Paula, DS's co-worker's name is Roy and I've never met him, but he must have gardening family members because he is so appreciative when I send peppers and tomatoes to the guys at the station. I've noticed the folks who are most appreciative when receiving fresh produce or home-preserved foods are those who know just how much work it takes to raise and/or can those home-grown veggies. When Roy sent me the case of jars via Chris, I immediately packed up a case of 12 jars of assorted home-canned goodies for Roy and his family and sent them back to him via DS on their next work day. (One good turn deserves another.) In that assortment was my last jar of Blueberry-Lime Jam. A few days later, DS said that 'my' Blueberry-Lime Jam reminded Roy of his grandmother's Blueberry-Lime jam and that they loved it. So, I assume the Blueberry-Lime Jam recipe has been in the BBB forever and that his grandmother likely made exactly the same recipe 'back then' that we still make today. Just a reminder that there's nothing really new under the sun. I think that we have to talk about something or we'll go crazy...and canning/dehydrating/storing the harvest is an important part of being a gardener too. After all, if your garden is producing well, there's no way you can eat all the produce fresh, assuming the garden is large like yours and mine. I was harvesting okra yesterday evening and noticed I have about a gazillion peppers to harvest. Gggrrrrr. I haven't even used up all the peppers I harvested last week. Uh oh. I simply cannot let the peppers start piling up like this because you remember what happened to me last year. I've been working hard to can peppers every week so I don't get behind like that again, but there's a million things on my 'to do' list everyday, and sometimes I don't have time to can. I guess today I could smoke some and freeze them to go with the 2 or 3 or 4 gallons of peppers already in the freezer. Tim hurt his back yesterday when he and DS were moving the big deep freeze from the garage into the house. I had read that motors on deep freezes kept in outbuildings often burn out in 2 or 3 years because they have to work so hard to keep the freezer cold enough, so I've been asking (alright, nagging) Tim for months to move the freezer into the dining-room-turned-TV-room-turned food storage room/Mom's hobby room. Finally, DS and DH were both here at the same time and thought they'd move it yesterday. You probably have to be a woman to appreciate this next bit because it so perfectly illustrates that macho man type attitude that hurts men...... I was in the once-formal dining room in which we rarely dined (except for holidays we eat in the breakfast room so to me the dining room is wasted space if all you use it for is holiday dining), moving things around to make room for the freezer and Tim comes in, grimacing, and telling me we'd "have to" empty the freezer in order to move it because it was too heavy to lift fully filled. Really? I was practically speechless and all I could say was "What were you thinking? Tell me you didn't try to lift it fully loaded? Of course we have to unload it. I knew that. What were you thinking? What were you thinking? What were you thinking?" Sheesh, men! Who in the world would try to move an almost-full 18 c.f. chest-style deep freeze without taking the food out of it?????? So, he made a trip to the chiropractor yesterday and will make another one tomorrow because he apparently either strained or sprained his back. When he called his boss and told him he wouldn't be at work yesterday because he hurt his back trying to lift a full deep freeze, the boss asked him what he was thinking and said something like 'you do know how old you are, right'? lol I don't know if a hurt back from moving a freezer qualifies as a garden-related injury but it should because almost everything in that freezer came from our garden. Finally, who are we to say someone can't have bread and butter pickles for dinner or supper or even breakfast? When we have jalapeno poppers left over from lunch or dinner, I like to eat them for breakfast the next day. Well, they are wrapped in bacon, so that's a breakfast food, right? Dawn

Hi Ladies (and gent!) I hope that everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season as much as I am! I am exhausted today but thankfully, I have the day off. DeeMarie, I am glad that you did not find yourself in a dental emergency for the Holidays. DS informed me last night that his other 2 wisdom teth are causing him trouble and he thinks that he has a new cavity. Raeanne, I feel for you! You have been operating on 'way too little sleep and it is bound to catch up with you. I hope you get at least a little rest today... So you did a little "stress munching" while your MIL was around, who could blame you? Hi Gretchen! Hi Besh! Maddie, I hope that YOU were able to get some rest later in the day! I also hope that you fulfilled some nice holiday dreams when you got home.. Donna, I hope that your day went off as planned. I fell asleep on the couch late Christmas Eve and slept right through our Midnight church service! Hey, Bj. Are you freezing your tookas off up there? Only you would vacation in Alaska in the winter Lol! I am glad that you are enjoying your family time. DS' GF came down from San Francisco for Christmas Eve. She stayed w/ her sis but spent the evening with us. She gave me a lovely black bag that she brought back from India.I gave both she and my son matching dvds of Pete n' Pete that they can watch together over the phone ( long distance relationship) I also gave her a nice pewter frame and then took a Christmas portrait of the 2 of them in front of the tree. Christmas day was AWESOME! Everyone arrived mid afternoon and we had our dinner buffet style (not enough room here) and opened gifts. My kids got me a DVD/VHS player and 6 movies! As time goes on. DD and I are becoming closer and closer. We have always been close, but I sense a deepening of our relationship. Has anyone else noticed this with adult children? And my DS was awesome, too. I echo Raeanne,; everyone have a stress free, fun day! ( this means you too Raeanne!!!) Tikanas

Yo Ken, if your still around your up on this one. Far as Composites go I am with the Larry/whoever We are for the most part. Composites are really no longer using recycled material because there is just not enough of it so most of the raw stuff is virgin,the energy used to make composite is an enviro no no, when its time to remove the project composite is not real big on bio degrade its tricky to burn shreading it would be silly. Bottom line composites are not so enviro freindly. Info like that might suggest its not all that good to clean it either, with anything. I dont agree>> composites will out last Ipe, left to go silver/gray Ipe is as close to no maintance as a person can get. With the softer composites like Choice/MoistureShield even trex= tjunk I have found a coat or two of TWP 116 seals up the decking,locks in the color and keeps mold,mildew,stains from causing major problems. Of course not needing to do this is the reason the Wallet goes for composite in the first place. I my own self dont like composites at all for the reasons stated in several posts here and on other sites. Welcome aboard Larry!!! Sorry I dident understand your intent at the begining . John

After obsessing on the computer and sleepless nights, we taped out and labeled things on the floor. It was very clear that we can not have the wall in front of the powder room/basement steps come out as far as we have it . It severely blocks any view when you come in thru the front entrance hallway -you just have a view of the back of the wall. We also thought that we may be better of with the french door/side panels located on the left side rather than centered as we currently have sliders there and can use the existing bluestone steps(2) and not take away more of the center of the patio with new steps. So...I did not like the limited view from the kitchen with the doors off center so we are considering putting in a large set of windows above the snack/bar area with a pass thru to the patio(thanks bmorepanic). Then that may solve my dilemma of the sink/view issues. If I put the clean up sink on the side I can still see the yard thru those windows and we can have upper cabinets on that wall for dishes/glasses. Also opens up space in front of the cook area So here are the questions: 1)where would you put the prep sink? in the island and where? or at the snack station/bar 2)we no longer had room for 2 appliances on the 8' wall so I put the ref back on the right wall-looks like good access for both the cook and the kids/others seated at the island/patio and access thru the yard door of the mudroom. Is this ok (assuming we build in proper clearance for the mudroom doorway/fridge door area? 3)Is there any reason to switch the clean up sink with the oven as suggested as a possible layout earlier? Any other comments? We will be working with the architect again to come up with proper distances/clearances but wanted to have a decent idea of our changes first. Thanks a ton for all the help!