Interesting to see how the totals vary throughout the US. The key is comparing to average precipitation. I haven't found the official numbers for precipitation but we where down about 50% for the year. The driest months dropped in during the typical wettest time of the year and also the hottest meteorological summer on record. 2012 was officially the warmest year on RECORD. This past summer I learned to hate sunny days and fall in love with cloudy rainy days. It was so unbelievably brutal. I will never complain about a rainly day in my life after establishing a garden during the 2012 drought.

No one in my family as far back as my grandmothers had any hood in their kitchen. The heat was sometimes unbearable during summertime when one was reducing tomatoes in 8 gallon pots or doing other preserving stuff that implies cooking, but hey, it was just a couple of days a year. In the winter we did like the warmth and the aromas of whatever was cooking dispersing through the house. A hood was just not a part of the cooking culture back in my country. Three months ago, I finally caved in and installed a Kobe RA2 hood over my range. I'm still in shock over how incredibly useful a hood is. I now consider that the most important two appliances in the whole kitchen are the range and the hood, way ahead of the fridge/freezer, oven or anything else. What gave me the hint of what a good hood is capable of was dining at a nice restaurant, 5 feet away from the grill on which my salmon was being prepared; no fish smell whatsoever was coming our way - that was something I definitely wanted at home. I'm convinced I spent all these years in the dark, but now I've seen the light and it's coming from my hood :-)

Thank you very much all, your munificent comments cheer me up in the midst of these two devastating storms in the N.E. I felt guilty that millions were out of power for many days, and many are still without power, yet I was cooking with my electric sous vide cooker and waffle iron. I recognize the waffle iron fries green tomatoes was a silly idea, but it made sense to me that you can steam and fry two side at the same time, and also the iron's thermostat controls how much frying you want to have the tomatoes done. Jasdip, the salmon idea came from the post "Are you watching NOVA" recently. Nathan Myhrvold, who is the author of the monuental $500.00 cookbook "Modernist Cuisine", sous vide cooks his amazingly delicious salmon at 115F. I made mine at 125F, slightly more flaky. With sous vide you can of course cook the salmon at any degree of flaky-ness everytime. But I will never again cook salmon at 212F. Cooking allows me to explore, one of the challenges with sous vide salmon is how to make the skin crispy. Nathan Myhrvold makes his without the skin. I was able to make mine with very crispy skin without overcooking the fish, a technique I am trying to perfect. Teresa, you are almost correct, The green powder is wasabi beans made into powder. dcarch

vesfl, I'm so glad it is of interest. I find these things very absorbing, even when they reference growing conditions different from mine, and plants I probably couldn't grow here even if they were all still available in commerce. I do realize that Long Island NY is not in the western part of the state, but I also think you might also enjoy reading a very good article written in 1907 by Admiral Aaron Ward (whose garden, Willowmere, was in Roslyn, NY): https://books.google.com/books?id=axkiAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA43#v=onepage&q&f=false vaporvac, I don't think the 'General' is still in commerce; HMF says that Rogue Valley Roses carries it, but it isn't featured at their web site. I would call RVR to ask. I also wonder if the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden still has this rose, and if they could be lobbied to propagate it for one of their sales? It might not help you get one anytime soon, but in the long run, who knows? Virginia