This seems like a silly debate... it's a fact that always remains if the plant tissue completely dessicates and becomes bone-dry inside and out, it dies; this is true for any plant. It's also true for most plants that if it becomes too wet and moisture pools on the surface or the water causes the stem/roots to lose contact with air, it rots. And in the meantime, plants are variously adapted to maintain a mostly-constant water content inside themselves despite the variance in surrounding moisture. So a number of different methods will work for maintaining the appropriate amount of moisture inside the fleshy stem, also depending on your particular climate and the environment in which they are stored. So the big question is, how much humidity is in the air in your climate and specifically, in the location where you are storing the plants. In very dry climates, soaking a dormant stem, bulb, root or tuber in water periodically may replenish lost moisture. In very humid climates, soaking it in water may very will kill the plant tissue with mold if the water does not evaporate or if the tissues can't get oxygen, but in those climates it is unnecessary to soak the plants because water loss is very slow. I would suggest in this case you try the same methods you use storing plants like cannas and dahlias. You can completely control the environment by burying it in a pile of barely-moistened peat moss - just moist enough that the peat does not turn to dust if you blow on it, but not any more - in an OPEN grocery bag and setting that in a closed cardboard box, then putting it in a cool (but not freezing) garage. Then no matter what happens to your air humidity, the peat only very slowly loses moisture through the winter.

Yes, I will be the first one to admit my husband and I both need a break. Usually I handle what comes with no problem, but I think the holiday stess is getting to me. I'm a wife, mother, grandmother and caregiver, but recently it's been hard to balance all that. Throw in Christmas shopping and planning and I think I've felt overwelmed. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, 2 of my grandkids (ages 5 and 12) and my son-in law came to visit. An overnight visit wound up lasting 3 days. I love my grandkids but the extra everything exhausted me. (and my husband) Not to mention it threw my MIL into a confused exhausted state for almost a week. I usually "do" Thanksgiving at my house, but I cancelled the big family thing and chose to have a quiet small dinner with just the 3 of us. I think I pissed the family off, but I don't regret doing it. I don't think they realize the amount of work it puts on us. Or how it stresses her to have her routine changed. So...now I'm planning Christmas--it's tradition to have it at "Grammy's" (me) house and I always look forward to it--but not so much this year. With my MIL's declining health things are much different for us. One daughter lives close and is wonderful to give me a break, she visits regularly enough to know the meds and the care MIL requires. The other daughter ( the one with 4 children) rarely calls and doesn't realize how things have changed for my MIL. She just shows up with the children ( who will be charged up on christmas) and thinks things are the same as always. So..having said all that I've deceided to simplify things around here. Insted of a lot of gifts, there will be gift cards and I'm going to play up the fact that the after chrismas sales will be great when they go to use them. The huge amount of food will be cut in half with just the favorites. I've enlisted both daughters with what they will cook and bring--pies and such. The youngest daughter has offered to come early and do a lot of the cooking for me. Her husband has offered to come and sit with my MIL and keep her intertained ( she loves that boy and so do I). There will be paper plates, not the good china,and what I can get already prepared will be bought, not made here ( the restuarant down the road makes a mean smoked turkey). I'm not gonna worry about how messy the house looks cause it's gonna look like a mad house once they all show up anyway. I think I just might survive this after all.

