Hello Sharon, About 15 years ago we lived in Dallas (actually Plano). My East Coast wife tells people, "We did time in Texas." We owned one of those 10,000 sf houses built on a 10,000 sf lot, with a 50,000 gallon pool, everything fenced in, had to water the foundation of our house in the summertime so that it wouldn't crack and no place to have a garden. Daily weather forecast, high temp today in the triple digits, strong damaging winds, possible hail, lightning & thunder late afternoon storms. Not one single mature tree in the entire subdivision. Streets laid out and mapped all the way from Dallas to the Oklahoma state line. I'm originally from Nebraska, so wide open spaces didn't bother me, but DW was happy to move to Virginia. About hay smell. The smell of hay depends on what type of hay it is. If it is newly cut alfalfa, then yes it will have a strong smell for quite some time, but the smell normally subsides as the hay cures. Many people like the smell of newly cut hay. You may not. Most grass hay does not smell very much at all. I cut and bale fescue with clover and various rye grasses mixed in. It has little or no smell. Spoiled hay most likely won't smell much when it is first ruined. As it decomposes it will often develop internal mold that is not harmful to people or plants. Hay mulch will sometimes develop a good mold where the mulch touches the earth. Don't fret about that mold, its good for the decomposition and the worms and good bugs love it. I think that's why I haven't had any serious bug problems with this garden. My observation is that all the bug action takes place in the lower parts of the mulch and the plants are so healthy that the bugs don't harm them. Very few bad bugs this year. The lady bugs are plentiful here and kill lots of aphids. I was surprised that there were no potato beetles on my cukes this year. After the hay mulch has been in place for a while, it will begin to develop a nice "earthy" smell that is associated with high quality compost and good dirt. My suggestion is to use plain grass hay and not use alfalfa. Some folks use straw (wheat or oat) but my view is that straw does not have the same nutrient content as hay because there is little or no green material in straw. Thus, the nutrient value to the soil isn't there. Just my $.02 worth. Some folks are afraid to use hay mulch because they think there will be too many weed seeds and they will end up with a garden full of weeds. My experience has been that while there may be weed seeds in the hay mulch, by the time it has decomposed and as thick as it is the seeds just don't germinate. Also, I intensively plant and there is little space for weeds and little sunlight for them. If a weed does pop up it is easily pulled. If a bunch of weeds try and grow, I just toss some more hay on top of them and that stops them because they get no sunlight. I've also been known to stomp on weeds now and then. Horse manure. Now that does smell when it is "fresh" or "green." You don't want to use that. Instead, buy composted horse manure which shouldn't have much or any horsey manure smell at all. If you have the space, hubby could have another "dirty" job and make your own composted horse manure. Personally, I'd probably just buy a pickup load of composted horse manure and be done with it. If you don't like the idea of working with horse manure, you might hire someone to work a load into the soil around your roses. Yeah, my teas kinda got out of hand, but I don't smoke, drink, gamble or chase women, so I had to have some kind of a vice. Yes, it was addictive, but DW always had fresh roses in the house and the house smelled great. Let me know what you learn about Ruth Stout and what you think of her ideas. She was one of a kind. Later, Ed

I have about 55" Phillips smart tv. Model 55PFL3907/F7 SN: VM1A1213110389. I had a power outage and the tv and direct tv modem were working when the power went out. Not so much when it came back on. The TV has a pink/violet picture stuck on it which has yellow writing. Doesn't seem to be a Phillips logo just some random picture. Plus the Direct tv modem isn't working properly either. The Direct tv company is coming to check it out but I'm looking for some input in case it turns out that the problem is with the tv. Thanks for any help you can give.

Hi Pee Wee- Thanks for responding- yes I am a tech. I have been weilding a soldering iron since about 1969 and worked as a computer tech for many years, now doing software. I have a very complete shop with test equip- scopes, signal generators, etc. When I mentioned visual inspection, I was looking for overheated resistors, or electrolytic caps that have bulged and are leaking, etc. Some of the previous discussions mentioned a resistor that was underrated and overheated. Once I get a chance to dive in, I shoudl be able to figure out why the PS is not putting out. I know this can be tricky with switching supplies, because they are designed to shut down if all outputs are not within spec- hard to know what the root cause is. I see a little modular Omron 12 supply there on the PCB. That will be one thing to check. I have an offer now to pick up another 27" set for free that doesn't power on at all- a Toshiba 27A41. Not that I have lots of spare time, but it seems that if a unit doesn't do anything at all, this is probably simpler to fix than if it has a subtle or intermittent problem. So maybe it won't be too difficult with these sets.

Alcohol also kills the bacteria, I have used it before, just not after shaving! Many deodorants and anti perspirant contains magnesium check the label. If you want to stop sweating be sure you aren't just using a deodorant, they are not all one and the same, you want an anti perspirant deodorant combined. Using a little baking soda with a bit of water to dissolve it rubbed in the pits works too. Arm and hammer make a stick product now. To apply the milk of magnesia get one of those dauber containers like they use for bingo, the sponge dauber makes a good application device. . I have bought those at hobby stores and office supplies stores. I have never used one for that but I have used them for applying other things.