Thanks for the quick advice! I microwave defrosted a few on the frozen vegetable setting yesterday, then baked them. Two buttercups came out okay, as did one butternut that hadn't turned color on the outside. The other butternuts had turned dark and kind of transparent. They were soggy, almost spongy, when defrosted, so I discarded those. So much for procrastination! I had been cooking a couple a week and not rushing to fill the freezer. I'm usually over on the winter sowing and quilting forums. I glad I stopped in here and got sound advice on my prolbem. I wouldn't want to make guests sick at Thanksgiving by feeding them questionable squash. Thanks again! Bonnie

I found some nasty-ness on my bulb today after the scape looks to be drying up and the leaves look redish and ugly at the bottom...little black bugs were running up and down in there. OH NO! My guess is that they are mites of some sort? I've tried to read and figure out what I should do, but I can't decide between spraying something down into the bulb that could harm it, or doing a hot water treatment. I am not entirely sure how to do said water treatment either... Does anyone have a tried and true method of ridding bulbs of mites? Pat, what became of your bulbs and situation? This poor fella was labeled 'Minerva', but was blooming when I bought it. It clearly wasn't 'Minerva', but I found the bloom to be quite pleasant and with another scape to come I thought it was a good buy...Here are the photos: When purchased: EEEEEK...Now: From Amaryllis that needs HELP! From Amaryllis that needs HELP! Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! -Frank

I saw my first junco of this season on Sunday, closely followed by the Superstorm Sandy the next day. Luckily we just had nor'easter conditions here in Plymouth, MA, not too bad, but I think I'd rather have had snow. Claire

Yes, the unfunded liabilities are going to be the death of Detroit. All they have to do is stop paying the GM or Chrysler or "Fords" pensions, and all of Michigan dies. Those pensioners have vacation homes "up north," where tourism is the whole economy. Actually, they just have to stop payiing for retirement health care and we get the same results. My previous DH's dad lost his pension when Jones and Laughlin (later, US Steel) reneged on their pension obligations to the northern Minnesota taconite miners. He got a fraction of what he was supposed to get because the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation had to take over paying the miners their pensions. He worked his whole life welding the mining equipment, built his home debt-free as he had the money, raised four children, and died gasping from the lung damage he got from his job. How well do you think the Pension Guaranty folk are going to do spreading the money around when it isn't a few miners and steelworkers, but several industries at once? What is dragging at the economy? Perhaps the unfunded war? The gears are grinding slower and slower and I just hope we have not already lost too much momentum. Has anyone else read The Sheep Look Up? Didn't John Brunner predict well how a confluence of errors and neglect could do us in? I'm just on a real downer tonight. DF-in-L went back to the hospital and is just not coping at all well with unexpected health problems.