should I do if someone else fell in love with you?' what kind of questions are those to ask your wife???!! I still tried to stay calm and would answer things like that by saying ' I'm not sure I understand what your asking, why would you be thinking of getting married again? I'm here with you" but no matter what I did he would become frustrated with me. One evening he was particularly hurtful and I tried to reason with him but eventually we ended up in a terrible row and I let him know that I knew about the woman at work and had seen all the emails before he deleted them. He told me I was crazy he had never received such emails and certainly never deleted them!! He was visibly shocked when I told him I still had copies and that I knew her name her facebook account and so I also had a photo of her. (where we live adultery carries the death penalty) and I keep wondering if this was not the case he may have been honest about this emotional affair I don't think it went further than sharing a private office together but I cant be certain as he will not speak of it. He then later said he should be allowed to do what he wants as I used to have a work friend that called me a lot. the guy was gay and proud of it and I always took calls from him in front of my husband. His family have all been very different towards me and I have since learned that just before I came back he talked openly about me not coming back and 'moving on' they of course all said what he wanted to hear at the time things like: you should have children of your own/ you need a Persian wife/ it was never meant to be etc etc. and now they seem embarrassed to be around me unlike when I used to live here and they came to us every week for a get together. His mother was very very rude to me throwing things at me and when she realized we were moving into our own home again she kept saying things like you can go but he owes me his life he has to stay/ she would make hurtful comments like 'he wants his own children and a new wife' my husband never told her off for any of this not even when she threw things at me and so it got to the point when we did move out that I asked him to have no contact for a while as I belived she was not good for our marriage. of course the first opportunity he got he went to her and this caused me such emotional termoil, when he came back he could tell I was unhappy and he just kept saying 'I can leave if you want' or an hour or so later ' I think you want me to leave' I ignored it for as long as I could and after a drink or 5! I finally snapped and said yes just go back to your Mom! and so he quickly packed and did!! I immediately felt that I had blwn it so I called him and said I was sorry for getting so angry, he got his brother to call me from USA to tell me to leave the country as my husband was never coming back and didn't want to see me!! My husband texted me the next day saying he felt he couldn't come home but didn't want to go to his Moms I told him to come home and we would see what we could work out. After work he came home but was very very cruel and said things I never thought I would hear from him, and in the middle of saying such things he would look at me and say 'I could never have said these things before as I know it hurts you' but it was as if he was enjoying hurting me. later the same night he started having sex with me but he was very drunk and he forced me to have anal sex which was so very painful!!afterwards he just said 'go shower' and then went to sleep. I cried all night and all the next day I tried to make a joke of it! I know that sounds stupid but I didn't know how to deal with it. I blamed myself as throughout our marriage he has 'tried' but it has always been too painful for me and so he has always stopped. But I feel that because I've always been willing to try maybe he thought it was OK or I tell myself he was so drunk he didn't know what he was doing...but he was sober enough to tell me to wash. If Im honest my gut feeling was that his cruel words before and this forced sex act were a punishment!! He wanted to hurt me??? This was 2 months ago and we are still together, he still is very loving towards me but then doesn't want to be with me, he will often just come home get drunk or stoned and go straight to sleep, but other nights he is lovely to me. If I upset him at all he repeats things like I will only stay if Im happy./ I want a perfect marriage/ if I get to 40 and this is no good then I have no kids of my own etc etc I never promised to stay with you forever!! But then the next day he will say things like 'please don't leave me/ your amazing/ I love you/ I adore you !!!!!! Please help me I dont know which husband to belive? I feel truly suicidal at times Im so confused.

I believe they are the ever-popular Heinz 57 mixed breed with a little bit of everything in them. Ace looks like he might have some red heeler in him. HE IS white with some brown and black splotches. Princess is short, wide and black and looks like she might have a little bit of everything in her. Tim thinks she has some terrier bloodlines because she acts a lot like one. They were strays that came running into our yard one day about 3 years ago, or 3 years and maybe one month ago, and didn't bother the yard full of chickens at all. They were obviously hungry and homeless with no collars and no tags. We took them in, fed them, took them to the vet (no microchips), got them all their shots and had them fixed, etc. and they became ours. We checked around the neighborhood and several neighbors who live up at the other end of the road said they'd seen them running around for weeks and thought they'd been dumped out here "in the country", which is incredibly common. Within two months of them showing up, two of our very old dogs, Honey (brain tumor) and Sam (ongoing heart trouble in his old age) had passed away. I always felt like God sent us the two puppies, who were about half-grown at that time, to replace the two dogs we were about to lose. They are good dogs and spend a lot of their time in Tim's office, where each has claimed one of the two recliners as their own. Ace sits on his butt with his 4 paws sticking up in the air, reclining with Tim when Tim is in there watching TV. Princess sits on the top of the back of the recliner sort of like Snoopy always sits on top of his doghouse. She's much more of a watchdog than he is, but when she alerts on a coyote, he joins in. They love digging, toys, bones, the two much older dogs and blankets. They drag their blankets around, sleep on them, chew on them, hide toys beneath them, etc. The only thing we ever tried to do that they didn't like was that we had a big dog crate for each of them to sleep in and tried to make them sleep separately. Nope. They won't sleep in separate crates. They have to sleep together in one crate or they don't sleep at all. Even in the middle of the day, if they decide to take a nap, they give up their separate chairs and either sleep in the dog crate together, sleep on the sofa together on either his blanket or her blanket but never on both blankets, or they will sleep on one recliner together. They are a hoot. They probably had abuse or neglect in their past based on their behavior when they first came here. It took us a long time to make them feel safe and secure, and you always wonder what happened in their past that made them feel so anxious. They seem fine now, but they hate being on a leash with a passion---they act petrified of the leash, and they willingly go into their dog crate but act nervous when you go in there at night to close up the crate. I have to kneel, talk to them, give them kisses and promise them that I'll see them in the morning. I wonder if someone used to put them in a crate and leave them for long periods of time? We wouldn't make them sleep in the crate, except that if they are out of the crate, they sit and stare out the windows and bark all night. In the crate, they are quiet and they sleep. That's their story.