Loralee, regardless of the software you will eventually settle on, you will need to use multiple DVD's unless you opt for an external hard drive. I suggest that you take an afternoon and use a disk burning application (I can't stand Roxio, more on this later) to back up the files and folders of your choosing. If your DVD writer is capable, use double layered DVD-R's as they are 8.5 GB each. Then, get in the habit of backing up new files to dvd on a regular basis. A real simple solution would be to buy an external USB or Firewire hard drive and copy over your precious files, though I would still make DVD's and put them away. Most, if not all, external drives come with some sort of "back-up" software. As Ravencajun suggests, Trueimage is pretty good. I do not recommend anything by Roxio as their software has proven to conflict with hardware drivers and also creates problems when installed with other software. It doesn't play well with other software. I have made many repairs to friends and family computers that Roxio has caused. There are many other cd/dvd burning software solutions available, I am partial to Nero. I also suggest Total Commander as a file manager. It far exceeds the capability of Windows Explorer and once you use it, you'll never look back. If you get an external hard drive and use total commander, you'll be done in no time at all. Good luck.

Kara - early on I found that I had too much moisture in my pots. Rina told me I was probably using too much Turface. So I cut that way back and have had much more success using the mix I mentioned above. I've never had dry spots in the Turface, but it has always been mixed with a lot of other stuff - grit and perlite. It makes sense that a bigger pot will have more Turface by quantity, even tho the percentage is the same as smaller pots, and consequently hold more water. And I think that was exactly some of my problem. My larger pots were struggling to dry out. This is why I like to make my own mix. I can adjust to different circumstances - and different plants, too. Some folks do well with c&s soil mixed 50/50 with perlite or pumice. That doesn't work for me for very long - stays too wet. And I think the same goes with Turface. I haven't had a problem if I keep the percentage low, but that may not work for someone else. I was excited when y'all talked about Dry Stall pumice. With all the horses around here I thought sure I could find it. Boo hoo. I was wrong!

"A" is a pot filled with commercially prepared potting soil. The shaded part represents a rather normal PWT (perched water table) of 4" which is about normal for commercially prepared mixes based primarily on small particulates - peat, coir, compost. composted forest products, sand, ..... The ht of the PWT is primarily based on the size of particles from which the soil is made, and the ht of the PWT any given soil will support is the same in any shaped container. "B" is pot "A" tipped at a 45* angle. Since the PWT ht is going to be the same in any pot, you can see how much extra water was forced from the drain hole when the pot was tipped. When you use this trick of science to help drain extra water from your pots, it's best (but not critical) that you have a drain hole through the bottom of the pot near the vertical wall, and that that drain hole is at the lowest point on the tipped pot. "C" is meant to illustrate that the container shape can have significant impact on how much perched water a planting can hold. "D" is one example of using ballast to reduce the amount of perched water a planting can hold. Compared to "A", you can see it reduces the amount of perched water in the planting by displacing soil that would otherwise be filled with perched water. "E" shows what can be accomplished with the use of a wick. Like B, the wick is best secured through a hole in the bottom where bottom meets the pot wall. It's also most effective when you use the wick and tip the pot, too. These images illustrate how much pot depth (and shape) can influence the amount soil roots will grow into. Most of the plants we normally grow as houseplants are reluctant to grow into saturated soils, and when they do, they're often killed the next time the planting is watered. The cyclic death and regeneration of roots is a very expensive outlay for the plant and comes straight out of its growth/development account. IOW, the energy the plant spends to regenerate roots over and over again is borrowed from energy that would otherwise be devoted to growth and vitality, and keeping the plant's defense systems orderly and humming along as you wish they would. The last images show what happens when a "drainage layer" is used (see middle image), and how you can use ballast at the bottom of the pot to eliminate nearly ALL perched water. Many items can be used as ballast - bricks, soda bottles/milk jugs with the cap still attached, kids plastic building blocks from a dollar store, over-turned pots. For growers not interested in making their own soils that allow the grower to water correctly without having to resort to tricks of science to drain away excess water, I highly recommend using ballast. It won't be as effective as media with a higher % of air porosity, but it will darn well make a big difference in how much of their genetic potential your plants can achieve. Al

edenchild, I bet you could find fancy stuff online or in an upscale sort of store if you wanted to... but just the basic stuff a local fabric store would have would work just fine. Most fabric stores sell felt by the yard in basic primary colors, some pastels, and sometimes some prints. Get it by the yard, it comes in different widths, but common around 36 or 44 inches, sometimes wider- then you can cut it to whatever size you need it and you don't need seams or anything to finish the edges. Don't get squares or sheets of the stuff, you got too much racks to play with that. If you want, you could pick something bright to add a wee pop of color to the shelf fronts while still being functional. Red would be traditional, but light or bright colors would be nice too. Cut the felt to be barely inside the depth of the shelves, draping over the front edge is a PITA and usually looks like tacky crap. But do be sure to leave yourself with a few inches of drape on both ends over on the width of the shelves, gives you shift room for bottle movement as they get added or removed from the shelf. To do this... and use a fabric tape that's soft and not a hard ruler or metal measuring tape... measure the depth of your shelf just inside the braces, and that's final. Then lay the tape across the width of your shelf, using a bottle in each slot to make sure the "dip curve" is accounted for, and use that for your width measurement. Also... you might not be one for chardonnay since it's a white, but since you like reds... watch your cabs and pinot bottles. Some of them have a slight taper with the bottle and it's better to store them punt facing out instead of the wall if you stack your bottles on top of each other. Again, vibrations can cause a slide, and better to slide into the wall instead of onto the floor.