Hi Cpc, I'm not sure either if you're saying they're just wanting to take down the pole or if they're determined to cut down the wisteria too, but if it's just the pole they want to remove, you should be able to cut the wisteria down to virtually nothing and still have it come back beautifully. It would probably be two or three years before it starts to bloom again, but it would be better than loosing it all together, and because of the established roots, you'd have a large, blooming plant again much faster than buying a new one or starting small ones from cuttings. So if they just want to remove the pole, I recommend cutting the vine down far enough to allow them access to the pole, and then install some sort of a sturdy structure on which the vine can reestablish itself. If they just want the wisteria removed from their pole, you might still be able to cut it back severely and then redirect the new growth onto a support you provide very close to the pole, but if they want to actually replace the pole with a new one, I kind of doubt that you'd be able to protect it enough when they dig the new post hole for it to survive. Here's some pruning info I copied from a site about wisteria. Whatever you decide, good luck, Skybird >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It sounds like what your wisteria needs is some form of "renovation" prunng. Renovation pruning can be done at any time, but it's the easiest to handle when the plant is dormant, so you can have a better appreciation of the configuration of the vines, and you don't have to deal with the mounds of foliage. 1. Be prepared to prune without mercy - you need all the cutting tools that you have in your arsenal, all freshly sharpened - secateurs, loppers, pruning saw, and even an electric reciprocating saw if what you have is a big specimen. 2. The idea of renovation pruning is getting it into a shape and size that you can live with and then some more - several feet more (remember, you have to allow for the fact that there will be regrowth after the pruning, and you have to allow room for that) 3. Start off with the major vines/trunks - take out any that you don't want or has strayed into a space that they shouldn't be. Cut those out completely down to their points of origins. 4. With the remaining vines, prune them back to 2-3 feet shorter than your envisaged dimensional boundary of the plant. 5. Next, turn your attention to the smaller, but well established and woody laterals arising from these main vines. Remove any laterals that are overcrowded. Shorten others to the desired length. To ensure some flowers for the current season, leave those laterals that end in a cluster of stubby laterals. These are the laterals - "spurs" - can be depended upon to continue to give you some flowers after the major pruning. 6. Now, you should have reduced that monster to a manageable size. For the final finishing touches, remove all young runners that are not needed, or that stray into places that you don't want to be - e.g., under the eaves, into the sidings, etc, of the house. Cut them back to their points of origins. Once these are removed, turn your attention to the remaining runners - reduce each and everyone of these to 3-6 buds. Once you have accomplished "renovation", don't expect much blooms for 2-3 years. The response of the wisteria to aggressive pruning is to "fight back" and literally explode with new runners. It's going to put energy into vegetative growth at the expense of flowering. This is where ongoing maintenance pruning is important: 1. Remove all unwanted runners right to their points of origins. 2. Prune back the others to 3-6 buds (leaves). Repeated pruning of these runners is what will eventually give you "spurs" of woody, short laterals that in turn will provide you with blooms. 3. You need to prune these runners all season long - I check and prune my wisterias once every 2-4 weeks. 4. in the winter, or better still, spring after flowering, size up the plant again, and perform minor "renovative" pruning to further get the plant into the shape you want. 5. Do not fertilise - they do not flower well if there is an over-luxuriance of vegetative growth. Over feeding also ends up with you fighting a constant battle with a monster of an plant which thinks it's an octopus. If you have well fertilised beds in the vicinity, the long reaching roots of the wisteria will eventually find them. I put a sharpened shovel through the soil between the wisteria and nearby beds, to prune any roots that might have wandered over to indulge in the nutrients over there.

Janieful: "The advanced toilet makes sense to me - at least much more than a separate bidet would. I have never used either, but bidets take up so much space. The one in all model is much more practical." The advanced toilet seats are not, strictly speaking, direct replacements for bidets, though one generic term for advanced toilet seats is "bidet seat." The first and foremost function of an advanced toilet seat is water washing a bit further to the rear than a bidet cleanses. Cleansing the anus with water is far superior to wiping (and spreading) with dry paper. Most current models of advanced toilet seat have a second washing function called "feminine cleaning," or a variant thereof, which has many similarities to the function of a bidet. As you may guess, that function directs the water somewhat further forward than the primary function does. However, in "real" bidets, the water comes from the front, whereas in advanced toilet seats, the water approaches from the rear, so there is a difference. The various brands of advanced toilet seats approach these functions in different manners. Inax, which invented the advanced toilet seat category, determined that the optimal angle of incidence of the spray on the anus should be 70 degrees from horizontal or, in other words, just 20 degrees from vertical. The Inax advanced toilet seats therefore have spray wands for posterior cleansing that extend out fairly far, so that the spray can be more nearly vertical. Toto, the biggest player in the market, was obsessed by the spectre of "backwash," the (small proportion of the) water that rebounds off the user's posterior, and accordingly Toto Washlets are designed to spray water at the anus at 43 degrees from horizontal, which reduces (but does not not eliminate) the amount of backwash that hits the spray wand. But spray directed at Toto's 43 degree angle does not wash as effectively as the 70 degree spray of the Inax models does. Inax addresses the backwash matter with an aggressive self-cleaning cycle for the spray wands, executed both before and after each use. As to the feminine function, Toto can get by with a single wand for both posterior and feminine cleansing, with two spray nozzles in the single wand, because the 43 degree spray angle for the posterior wash already is so shallow. Inax has to use a separate dedicated spray wand for feminine cleansing, because the wand that Inax uses for posterior cleansing would not be positioned well for the feminine cleansing function. But, whether or not you use the toilet seat for bidet-like functions, water-assisted posterior cleansing is a huge step up from dry wiping after a bowel movement. There probably is no way to upgrade your bathroom more effectively than to replace a passive toilet seat with an advanced toilet seat.

