"From what I can see every site Eric listed is a "Big Pharma" site." Not a single one of these sites is run by or for a drug company. Unless you're using "Big Pharma" as a generic term for "anyone who disagrees with my health care philosophy". Another poster in this thread (with whom I disagreed on the proven efficacy of an herbal cancer therapy) also cites governmental and university-based information sites. The PubMed site is a searchable database of herbal and other medicine-related articles published in a huge variety of journals, and has been frequently linked to in this forum by those who fervently espouse herbal medicine. Do you label everyone who uses and appreciates the information from these sites a "Big Pharma ad man"? Few of us have the time and resources to do original research. But we can use these sites to get good, reliable information to guide us on what therapies to use - as opposed to the scaremongering, conspiracy theories and distortions that are so common on many "alternative" websites.

We have a member of our fly fishing group that uses an old time canvas wall tent (I think he's just about worn it out ... who knows how old the thing is!) - AND, he tows everything around in a little utility trailer. Really does it with some kind of military efficiency; a place for everything and everything in it's place when he's traveling. Plus he gets on me about my popup tent camper - he says that at least when his utility trailer is not being used for camping that it can be also used for other things, like hauling his yard work bric-a-brac and debris, maybe even hauling a wash machine or refrigerator for somebody - in other words he says his utility trailer "earns it's keep" by using it for many other things besides camping. Says my tent trailer's only purpose in life is camping ... and he has a big point! My friend uses these large plastic bins to carry a lot of the camping gear (keeps it water tight) in the trailer; and has also made some wooden storage/carrying boxes for things like the axe, tent stakes and poles. Also has made a table with folding legs that just fits the bottom of trailer. When he gets everything loaded aboard, then has a plastic tarp he secures over the load - also uses this same plastic tarp as a canopy over his table & cooking area. Bottom line, he has an efficient system for setting up a most comfortable camp. Awhile back I told my utility trailer friend that at least I could carry my canoe on top of the closed popup camper for traveling down the road rather than having to carry it on the roof of the tow vehicle and partically obstructing some of the driver's vision, like he had to do with his utility trailer. Darned if when I saw him the last time that he had not made a removeable carrying rack for toting his canoe around that just fit the trailer! Dale

We have purchased the Sierra Designs Bedouin 6 tent off Ebay for $183.00. I've set it up inside our garden room and there's room for four large ThermaRest pads and room to cruise up the middle. The tent is only 8 square feet larger in area than our SD Base Camp '88 model, but the headroom is over six feet so it feels a lot larger. I really like the bends in the X-poles and the as-always top-shelf quality of Sierra Designs products. I counted 27 different pockets in the tent, really like the adjustable clothesline too. There are three different dual cupholders attached to the tent, they are mesh and also have small pockets above them. The dual vestibules are a nice feature that the Agnes Big House didn't offer. Brow poles make them possible and don't require stooping for entry like most vestibules. The amount of mesh is just right, there's ventilation but with the fly there is heat retention as well. We're taking it into the back country next month for camping in the Laguna Mountains.

Whoa, if you get a degree in industrial arts you get to acquire carpentry textbooks along the way?!? Sweet! Kim, I've always enjoyed/appreciated your contributions; given the wisdom of trial and error that was behind them, I see why they stood out. My mom got us a couple of the Reader's Digest fixit books (have to run downstairs, one of them might be the very one you have); I like the way they are encyclopedic and detailed. I know Jane Powell but not the Small Houses books (do you mean The Not So Big stuff by Susanka, or the Small House anthologies from Fine Homebuilding?) Thanks for mentioning books; I think I might start a reference book thread for this forum. Hey Casey, THANKS for taking the bait. And you are NOT a bloody genius, you are an old house DEITY for crying out loud! Would you please start your own show on youtube? Or maybe just a house tour? Even Petch house has youtube videos. Or, do you already have a project blog and everyone knows about it but me? Actually for someone with a degree in historic preservation, I am impressed with how low-key your posts come across; they read more like an old friend who's "been there" and wants to pass along lessons learned along the way, it's really very nice and encouraging. But if you ever want to browbeat me feel free; I would take it as a compliment. To be honest if I post about something I'm thinking of doing to my house, and you don't opine, I figure one of two things is going on: 1) you're not on the forum; or 2) you're politely disapproving. Most of the time I assume it's 2 because you seem to be pretty consistent around here. But I just want to say, and I hope I speak for many, that I love love love your posts, especially when I'm searching on a problem I'm trying to solve and something from you pops up! (PS I finally got around to using that general finishes gel varnish you recommended and it was fantastic, thank you; I will post photos to the woodworking forum sometime before the next census.) Oh, and I love the way you "aged" the color tones in the new pine beadboard in your kitchen; reminds me of the pine in my grandmother's kitchen. When I was really little I used to look at the gleaming pores and think it was the closest wood could get to 24K gold.