Hey Joe...quite a selection..Very nice plants before the holidays...:) Is your Holly true Holly or common name? Leaves resemble Holly, but thought Holly had white blooms??? Very nice haul. I passed a Good Will twice in two weeks..must have recently opened. Considered going inside, but was in a hurry so didn't get to check their products. Do they sell large pots? 10" plus... Ohio..hmm, there are a few Ebay sellers in Ohio, but can't think of any nurseries.. There is one nursery, World Plants, but can't recall if they're located in OH....www.worldplants.com I'm certain some of my plants came from Ohio, but can't think of any particular place at the moment. Can't even recall which city. Are you saying, you will not order plants via mail before the holidays, but will buy locally? Turkey Days? What about Christmas and New Year's Day? lol Very few nurseries ship after October, and those who do want to get rid of 2012's etc, stock. Remainders are usually discounted. Joe, did you know, once you joined GW, you become one of us? Pods who grow pods..lol, j/k...Happy Halloween. Actually, most plants prefer cool temps to hot, but that depends on how cold. If you start seeing ice on the walls, it's too cold..Then YOU better find a warmer place..lol. Joe, you were very heroic rescuing the little bird..Thank goodness. The neighbors across the street, husband and wife, rang my bell, asking ME to shoo a bird off their front porch..A Blue Jay. I was totally embarrassed for them. Two adult people asking a neighbor to shoo away a little bird! Good, ol' college days...lol.. About plastic..although our windows are semi-new, they leak air. During winter, when temps are -2, a slight draft seeps in..plants on the sills are cold..The cold is a horror to succulents. So, this year, I placed clear plastic on the sills. It might not be 100% effective, but I had to try something. Place a hand near the sill, it's very breezy. They say it's because the house is settling, which may or may not be the exact truth. IMO, the safest windows are the old-fashioned types..With a screen/storm window. Is that the name? lol..Haven't thought about the name in a long time. Two windows opposed to thin, 'gas' panes. New windows are a lot less work, I'll give them that..no painting, and easy to open and close, but new windows are nowhere as protective as the old types. Just my opinion. That's the reason plastic now goes on each window. Nope, can't afford a larger gh..lol.. Believe me, my dream is to design my own house w/attached solarium. Unless I win the lottery................. Next year, if all goes well, I 'might' sell some plants on Ebay..Agaves, 'pups will stay,' 2 Pachypodiums and a huge Pandanus. The Pandanus/Screw Pine has outgrown space. I detest this house w/small rooms...even if I didn't have plants, the rooms are tiny. Thank goodess there's a third bedroom, which is now a plant room..lol. I love Geraniums...what type did you get? Toni

I don't know if you mean me, as I don't consider myself to be a milkweed expert, but thank you anyway. I didn't build my cage with the intentions of raising milkweed plants in it. It's for putting the milkweed plants into that are already grown. I put those and a bunch of Monarchs in the cage so no predators and parasitoids will be able to get to the Monarchs and kill them. It was never meant to have a heater in it, as it has screen on it. I'm in zone 6 and would have to pay the electric bill that would be generated from heating something in a cage outside in temps that sometimes get below zero in the winter. The cage is to provide a safe place for Monarch cats to eat, pupate, and eclose as adult butterflies. I suppose you could build a cage and put plastic on it if you'd want to raise plants in it, but I don't know the particulars about venting, etc. and would advise you to ask someone with knowledge in that area or to buy a small greenhouse for that purpose.

Deeinohio, thanks for the suggestions! Sorry you had such a bad experience, Dee. It's no fun to be stranded. Bumblebeez, thanks so much for sharing that. I appreciate it. Pesky, wow, you are quite informed about cars & auto service issues! That's wonderful. You make a lot of good points that I will keep in mind. Les! Yes! I just discovered what you are talking about last night, after I left GW. I did a Google search--"Blown gasket, Subaru Forester," thinking really, that a search that specific would yield me diddly squat. Guess what? It produced a full page of complaints, chat room discussions, & general angst about serious & frequent Subaru Forester head gasket issues! The 1999 Forester (& 2001) seem to be the most vulnerable to this. Amazing. Never heard anyone talk about this flaw in the system before, but it's evidently been a widespread occurence. Looks like Subaru has responded & NOW builds their Foresters with a completely different sort of head gasket, so newer Subi owners, don't despair! Thanks for sharing this, Les! Oakley, yes... I think so! Again, y'all have been fantastic. So many good points have been raised & I feel so much better about this situation. Armed with your feedback, when I call the service dept. Manager this morning, I will feel confident to inquire about & dig a little deeper into the diagnosis. Also, here is one of (The Many) links about the horrors of Subaru Forester gaskets! It's from a chatroom discussion & the last poster suggests getting a written guarantee on the work. Not a bad idea, either. Here is a link that might be useful: A tisket a tasket, I think I blew my gasket...

How we met...Oh this is romantic. We met at a pig processing plant... ...I had just turned 19, was with my first bf who I'd started going out with in grade 12, (call me a late bloomer, I was always more interested in horeses than boys), and was young and innocent. I had been out on my own for almost a year (moved out and got a job as soon as I graduated high school). I started at the processing plant, and within a week managed to get transfered off the cutting floor, and back into "pack off" (where all the boxes of meat are sorted and stacked) where I was doing the very easy job of scanning bar codes, wrapping pallets, and putting a big label on them. He was 31, a year out of a common-law relationship (with two children), and was a 'dirty old man'. He drove the fork lift. Just before lunch on my first day back there (the only girl working with 12 guys) he came up to me and said (with a grin and a twinkle in his eye) "I'm not going to bring you any more work, unless you give me some candy"...so at lunch I went to the vending machine and bought a box of smarties. (Being young and innocent, I thought that was all he was suggesting.) I worked back there for 3 months, before I started to catch on to what those 'boys' (all 12 of them) were saying, and 3 months more, blushing at most of their conversations. We worked together for a year, flirting back and forth. I'd pretend to flash him some leg, and he'd chase me around the department like Pepe Le Pew, while I tried to run away like that poor Sylvester, laughing so hard I could barely stand. Meanwhile, BF and I were still going out. In hind sight, it wasn't a healthy relationship, it lacked any respect. He would constantly push me to do 'things' I wasn't comfortable with (and I would cave in), had no regard for my safety (would demand I drive 2 hours to pick him up in a snowstorm, at 2am, after I'd put in a 12hr shift), and was very controlling. I was 19, decided I wanted to see the inside of a bar, try a drink (had never had one before) and he told me I wasn't "allowed", then decided to take me to his college Christmas party, purposely got me drunk and then...well I believe that's classified as date rape. I stayed with him for two months after that, and after he proposed I gave my head a shake and broke up with him. I had been boarding with my bf's grandpa, and didn't want to go back there, so, my (now) DH, offered his basement as a hideout, until everything cooled down and I could find a place of my own. I stayed there for a week, then rented a little trailer. Three months later I moved in with him. My parents hated him before they ever met him. Their precious daughter had broken up with a good Christian young man (if they only knew) and was now 'shacked up' with a non-christian father of two, who was 12 years her senior. It took a year before they would even meet him. Four months after that, we got engaged, three months after that we got married. (We gave out boxes of Smarties as wedding favors.) We've been married for 2 1/2 years now, have a son who's almost one. Life is good. Dad and DH regularly go out for lunch together, and mom always refers to him as her 'favorite son-in-law' and brags about him to all her friends. We are best friends and do a lot of fishing and hunting together. He comes out and plays in the dirt with me when I'm gardening. He treats me like a queen. I always laugh when I tell people that we met at a pig processing plant...