I am new to the forum and gobbling up all of your very useful information!!! This is great. I have grown violets forever...and killed them...but I have never tried to propagate before now. I am too fast getting into little pots everywhere with one or two named leaves within. This is great fun and I hope to be successful. I currently am following the directions on Rachels Website by put each in a solo cup with vermiculite...some have a mixture of sphagnum moss, vermiculite, and perlite. I can tell by gently "tugging" on the leaf that they have started to "root". I have not used any coverings on the trays, but kept water in the bottom. With the exception of one or two leaves everyone is nice and firm. I learned alot from the leaf description site. I had thought that my Irish Maiden was a "girl" leaf because of the way they curl and are not symmetric like the other violets, but I can't find any white spots, so I now know its not a "girl" leaf. Thanks for the info. I have a question on babies....if you have a baby who is losing, soft and mushy, new growth in the center....too much water, or should it be repotted...how do I save it? Its very young, got it from ebay and would really like to save it. The outer leaves are fine and firm. Are "baby" leaves too small for propagation? Any help would be appreciated. This is Alamo gold and I would like to preserve it. K:)

We have a house finch nest in our wreath one brood already hatched and fledged, then they were right back at it again. I see a lot of people who don’t notice a disturbance in the nest when the babies go missing. One thing it might be is crows, we had 4 babies and an unhatched egg and a crow came and took all but 2. It tried to come back, but I think we scared it off. We have video of it going to the nest on our doorbell cam. Crows are smart and like to observe, they will watch mama and papa going to the nest and also people checking on it as well. If you are checking on a nest be very aware of your surroundings

gibby -- There was a reduced-benefit clause in the LTC policies we took, too. I was wrong when I wrote that we took them 15 years ago. It was 20! Also, we had to pay in for TEN years, not TWO, to (possibly) get something back. We'd paid in $11,000 in premiums at the end of ten years. This was a group LTC policy from Hancock, offered to us by my DH's then-employer. After ten years we became eligible for reduced-amount benefits. Each policy will pay $45/day for *skilled nursing care*, to a lifetime max of $82,000. The verbiage on any other type of care is obscure with lots of hoops and mazes. Looking at it now, I think we will have aided tbe taxpayer -- seems to me these benefits would reduce the cost of our care to Medicare. If I'd had any doubts about problems collecting on the policies, they were sustained when it took me six months to get a letter from Hancock stating that each of us had actually qualified for this reduced-benefit coverage. We eventually received single-page letters, undated and without signatures, with a lot of 'may qualify' and 'could be' phrasing. Their legal department could send us packing without breaking a sweat. Our situation is different than yours as to probable need for the policy. I'm glad you'll take that opt-out clause. You might want to see a letter stating exactly what YOUR reduced benefits will be, specific to YOUR policy and YOUR premiums, before you sign up.

I'll be selling any leftover stuffed toys at an upcoming tag sale late September/early October (minus the Steiff frog from the '50's, which really takes up no space whatsoever -- 15 years or so ago it was worth at least $100 on eBay). Anything else I'm still fond of (the leopard is the only one that comes to mind) I'll photograph first. Anything that remains after that will be donated. I am finally really purging! (I hope!) - no, I don't have that many stuffed animals left -- the leopard, the frog, a lion, two bunnies and two cats. Oh, and a tiny musical elephant. Of course it is different if you are dealing with a toddler's toys. Save a couple aside that she (or he) really likes and seems to talk to, even if she's doing it much less frequently now. My brother was attached to a stuffed bull well into 8th grade. Someone suggested vacuum sealing the stuffed animals -- if the plush is in good condition, I think this would flatten down and ruin the plush, if saving the stuffed critters is of interest to you. (Then,, of course, they might be easier to get rid of further down the road, if they are perma-smashed!!)