If they have snapped, it leaves room for disease. I believe defrost49 may be correct. But hey it's a garden and gardens of any type are experiments. Does your son like science? Perhaps, they will off shoot at the tops. I had a lab that ate the tops of some of my corn one time, some grew, some died. They were only about two feet tall. Also, I'm with Jim, I always wait three days. I like the number 3 such as 3 strikes your out- easy to remember. Plants will usually tell you what they are going to do in 3 days. What zone do you live in? The United States Department of Agriculture has set up plant hardiness zones nationwide. For instance where I live in NC, our county has two zones, 7A and 7B. We have about 200 possible days of growing most things. Zones are determined by lowest average temperature. So in our neck of the woods, that's about 0 to 5 F. You can find out your zone by googling "what zone is...in" Corn takes 60-100 days to mature, depends on the type. October here is a funny month, sometimes frost, sometimes not. I am planting cool season things now, but most others are finishing up, doing their canning, etc. Don't let him give up on growing things! Barnes and Noble had Square Foot Gardening 1st Edition by Mel Bartholomew on sale for about $7.00 a couple weeks ago. There is a new edition out. There is also Strawbale Gardening by Joel Karsten. I started one set of great nieces and nephews on SFG, got them some miracle grow potting soil when it was on sale and added some peat moss. This stopped us from having to scour the countryside for vermiculite which was not at the big box stores. Another set, we started straw bales because they were easy to get in their area of the country, and their parents didn't want to give up a 4x4 area so we took a 3x10 due to yard layout, it worked great. The straw bales also gave them a great start on composting. They grew top crops and when those things were spent, planted root crops. They started in fall so they were able to get straw bales free or really cheap, planted spinach, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and then in spring potatoes. Now that set has gone on to take another part of the yard over-they got the bug. They are experimenting with traditional gardening, raised beds and something else with logs -I don't remember the name. If the corn is not growing, teach him about composting. Besides this website, there are many, many more that can help. Though I prefer gardenweb, I would suggest starting with your agricultural extension officer for your county. Elaine

Problem is a lot of my easy recipes can have 5 or more different seasonings! The number of ingredients doesn't make something easy or difficult in my opinion. I think ribs (especially country style) may look difficult but are easy to make and a turkey breast is also easy, but it makes for a real feeling of satisfaction when you make it, don't overcook it and find that it's not that difficult. OTOH, some things like cooking rice can be easy to ruin. Without knowing age, likes and dislikes it's impossible to give recipes but I can give suggestions and that is to concentrate more on techniques than hard and fast recipes. In a tater tot hotdish for example, instead of a given amount of ground beef, it can be chicken, turkey, pork, ham or otherwise. Doesn't *have* to be tater tots, could be fresh potatoes or any number of frozen or canned ones. Veg can be your choice, in it or on the side. Cream soup is convenient but you can use other alternatives for health or taste desires. Cooking for a beginner can be so simple. And really should start with some of the basics. How to boil water sounds simple but it's a basic. Simple pasta dishes are great learning ideas. And even knowing how to heat up something from a can, doctor it up (can/jar spaghetti sauce can be made quite tasty) and food safety, sanitation and the like are basics that are so often overlooked. How to use a meat thermometer. And so on. Some things that are simple in theory can be difficult for some. It took me a long time to get the knack of boiling potatoes without overcooking at least some of them. So I wound up with box flakes for too long. And like I mentioned, adjusting recipes to your likes is a basic thing but not always obvious. My old GF wanted a no-boil lasagna recipe. I don't use a recipe per se for my lasagna but she couldn't understand a guideline - it had to be a written recipe. So I found one for a spinach lasagna that gave the technique in writing and easy enough for her to follow. She refused to try it. "I DON'T LIKE SPINACH!!!!!" And of course "THEN LEAVE IT OUT!!!!" went over like the Hindenburg... Till the day she died, I was unable to get through to her that recipes are guidelines, not rules. My last suggestion is consider your definition of cooking. Warming up a can of soup can be cooking, and an accomplishment to someone who has never done it before. Embellishing it is another type of cooking. You don't have to raise the meat, grow the veggies and make your stock all the time. Start slow (baby steps it's often called) and work up. Nothing wrong with shortcuts, especially for a beginner.

