Laurel, thanks for the offer. However, I probably already have more dips than I can use. My main focus is still with tets, but I have a small amount of extra room in the gh and thought I might throw in a few dips. As far as what I am looking for in hybridizing, I am looking for different things in the tets and dips. In the tets I am looking more for things such as heavy ruffling, with and without eyes and edges (hybridizing for both), dark colors with light edges and next year I am going to hybridize especially for white. In dips, it is just a casual thing because I have some space. I will just be trying for nice garden plants. Some equal, or better, could probably be purchased for less than $10. I guess in the back of my mind I still remember one of my nicest daylily memories was when I had many fans of FAIRY TALE PINK and for several days I had 50 to 65 blooms open each day, in what was essentially a humongous clump. Since getting into hybridizing, I don't have large clumps and tend eliminate them to make room for newer plants, mainly my own seedlings, prior to choosing keepers. Just thinking it might be nice to hybridize some nice garden plants and set aside a fairly small area to let them grow to many fans, for the effect attained with the FTP plants mentioned above. I do not anticipate planting a lot of dip seeds. I think something around 2,000/yr. total seeds is about as many as I can handle. Last year, I had over 2,000 tet seeds. This year was less. So, the dip hybridizing is just sorta mucking around to see what happens. I do think the dips have a beauty of their own. Mud

I can't think of any reason why you couldn't substitute zucchini for the cucumbers in Ellie Topp's recipe. Thet are often subbed for each other in pickling recipes and are actually a bit less risky simply because they contain less water to dilute the vinegar than cucumbers do. In addition, this is a straight undiluted vinegar recipe with additional lemon juice which is even more acidic than vinegar. And yes, you can also sub zucchini in the NCHFP B&B pickles recipe since it too is a straight vinegar recipe. Dave

Hi, it's me - Tricia. Great advice. I agree about the birthdate. Birthdays were not celebrated like we do today and many immigrants lived in countries where vital records were either not kept at all or were sketchy, at best. Church records are baptism dates - not usually birthdays. Result - many immigrants simply did not know when they were born. So, because it was required info they made a date up and, sometimes, didn't remember what they had put on each different form. Then, to further confuse the situation many immigrants were not literate or spoke dialects using just phonics and each person from the same village spelled the same word differently. Now, add in the problems on the other end in the US (lack of ability to understand foreign languages, poor literacy rates, equally poor spelling) and mistakes were more the rule than exception unless your immigrant came from an English speaking country. I agree to check other points of entry besides Ellis Island. Remember, to a non-English speaking person Ellis Island meant nothing. But, over the years it became the place most people associated with "immigrants" so they said that is where they were processed. T'aint always so. Even if they write Ellis Island on their official paperwork. My own grandfather is a good example. All of his official paperwork read Ellis Island. He told everybody Ellis Island, including me. I spent 10 years looking for him. Nadda. Hired the National Archives to search. Nadda. I'm a contact person for the German-Russian Historical Society for the village of Norka. Got an email one day - from a women searching for one of my aunts who immigrated with my grandfather. She said, "Ellis Island? Gee, that's funny. My aunt always said they arrived through Portland, Maine." With the correct point of entry - Grandpa was easy to find. Fifteen years old and towing behind 3 younger sisters. Sometimes, there no better genealogical research than dumb luck. :) I also think a membership with ancestry.com is a good investment if you're just getting started. But, I warn you - BE CAREFUL! People are idiots. They just copy what somebody else has written with no further research on their own. So, mistakes get passed on and on and on and on. LOTS of them. I use whatever I find on ancestry.com as a clue, nothing more, until I've confirmed the info by independent resources. Also, the Mormon church site is notorious for mistakes. So much so I could not with good conscience even recommend using their data bank. But, if you do - proceed with caution. My goal is always 3 separate confirming documents saying the same thing. And, I get copies if possible. I've got tens of thousands of hard copy records. I set an annual budget for vital records and such because it does get expensive. I had my second book, "Thunder on the Steppes, a genealogy of ______________", edited this past spring (while we were rebuilding from Sandy). I was especially nervous because I've written a novella inside the book to bring my German-Russian ancestors to life for my grandchildren. My first attempt at fiction. My editor loved it and said I should seek a publisher believing it has a broader audience than immediate family. I'm thrilled. First though I need to publish the entire genealogy and not get sidetracked. I'm so close to being finished - just got to sprint those last 200 meters and cross the line. It's taken over fifteen years. At that point, I'm going to call my genealogy project finished. Genealogy is never truly finished but after nearly 3 decades of research and two books each exceeding 800 pages and going back to the mid-1200s it's as complete as I'm going to take it. I'll leave it up to future generations to carry on. Have Fun! /tricia

Hi Everyone, thanks so much for the compliments and feedback! She's a lot of fun and is growing up to be such a sweetheart. The Gentle Leader is that muzzle collar we tried. She would let me put it on her but it was obvious she wasn't happy about it. I was amazed at how well it worked but she never adapted to it. It kept getting really close to her eyes and she consistently tried to get it off of her face. I don't want a walk to be a negative experience for her. What's the point if she's miserable, right? That's when we tried the chest harness. She didn't mind me putting it on her and she walked great with it as well; until the distractions that is. No matter how we adjust it, once she starts pulling, it moves around on her chest and she slips right out of it. The one we tried is made by the same company as the Gentle Leader and the hook is on the chest, I'm thinking that maybe one with the hook on the back might work better. I know when used properly choke collars can be a very useful tool with some breeds but she's a very sensitive girl and like the Gentle Leader, I don't think that's the right thing to use with her. That is an interesting trick Emagineer, I'll give it a try and see what happens. You always have the coolest tips! LOL I agree about the training and currently have her in her second round of classes. Her progress has been good with everything but the walking. The trainer says it's partly because she's still in puppy mode. That's fine, I'm happy to keep working with her, but I need to find something I can use to train her with that will protect me from getting hurt through the process. She's come close to dislocating my shoulder on more than one occasion. Once I find something that works, I plan on taking her to the dog park a few times a week, it's 24 acres and very busy. The trainer suggested that I walk her within eyesight of where all the dogs are for a while first before letting her go play. I had no idea Labs could be this strong! She loves to lay on me and is so heavy, she pins me down when she does! LOL