Hello Tom8olvr! I've never told you before, but I LOVE your online name! Winter Sowing is a very simple and penny-pinching method. It works with seeds from Temperate Climates which we sow into vented containers made from recycled items, like milkjugs, soda bottles or take-out containers. We sow the seeds during the season of winter, usually starting with our Solstice Sowing Ceremony and ending about the time you no longer need to wear a jacket and scarf at night to keep warm. But when that happens we roll over into Spring and Summer Sowing--the successes and joy never has to end. WS has been here at GW for about a decade now. It's taken very seriously by Winter Sowers who are very passionate about WSing and sharing the method because they want beginners to experience the same successes that they did. WinterSown.Org is a member of USDA/NAL/AgNIC.Org, freely providing quality information to the public. WinterSown.Org has FAQs, Photos, Free Seeds, and few other things I've tucked away into it--all nice. I'm sure you know me well for my seed distribution programs which I started some years back as a way to get folks to try Winter Sowing, but now that it's established I still give away seeds as a way to help beginners and those in need of seed. I'll paste in the link to the FAQs which are all illustrated and have links to supporting info at other quality sites. I will warn you now, and it's very true, Winter Sowing can be very addicting. Welcome to the Winter Sowing Forum--we're a very friendly group, some folks call us the warm and fuzzy forum, and in general, you can ask just about any gardening-related question, because if we can sprout it with WS then we have to grow it and care for it. There is a WS seed exchange, photo galleries and a convo-pit for off-topic discussions. Kindly, T Here is a link that might be useful: WinterSown.Org FAQs.

You can cut off a chunk and send it off to a lab to test for asbestos content-- obviously, don't do that in an obvious place if you're not immediately planning on replacing it or covering it. If you can lift a baseboard and get material from the edge, then cover the missing section back over with the baseboard, that's often a good location. For the mastic, you can get it wet and scrape up some and send it off for testing. The lab will almost always have specific instructions on safe ways to collect material for testing and how much you need. Similar appearing materials are all over the place on actual asbestos content. Vinyl asbestos tiles tend to be square and have kind of a marbled look. They are often, but not always, 9x9. The vinyl asbestos tiles are generally quite low risk compared to the asbestos-backed sheet vinyl, because the asbestos fibers are bound in a matrix with the vinyl. Unless you pulverize them in removal, you're not going to get airborne fibers taking them out. If you contrast whatever your local recommendations are for VAT removal with sheet vinyl removal, they're usually pretty different-- the main thing people are concerned about with VAT is how you dispose of it. For sheet vinyl, though, they're really worried about how you take it up. Mastics can be pretty difficult to get up. For example, the black mastic was really easy to get up with Bean-E-Doo (whatever they call it now)-- anything else, though, forget it. The remnants of the Bean-E-Doo itself were challenging (lots of soap, water, scrubbing, etc.) However, though the same chemical said it works on old carpet adhesives, it didn't work at all for me. If you have things tested and the tile's asbestos and the mastic's not, the tiles are pretty easy to remove nondestructively with steam (e.g., a steam iron or a wallpaper steamer, or you can rent a big machine that heats the tiles for you). Then you can rent a big commercial scraper to get the mastic up, which is the most efficient. If the mastic does contain asbestos, either it shifts easily with heat or it doesn't, it's water soluble or oil soluble, etc. Use whatever people think is the best method for the specific type of mastic you have. Or paint over the mastic with one of the sealing compounds if the standard removal methods don't work. Since your tiles are loose, though, I'd take them out before putting any new flooring down.

This is for a skin cancer check. I would hint to them that since you have been a patient there before, that if they can't schedule an appointment without a referral, that you will go elsewhere...hoping that might be a possibility. Have you had skin cancer before or a history of cancer? BF had it several years ago, and then quit his yearly check-ups after his DR. died. He called the office to get an appointment, and they told him it would be a couple months before they could get him in. Once he let them know he had been a patient there some time ago, and was a cancer survivor, they found him an appointment time within a weeks time. If you call your DR's office, might they write you up a referral without the unnecessary Dr visit? Is that dermatologist a preferred provider or in your insurance network? If so, I'd sure be reporting the situation to my Ins so maybe they could get the problem taken care of, or drop them and find other providers. Sue

2006 Edition of Trees of Seattle says there was a 41 ft. Hiro-ha-katsura at the Arboretum at that time. Its accession number indicates it was acquired in 1946 (without delving further, into Arboretum records it could have been anything from a seed to a tree of some size then). The book also mentions a planting of 3 at 1123 16th Ave E, consisting of two on the street and one 25 ft. tall in the yard. With 2 regular Katsura sharing the planting strip with the 2 C. magnificum. You can find out where other trees you are interested in are located in the Arboretum by looking at their web site. Walking around collections like this, with extensive plantings of trees and shrubs - often with some time behind them - is a good way to get a feeling for the visual character of various kinds. And how much space they may come to occupy. Trees of Seattle - Second Edition http://www.arthurleej.com/tos2.html