I know with my hotmail account I can set a rule where if you are not in my address book then the email goes to junk mail. From there I can decide whether to have my junk mail automatically delete or I can look it over quickly to see if someone I know has sent something via a new address. The only time this fails is if someone spoofs my email address. It's obvious thought since the alias name associated with the spoof doesn't match mine. Those I send to abuse and it is usually resolved quickly. Good Luck.

Outsmarting the tree rats (squirrels) around my house is a full time job. This past spring I hit on a new idea. When I plant a container I invert an empty wire hanging basket over the container and the plant gets sun and can be watered but the squirrels can't dig in it. Another idea: I bring in a lot of plants to "over winter" under lights in my garage. I have so many that it is hard to reach my hand under the lights (4 shop lights) to the middle for watering. So I bought a pump sprayer with a long wand and it works great! In late winter I add a little liquid Dawn detergent, few drops, to each gallon of water and not only does the soil get wet easier but the worms that are waiting to hatch into distructive pets just don't hatch. Don't know what it costs me to run those four shop lights all winter but I don't care. It is a small price to pay to be able to "garden" every weekend in the garage. Many people have mentioned that they mark their outdoor plants with a "permanent Sharpie". In my experience there isn't a "permanent Sharpie", they all fade and quickly too. A grease pencil/china marker or expensive "no fade" garden center marker are the only markers I have found that won't disappoint you by fading. Eight years ago I decided to learn about gardening so I tapped into my local library. I checked out nearly every book they had on gardening and learned so much. The Gardenweb forums are also a wealth of information and entertainment. There is always something new to learn and I appreciate all of you who take the time to write in your ideas. One last idea from me...I keep a small notebook on my computer table and jot down any idea I find that's new and I will want to try. Little pieces of paper get lost but I always know where my notebook is and also use it when I order "on line" so I will remember the name of the company and the order date. Tina or Trowelgal

First off don't just delete them instead with out opening them send them to the junk mail folder that is how your email program learns what you think is junk, by simply deleting them it is not teaching that this is to be considered junk mail. Definitely if you have your email set so you have a preview pane visible you need to change that, in the settings, it is dangerous to use this. Do you get and send emails with lists of people's email addresses showing? If so you just answered why you get tons of spam mail. Each of those emails with all those addresses get harvested by the spanner, and they know it is an active email address, so they sell it to other spammers.

Bill, I meant to look at my stash of mags today but got side tracked. I have all the quilting mag I have ever bought except Miniture Quilting which I gave away a couple of years ago. If you are interested in older issures I know I have some that you could have for the postage. I keep AM Patchwork and Quilting but there are others that have interesting articals and patterns. Jayne