I just wanted to say thanks everyone!! Very informative articles and so much knew stuff you learn each day comming here...I never understood this about bark and wood.. All I can say is thanks! I FINALLY found some! Fir bark... I remebered buying orchards from someone I met in my area over 5 years ago that was growing beautiful and citrus back then, and I remembered him saying someday he was going to sellevery good supply he could think of for orchards and tropicals, to help people be sucessful at these plants. It was a dream of his. I saved his number from then. I called him, and come to find out, he is a big supplier of YES!! "fir bark"...We were both happy to hear from each other besides. He has fine and or small and medium grade...He says it's real real good stuff. He specializes in this bark..NICE ha. Now I am excited. I get a FREE delivery of three bags within the next couple of days... I will take a pic, and you can see if it as nice as he says when I get to using it.... If it is, then I would be willing to tell you where I got it privately, since it can be VERY difficult to obtain this hard to find good stuff..:-) A secret he shared. I asked him how his plants were doing. He said better than ever before, since he waters his plants once a month with, ready? Seltzer water, sodium free.... He explained the benefits in detail, hard to remember...Hummm.. As anyone ever heard of this, watering container plants with seltzer water?

When I was a kid[many years ago]I used to make mudpies. Loved to play in the dirt,climb rocks,ride wild horses.Was sort of a tomboy,no girls in my neighborhood. In jr. highschool they used to call me witch.Don't know why. Now it seems I'm doing a second childhood, playing in the mud.I like these results much better.My favorite project is, like sarasaid,the one I'm currently working. This one is a water feature.It is a sphere[two bowls,mortared together.with a cut out].Mounted on a pedestal cast from the same bowl mold.The pedestal has 4 semicircles cut out so it has legs, these legs have been fortilied to provide the strength to support the sphere. It will be painted black inside,hold water,with glass 'rocks' at the bottom and a floating candle in it. I have great hopes for it. Don't know if I should paint the outside or not. I'm still trying to learn my son's camera so I can't post pictures, maybe one day I can.

I wasn't going to post because I think mine is pretty clear, but what the heck, I live in NC, I like to garden, and of course I am a girl...boring right? I used to be CarolinaDreamer, but Spike booted me off under that one, then someone else was able to get it when it was available again. I am know by that name on everything else I sign up for, a friend gave me the name a LONG LONG time ago and told me that anytime they heard it they would think of me, or know it was me or what ever. I used to be a truck driver and of course it was my truckers handle on the CB. I think that one is a lot cooler then the one I have now. I too like zztopsoil, the 1st time I saw it was way way way way back then and I thought OH HOW COOL, Wish I would have thought of that one, I also like dirtpig, cuz I like dirt and pigs... I also like dirt_under_my_nails, southerncharm, LGS who should have really sighed up under her other name...hehe and a lot of others I can't think of right now. Ok, shutin' up now, :) Fran

LG has a cooktop with a bridge feature for a griddle. Newegg has it for 1800. The new Thermador/Gaggenau is zoneless and would work but is expensive. AEG has zoneless cooktops without US service support shipping from the UK. 1k with 150 Fedex. These are on their third generation. An oven below or dual setup of your choice gives you options.