deervssteve - I note your comment about the deer not touching anything over a certain height. That has also been my experience, which is why most of the roses in my garden are either large heritage teas (most of mine get at least 8 feet tall & wide), or climbers. The climbers can be anywhere from 8 to 20 feet high, and I plant bulbs & things at the base of them. (So far in my experience, deer do NOT eat daffodils & narcissus.). So, how about planting some climbers in your garden? You are in a nice warm zone, so the WInters should not be a problem. I plant mine in cages just like yours, and when they get big enough to survive a little low down pruning, I take the cages off. If you prefer modern roses to old ones, there are still a lot of climbers. All of the roses in the attached picture are HTs or modern climbers, growing well above what I think of as "deer height". Just a suggestion - Jackie

"Are BSF timid creatures, or am I most likely going to have them crawling on me or flying around when I'm checking out my bin?" Some people really love their BSFL, as much as we love our worms. They too worry about them when they have to leave them for a few days. My understanding is that when BSFL are about 3/4 inch long and smaller they are white. Then as they mature they turn black and hard like little armadillos. Then they hide. The flys that emerge are like large houseflies but they do not land on poop and then on food. They avoid people, poop and food and want to find a bit of rot to lay their eggs on. They fly erratically. Slow when they are just warming up. Then faster. They are black with some of their leg area white. I think you would like the fly and the mature larvae and not be afraid of them. The thing that is cool about the white larvae is if one puts lets say the remains of a fish that the fillets have been harvest from into the bin, the the BSFL boil over the remains so actively that the remains float over the top of the activity and wonder around the container while getting smaller and smaller until they are all gone. Maybe let your helper know that these types of things in the bin are normal so they will not be startled. There is the cutest youtube that shows a little girl with a handful of BSFL feeding then to her chickens. If they knew that even little girls are not afraid of them then they might be more ok with them. Me I do not even touch my worms except with a 10 inch stick. Not even with gloves on. Maybe the scarriest thing to ever happen was I had noticed a few things out of place around the bin lately. Things were a bit mess with the vermicomost. I thought I was just sloppy. One day I put food in the top of the bin and out of the bottom a mouse jumped and darted off of my leg. I screamed like a little girl. Then I laughed a lot because I screamed. Many people love furry mice as pets. Maybe not me. I wonder if he was eating my worms. I move the material around in my bin to learn what is going on. As I am more confident I know what is happening in there and as vermicomposting is not my newest hobby, and I am not possessed with knowing what is going on with the little guys, I am more likely to leave them alone. Then my activity with the bin would more resemble how sbryce advises. Like him I would flip the bottom material over for the same reasons. Or gain interest in flow through bins like I have. I would think the cloth worm inns would work nice for you. Just put the stuff food by the tons and bedding in at the top. Zip it in. Water frequently. Harvest at the bottom. Supposedly no need to separate worms. They do dry out fast but the activity of adding water is pleasant for some. Others may have fish tank change water they want to use. I would think that maybe the condition of the material might be gauged a tiny bit by just squeezing the bag. I do not have one. Some people sew their own. Having a strong enough stand to hold mega weight is important. I guess like not buying the first year of a car I am waiting for them to come out with the new and improved version. I think mine would dry out. That would be ... ... .,. very bad for the worms. A homemade plastic bin is more resilient in that way.

