I agree... I water my seedlings about once a week. Also, I do not have any heat in the room where the plant stand is. The room stays at around 65-68F daily. I find that if they are watered more than once a week, the seedlings don't grow as well. I've never had much trouble with my seedlings using this method. I check them every day. The timer is an excellent idea. I use a heavy duty timer from my Christmas Light display. I works great. The lights are on for around 10 hours a day. I only run 2 florescent lamps off of it but that's all I need.

I can only address the striping issue, but it is a feature that evolved from Simplicity's patented deck mounting system... the "free floating" mower deck. It has the deck attached only to the front of the tractor and "floating" at the rear, riding on the rollers. It's been on Simplicities since the 50's and has been able to make stripes since then. Only in the last few years has Simplicity been pointing this out as lawn striping became more popular led by the professional lawn care guys and of course, baseball parks. Striping is simply the result of a roller pushing the grass down in one direction as it's cut; a pass next to it in the opposite direction will lay the grass in the other direction and the difference will appear as a stripe. Stripes going away from you will appear lighter,stripes toward you will appear darker. You could actually stripe your lawn with just a lawn roller, it has nothing to do with the lawn being cut. Although the floating deck was developed to deliver a smooth lawn appearance, when striping began to gain popularity, this unintented feature started to appear in Simplicity's marketing efforts. Some people like it and show off their striped lawns, others don't particularly care about it and cut their lawns without regard to a striping pattern. Most folks usually cut their laws in a circle, going around the outside and moving toward the center with each pass. I guess if you looked at the lawn when they're done, one side of the lawn may look darker than the other with the most noticible difference where one pass is next to another in the opposite direction. The Regent used to have a "hybrid" mower mount in the rear that didn't put the full weight of the deck on the rollers, but it still striped pretty well. That may have changed by now. Don't rule out Simplicity just because you don't intend to stripe your lawn. FJ

After talking to her tonight I really want to go now. She is going to have to have help the rest of the week so my sister is going to have to take off work and she is barely surviving now and Mom is having to move in with her. I feel really guilty that I can't do more. I can help money wise but not being close enough to help with other things is driving me crazy. My sisters fridge went out today and Mom is moving in on Friday if she is out of the hospital. I found a nice used one on craigslist in her town and was able to pay for it with paypal. The weird thing is he lives in Mississippi and had to put his mother in law in the nursing home and she has all this brand new house full of furniture and appliance that are only 8 months old that they are getting rid of and are wealthy and don't need it so they aren't being picky about the prices. It was strange I found him on the internet and neither of us lives in Louisiana and both going to help our Moms there this weekend. What a blessing. Now I dont have to haul so much stuff from here. I can just send my sister to check it out and get what they need and pay him for it online. I told her if there was anything else they needed to get it and they can sell their older stuff for what they can get for it and I will pay the difference so they can be a little more comfortable at least. I hope he has a good bed. My Mom really needs another one. We all pitched in and got her one last year but the one she wanted was out of stock and she settled for something cheaper and used the rest of the money on other things she needed and has never been happy with it. I spent the day getting new tires for the truck and working but had my mind on how I was going to carry everthing down there. She wants books which I have a ton of and all my sisters want plants and my daughter is just happy to see me. She is a blessing too. My sisters are so excited about the brugs, lol. I will take them each different kinds so they can swap cuttings when they get bigger. I really need to take off work one day this week and get everything ready but I can't. I need to sell a car before I leave to try and get some extra money to help them with the moving and expenses. Wish me luck. I will be a cleaning waxing machine tomorrow, lol. Thank you all for your prayers it means a lot to me and my family.

First of all. If your birdbath goes dry, the birds in your neighborhood will not start dieing. They are wild animals and will find other sources of water. In your situation the best solution might be a water dripper. You need one that will drip fresh water into your bath on a continuous basis. This will keep the bath full, and keep the water moving. Plus the sound of the drips attracts even more birds to your bath. You can adjust the dripper to "drip" the water at the rate you want.