I planted about 2200 Crocus and 500 Iris retics in the lawn, using a bulb auger and cordless drills. The planting went really fast, but even with 2 drills and 4 batteries, had to pause a few times to wait for batteries to recharge. I chose an auger with the longest shank I could find, to save my back! After backfilling the areas and watering well to settle the soil, the bulbs were covered with a wire mesh (chicken wire) to prevent curious rodents (squirrels & chipmunks) from digging them up. The mesh was secured with heavy wire "hairpins" and left in place. If you have warm season grass, like Bermuda, and you regularly "dethatch" it, you will need to remove the wire mesh after the soil becomes well settled. The predators lose interest then. If you use a mulching mower, as I do, it probably isn't necessary to add fertilizer for the bulbs, but in some shady areas where the grass is sparse, I sometimes add 6-12-12 in the spring after the flowers fade. Be sure not to mow the area until the bulb's foliage turns yellow. Sometimes unsightly, but very necessary for healthy bulb growth. Good luck and have a great workout!

Yes quality time. My son and I work together, play in 2 bands together and keep bees together. My glass isn't half full, it's FULL. So far we beeks in Mass. haven't had to deal with truly africanized bees, although I know a few people who have had "hot" hives which were remedied by requeening. Another pleasure has been not dealing with small hive beetles. I don't know if they are around but I've never heard of anyone having them in a hive here up north.

You must be fairly young, BK. I don't think there's an excess of drama attached to the current economic situation. Maybe if you've always lived in a cave, scavenged deadfall for heat, and foraged for roots and berries your life hasn't been affected by this to a greater or lesser degree. With an unemployment rate of 7.2% - and that's only counting those on the unemployment rolls actively seeking work; does not count those who are underemployed or who have given up. Counting those, the percentage would almost double. On a pace of losing 500,000 jobs a month, we might outrun our ability to see some recovery for years. We're going to lose goods and services; local budget shortfalls are going to be made up by tacking on new fees for everything city, state, and federal govts. came dream up. As in any situation, some are more affected than others. If you weren't living on the edge before, chances are you're not on the edge now. But it's not just the on the edgers, even the more fortunate are losing ground, even if it's just on paper. If you've got your job, are living in a house you can afford and didn't borrow against it for toys, vacations and all the fun stuff life has to offer; didn't run up credit cards because it seemed like "free money" and paying it back seemed remote; didn't spend every dime of your paycheck figuring the future would take care of itself, you'll probably be okay. The Boomers seem to take the brunt of all this. But I think the problems are going to be much more acute with the children of the Boomers - and I suppose they come by it honestly since the've never heard the word "no", got trophies for just showing up, have gladly accepted everything parents showered on them then got bored and wanted more; have been shielded from some of life's more painful realities. The kids are the ones who think they can get out of school and step right into high paying executive positions. Those days might be over for a while and they'll be hanging their diplomas over the bars they'll be tending waiting for other job opportunities to appear. They'll also be going back to their their old room at the folks' house because it's too expensive to be out on their own. The chatter around the water cooler will be on how to fly under the radar to keep the job you have so as not to become a statistic. In my day, office chatter was often an attempt to cover the fact that poor choices, excesses and consumption were something to be proud of but by "crying poor" you were somehow one of the regular guys. In the history of the world this may just be another hiccup; learning something lasting from it and taking steps to be prepared for a future one might be the best possible outcome.

I ran into the same issue with trying to remove a security door and window. The screws had been in the house for >60 years and painted several times, so in addition to being rusted, they were especially sticky. I tried many things that didn't work and found one approach that worked really well. What worked: - use a dremel tool to cut a notch across rounded sides. The cut went all the way across the screw head to give the screwdriver more area of contact across both sides of the screw. Because these screws were hardened steel, i bought special diamond cutting wheels (made by Forney, not Dremel). I used the 3/4" diameter. They were cheap ($4). Wear some kind of safety glasses and consider wearing a mask. There were definitely sparks flying and fine metal shards floating in the air. This process of cutting a notch took about 2-3 minutes per screw. So quick! - Because they were so sticky, I couldn't start the screw with the screwdriver, so I used the locking vice grips on the stem of the screwdriver to add some leverage. I should note that I was using the largest screwdriver that our local hardware store stocked. It was long and had a wide tip. The wide tip is essential to make contact with both sides of the screw head. The length was helpful because this process of getting the screw started using the vice grips required two people - one person pushing the screwdriver into the screw head with all of their weight so it wouldn't slip, and a second person doing the slow turning using the vice grips. - Once the screw was turned 3-4 times, it could more easily be removed the rest of the way with the vice grips pinching the screw. - This whole process took ~ 5-10 minutes per screw. Far better than the other methods I tried. What did not work: - drilling a hole into the screw and using an extractor. i finally found a drill bit that would drill the hardened steel, but it was impossible to get the drill to stay in place in the center of the screw head. - grinding off the screw heads, pulling the door through the exposed screw stems, and then attaching the exposed screw tips to a drill (inserting them and then tightening down like it was a drill bit) to back them out. I used this technique for one of the screws but grinding off the screw head is not an easy task. It took forever, and I blew out two grinding wheels for a single screw, in part because the screws were flush against a metal frame, so in addition to the screw head, i was also grinding the frame itself. using the drill to back them out was easy and effective, someone could find an easier way to get the screw head off. I hope this saves someone else all the time that I spent trying to figure this out!