I found this thread because I just got off the phone with my wife who informed me that replacement slings for our set of six Telescope chairs will be $780.00! That is a very tough pill to swallow, and like many here we weighed this heavily against just getting a cheaper set from HD, Costco, or any number of stores. Our set is about 10 years old to date (purchased summer of 2010) and the aluminum frames, table, and umbrella have held up extremely well (we do store them inside for winter though). Ultimately, I decided to stick with these and pay the exorbitant price for a few reasons: - The rest of the set is extremely high quality. I feel good each year when I pull it out of storage - heavy duty powder coated aluminum construction that has lasted well and still looks 9/10 after a spring wipe-down. - It does bother me how much importation has changed - pushing us toward a throw-away-away-and-buy-another culture. I do feel like we enjoy additional quality on these American made items (not always the case). - Less and less stuff is American made any more. As an engineer and a maker, I miss the days when we made most of the best stuff here. This set still exemplifies that quality. It's a little thing, but something I rarely get to enjoy these days. - After 10 years, with very little degradation (other than the fabric slings), I know what to expect from this set, and feel confident that they will last another 10 years easily with new fabric. The convenience of going 10-12 years between having to think about this, or take a gamble on something potentially less durable is worth something to me. Surely, I'll be feeling the sting of this bill in about a month (so good thing I'm writing this now!), but I thought I'd share what tipped us to reinvesting in this very expensive set. Pic when new April 2010:

I have been making jams and jellies for years and years using the sterile jar, cover quickly with parafin method. Only on one batch did I have some mold.....and that was lots of years ago and it was plum jam and I had put a cinnamon stick and a few cloves in some of the jars and the mold formed around the cinnamon stick. I have 6 or 8 jars of crabapple jelly in the basement now....as clear and as lovely as they were when I sealed them with wax in the fall of 2009. I have been making preserves and jams and jellies like this since easily 1960 and only had maybe 3 jars mold....that plum stuff! Usually I manage to use it up or give it away during a year and so start fresh....but sometimes I go hog wild on something that is in season and it lasts. A couple of years ago, I found some jelly hidden on a shelf that had to be more than 10 years old. It was dark and I no longer remember what kind it was, but it was just poured into a jelly glass, not a canning jar, sealed with parafin and stacked on a shelf. There was no mold....I wasn't about to eat it...but I did open and wash the jars to reuse....but the jam or jelly wasn't moldy. Keep your glasses or jars sterile, cover quickly with a thin layer of wax....and when that has hardened add another layer and you won't have mold problems. And it's so easy! AGAIN.....this is for high sugar fruits....not for pickles nor canned vegetables.

Our hearts aren't all cold, Marie ... ... the Alberta people ship down a lot of crude oil to run your vehicles, etc. ... ... plus gas to heat many homes. So we do, sort of, compensate for those chilly cold air blasts. Asking pay for the heating systems, of course. Not too much of the milk of human kindness in our hearts, it appears. Well, generosity, anyway. Of course, one can scarcely blame us ... ... for we've supposed to have had free trade across our border. But a few years ago your country's producers of timber, unhappy about Canadian lumber coming in, unfairly, they said, got a duty slapped on. When the Canadians took the issue to the evaluation tribunals ... ... they won the point. Five times they won it. Then ... the U.S. Ambassador up here said that we need to talk about the issue. Yeah, right! If you're a rabbit, sleeping next door to an elephant ... better keep one eye open! So ... the 5 Billion or so that had been collected was divvied up - about 4 billion sent back to Canada. And they kept the One Billion ... that some Canadians said was given to the timber boys! By the way ... have you noted how much these primary election bashes must cost ... and that's just to select the candidates to run for the Presidency? Anyway - have a good election year! We may be having a federal election up here shortly, for there's a minority parliament in place now, which usually results in the guy in power making friends among the opposition. But our current Prime Ministr is very much a run-your-own-show kind of guy. Right now our federal treasurer is speaking to parliament, presenting the Budget for the coming year. He's been running around for weeks telling how poor they are, and not to expect good news, etc. I have some errands to run, so guess I'd better go get shaved. Hope we don't get skinned, about now! Better turn on the radio in the bathroom, I guess. Have yourself a great day - it's snowing here and they're talking storm, so I hope that I get home safe and sound, later tonight. ole joyful P.S. Just announced a new tax-reduction investment system, aimed at folks nearing retirement. o j

Oh ... Old fashioned apple butter cooked in a big copper kettle over an open fire. DH's grandfather in WV used to make the most awesomely amazing apple butter. Never had anything come close since his passing :-( and nobody knows what happened to the kettle.