Your husband may well be able to rebuild this computer. However it would be best to ensure that the issue is with the motherboard and not some other component. What if you buy the board for $100 after being absolutely sure it is the same and all the current components are compatible but the computer still does not work. Returning good parts is not an accepted way with computer stores. The chances of finding a 6 year old motherboard are slim at best, current boards will not accept those older parts probably. Somewhere on that board is a model number and revision number to make the search easier. Most importantly you cannot use your current XP operating system so you need to buy another one, another $100 plus gone and for an operating system 2 steps behind the times. Your current XP is tied to the specific motherboard it was installed on with factory built computers. You will need to ensure you either have all the CDs that came with the computer so that all the drivers are available or that you can find them for free online. The processor will need cleaning once removed and it will require Arctic Silver or equal quality paste to re-seat the heatsink on the processor. This bit is the most difficult or frightening apart from deciding on what parts are compatible. Do the math then take a look at today's computers for pricing. Also if hubby feels good about it check components to self build, it can be a very gratifying experience once all the parts are determined and compatible with each other. You likely will only be able to salvage the hard drive from the existing machine if you build new.

Earning money around the neighborhood is way less difficult than you'd think...my neighbor boys put out a little flyer advertising sweeping driveways (they're 8 and 6) and lo and behold, they've got regular gigs! Their mom even asked my DD to join in, because they didn't want to do it, they just wanted to send the flyer around LOL -- but they've got to live with the results of their actions, and their mom figured my DD would keep them on task :) So seriously, older folks *love* to have younger folks help around. I know I'd love to give the money to an "enterprising young man" over a service. And who knows where it will lead, whom he'll meet, etc. Cutting back on activities is difficult *if* you focus only on what you can't do. If you can go about finding things you *can* do instead, you'll find your time is completely full and maybe he can tell friends about it and take them to the things *he's* going to! We went to the coast on Saturday and attended a great free talk on fossils that entranced my daughter and all the kids in attendance, for two long hours--a *great* educator, IMO. I found out about it from the paper. The same presenter also gives expensive admission talks sometimes, but this one was sponsored by the state and was free. I consider it money saved :), and great education/exposure, and our friends are really interested to find out when he'll be speaking again. I found out from a friend that Apple computers has been doing free one-day media classes this summer. FREE. They do it every summer. Classes on podcasting, moviemaking, music, etc. I would bet where you are there are loads of great free opportunities; look in the paper with an eagle eye. They aren't promoted as obviously as the profit-making events, which makes it extra rewarding when you discover them :) Maybe your son will become the new source of cool unknown things to do. We just decided not to buy mochas out of the house and we figure it will save enough to pay for a medically necessary gym membership for me. That's how much we were subsidizing the Starbucks shareholders. I also drink a lot of protein drinks instead of breakfast, honestly, and sometimes (like today, when it's hot), instead of a dinner. I use protein and milk and ovaltine, or sometimes just make a smoothie with yogurt, fresh fruit, and protein powder (if you are interested, I'll tell you the names of the protein powders my daughter doesn't snub :)). Serving for serving, it's not expensive and it's *wonderful* nutrition. There are also products now that can do a passable job of drycleaning at home...you can have things *really* drycleaned much less often. I feel odd mentioning all these ideas like the above because I don't know what you're doing already in this regard. And re stocking up when foods are on sale: OH yeah. I buy organic ground beef *only* when it's on sale, then put it in the freezer. Same with frozen organic fruit/vegs. Bread freezes/defrosts very well too, so when the good bagged bread (not the fresh baked paper bags, the plastic bags, but there are some that are organic) is on sale, stock up and freeze it. Saves a significant amount of money. If you don't have a real freezer (non defrosting), you can probably get one for pretty inexpensive or possibly free off craigslist or freecycle. You could even post a wanted post and see what happens... and btw, this is probably a great thread for lots of people; I know I've learned from it already :)