I am so glad that so many of you know what I am talking about. In my usual mad scientist way I think I am going to try every way of preserving tomato slices. At this point in the year though, I have seen so many of my ideas go awry that I won't presume to pre-judge any of the methods before I have actually tried them myself. I have a recipe book here for canning all types of tomato preserves. I would imagine that tomato preserves are fairly delicious in place of ripe august tomatoes. Olga, I have a friend that spent two years in the peace corps working in Moldova, and she was amazed at how everything there was pickled and preserved. How do you ferment the vegetables, what kinds of ingredients do you use to accomplish the task. Oh, and pickling and preserving in the western world tends to stay away from pickling and fermenting things, in my experience, pickles and tomatoes are the only vegetable that is really canned over here, because of the desire for most vegetables to keep as close to their ripe flavor as possible, hence quick freezing for most home grown produce. I can't find a recipe for processing just the tomato juice itself, to keep in a jar until I am ready to rehydrate my dried tomatoes, If I just took the juice of a tomato, and filled a jar with it, then used that juice to rehydrate the same variety of tomato it came from, would that work? Most of the tomatoes I have growing are not paste tomatoes though, so I am going to have to find a way to preserve all of the brandywine, black, hybrid, and cherry tomatoes other than making a sauce. I would imagine that preserving non paste tomatoes would take a lot longer to reduce down to what was needed for sauce/preserves/catsup/ketchup/jelly. But I'll be the first to admit this will be my first year canning tomatoes myself, and I know nothing. When I was growing up I watched my parents do it for a few years, and then they just started to buy ragu... *facepalm* Most of what was grown consisted of early girls, romas, and jet stars, no epic historical heirloom tomatoes to be had.

Raybo, you know far more about container gardening than I do. This is my first year and I am still in the process of setting up the first box. I belong to another group that was making a big deal out of not using PVC in the containers. I was asking for input on this from others on this board. I first heard of ABS here and several posters are using it. I couldn't find anything that said it should not be used and some of the commercial boxes have ABS for fill tubes. I persevered and did find the data I posted above. Until I found out what ABS actually is, I thought it was safe. I also thought commercial water bottles are safe until I learned about the resin codes. Most of these bottles are #7 which is toxic. I threw my #7 bottles and glasses in the recycle bin. I think we need to make some educated decisions. I want to know as much as I can about the different materials. Then, based on what I learn and my health issues, I decide what to use. I will be using PVC -- at least for this year. It is used for water lines in some places. ABS on the other hand has never been approved for anything but drains, waste and venting. That classification and use indicate it is not save to use for food or water coming into the home. That being said. There are times when we as individuals must decide what to worry about and what we won't worry about. We have to take personal responsibility for those decisions. We are constantly coming into contact with toxic and/or hazardous things. In our environments, it just can't be avoided on a daily basis. I choose not to worry about all of these things.

Just to provide an update: We listed for $113K and we're under contract for $107K. The buyers are a late-middle-aged couple that wanted a single-story and called the house "pretty." They really clicked with the next-door neighbor that showed them the house too, so that probably helped. :-) BTW, sorry for abruptly dropping off this thread before. I felt like I was arguing (particularly about the condition of this house relative to its neighbor comps) when there was no way to settle it other than to let the market speak. NC, we did send DSS to visit the comp around the corner. He said it was very nice inside, and the sellers said it had been on the market for a couple months. It hasn't yet sold, and the listing expired mid-December. I'm assuming that was either the 60- or the 90-day mark, as that's how listing contracts run with QCFSBO. I've been watching all the comps since we listed and none of them have sold yet either. Some have dropped off the MLS, but they're not showing on the assessor's website as changing hands, so I'm assuming.... Could just be a time lag, though.

Mom2emall Honestly, I don't think any step parent that is truly horrible would be on a step parent advice site. If I didn't care anything about being a good parent I certainly wouldn't waste my time on here...hahaha. I am guilty of the stereotyping as well. I get angry at the girls mom sometimes and make those "blanket statements" exspecially when I see someone post something about Step's being controlling, jealous, money grubbing, just eye candy.....it hurts and I tend to get defensive. I get defensive because biomom is the one who is jealous, controlling and money grubbing in MY situation. Psuedo You are both BM and SM so you see it from all sides. I seriously doubt any of those comments were directed at you. I have made comments about jobless BM's but I meant in cases like my girls mother, where she CAN work but just doesn't want to and then keeps asking hubs for more money. The funny thing is that she was only getting them ONCE A WEEK! Can you believe that. She was asking for support money for the one night a week. Before her visitation got haulted, she was even asking for food she could cook when she had them. We had to pack the girls food for there one night at moms. That's why I said those things about jobless BM's. If I happened to say anything that offended you I apologize:)