You know, I like purchased stone - real stone...I bought some Pennsylvania field stone a long time ago because it has a purple cast to it. I really love it in the front garden (mixed there with the concrete). However, FREE broken concrete is about $500 a few tons cheaper. And I need cheaper after the mess of this back yard and having to completely re-do it again. I love purple. Yes, I'm painting the rain barrels purple and am contemplating at some point painting the house next door similar colors to ours. I think I can manage most of it on my own. Then the rain barrels will really blend in. We only need them for "so" long, because eventually I want to use Rain Pillows that fit under crawlspaces in the house. So we'll have so much re-usable water, able to collect almost everything that comes onto the house in a storm and much of what runs onto the property in a good rain.

Don, I wish I could answer that last question, but it is beyond my mind and delves into the supernatural/religious experience. Perhaps I would offend to say more on this forum since this is decidedly a secular place. Still, gardening is a spiritual pursuit for me, and Japanese gardens are all firmly based in ideas beyond the mundane. I would say that everything contains its own intent (spirit) and that intent combined with the intent of the gardener creates the overall aesthetic. The unfortunate thing is that in a consumer driven society, such ideas are trivialized by the mass marketing of the likes of feng shui and the endless array of new age self-help-isms. Getting back to gardens, I've seen some that were laid out in mindless patterns (go to any new development and witness the "landscaping" contractors install), and others that were so perfect I didn't ever want to leave them! In the end, the product of a garden is the process of technique and knowledge about a place and the plants that will live there, all interwoven with the invisible intent of the gardener and everything they garden with. More photos coming soon. PF

A day late and a dollar short, but anyway, here's that recipe Lou! I hope people can post suggestions as I really like this bread and I'm determined to perfect a recipe that's loaded in whole grains and fiber, with lots of what in my house we call "groats" sprinkled throughout the bread, but that will also rise and not be like a rock! It's from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book and it's their recipe for oatmeal bread: 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water 1 cup whole milk 1/2 cup maple syrup 1 1/2 Tbsp yeast 1 Tbsp salt 1/4 cup veg oil 1/2 cut oat bran 1/3 cup wheat bran 1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 4 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour My changes were: I switched the milk and water, using 1 3/4 cup milk (I didn't have whole and I can't recall if I used 1% or 2%) and 1 cup of water. I used honey in place of the maple syrup. I didn't have wheat bran so I used 1/3 cup oat flour in its place. I reduced the oil to 1/8th cup. Then I added the following and soaked them in the milk for about 10-15 minutes (but I think I should have soaked them longer as they were still a bit hard): 1/4 cup steel cut oats 1/4 cup wheat berries 1/8 cup sesame seeds. The recipe makes 3, 1 1/2 pound loaves. I made two free form and one in a bread pan. None of them rose very high - the bread in the pan was "squatter" than a banana bread type loaf would be and the only way I can think to describe the free form loaves is for anyone that's made biscotti - that's the shape the loaves ended up - about an inch, inch and a half tall and that's about it. As I keep saying, the taste was great (heavy, but again, I like that) and it's just getting a higher rise that I'm after. I plan on adding some vital wheat gluten to my next batch as that was suggested. Any other tips from you expert bread makers out there?! Thanks! Lisa

There is a company call stone deck that has a system for putting stone on top of an exsisting deck. I looked into that a while ago, but I decided to go with the Schluter system. (My deck is about 75% complete.) They make an membrane to go under stone or tile that makes it completely waterproof, and will take freeze/thaw cycles. It has drawbacks and advantages. It's expensive, but then there's no staining and refinishing. I had trouble getting approvals from my building department. It took time, but the approvals came through. I went with an outdoor rated porcliean tile but, I saw a deck in my area that used slate. It look great. You have to find someone who can lay tile well and can follow instruction. Your not likely to find a deck builder who has had experience doing this in your area. I wasted a lot of time chasing the only one in my area who had done this before. They were not that close and didn't want to come out here. I found an experienced deck builder in my area that was willing and to try something new. His men, and some subs, are installing the tile, the point is that the deck builder is standing behind the whole thing. I was ready to go with a comtractor who wanted me to get someone else to do the tile. I felt uncomfortable with that. Who's responble if somethng goes wrong?