And even if it's not on sale, you can always ask, especially if it's a floor model. A friend of mine bought a tool box at HD, and it was the last one- a floor model. He asked for and got 15% off.

I could almost have avoided buying radish seed this spring, for there were quite a few radishes about an inch high in the fall, volunteering from the radishes that had gone to seed earlier. There are a good deal many more this spring ... and some from the area where the radishes were, the year before. Anyone want some radish seeds? I have a few lettuce plants starting on their own, as well. Last year had quite a few zucchini from the ones that had spoiled that I threw directly on to the garden rather than into compost ... plus some volunteer tomato plants in a part of the garden where they were not planted, as well. I had about 60 some asparagus plants, last year ... but the landlord nicked some when he ran the tiller down the rows, last summer. And this spring when he did the initial tilling, to chew up the residues from last year and let the chewed up pieces start to rot ... he nicked a fair chunk of one row. Plus some died, I think ... so I think that I have only about half as many plants, now. Quite a few more seeds, so will fill in the blank spaces (but will need to mark them, as they'll need to be transplanted later than the originals). I save some of the first run of cold water out of the hot water tap in the bathroom/kitchen to water the cats, as well as flush the toilet. You guys in the sunny south-west should do a lot of that, cause you sure are short of water. They had a note on the radio the other day that they're worried that the rivers in rather dry Alberta are polluted now, and the flow is largely allocated ... ... so if some of you come wanting us to ship some down the trench between the mountains to California, Arizona, etc. ... we may be tellling you to get lost! The glaciers that feed them have been shrinking ... and if (when?) they die, Calgary may be crying big time for water, themselves. Have yourselves a lovely spring, everyone ... it's getting so that one can drop most of the winter clothing sometimes, in the last few days ... sort of a relief, that. ole joyful

Yes, I have some of his books and I recommend them. He has a very natural approach to gardening and i have used alot of his ideas with much success. You have to be a junior chemist tho!!! For example, there is a houseplant tonic that calls for ammonia, whiskey, plant food, etc. a little of this and a little of that......works pretty good for me tho! I think it's all a matter of preference. Maybe you could find a used book of his on ebay or Amazon, try it that way. Good luck!

Hi again folks, When I worked as a personal financial advisor, I talked to clients about "financial freedom" adding to one's peace of mind (in addition to providing the worthwhile liquidity that some envy in others but lack it themselves). The person who is deep in debt, owes on credit cards, and worries when the phone rings as to which creditor is calling, this time ... does not know the peace of mind that comes with financial freedom. The homeless person doesn't, either. When a person has come beyond the age of retirement and lacks enough money to pay for all of needed medications, food, housing and the fuel to keep it comfortable in winter ... which is getting more difficult as some of the basics of life have recent substantial increases in price ... that person lacks the luxury of financial freedom, also. But I also said that I wanted people to boss their money, not having their money bossing them. The people who have adequate resources but squeeze the buffalo on a nickel till it bellers ... aren't making best use of their financial freedom, either. To my mind the rich old guy in the restaurant who made a fuss about refusing to pay because one item on the buffet was lacking was, to my mind, just being boorish. Though I lived on pretty thin income for a number of years during my career, now that I'm near age 80 and don't have to worry about paying for some (of the rather few) things that I want, or about leaving my executors so strapped with regard to my estate that they have to go fishing for extra money to pay for my burial ... that level of financial freedom pleases me. Plus I have some to help pay for my extra care before death, if necessary. If I'm at a party where it's to go on for several hours and they're using styrofoam cups ... for juice now, possibly for water later (and I eschew bottled water, at home) and perhaps for coffee, eventually ... ... I've been known to use my own pen, or hunt up one of theirs, to put my name on my cup in order to use it throughout the period. Not so much for frugal/tight reasons, as for reusing things - reducing our wasteful use of scarce resources, plus making less garbage (and that was true long before I lived within a couple of miles of what used to be a local garbage dump [pardon me - "landfill"] but recently had their licence heavily expanded - then were sold to a major city over a hundred miles away). A city that now trucks their garbage something like 250 miles ... and over an international border. It took millions of years to make the petroleum ... and we've been using it, often wastefully, for the past hundred years - did you hear that: "hundred years" - like it's going out of style. It's not going out of style, in fact, the demand is increasing. Unfortunately - it's availability is decreasing. In addition ... have you heard U.S. folks recently whining about the increase in cost of gas (Canadians, too, but we've been paying some more for some time)? In those threads, we had some Europeans telling how they've been paying $5.00 or so for gas for some time. Have you ever heard the saying that, "Necessity is the mother of invention"? Guess who have been studying, working on, building, evaluating and revamping, various means of production of electricity from renewable resources in recent years. It was the Europeans ... not us North Americans, continuing to walk (no, "drive") along our paths of cheap energy availability. Much less, until recently, concerned to find alternative sources of energy. Additionally - cheap food, which has been our policy for years, is finished. Not only was our food cheaper than in many areas, the fact that our incomes were larger meant also that it consumed a much lower percentage of our total incomes. By the way ... some time ago, on a similar thread, I reported another frugal situation, which someone said that she'd never thought of, but was impressed by. I took some hamburger and peas out of the freezer a while ago ... to let them warm up in the expensively heated air put out by the furnace. I'm cooking a pot of rice ... so took the lid off of the rice cooker and put an aluminum pie plate on there, then put the peas on it, then another aluminum plate with the hamburg on that, with another plate or the pot lid set down on top. Two/three birds - one stone. Good wishes for making good use of a lovely spring weekend - it's snowing, here ... again! ole joyful