In addition to the many uses listed above, I have a few more, some of them related to the animal adjuncts to gardening: Put a hot water bottle in the bottom of the bucket and cover it with a towel. You now have an emergency carrier for newborn lambs, kids, kittens, puppies, and all other small creatures. Cover them with another towel or blanket and they'll stay cozy while you work. Having them in the bucket means you have your hands free to hold flashlights and open gates. Extra handling is eliminated and there isn't such a large risk of dropping the youngster(s) as there would be if you carried them in your arms. Put an inch of sand in the bottom. Set up a heat lamp and you have a nursery for chicks, ducklings, rabbits. Punch holes in a lid for a cover that eliminates escapes. You can keep the babies in the bathroom where it's warm without finding strays in the kitchen in the morning. Put an inch of sand in the bottom and add a couple of inches of water and you have a swimming pool for ducklings. I am NOT cleaning the duck poo out of the bathtub again. Fill with sand/rocks/water and put on lids to make stands and playground equipment for the goats. Use as a container for aquatic plants you're putting in a pond. The bale makes for easier lifting. Cut out the bottom and make a 'basket' for nerf basketball. Set upright and filled with rocks, dirt and straw and partially sunk, they make nesting boxes for ducks. Nailed horizontally and filled with straw, they make nesting boxes for chickens. Fill with sand and put in the back of a vehicle to give it additional weight or use the sand to give traction on ice or snow. Make manure tea. A lid is a wonderful thing. Set a flower pot inside and the bucket will help stabilize it while you're driving to deliver a plant to a friend. And even if the plant does turn over, the dirt and water won't go into the carpet. Punch holes in the lid of a bucket and use it as a car carrier for rabbits, puppies, and any other small creature you don't have a regular transport crate for. Ray

I started them on the mantels Dave. My mind was out of whack, I've got a broke rib and taking Lortab for pain. I typed hearths instead of mantels. A wood hearth wouldn't work out so good! LOL I'm going to use the hearths too when I start the rest of my seed. I hope you didn't loose anything when the power went out Dave! They don't call here when we have a power outage, we have to call them. I know immediately when I have one thanks to my computers UPS. It beeps loudly!

The next time I'm down there, I'm going to stop by the historical society. The Tudor elements don't seem tacked-on to me... they're huge chamfered beams, well-integrated into decorative posts that protrude above the roofline. And the porch seems (surprisingly) original to me, too, The doors inside on the main body of the house don't seem like they've ever seen weather. The inside of the porch is fully paneled with gorgeous old wood and has a coved ceiling, and the windows and doors are all loaded with leaded glass that matches the rest of the house. And the basement extends fully beneath the entire porch. Strange. Wouldn't it be great to find a really old photograph of the place? Apparently this week he's got a mason cleaning and repointing brick, and an exterior painter starting.

Trust me on this--this is a 'bat your head against the wall' situation. You CANNOT change your parents. You CANNOT change your brother. All you can do right now is step back, see the situation for what it is and realize that your parents are going to give this deadbeat whatever he wants, for the rest of his life, and there will be nothing for you, ever. If you speak to professionals in the field, they'll tell you it's common for parents to over and over again put the 'needs' of a deadbeat child over the good of their other children and even ahead of what's good for them (the parents). Parents will often let one child bleed them dry. And oh yes, they will from time to time go to one of their other children, complaining about the drain on their finances--BUT they rarely really want any help. And if you do attmept to push them to do the right thing--guess who will be wrong and will be on the outs with the family? You. Not only have I seen many other families go through this same scenario, but let me tell you about DH's family. His one sister has always been a taker. She's got all sorts of explanations as to why she needs money--mind you, her husband has a very high position with the government and has made 6 figures for years. Anyway, this deadbeat, over the years, has gotten her parents to pay for: her kids' braces, her cars, her appliances, new roof for her house, and dozens of other stuff. FIL and MIL used to go to DH, complaining about the drain on their finances. DH would get all upset, worried for them, and make good suggestions. They didn't want to hear anything reasonable. Eventually, that SIL finagled and got control over their finances. the stress she put FIL under killed him way too early. Then she STOLE over a quarter of a million $$$ from MIL (who by that time had Alzheimer's). Cost us $20,000 so far in forensic accounting and legal fees to stop the hemmorage of $$$$. It's been 7 years, and the case still hasn't been completely resolved. And honestly? There's no money left in the estate for the rest of the children to inherit. I don't care if I NEVER get any money from someone else's death--that's not really how I choose to make $$$, but darn it, it's grossly unfair for one child to steal the estate from the others. If I knew in my eary 20's what I understand now about these family relationships, we would NOT have allowed ourselves to be victimized the way we were. We would have walked away years ago. I know that sounds cold, but we batted our heads against the wall for 35 years, always doing the right thing, never taking a penny from anyone that wasn't ours, and none of it was appreciated. ever. I know this isn't the advice you want to hear, but truly, the best thing you can do for yourself, is to handle your own fiances responsibly. To protect them from others, and to make up your mind that if your parents choose to give away their money now, to a child who should be able to pay his own way, they ARE NOT your responsibility in the future, when they are down and out because of it. Do not feel guilty if they come to you for help later in life and you feel you need to turn them down. They made their choices, it's not up to you to pay the consequences for others mistakes, truly.