I have no problem with people dismissing my feedback if that is what you mean by your post. At the same time, there are no absolutes here. And people have different standards. We are all here to share our experiences. I am not here to sell you a Chinese cookbook, telling you that you can duplicate what you eat at a commercial establishment at home. Nor do I have the credentials of Grace Young. So use the feedback for what it is worth taking into account that you are getting free advice so it may just be worth that much :). We are however, are avid cooks and we are going through our second remodel (for a different house). The first upgrade to 15K BTU was a huge boost over the contractor grade gas cooktop. So let there be no doubt about that. And yes, we can smoke the wok and do OK creating "wok hay" on small amount of ingredients -- maybe. But for day in, day out cooking, 15K is merely adequate at best. The kind of wok hay I experience at my favorite Asian restaurants is in an entirely different class than what we can recreate at home. As I post before, a 15K BTU cooktop is not even in the same planet as what is used in a commercial setting. Yes, they like speed in that environment. But when it comes to Chinese cooking, speed is recipe item #1. You canÂt let the ingredients stew in the sauce and expect to have the same thing come out as flash cooking on a high power cooktop. Remember, it is easy to justify what you own. It is much harder to be critical of it :).

After sleeping on it and re-reading and re-reading and re-reading the letter we received 1000's of times, DH thinks maybe, maybe they haven't put the lien on our house yet. Maybe. Here's the letter as written, and I have to say it says some sad things about the schools here in Garland if this writer was educated here. The grammar reminds me of those bogus emails from people overseas wanting to share their money with you if you just give them your bank account number. "If amount due is not paid on or before February 25, 2009, please contact the City of Garland Revenue Recovery Department because a lien has been placed on the property described above and a $16.00 Lien Filing Fee will be charged. A lien gives the City of Garland the right to hold the property as security until the amount due is paid. In addition, late payments are subject to 10% interest compounded annually if not paid on or before the due date." They switched tenses in the middle of a sentence, to say the least. This letter just doesn't make sense to us at all. We've received no prior bills or warnings for this tree trimming they say they did back in December. Cross your fingers that this is just a poorly worded letter warning us that they will place a lien, but haven't yet. Sally

Well, we had our first viewer today! The lady [50's and single] very impressed! Exactly what she has been looking for. Loved the location, property, and privacy. We shall see what will happen. Loralee: 1) We cannot subdivided any smaller than what we have. We have a large Dairy farm 1/2 mile North [cannot smell it], and a large beef farm to the west. Even if we could, it wouldn't be worth trying as those neighbours would fight it, as it would cause problems for their livelihood. If you look at the one photo I posted with the 2 cattle sheds you will see in the far distance our dairy neighbours house. Ours is small and plain in comparison, so I do not think we over built. 2) We built 5 years ago as our old mobile home we had already lived it for 17 yrs old just wasn't cutting it anymore. We built with the intent to live here till we retired, but life has a way of changing plans, and my husband's job place closed down and he bought into a prospering business, everything we do is in town, and with your farming background, then you know what the BSE meant to cattle farmers, which we were as well. Sometimes you need to know when to cut your loses. Its time for a new chapter of our lives to begin. 3) We are renting our our cultivated acres to our dairy neighbour, and rent out our pasture as well. My husband manufactures large bale wagons as well from his shop in the back. No more farming for us. 4) The quality of our land is not exactly for potatoes. We live on a gravel ridge, with awesome drainage, but is better suited for cattle. The cultivated land is great for alfalfa, or cattle corn. We know our property is directed at a specific buyer, and are willing to wait. It only takes one person. Not too worried if Wpg people aren't interested. 5) Yes, we did get different realtors opinions.

It costs a lot of energy to raise a bushel of corn. Not so smart to then process it - more energy required - into fuel for autos, homes. Not so bad for farmers, as it may raise the prices of corn, wheat, etc. But we need to use those foodstuffs as food. Trouble is - millions over the face of the earth are hungry. But they don't have money - so, sorry, they don't eat. The market rules, remember? Takes care of all of the issues. We could reduce the impact of HIV in Africa - or malaria, for that matter, which kills large numbers annually, mostly kids. But many of them have almost nil money, so the drug cos. have little incentive, spend little time or assets on developing medicines for them. For the price of a bomber or two, or a few missiles, we could develop clean and abundant water supplies for everyone ... but as it is, many rural Afican women have to walk several kilometres to collect dirty/polluted water for their familiy's use ... when their work could be more productively used, elsewhere. It seems to me that helping people find some hope for them, remaining where they are, holds a greater possibility of reducing the numbers of people willing to become suicide bombers than does building walls, searching people massively at airports and huge other security measures - at huge cost, and of limited efficacy. ole joyful