When pinching plants to maximize foliage density and/or promote lots of branches, it's a pretty safe bet that if you allow the branches or vines to extend to 4 or more leaves before cutting the branch back to 2 leaves, there is little chance of die-back. New branches should grow from both remaining leaf axils, doubling the number of branches with each pinching operation. You need to be careful with rooting hormone. There are several synthetic forms of auxin (rooting hormones are synthetic forms of this hormone/growth regulator) that act as defoliants if used excessively. The infamous agent orange defoliant used during the Viet Nam war was simply synthetic auxin. The broad leaf herbicides like Weed-b-gone are also man-made forms of auxin. A 30 second dip in a 10% solution of unscented household bleach or a 10% solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide, or a dusting with powdered sulfur would have been an excellent way to combat the fungaluglies that cause root rot. Bare-rooting and repotting (hopefully into a fast draining and durable soil) was a good thing. Al

Two days before Newtown, we had a shooter at one of our local malls. Everyone I talk to is nervous to go out to the malls right now. I work for the State, and I worry about nuts coming into our building and firing off shots. There is a young man who claims to have a CCW and he allegedly drew a bead on the mall shooter, claims to have made eye contact but he didn't shoot because there were other people near by. Then the story goes on to say that after that the shooter killed himself. I say this is 'allegedly' because law enforcement has given some conflicting reports. Regardless, if he did or didn't, the mall is posted as a Gun Free Zone...so that didn't stop a CCW carrier. I don't think these assassins chose gun free zones for that reason, they go where they KNOW they're going to be able to cause mass casualties. Another thing I try to point out is that very, very few people posess the absolute control that a tactically trained person has. All these shooters wear body armor, therefore it'd require a sniper kill shot to the head to take them out. Good luck getting some weekend paper target shooter to make a shot like that, much less someone who rarely, if ever draws a weapon. We all like to think we will be in command if an emergency crisis occurs, but it's just not in our nature! Having to kill someone is not something the majority of citizens has ever had to comprehend in real time. And to have the ability to identify a danger and act? Yeah right. My very first instinct would be to take cover and run, get to a safe place and then, and only then, take offensive measures. I think everyone who thinks they should walk around with a gun on their person try this experiment. Go into a public place with a friend, one that is well populated. Instead of your gun, have a rubber band shooter or some other non-lethal 'gun'. Have your friend shout out KITTY CAT! and turn to point to a 3rd person who is wearing a clown wig and has a similar 'gun'. That person is a shooter. Now, whip out your 'gun' and 'shoot' the shooter. Of course, it's going to be at a random point in time, you're in on this...but you don't know when or where it'll happen. Now, lets time your reaction and see if you actually hit the target and/or were YOU or someone else hit. A non-lethal exercise to gauge just what a Dirty Harry you are. I hate that people need to have a gun in the home for protection, but in some cases it is needed, if you live in a rural area where law enforcement is far away. In that case, I'd certainly hope you have a couple of big, loud dogs as an early warning system. But if you have a gun in the home, why does it have to be a weapon capable of shooting more than 6 bullets at a time? Really, if you're in a situation where an intruder has a semi-auto-chances are you're already going to kiss your hind end goodbye.

Sorry, I'm back to ask for your indulgence again. I was so excited about the book case idea. Till I went back to the site. We could do it, but only on one side. Can you spell "a-s-y-m-m-..." However, I am still thinking about it. The photo shows a hallway leading to the banquette. This is a side entrance. You come in the house, turn left, pass a pr, then a mudroom, then go thru this entrance to the banquette. The doorway you are looking at is the wall that would move 11" back to meet up with the built in cabinet. This hall is informal. The side entry is slate, then there is a step up to wide plank which continues on. The pr is mean to look old, with an old crazed vessel sink on what looks like a potting bench, and an antique wooden toilet tank on the wall. You may notice the right hand side wall has exterior shingles, to suggest that that was the outside of the house and this is added on (which is true). So it's casual, funky even. We will put hooks along the shingle wall. If we did the "bookcase idea", you would just see a book case on the right. ON the left, there is no wall ---- there is our mudroom. We could build a bookcase in there too! It would not be visible, but it would have utility. Here is a link that might be useful: looking at the wall from the hallway

We bought a very expensive cover from a company in Nevada specifically designed for these long swim spas that was supposed to roll up from one side to the other, and occupy a relatively small footprint at one end when rolled up. It had fiberglass or similar arches built in to it that were supposed to created a mounded cover that would shed water. Almost immediately the cover's layers began to separate down the middle and reveal that they were not sewn together at all; the main mechanism of heat capture was revealed as a very thin piece of space blanket like material, which would have been ok if all the layers had stayed together; the hoops, instead of standing up horizontally in curves across the width of the pool (8.5') along the length of it (15'), laid down almost immediately and when rained upon collected many heavy gallons of water that had to be broomed off before the cover could be removed; and each time it collected standing water it got more and more waterlogged, until it was a sodden mess and could barely be removed by two adults. I sent the company pictures of the problems within six months, but they had left off their website the guarantee instructions which were included in the shipping container--- which was so large four men had to open it and get the cover out---- that stated the guarantee was void unless the owner cleaned the vinyl-permeated canvas top monthly with saddle soap of a certain brand! They later did add that to their website, but by then the company had changed names and was selling the covers under a different llc. Obviously I would not have purchased the cover if that requirement had been mentioned on their site at the time! Our deck was designed to accommodate this particular swim spa and we did not plan for a motorized safety cover because of the way the sides curved. I wish we had tried harder with that manufacturer to devise a custom solution (as my DH suggested), but this failed cover had just come on the market and at $2300 it was a better buy than trying to devise custom runners for the safety cover. When it go to the point that I could not get the cover off myself and use the swimming function for rehab post shoulder surgery, I decided to design a cover myself. The upholsterer in town makes custom boat covers, so we got together several times to work out a design that could be easily removed both to use and to get off the standing water that is inevitable with anything of that length of span.