Great thread - I love quotes, and especially garden quotes. This is one of my favorites: "I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error." ~Sara Stein, My Weeds, 1988 "God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done." ~Author Unknown This is a good reason to plant some flowers with the veggies: "A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables." Gertrude Stein "A good garden may have some weeds." Thomas Fuller And this is my personal quote: "A good friend, a dog, a garden, a book, and a glass of wine makes for a very good life." Luckygal

With real estate, it often comes down to location, location, location. So I have heard. Some years ago, I did landscape maintenance work for a housing development. The gardens of the 5-6 model homes were kept in prime condition to encourage sales, so I worked there often. A (dim-witted?) Anna's hummingbird decided to make a nest in the potted tree at the entrance to the last model. That would have been fine, except she was very protective of her nest and would angrily buzz and swoop every potential customer that came near! (And me too, but at least I was aware of the nest!) Because almost all of the visitors were there for the first time, there were many, many surprised victims all day long. I would try to warn the customers when I was working in the area, because the sales people never seemed to, but it was an impossible task. More often I would just hear startled shrieks throughout the day. There had to have been a steady stream of customers while she was constructing the nest, so I cannot guess why she thought it was a good location. Other than the abundant amount of flowers. Silly bird. But she did manage to fledge her young, and did not return the following year. I imagine her stress level must have been off the charts. Even for a hyper-hummingbird.

Tree - good to know. I have one too and hadn't thought of all you mentioned. But I gotta tell ya....(and please don't be mad at me. YOU know me!)....I had to giggle when reading. I can just see you and Brent...and all that transpired! I think he's lucky to still have his head....and that's only because you didn't have the use of your hands! So sorry you had to endure that....REALLY! Still good for us all to know and be aware. Like I said, I'd never thought about how to handle these. Paula

I am in the same situation, redoing the laundry room and have a builders grade fiberglass sink there now that shows every bit of gunk I put down it. I am planning a 'vintage look' in my laundry room and found a 1950's Kohler cast iron sink that will be replacing the above mentioned fiberglass one. I much prefer cast iron for it's near-bullet proof ability to take abuse. But, I also think they are lovely to look at. I would have put one in my kitchen remodel, but couldn't find one in the perfect size. In my bathroom I have a fireclay sink, that has held up well in the past 7 years, but does have a couple of nicks in it from dropping a makeup bottle on it from the medicine cabinet. So, not quite as sturdy as I'd like. Because it's white underneath, the nicks don't show, but I know they are there. A friend had the Kohler cast iron in her previous house and when remodeled her current kitchen, put one in again. Hers is the Dickinson model, and it's a lovely sink. I would definitely suggest CI over fireclay.