Christie, Yes, they do. It's about an hour for me but the drive is easy. The thing about Baker Creek is that you'll find things there you definitely won't find elsewhere, especially with heirloom vegetables. But they have garlic, fruit trees, native plants, perennials, annuals, tools, books, soap, food, etc. Lots of fun stuff! Oh... and don't forget the speakers which is the main reason I like to go. Here are the speakers for the Fall Festival. I think you would particularly enjoy Patrick Byers. I've heard him four times on four different topics and it's always fascinating so you learn a lot. Doug Oster is the garden writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a nationally syndicated garden writer, TV guest, producer of the radio program, "The Organic Gardeners" and his new book "Grow Organic" is due out soon. www.theorganicgardeners.com Len Pense has developed a new method of raised bed gardening. It will make gardening easy for anyone, weed-free and organic. His farm and methods have been featured several times in "Rural Missouri" magazine. Check out his site! www.gardeningrevolution.com Wesley Greene is an expert on historical plants and gardening. He is the Garden Historian at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He also writes for "The Heirloom Gardener". www.cwf.org Kelly Norris is a 20 year old Master Gardener, freelance writer, and speaker who lives and gardens in Bedford, Iowa. He is the manager of his family's "Rainbow Iris Farm". Merlyn Neidens Heirloom seed grower and seed-saving expert who has developed some of the superb market varieties that we carry. He also writes articles for "The Heirloom Gardener". Always one of our most popular speakers. Patrick Byers of the SW MO Experiment Station. A highly acclaimed rare fruit specialist who will be speaking about raising rare fruit and berries. The Heirloom Garden Show "The Historic Living Fest" Come to our 7th Annual Spring Fest! August 5 & 6, (Sun. & Mon.) 2007. 10 am-6 pm both days Come to our 8th Annual Summer Show

remodelfa- I could do that (standard depth) pantry, but it would make the clearance to my island only about 37 inches or so...kinda tight. But doable..my main holdup is I really didn't want a deep pantry- wanted that very convienent 12 inch deep one..hmmm.... buehl- Can't recess into that wall, family room (not large) behind it. I am so torn. This is NOT my dream house. I figure we'll be here anywhere from 5-15 years (sorry can't narrow that down more!) :) So I have 2 choices: ECONOMY VERSION: keep OTR micro and recirculating vent (right now my Jennair electric cooktop has downdraft that I never use). Would be an efficient use of space- plus its the GE Advantium which I have a sneaking suspicion I'll be using a LOT- so I need it in convenient spot for me. To keep costs down I can also resist the urge to go induction cooktop w/a wall oven, and just get an electric slide in. LUXURY VERSION: if I move the micro elsewhere (say to under the island), then I'll need to purchase a hood, pay to vent outside (not sure how much that will be- if its possible to hook up to the vent that already goes outside from the downdraft part), buy induction, buy a wall oven etc... I'm already going to do hardwoods (~3500$ for kitchen and family room), granite (~3500 depending on which granite), I've already upgraded to stainless DW and fridge (spent ~$2400)...and good chances the cabinet guy plus install will end up being around 14...we're also extending the hardwood into the bathroom, so need to replace the toilet and vanity while we're doing that (~1K).. Eeeek! PS here are some pics to give an idea of what I have now: PS There's a bullentin board on the pennisula (held down by toaster oven) to try to mimic where my island will go...bulletin board is 36 in across...also I put a 48 diameter round glass top (from my patio) on top of my kitchen table to visualize the 'rounded end' of my imaginary island...

I'm with ArkansasGirl here. You're going to continue to stew over this until you find out what happened. To that end, I'd employ your mother-in-law. She is aware that you girls don't speak, right? Give Mom-in-law the card, tell her that it still bothers you that you were frozen out and that you still can't figure out why, and ask her to somehow sneak in to her response to them that "my daughter-in-law asked about you -- she says you girls haven't spoken in a while: was there an argument?" Maybe the ex-friend will come clean. This is gonna roll around in your mind until you get an answer-- "just move on" is easier said than done. I'm sure anyone who tells you that has never been able to completely dislodge something like this from his or her mind. The memory doesn't work that way. You might want to just forget something, but none of us can. And what if it was a tiny misunderstanding that could be rectified quickly? Odds are that it was more of a "mean girls" thing -- maybe they found something negative about you to bond over, to laugh behind your back about (like "She dresses like a [fill in the blank] -- can you believe that?!" They won't admit that to you, because not everyone's so blunt. But it's worth a shot to finally figure out what happened.

OMG! I think I'd kill him. I once had a guy do my lawn and one of the shrubs I just planted started to look really bad a few days after he left. On closer inspection I found that he cut the shrub off at ground level with the weedwhacker and just stuck it right back in the ground to hide the fact from me. Grrrrrr! I was so mad! That shrub was a goner because it didn't have time to establish, but like everyone here said, most established shrubs are pretty indestructible because they had years to develop a good root system. Just clean up the cuts on a slight angle, put a nice layer of cow manure around the base, some good fertilizer with a high phosphate level (rock phosphate or super phosphate would be even better) and use a good bark mulch. If you want, you can plant something around it or put pots around it, or put ornaments around it to camouflage the fact that it was butchered, but don't shade it out. Eventually, it will look like the other one. I cut a dogwood shrub down to a few inches last year because it had gotten so scraggly it was an eyesore. Doing that is called scaffolding. I did everything I told you to do and this year it is coming back beautifully, nice and full, and developing that wonderful candle flame shape it's supposed to have. I wish I did it earlier. I also did that to Smoke Bushes, Forsythias, and mock oranges, and they are all nice and full now. So don't despair. Oh, and now that you can fully see around the plant, get those weeds out of there.