Keiko, I did indeed look for the Imperial Taro when I was at the Asian Supermarket, but did not find any there. It may not be the best time to try to find some, I don't know. Ah, an electric steamer - I yearn for one also. I must get one soon. I have to increase my veggie intake. I believe I actually could be a vegetarian (not a vegan), because I don't eat much meat anyway. But, the old blood pressure is starting to rise with the sun now, and I need to start watching my diet. Starches are definitely not good as they convert to sugars. But at least I can plant them. Rsieminski - for some reason, I got the impression that they get their supply from South America, but they actually sell them here in the states. I will have to check that out again. I would really like to have at least a couple of the species, e.g. brasiliense, as Michael has mentioned. If I have to pay those ungodly shipping rates, I think I will look elsewhere, thank you very much. Especially if they are just tiny little tubers. If I thought I was getting a hefty tuber, it might be a different story. I might have read something about the fact that the size of their tubers could vary substantially, but that doesn't tell me anything factually. A lot of room for messing around with my money there. I have some time to search around and check out other sources. Right now, I'm too scared to go check out my back yard. You would know this would be the year we have these ghastly, horrid, frigid temperatures in Oklahoma, after several mild winters. Ah, Oklahoma, how I hate it here. Wish I could move with my daughter to Columbia, SC. Doesn't get near as cold there, and I would feel much more secure with my lovelies in the ground (8b). Susan

George, Jerreth certainly is having a challenging week. It sounds like the power might make it back on before you get home. What wonderful friends y'all have.....loaning Jerreth the RV with its' generator. I'm glad Jerreth is going to be able to save the frozen food. And, putting the refrigerated food in the 5-gallon buckets was a brilliant idea. That's a long way to haul water. So, I guess the two of them are building some serious muscle tissue.....and they don't even have to drive to "the gym" to do it. I know that you are doing terrific work at the Bible Institute and you are fortunate to have a spouse who shares your faith and supports your efforts. It can't be fun to be the one who is "home alone" at this time of year with the risk of ice storms, and I admire her so much for being willing to do it. You said that this is one of the "prices" which you wish y'all didn't have to pay, and I understand that, but we don't really get to choose the price we pay or the challenges we face. I know that Jerreth will come through this challenging period just fine and I suspect she won't even "rub it in" too much that you were off in sunny Mexico doing the work of the Lord while she was here dealing with the mixed blessing of having frozen moisture fall. Look at it this way: The good news, George, is that while you are away in Mexico, all your trees got watered. The bad news is that they got iced too. I hope the rest of your trip is successful and productive and the conditions at "the home place" improve soon. Dawn

My wife and I went to Cozumel for our honeymoon a few years ago, and I was intrigued with the way concrete was used there. In most of the U.S. we only see concrete as roads and sidewalks, or cast into hard-edged, utilitarian, prefabricated blocks that are used for structural purposes but not in places where they'd be touched or seen up close very often. In southern Mexico concrete was a much friendlier substance. Our entire hotel was concrete, soft and hand-sculpted like adobe, but hurricane-proof. Also, building with concrete was clearly part of the vernacular of common construction skills, much like the ability to cut and nail dimensional lumber and plywood is in the U.S.; it wasn't such a specialty as it is here. As to the kitchen cabinets... If economy is an issue then I guess you'd need some sort of reuseable forms. In a previous life I was a pattern maker, which means I made wooden patterns for sand-mold metal castings; it involves making a model of a metal part that can be withdrawn from a chunk of sand that has been mixed with a binder to make it harden, much like concrete. I can certainly imagine a reusable concrete form for a cabinet, but it would be complex enough that, if you were only to be building a single kitchen, you wouldn't want to make a lot of forms for different size cabinets; that would use as much wood as it would take to just build the cabinets. Touring, would you be interested in using this thread to think/talk through a way to do this, or do you prefer to find instructions from someone who actually knows what they're doing?

I definitely wouldn't want to capture *ALL* the rainwater falling on the property, as I understand about the need for replenishing not only our groundwater tables but also for the immediate watering of my big, mature trees. I'm just thinking that with a 10,000 sq ft property, there's a lot of space to put a few additional barrels. I have this big, basically unused area behind my garage where X number of barrels could sit and do their thing without being an eyesore for me or the neighbors. BTW, and this is purely a guess, but I think about 2/3 of the property is earth vs some man-made material. Also, my patio and the walkway from it to the driveway slope at, I believe, 9 degrees toward the driveway. The driveway slopes down to the street naturally, following the slope of the property. I could theoretically reroute the runoff from the patio somehow to save it, although it doesn't really get much water of its own during a rain, because it's covered and its cover is also fully guttered.