I choose to enjoy my plants when I can. I live in China now, so I have a good friend who is taking care of my collection for me. I have him send pictures during the growing season. I am trying to figure out which ones of my relatives are into c & s, so I can decide who to 'leave' my plants to. I start most of my plants from seed, including saguaros and pachycereus pringlei. So I have no hope of ever seeing them grow arms. I plan to be cremated and thrown into the Atlantic off Maine along with my dog's ashes. I can't validate, but I believe VT was one state that took up the issue of being buried on private property. The school I teach in was on a former cemetery. The bodies were dug up and moved somewhere else. China has a very large population and cemetery land is being reclaimed for second uses. The government is encourage people to consider 'green funerals' such as cremations and burial at sea. The whole area was once a rural village. Traditional Chinese want to be buried in their traditional hometowns, so many want to be buried here. Where do they bury them? Along the median strip of the boulevards under the electrical towers. Last Christmas, I saw one burial right out side the school gate. Coffin and all, along with one guy digging a hole and the other lighting off firecrackers (the ever preset firecrackers). I was told there was another funeral yesterday. You see mini cemeteries along the roadside. Walk along the road and you'll probably bump into a grave. Maybe I use part of my ashes as a growing medium for my pachys or pachypodium rosalatum!

I've never had a problem with moving feeders, as long as they were the same kind of feeder. The hummers found the new location within minutes. However, this year I have had a problem with changing the kind of feeder. After the squirrel wouldn't stop draining the Perky Pet feeders, I bought a bunch of Humzinger feeders. The few hummingbirds that were in the area of my yard just simply refused to use the Humzingers. I even saw them fly up to the Humzingers, investigate, then fly away. This went on all summer, until just a few days ago. Now, all of a sudden they are using them. It makes me wonder if they are migrators, instead of my "regulars". Disclaimer:I do not agree with nor endorse the use of Sponsored Links" possibly embedded in my posts by the owner of this or any other website, and choose not to patronize bussiness who use such tactics.

Lynn we are in a very similar place about our house - it's too big for us at this stage of our lives. We use most of the square footage in some way - because it's there - but could easily manage with half ! Our youngest will be graduating from college next May and HOPEFULLY will be employed and able to support himself but who knows? Our older son works for the forest service but those gov't jobs are shakey, to say the least, so we always want to have a place where they can land if needed. So.... we keep the big old house - for now. Stuff? I reached a saturation point many years ago and continually work to pare down. But it's back to that big house thing again - I'm not going to live in empty rooms so there's still far more STUFF than I actually need. When my mom died and I helped my dad move into an apartment, tons of family stuff came my way. Eleven years later when my dad died, the rest of it came to me. We've all talked about this before - the pull of family items and how hard it is to get rid of some things. But it has to be done so over the years I've pared down to the things that have the most meaning and passed the rest on in one way or another. I have dreams (nightmares?) about moving into a small home and having boxes and furniture stacked everywhere because I didn't sort and get rid of enough before moving!! Gifts? I could write a book. Christmas at my in-laws used to make me physically ill with the insane buying and giving of cr@p. It doesn't matter to me a bit how much time is put into the shopping and wrapping, or what the item is. When someone (namely my MIL) is purchasing *stuff* because of a date on a calendar and is obsessed with getting the same # of packages for each person, because that's "just what you do for Xmas" I want no part of it. We'd been married only a short time when I told my DH that I was opting out. He was totally on board. It was a sore spot with everyone in his family for many years but we held firm. We just stopped buying. Our kids would get everything they needed and some of what they wanted all through the year at a time when it made sense to get the item, not an enormous pile o' stuff, all on one day, much of it to be returned, exchanged or donated. And that returning/exchanging all fell to me, of course. A few years of that and we started just donating everything, in the boxes, tags still on. Give me a quiet day, with my family cooking together, laughing and going for a long walk...... THAT'S the gift I want.

I read this and tried to think of something I really missed. Besides the one thing - as a college student who was not capable of taking care of something special yet, I destroyed (by accident during a move) a map from my grandfather. I am still sad that that is gone. But by far, I felt much more guilty that I hung on to some of that stuff so long than for getting rid of any of it! Granted, when I first started purging, I second guessed myself a lot. I don't anymore. I got rid of a huge box of baskets last week. Before this, I would not even think of getting rid of them - I could use them for gifts, decoration, etc. But except for a few that I kept, I realized I didn't even like most of them. This is progress for me, and I can't feel guilty when I see the improvement in the house! Julie - don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like your house is full of MIL's castoffs, not stuff you actually like! I have some Artwork stored that I really don't like, either. DG (my grandmother) painted. I have a couple of her paintings, but I really don't like them. One I remember her having up as you came in her house. I like the colors and all, and I had it up in here for a long time. Then one day I LOOKED at it, and realized it was all smokestacks (granted, reflecting in water), but I didn't want that up on my wall any more. The other was just abstract, but I don't like it (or the really elaborate & big frame). There were a few pieces I would have liked of hers. Oh, well. As with my grandfather's map, I was too young at the time to take care of those things, so I missed out on getting any of them. I do have some things of hers that I have been able to take out of storage and display since doing all of this purging, though. And THAT is the great reward of all of this.