Thanks Donn, I can accept your thought the sickly maiden grass is entering dormancy...however, I bought 3 plants and only 1 of them is sickly. The other two look great. By the way, we've been having unseasonably warm temps. Over the past month, its been about 75-80 degrees so I wonder if this postpones the dormancy??? Also, I'm assuming you are recommending a haircut for each OG variety I mentioned (maiden, morning light, dwarf hamelin)??? Also, did I read you correctly...cut the grass so that only 2-4 INCHES remain??? Wow, that's what I call a crew cut. Please know, I live in Indianapolis, IN. and YES, we do get a fair amount of snow and winter temps often hovering around zero. Lately, Over the last 10 years, however, our winters have been quite mild with temps more often in the 20-30 range with just a week or two of REALLY cold temps. Snow has also been fairly infrequent (maybe 3-4/season) but accummulations are generally By the way, I have no idea what pine bough is. Would a hardwood mulch do the same thing??? Just pile it up on top of the crew-cut??? Thanks again for all your advise.

Hey, Tracy. I can certainly understand how you feel. We have had to put Christin's (and Zack's) crosses up a couple of times after they have been hit by cars. This last time, they just disappeared and we're wondering if it was the city that took them down or what. They have been important to us, but as time has gone by, not as important as they were at first. We will probably put them up again sometime later, but it is just not real pressing to us anymore. We know where she is in our hearts, and we know that eventually we will be the last ones to remember her. Unfortunately, it is just reality. I definitely understand your hurt, though. A couple of years after Christin left, we thought that they would be making a four lane where she was hit and we were devastated to think that the crosses would be moved. So many things ease as time goes on. I just call it "surrendering" to it all. Thank you so much for going back to Christin's site and for your sweet compliment. I didn't realize that your birthdays were so close. Just keep taking one step, one day at a time, and keep the faith. Lu

Thank you everyone! We love our new kitchen. One remaining concern i have is durability of the painted cabinets. We used to have stained oak. How will it hold up to daily use. We have two relatively well behaved children (6 and 10 ) and a bearded dragon who is not allowed to leave his terrarium :) Any thoughts?

I agree with ewwmayo too on repotting with somewhat dry soil (usually 4-6 days after my last watering of the plant). Sometimes you may need to wash to soil (or even dried on gritty mix) from the roots, so the roots CAN get wet during the process. After repotting, I usually wait 4-6 days before watering succulents. I am one who UNDER-waters, and that may be a mistake, but I prefer it to overwatering.