Occasionally, the sky does fall...one piece at a time.... Earth-Hitting Asteroids: Katrina From Space By Leonard David National Space Society posted: 06 May 2006 11:22 am ET LOS ANGELES, California Natural events such as hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes rock this planet from time to time. But when the Earth gets stoned by an asteroid, consider it akin to a Katrina from outer space. When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the United States in August of last year, it became a deadly, destructive, and costly episodeone that has also become a metaphor for lack of government action, both pre- and post strike. At the current time there is no agency of the U.S. governmentnor of any government in the worldwith the explicit responsibility to develop and demonstrate the technology necessary to protect the planet from near-Earth object (NEO) impacts. The U.S. Congress needs to be encouraged to take a step in demonstrating the ability to deflect a menacing NEOs believes former NASA astronaut, Russell Schweickart, Chairman of the B612 Foundation. He presented an update today on dealing with troublesome asteroids here at the 25th International Space Development Conference. Key capabilities The goal of B612, a confab of scientists, technologists, astronomers, astronauts, and other specialists is to significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015. In detailing todays NEO situation, Schweickart said there are several givens: That the Earth is infrequently hit by asteroids which cross our orbit while circling the Sun; the consequence of such impacts ranges from the equivalent of a 15 megaton (TNT) explosion to a civilization ending gigaton event; and for the first time in the history of humankind we have the technology which, if we are properly prepared, we can use to prevent such occurrences from happening in the future. "Remember, were dealing here with a less frequent, but far more devastating Katrina a Katrina of the Cosmos," Schweickart reported. "NEOs happen so infrequently that even though they are orders of magnitude more devastating, people dont naturally make that match," he told SPACE.com, "but you dont want to be caught with your pants down." There are key capabilities, Schweickart said, which will enable humanity to avoid devastating cosmic collisions: Early warning; a demonstrated deflection capability; and an established international decision making process. While some progress is being made, there remains significant work ahead in all these areas, Schweickart emphasized. Sky-sweeping surveys Given sky-sweeping surveys and extrapolating into the future, by 2018 on the order of 10,000 NEOs with some risk of impact over the next 100 years are likely to be cataloged, Schweickart forecast - but there is better than an even chance that none of these 10,000 will actually hit the Earth in those 100 years. "The important fact however, is that a substantial number of them will appear as though they may be headed for impact," Schweickart advised. Today, of the 104 currently on impact listings, "two have an elevated risk and we are watching them closely," he said. At present, the two asteroids on that "keep an eye on them roster" are 2004 VD17 and Apophis, formerly listed as 2004 MN4. "Extrapolating to 2018 we may have as many as 200 in a similarly elevated attention category and of growing concern to the general public," Schweickart reported today. "Therefore, it is certainly possible, if not likely, that in the timeframe of the next 12 years wethe worldmay well be in a position where we need to take action to insure that we will be able to carry out a deflection mission if needed," he said. The U.S. Congress amended the Space Act in 2005 to charge NASA with responsibility to "detect, track, catalogue, and characterize" NEOs greater than some 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter. However, it has, thus far, come up short on actually assigning the responsibility to take action should one of these objects be discovered headed for a collision, Schweickart pointed out. There is a bit of good news forthcoming, Schweickart explained. The Congress did require NASA to provide by the end of 2006 an analysis of possible alternatives that could be employed to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth. In response to this Congressional directive, NASA is about to announce a process for carrying out this mandate. Global threat global response Schweickart told the ISDC audience here, that a third leg of the triad for protecting the Earth from NEO impacts is probably the most challenging, albeit subtle. "It is complicated by two related facts," he said, that NEO impacts are a global threat, not a national one, and the only decision making body representing, essentially, the whole planet is the United Nationsa body not known for timely, crisp decision making, he added. Still, in this area, steps forward are being made. The Association of Space Explorers (ASE)the professional organization of astronauts and cosmonautshas formed a committee on NEOs which Schweickart chairs. Earlier this year, a technical presentation at a UN meeting in Vienna apprised them that this issue was coming at them. While the UN has been brought the problem, Schweickart said, the ASE is committed to bringing them a solution. This solution will take the form of a draft United Nations treatyor protocolformulated in a series of workshops over the next two years. "In these NEO Deflection Policy workshops we will gather together a dozen or so international experts in diplomacy, international law, insurance, and risk management, as well as space expertise to identify and wrestle with these difficult international issues," Schweickart noted. "Our goal is to return to the UN in 2009 with a draft NEO Deflection Decision Protocol and present it to them for their consideration and deliberation." Facing the challenge In wrapping up his ISDC talk, Schweickart said the NEO challenge, in a sense, "is an entry test for humankind to join the cosmic community." He reasons that, if there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe "it is virtually certain that it has already faced this challenge to survival and passed it." "Our choice is to face this infrequent but substantial cosmic test or pass into history, not as an incapable species like the dinosaurs, but as a fractious and self serving creature with inadequate vision and commitment to continue its evolutionary development," Schweickart concluded.

OK, Zep. You've got the banana care nailed! A couple of ornamental (you don't want to eat the fruit, because it's full of seeds) varieties can survive in cold areas, like here in NY, with that kind of care. Edible varieies, around here, have to come inside for the winter. Now to the subject at hand: I got nowhere with the Creative link. I just got an error, HTTP 404 Not Found. When I clicked on, "Publisher: Creative", I got to a place where there were so many of these things that I didn't know which one was the right one. At the Gateway link, they asked for the serial number. (0016653113) When I gave them that, and clicked on a few other things that they told me to do, I got this instruction: "Insert System Restoration Kit Drivers CD in the System Restoration Kit Window." I found the System Restoration CD, and I guess there's really only one place I can insert it. On the disc itself, it says to reinstall some old Windows operating systems, start the PC with the disc inserted, and to install system software and drivers, insert the disc while the PC is on. So, I guess I start up the PC, and put the disc in. If I remember correctly, from the few times I have used any restorations, long ago, you restore to a certain date. A date, when I still had sound, was before I took the 'puter in for service. If I restore to a date like that, while restoring my sound, am I not also restoring the problems that prompted me to take the machine in for service, in the first place?