Ok! So now the dirt and the sweat is washed off, and the garden is "where it would have been at the beginning of any other olde year!" Time for a break--and a few slow walks to admire the Fruit of Your Labors! There's not many things I delight in more than walking past the things I've finished---over and over and over---to just look at what I accomplished---and the longer it took and the harder it was to do, the more fun it is! This year I decided I was gonna de-clay my veggie garden! Ok! That's not entirely true, but I decided I was at least gonna try to get the potter's clay out of it! It took me 3-4 weeks, but I went out there day after day (whenever the weather was halfway decent) and dug up one shovel full at a time, down about 8-10", and then sat down and went thru it clump by clump with my hands, breaking it up into tiny pieces, and throwing anything that changed shape rather than "breaking up" into a big pot, and lugging it to the dumpster. Had to space the crummy stuff out in the dumpster every week, 'cause clay is HEAVY, and if the truck can't pick it up, they might get out and look to see what I had in there---and I don't think we're allowed to put "dirt" in the dumpster! So for several weeks I was dumping a bunch in, and testing the weight, and dumping more in, and testing the weight---and saving the left overs in other big pots for the next week. Shovel full by shovel full, and clump by clump, I got half of the garden done! That's an area about 3 1/2 by 14 1/2, so it's really only about 50 sq. ft., but, oh, my, what a job! When I started, I was gonna do the WHOLE veggie garden (minus the tomato/eggplant area), but, uh, that's not gonna happen this year! The cukes and carrots and beets and parsnips and squash are gonna have to bide their time for one more year in the BAD clay! That side's a little bit bigger, more like 65 sq. ft., and my hands and back are simply not gonna consent to doing that this year! BUT--oh boy, is it ever FUN to walk out there now--over and over and over--to look at the good (for MY garden) soil that's on the lettuce/spinach/pea side of the garden now! And all those things are planted now, tho it's been pretty chilly since I put them in about a week ago, so definitely no action yet! But, cold or not, I have something to stare at every day now! :-) It was HARD work--when I was doing it---but it's SO much fun NOW! Next year the other side!!! With all the massive gardens you plant--every year--I have trouble believing that you're "round the bend" at all! Yeah, the bod hurts in a couple new places every year (found out a couple weeks ago I have bursitis in my hip--I already knew it hurt, but now I have a NAME for it! Woohoo! And found out last week I have four seriously deteriorated discs in my cervical spine! Woohoo?), but the joy of going out there and looking at what I've accomplished somehow seems to make the pain go away---for a while at least! And if I didn't have the garden, I wouldn't have anything to "make the pain go away!" Definitely time for a break and a chocolate Easter egg! And that's from somebody who just finished a very large piece of Marie Callender Chocolate Silk pie! (Chocolate helps with "that pain" too! LOL) Tomorrow sounds like it's gonna be a wonderful day for a long walk to look at all you've gotten done, Skybird

Very odd things happening with my houses this year. I had bluebirds in one house that laid 5 eggs. For the most part I try to stay away so they don't get spooked. In this case the next time I checked there was one fledgling that I saw but he didn't seem ready to fly away yet. But when I checked 2 days later there were no babies or eggs. The nest was empty. This box was protected with the mesh on the opening. I'm hoping time just flew by and the brood hatched and fledged in my absence! Will the parents start a new brood in the same nest or should I clean the box out for them to start over? I had another box that had activity, 5 eggs layed and a week later no eggs or babies. I fear they were killed since it was an old house from last year and it did not have the protective metal mesh at the opening. I have a nest nearby with the mesh protection. I kept checking and there was no activity or eggs. Then suddenly there was one egg!! I assumed the mom would lay more. I checked for 2 days, still only one egg. The third day the egg hatched with a tiny bald with a little fuzz baby bird. I kept watching from a distance and I did not see the male or female going into the house. I skipped looking inside the box today. I wanted to stay totally away. Tomorrow I will check again. I hope the little guy is okay.... Is it unusual for a female to lay only one egg? I'm thinking that perhaps the pair that were in the other box moved to this box when a predator got their other eggs..... Thus only one last egg to lay??? The box with the one egg is about 20 feet from the empty box. Perhaps this is part of that brood? Can the mom or dad move an egg or did she just lay it in a different box?? I have another box about 100 feet from that one protected with the mesh that some sparrows have taken over. They have built a nest and hang out in front of it on the mesh opening and on top of it but no eggs for well over a month. Perhaps they are the culprits that got the 5 bluebird eggs. Very strange that they built a nest and aren't using it. I know they will build several, one as a decoy or to give the female a choice, but I don't see that they've done that unless they are planning to take over the bluebird box. I will be keeping a watch on that....

Posted by sushipup (My Page) on Wed, May 29, 13 at 20:24 Back to basics... to the OP: Are you sure there wasn't some residue of something or other in the bowl? I suspect some result of cleaning residue. As noted, my wife had worked in a cafe and broke thousands of eggs. The harried employees may have been to busy to notice and may have occasionally served similar things to hurried diners.

@lmrinc: Did you buy your machine used or new? If new, I'm surprised you got the W4840 since that's a discontinued model. I believe the W4840 was discontinued in Q1 of this year and replaced with the W4842. What is the hardness of your water? This has a direct impact on how much detergent you use. Dosing is not a big problem with top loaders, since they tend to be more forgiving given the large volume of water they use. However, in a front loader the pool of water is much smaller. After adding detergent you will have a very concentrated pool of cleaning solution in your machine. Add too much detergent and you'll have rinsing issues. Too little detergent and you won't get your clothes very clean. If you don't know your water hardness, check with your local water company's water quality report. Hardness also goes by terms such as grains and total dissolved solids (TDS). You will see that Megaperls has dosage instructions based on your water's hardness level, so knowing that part of the equation is very important. Generally speaking, you will get the whitest whites when washing on HOT or Sanitize temps. I use Persil Megaperls Universal w/ sodium percarbonate (same as Ecover non-chlorine bleach) and have very bright whites. Because I have a whole house water softener, my water hardness is ZERO and I use about 3 TBS per large, normally soiled load. In my experience, dingy whites are caused by insufficient detergent. One tablespoon of Charlie's Soap will work if you have extremely soft water and a smaller capacity machine. If you are using a large capacity front loader (4.0+ cuft) then 2 TBS of Charlie's Soap is probably more appropriate. Charlie's also doesn't work well in hard water conditions. If you have hard water and using only 1 TBS of CS in a big machine, I think that would explain why you had dingy whites. The W4840 won't do anything to get your laundry whiter unless you figure out if you're using enough detergent.