I've received seeds from trades in all the methods & styles mentioned above. They all appear to be successful and allow seedaholics to choose the method that works best for them. Plastic baggies - I've found what works best for me are the smaller 2" x 3" zip-envelopes, also available at Walmart if you hit it when they're in stock, 100 @ $1.00. If I see them late in the season, I buy multiple packages. I use sticky labels, also available from Walmart, that can be printed from my computer. I include botanical name, common name, cultivar name, USDA hardiness zone, height, light & moisture requirements, bloom time & color along with any extra pertinent plant or growing information. If there's room, I'll include year harvested in brackets. Before mailing, I Google the seed name and do a little research so the information on the label is current, however I sometimes wonder if that information changes as time goes by. Mailing seeds - I use bubble mailers of different sizes but usually the smaller 5" x 7" size. Bubble mailers I receive get torn apart/cut up or reused as is if they're not too travel-damaged. For single trades I'll tape the seed envelope to a piece of recycled bubble envelope and tuck it inside a standard envelope with "PLEASE DO NOT MACHINE - SEEDS" on the front in the lower left-hand corner. After 2 years of sending seeds via mail in this way, I've not heard of anyone receiving crushed seeds. When harvesting seeds over the course of the season, I set them in paper bowls or spread them on paper platters that are placed on shelf units inside the garage to dry. This also allows any crawlies that may have taken up residence inside the seedpods to depart the premises of their own free will. Once thoroughly dry, seeds are stored in small plastic salad dressing cups with clear, snap-on lids I'm able to buy from the cafeteria where I work. They last from year to year and are re-used. Generally I try to not have seeds leftover from year to year despite evidence that they remain viable for many years. This thread is a good idea and hopefully we'll hear from plenty of folks with other ideas/methods for seed preservation and sharing.

Lou- I suspect that you are over-thinking this. When I started out growing figs from cuttings I worried about many of the things you seem to be. What I have come to realize is that you can fuss too much and it's not helpful. Fig cuttings are very resilient and are one of the easiest things to root in my experience. My technique these days is to take a 4"-5" piece (making a fresh cut off the to-be-planted end if the pruning cut is old), scrape some of the bark off that end (maybe 1/2"-3/4"), dip the cut end in rooting hormone, make a hole 2" deep in a cup of moist potting soil, and stick it in. I keep it watered, and about 80F. And then I wait for it to sprout leaves: most of mine sprout in a week or two, while a few have taken up to two months. If I want to get really fancy, I'll use a little perlite in the potting soil, and I'll use a clear plastic cup so I can observe root growth. I generally have about a 95% success rate. I don't bother with putting the cuttings in the refrigerator first or in moist paper towels in a plastic bag, or any of that other stuff. I'm not saying those aren't good things; I'm just saying I no longer consider them necessary, or likely to increase my success rate Many of the fig trees in this country are the result of immigrants bringing over cuttings years ago that they carried with them on weeks-long sea voyages; they planted them when they got here and grew the trees they were familiar with. I guarantee that they were not cold stratifying these cuttings or any of the other sophisticated things we now do. You've got 140 cuttings? With even a little success you will have far more fig trees than you can plant and unload on your relatives. As much as I love figs and fig trees, I realistically only have room for about 20 plants in my fairly big yard.

Thanks everyone. Lots of useful methods. Mikie - it's good to know about moving entire folders (I don't have my video's in folders - yet - but am just discovering how useful that would be for shows I've recorded for a few seasons - having them altogether). I'd like to double check and ask what "a cmd window" is - and how I'd get there. Again - I have Windows XP (SP3). Sorry to say, Mikie, but I also need more explanation for what "make a shortcut to the destination , within the folder the files are in... then select a bunch of what I want to move, cut&paste onto the shortcut" means. I know someday I'll understand all of this, but I don't know how to make a shortcut to the destination. And once I cut and paste onto the shortcut, what do I do with it? Absolutely there are some big files - so I'm glad to told me to break it up into smaller chunks. I have so far. Thank you. Lynn.

I wanted to update/edit my post above, but can't see how to do it this time!? EDIT: well now, isn't that special; it appears that I get an edit button for this post, but not the one above. Anyway, I don't know what is different about my win8.1 machine, but my win7 was able to recognize the DVD disc and played my video and I found Movie Maker and it appeared to load or see my video. I assume that I will be able to edit with it if I wish. Pre edit before testing disc on win7 desktop: I now see that the small files are ifo and bup files and a wiki says they direct a dvd player while running a vob file. If so, I don't know why my win8.1 dvd drive didn't just run with it. EDIT: I guess I have solved my most critical issue which is to be reasonably certain that my mini DV camera can have its files saved so that further work can be performed. I still don't know enough to be sure of a practical direction to transfer the file to relatives. I have heard that youtube can be kept semi private. Is that a good way to go? I have a google mail account if I can remember it (find my notes), I never use it. I have skydrive that was set up on my win8.1 machine. Can that be easily and safely used somehow?