Yes, I remember worse, much worse than this. In 1967 I was living in Israel, a young married woman, with a three-month old son. Without going into the whys, hows, and wherefores, Israel's neighbors - Egypt, Syria, and Jordan - decided - for reasons still not clearly understood today - to go to war and wipe Israel off the map once and for all. During the two-week run-up to the war that ensued (the SixDayWar), Israel suddenly had to gear up for battle. I recall hearing Egyptian President Gamal Nasser announce on the radio that he was closing the Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping. This was a declaration of war. Two hours later I walked the baby in his stroller down to our little supermarket, went in, and discovered that the shelves had been virtually emptied of flour, sugar, cooking oil, candles, matches, bottled water, etc., in anticipation of what an actual shooting war brings on a community. I will never forget the sight of those empty shelves. The store manager helped me find things he thought I'd need. The following day my husband was called up to his army reserve unit (all Israeli men serve in the reserves; that's the basis of the Israeli army). I recall watching him walk from our apartment down the sidewalk to the waiting bus, his knapsack slung over his shoulder. When he returned to say good-bye two days later he arrived with his rifle, a bandolier of rounds, and grenades, which he stashed in a corner of the living room temporarily. Because our apartment building sat right on the border with Jordan, friends who lived in central Jerusalem came and brought me and the baby to stay with them while DH was away. In the week left before the war we filled sandbags to surround the entrance and first-floor windows of their building (this was a community effort). We criss-crossed every window with heavy construction tape, against concussion, to prevent flying shattered glass. And the evening before the war erupted (June 5), we filled the bathtub to the rim with water, just in case of an interrupted water supply, although we didn't know then that war would come the next day. None of this was unusual - nearly everyone in border areas like Jerusalem did this. BTW, Israel did not have television at this time. So nothing like our cable news to excite and stir up the populace! Suffice it to say that the war came, and I and my son and my husband survived - although some of his army buddies were killed. It was a stupid and useless thing that Egypt's Nasser did. In his book, My War With Israel, King Hussein of Jordan wrote that attacking the Jewish state was by far his worst mistake. For me, more than fifty years later, it remains my most vivid memory. ****************************** As for this problem with the coronavirus. So much different than a true war, but with the same aim, to preserve one's health and life. We haven't done any extra shopping. DH keeps us well-stocked with a large supply of paper products, all shelved in the garage, and lots of bottled water, too. He'll probably soon be ordering take-out from his favorite restaurants. I don't cook Mexican, nor very much red meat, either!

A few thoughts: - We wanted a black curb and pony wall top but could not find anyone to do it for a reasonable cost. Black on its own is available in 6" widths at Floor & Decor type stores, but not with matching vanity, and that was too wide for our curb and wall. We gave up in the end and did the vanity and curb/top separately in white marble-look quartz and actual marble, respectively. If you are doing multiple bathrooms, though (I think you are?) you can work with a fabricator for that and use materials for multiple baths, so I would try to coordinate the vanity/curb materials (if not the surrounding aesthetic). - I would do a neutral colored vanity with popping red accents rather than a red vanity. Less to change later and I think you could get a lot of red in there with knobs, accents, wall color, etc. without committing full-on to a custom red vanity. - At GC and tiler's rec, did not tile the front of the pony wall--but we also didn't wrap the tile onto the wall, and it makes sense to if you are going to do that. It you have a good tilesetter, he/she should be able to miter cut the edges to wrap the corner cleanly, and I'd personally prefer that look. Depending on the tile you choose, they may also make trim pieces designed for outside corners. I like your tile, but it's going to make for a very dark room. I actually really like the variegated blue tile in your rendering--I wonder if you could find something like that to introduce a little variation? If not, I would only take the blue partway up the wall and would then switch to a lighter color from that tile line to go the rest of the way to the ceiling in the shower. -Niche on the tall side wall or else on the shower head wall.