What the pioneer women DID have was laundry soap water. Soap was made from lye and lard (animal fat). Today's soap is NOT the same stuff and not appropriate for garden use! Insecticidal Soap is the modern equivalent of "grandma's lye soap" The lard (potassium salts of fatty acids) in the soap was the active ingredient. It dries out the exoskeleton of the insects so they can't molt. Instead of their old skin splitting so they can shed it and emerge larger (the way they grow), it doesn't split and they strangle in their own skin. It's much like lye soap (and insecticidal soap) dries out your skin and how they can burn your eyes if you get it in them. Later, they had Blackleaf 40, a nicotine-sulphur compound which was used to delouse poultry. It was available until relatively recently for home use until it was found to be too poisonous to humans. If you can find it at all know, it's not in pint bottles on the department store shelves as it used to be. Nicotine is a nerve toxin, killing through nervous exhaustion or by actually stopping the heart. Sulphur is a fungicide which kills and prevents many fungi from damaging plant tissues. Many roses were brought across the country by settlers. Comparitively, only a few actually survived, and those which did, succeeded where they found conditions suitable to their needs. A found rose here in California isn't likely to be a survivor in Tennessee because they are completely different climates with tremendously different levels of water, cold and humidity. You're much more likely to succeed with "found roses" if you can plant the ones 'found' as close to where you garden. Grandmother's Hat is splendid in many of the California climates, but can be a martyr to black spot where it's hot and humid. Many of the once flowering, European OGRs are found in the North East, surviving for many decades with few issues and no assistance, but they aren't successful here because we can't give them what they want. You are spot-on with the thought that finding the right rose for the right spot is precisely what you need to do to succeed easily. That's what many have preached for a very long time. I'd suggest contacting Ann in Tennessee for her best suggestions as she's very local to where you are and would have the best suggestions for little to no care roses where you are. The rest of us can suggest many things, but we don't necessarily garden with the same issues so the things we suggest may easily not be good where you are. Kim

Carp! Once I re-posted this, the whole forum re-loaded and voila! There was my original post. This forum is totally hosed up.

hee hee - must be a big change from the frenzied maniac of last night! They'll be here in less than an hour and the wellingtons are put together ready for oven so are the mushrooms, cheese nips...I stil lhave to do hollandaise and cook asparagus. Fruit and stuff is cut up for the fondue - and kids pizzas are prebaked - just need warming up. Oh and soup is done - cheese is grated for tops, and bread is toasted. Here I am feeling quite proud - watch - I'll self destruct - lol. Only thing to do is fix ME up. good lord, if i answered the door like this they'd wonder what the "real" theme is... Stacy

RachelEllen, I know you didn't ask me, and Maria's description is wholly accurate, but there is an easier way to pluck chickens if one is plucking several at a time: Put a steel drum full of water on a brick platform and arrange a torch burner beneath it so the water comes to a rapid boil. Grab a (freshly killed) chicken by the feet with some loooong tongs and dip it in the boiling water for a few seconds, then fire up your plucking machine! There are different configurations for plucking machines, but ours was a motorized horizontal cylinder with soft rubber fingers protrubing from the drum. One holds one's scalded chicken by the feet above the spinning cylinder and it ever-so-gently pulls all the feathers off as it rotates quickly. It's the only really fun part of the process to be honest. More than ten chickens can be plucked this way in the time it takes to hand pluck one. As for slaughtering your own chickens, it can be done quickly and with dignity by just about anyone. Your best bet is to ask someone who has several (get a referral from the place that sells you your chicks) that need dispatching and ask to come help/learn.