Hi Barry, Welcome to the forum and I am so glad you stopped lurking and let us know that you are out there! There's nothing wrong with lurking, but it is a whole lot more fun to join the conversation, so I am glad you did. For any little thing I've said that has helped you, you are welcome. I love how we all continue to learn from one another here and to share stories not just of our successes but of our failures. I hope we never stop learning. Do you know what worries me? After tweaking every little thing I do to accommodate increasingly hot and dry conditions, I'm afraid one of these years we'll have a wet and cool year and I won't know what to do in those conditions any more. (I'll be willing to give it a shot, though.) My last really wet, cool year was 2007, although 2010 was decent most of the year. Why does 2010 sound so long ago? That is a shame about the whey plant. We continue to see almost continual residual effects of drought long after rain has begun falling and we start thinking it is over. I live in a cattle raising area, and the number of empty pastures that once held cattle is just really shocking. I'm going to grow daikons as a winter compost crop next winter. This year I grew turnips and they got huge. All winter I cut off the greens to feed to our flock of spoiled chickens, and then a few weeks ago I rototilled the turnips into the ground to begin decomposing. Every week or so I go through that area with the tiller again and chop them up some more. I need that area to be ready for warm-season crops in a few weeks, and I think it will be. It is one of the least-improved areas of our garden so it needs some extra help. I hope you'll keep us posted on how it all works out for you. No one understands the trials and tribulations of gardening in erratic weather like those of us who do it. To me, it doesn't matter if a person is in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri or even Virginia....we are bound together by the challenges of dealing with increasingly erratic weather. In our part of the country, if the drought doesn't get you, the floods will....or the hail or the wildfires or the tornadoes.....or ice storms, snow in March or April, etc. Gardening here is never dull. Dawn

Thanks, everyone...I was in quite a mood when I wrote the OP. I'm feeling better today...even after 5 years we seem to have our moments or days...anyway, I didn't mean to sound as if I don't have any relationship with my nieces and nephew. In fact, I do...I just don't get to see them as much as I would like. THey live 4+ hours from me and I'm in Grad school. But I'll be graduating in May and will have a lot more time to go and visit. I just feel guilty sometimes that I don't get up there enough. And YES...there are many other circumstances that make contact akward at times...but we get through them on the most part. Again, I am so grateful for those of you who responded and showed such kindness. I will definitely not be so shy anymore and will check in on you all. You are all such an amazing bunch of people...compassionate, strong, and expressive. Thank you again, Adrienne

I recently purchased and installed Thomasville cabinetry about 6 weeks ago, I got the Linden door style in maple pearl. I couldn't find much on GW about Thomasville, but we took advantage of the great savings, and feel that we got a tremendous deal. The cabinets are beautiful, high quality in my estimation (of course, not to be compared to custom...they are what they are). The finish is so far very durable, and I have four children - not gentle at all. Our KD was very responsive, and the only minor 'issue' we had was that the sink base didn't have the soft close mechanisms upon delivery. He had them shipped and we had them within 3 days. We installed ourselves, so I can't speak to their install, but overall we are very happy with both product and service. I know other GWers have had different experiences with big box stores.. The door is beautiful - we were torn between cherry and painted, ultimately went for painted. I'll try to post a picture later, but there's still lots to do before my kitchen makes it to the FKB... :)best of luck

Is the light from those windows super important? If not, I would "cheat" the windows. Hang your curtain rod high and wide (just a bit below the ceiling and almost all the way to the wall on each edge), but off centered to each window. Then hang woven blinds or a soft roman shade under the rod but on top of the window (to hide the brick). Hang panels on either side of each window and arrange them evenly. The windows will then look centered and you will have softened the wall considerably at a very low cost. See a similar idea here: http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/02/nursery-progress-getting-the-hang-of-it/