I am a little nervous each time but I do it. One time I was hijacked sort of. I was in the airplane in Atlanta. Everything seeemed OK. But I did notice that there seemed to be an extra stewardess. On the way down there had been two. There were three on that flight. One headed for the rear of the plane. A couple of meinutes later the other two scurried back. Then one of them went to the pilots cabin and there was a lot of whispering. The pliot stode determidely back. A couple of minutes later the pilot came on the intercom and said he was sorry there would be a slight delay. Two of the stewardesses started handing out free drinks. Two more stewardessses came on and headed for the back of the plane. About then my seatmate poked me and said, "Look out there! What the he!! is going on?!!" There were police cars parked all around the plane with their lights flashing. I scrunched down in my seat as far as I possibly could. I was trying to figure out if it was possible to wedge a person of my girth under the seat. (No way, really.) The pilot came on and said they were experiencing some minor difficulties and if they were not resolved in five minutes we would have to get off and would be put on other flights. A couple minutes later three stewdardesses came from the back of the plane one of whom was crying hysterically and shouting "I wanna go home!" Almost immediately the pilot came on and said "we are cleared for take off please make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened, We are starting a little late but I think I can make up a lot of the time in flight." The stewardess then explained that the other stewardess had been told for the third time that week that she had to work a double shift. The Overtime stewardess refused and locked herself in the bathroom. Of course the plane is not allowed to take off with someone in the bathroom. The amazing thing is we started 45 minutes late but we arrived only five minutes late. We hurtled down that runway and suddenly I new what astronauts feel like as we blasted into the sky. No one came on to tell us at exactly what speed we were traveling, but I promise it was not slow. It makes you wonder how short flights could be if they really tried their hardest, but I suppose it is just as well they do not.

petalpatsy, I have been keeping black soldier fly larvea for over 10 years now, and you are not supposed to have a foul muck. If that is your experience you are not managing your liquids. I get the most amazing compost from my grubs and i get just as much as if it where in an aerobic pile. Except i get if faster. Because the grubs break stuff down within hours versus weeks you have to deal with moisture issues. But in no way do you get only muck as a result. The best grub composters have a living layer of soil/bacteria on the bottom that can handle excess moisture. That is precisely the issue with a lot of these DIY buckets that don't allow for liquid drainage and aeration. Now... that living layer of soil I have is AMAZING... man is it fertile. It doesn't smell and it's not MUCK. it's jam packed with micro organism (also aerobic bacteria by the way) it's dark and has a coffee grind consistency. Depending on the age (+1 year) it's in my ways similar to finished compost and if it's younger (it's has a more humus consistency). If you brew a compost tea for this material, you'll notice that the tea starts to bite a little bit and the material is slightly acidic (my plants in texas love this with our high alkaline soils). If you are having muck you have gone anaerobic and it stinks... but i assure you that's not what you supposed to be having. grub composting is also an aerobic process. Here is a link that might be useful: BioPod Forum

Linda, dropping dirt is exactly what I do ha. I work for a propogating nursery and we have huge compost piles outside which we are generously allowed to use. I take two big plastic boxes left over from when we moved here and fill them every day with the compost (mostly dirt but lots of interesting stuff comes up in it). I take it home and drop it on the sand until I have the size or shape garden I want. I plant it and eventually I border it with dropped cement. I've made about seven gardens of different sizes doing this. Seriously I could drop the dirt and water it and all kinds of goodies would pop up (along with weeds). I've had datura, viola, spiderwort, hyssop and of course petunias come up in it. Adele

Hey, thanks ever so, webkat! I almost forgot I had posted this query. *heh* I originally dismissed the YCSM, coz most of the pics I found didn't look right. And most had orange-looking collars. Anyhow, you spurred me to look further and 'VIOLA'. 8-] And thanks for the link, CT! I'll definitely check it out. ICA, Sophie ^i^