Wow, this is an old thread. We were all so confused by Casey's change in behavior back in 2009. I thought I would tell you all what happened with him. I did take him for private and group training lessons, and this is when we noticed he wasn't seeing well. For a while, that was our major focus with him. Putting bells on Bina did seem to help cut down on attacks for a while. Then, on Christmas Eve 2009, pre-dawn, Casey had two gran mal seizures. Strangely, we have a 24-hour neurological ER about 45 minutes away. Casey and I got an appointment there for mid morning. The physical exam showed that he had neurological deficits. He was weak on the left side and not paying as much attention to the left side of his vision. The exam indicated he likely had a brain tumor behind his right eye, maybe as far back as his ear. I did not want to do brain surgery, so paying for a CT (done under anesthesia) made no sense. We opted for medication to keep him as comfortable as possible for as long as possible. Once he was on meds, his eyesight improved and he usually did not run into things anymore. He could see treats again. Casey was put on Prednisone to shrink the tumor, phenobarbital to treat the seizures the tumor was causing, and continued on pain meds, which were changed to Tramadol. He clearly still had spinal pain. I asked that his thyroid hormone levels be checked because I remembered the incident here on the Pets forum where the lady in a western Canadian province was waiting for a ride to go to the vet to have her dog euthanized due to uncontrollable seizures, when she stopped to write to us about her sadness at having to do this. One of the people on the forum wrote to her to have the thyroid levels checked first. The lady did so, and they were terribly low. The dog was put on synthetic hormone, and was saved. So I asked about this. The neurologist said I was welcome to have my vet check the thyroid, but he definitely had a neuro problem, likely a tumor, either way. We did have the thyroid check done, it was quite low, and Casey was on levothyroxine the rest of his life. Casey never had any more seizures that anybody saw. He did improve greatly with the aggression, then would become worse again. When he did, we would talk to the vet, who upped his Pred, later added Melatonin, and then upped the Melatonin when he started aggressing again later. He also got an herb for liver function added when those labs got elevated. He never resumed playing with Toby. He continued to counter cruise. Towards the end, he was so restless each evening that we were giving him a rawhide chew each night and he worked off his energy/discomfort or whatever was happening inside him by chewing. He enjoyed short walks. His muscle tone deteriorated and he adopted a wide stance to feel more secure on his feet. He would lie down in a froggy position anytime he was not actually walking. He loved his home and his friends and treats, getting into things, outsmarting me and getting me distracted so that he could steal food or drink (he loved fancy coffee drinks that Dad's caregivers might bring in, could take the paper cup off a table and onto the floor, pry off the lid, and drink from the cup without spilling it.) Casey died a week after his last vet exam, in October 2012. I thought that he had a GI problem and spent I a night up with him cleaning up vomit and keeping him away from water because he just vomited it back up. We got about three hours of sleep before the vet opened and she saw him straight away. He had deteriorated drastically while I showered that morning. My friend and I carried him to the car. The doc euthanized him after she examined him. He had apparently had a stroke that morning. His heart was likely behind all the vomiting the night before, she said. I was glad I had stayed up with him. Casey lived two years and ten months after the diagnosis of brain tumor, and 3 years, eight and a half months past the date I posted this question. Bina had died a year earlier, following surgery for cancer in a toe. Her kidneys failed after surgery and we could not get her to eat and drink to get them working again. Toby, our oldest and smallest, is still here with us. Here is Casey before the diagnosis, when he still thought he was my lap dog.

Latex mattresses sold by the big "S" companies are rarely, if ever, composed of 100% latex. They contain layers of cheaper foam which tend to sag over time, and mattresses with pillowtops sag the worst. I once saw a chart showing specifications of big-name "latex" mattresses and you wouldn't believe the small amount of real latex. There might be five layers of different types of foam with one or two thin layers of latex. About four years ago I was looking for a latex mattress and did a lot of online research, including spending many months reading posts on a mattress forum. I learned about several online companies that sell real latex mattresses and provide great customer service. Specialty stores in some geographic areas (not mine) also sell latex mattress, some organic. But I was on a limited budget and knew I could never afford any of these (and I question the concept of organic latex but that's for another thread.) Based on suggestions on the mattress forum, I took a risk and made an online purchase from a web site called foambymail (the company is Foam Factory.) I purchased a 6" firm base, a separate 3" soft topper, and upgraded to a terry cover, which has a zipper around all four sides (a $20 upgrade.) The mattress comes shrink wrapped, shipped by UPS. Shipping is free. Latex is very heavy and a friend helped me lug it upstairs to the bedroom. We placed it on the platform bed before unwrapping it. As we cut through the shrink wrap carefully, it made a whooshing sound as it expanded. The 6" latex base had already been placed by the company inside the mattress cover, so we only had to shift it into place on the bed. We placed the 3" topper inside the cover and zipped it all around. Since I like cushy beds, I bought a separate mattress cover with its own pillowtop made by Cuddledown (from Costco). After four years, the bed is like new and it's the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on. If I were doing this again, the only change I would make is to get a 2" soft topper rather than 3". I might also substitute the Cuddledown cover with a wool topper since the Cuddledown is filled with polyesther and sleeps a little warm. I paid less than $700 for a full size mattress and topper; it would be a little more today. Here is a link that might be useful: Foam Factory