OMG, where do I start...to think my idle comment sparked this hotheaded commentary, lol, boy am I glad some of you who favor terse and boring passages in their descriptive prose have not read the novels that I have written on this forum to expostulate on my mower's ailments...which mownie has picked up and RUN with... I have to defend Mownie, here, because it is precisely his willingness to expound on details that makes his posts informative, AND exceedingly helpful. I learned more in a week about my mower's basic fuel and electric systems than I have in the ten years I have been dinking around with it...and I am definitely an amateur. Mownie's eloquent and colorful descriptions really make the problems and the solutions clear, and no one of course is ever beyond correction or clarification for that matter! As far as the quotes...they serve a vital function in separating the "quoted" from the response, especially when you are like me, and mownie, and tend to ramble on about this or that, and it helps to REFERENCE the passage that he is about to comment on. Guess some of you never really learned the mechanics of goood writing and the use of punctuation to illuminate your efforts to communicate??? Besides, aren't you talking about *****ASTERISKS??****** those are NOT "QUOTES" !! In my opinion it is very helpful to have that text set apart from the answer or comment or whatever. Finally, Mownie, I think this is a very helpful thread to anyone who in fact is NOT aware of the cut-and-paste basics of computer-ese, which I suspect from reading posts in ALL CAPS and mis-typed words and stuff like that, and that a lot of folks who DON'T dabble in computers use these forums because someone suggested they try. And in the end it IS a FORUM, and if the info is too elementary to be useful to you, you can proceed to more complex dialogue as it suits you...whereas if you DON'T know stuff like cut and paste, it could be a pretty handy gadget when someone opens your eyes to it. SO in the spirit of assistance that these forums are supposed to offer, mownie's post on this subject is in effect very useful, or is bound to be for someone, and that is why it is there. There are folks out there that will surely be helped. Finally, oh, i said that already, in general cut-and-pasting of elements relevant to your search for a solution when gathered in the course of surfing this forum is indeed a good idea, especially if it pertains to your particular make and model of mower or engine. Now to find those little tidbits out there again... SO Thanks, mownie; every once in awhile an innocent and well-intentioned attempt to be helpful sparks a major outpouring of public opinion. The beauty of the human condition, lol. And 12G, YES, you said it Bud! Should be up there in top Tractor Forum posts! I think I will cut and paste THAT little gem, to start! OK I'm ready, all you people of few words, bring it on...!!! =)

Sammy, I'm not having problems with my post on the rose forum conversations side. I just opened one, the address you want to add to your address book is gardenweb_user@gardenweb.com Have you looked in your spam box? Without knowing what email address you use here, I'm going to assume it's the Cox one. See if you can go to their web site, pull your email there and look in that spam box. If you still have problems, change your email address here to your gmail account. Good luck.

Here on the east coast there is one nursery that I would recommend visiting, Sylvan's Nursery in Westport, MA. They have hundreds of conifers and specialize in "landscape size" trees and shrubs although they have huge supplies of small affordable plants. They have several "farms" and cover a total of 350 acres or so. They are mostly wholesale but if you sign in and sign out (I guess in case you get lost) they let you roam around the greenhouses and grounds; they'll even drive you in a golf cart. I don't know why they even let me in there as I have seen professionals buying tens of thousands of dollars worth of premium stock. They do, and they are always very friendly and treat me just as well with my $60 purchase as the guy next to me shelling out thousands; of course the mark-up is higher with me (5% discount for cash though). Prices for the premium stuff is premium and the smaller stuff is higher than the box stores, but they no doubt probably have what you want, when you want it and the size you want at a fair price. Anyway, it is worth the trip (probably not from Oregon) as they are located along the Westport River and Buzzard's Bay and it is God's country. Don't go at 3 PM as the irrigation goes off (strange, they always say to water in the early AM) no matter what and you will get soaked. Not bad if its hot. I'm jealous of all the great places and choices you have in the Northwest, but thought I would give a plug for some decent people here. Here is a link that might be useful: Sylvan's nursery

I use AOL mail also and have never done all that. My links are clickable and I use Firefox. Jane, I'm wondering if it just needs done when folks send 'you' emails. I'm going to email you at your AOL addy from my Hotmail just using plain text. You can then let me know if it is a clickable link. Sue