I live in a condo with a balcony so NatureMill was the only option I was willing to consider. At first I kept it indoors. It is odourless when the lid is closed, but there is a strong organic mushroom/sourdour odour when you open the lid to add more stuff in. It's not overly unpleasant but I'm very sensitive to smells so I moved the NatureMill to the balcony (thankfully, I have a power outlet outside). Yes, the machine can be finicky but if you FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS, it works fine. I'll admit that I burned through my first machine by not doing so - NatureMill sent me a replacement. My new moto: Nothing stringy, only 1 inch pieces of stuff (my scissors are now very active! much better than using a knife to chop things up), don't overload. If it's too wet or smells sour, I add more pet pine litter or cross-shredded newspapers and baking soda. Above all else - being patient helps. There were times when I was tinkering the inside of the mixing chamber with a screw driver and a knife trying to free up a jam, instead of waiting forty-eight hours like the instructions advised - that wasn't a good idea and contributed to my first machine's demise. If you stick to the motto, you shouldn't be getting jams. I love it when the organic waste gets cooking and really steams up! I've been using the NatureMill Pro for a few months now. We do a lot of cooking using fresh veg and eat lots of fruits so we generate a large amount of organic waste. Add to that coffee grinds and egg shells. In fact, for just two people, I find that my NatureMill is not fast enough to process the organic non-meat waste we generate. The waste from eating just one watermelon or a couple of cantalopes will keep the machine busy for at least a week. In the meantime, I generate several small bags of organic waste waiting to be processed! So I get backlogged regularly. In two months I have generated 3 trays of compost and will have a fourth in a couple of days. It's rich, black and looks like a nice soil. There is one full tray in the machine being heat-cured, and I have the contents from two trays sitting in planters on the balcony being air-cured. I intend to air-cure the compost for at least two weeks before I put it on top of my growing suger snaps and tomato plants. I can comfortable say that I've reduced my landfill waste by around 70% since I bought the NatureMill. As for the future, I'm going to add small chopped up pieces of corn cob and used kleenex tissues next.

i have been researching a little on the hrt topic. mly understanding is that you can get the bio identical replacement which is a natural concoction as opposed to the chemical composites. i am interested in finding more about estriol. i see it in all forms, for the face/body, vaginal creams, etc. does anyone know if there is one does all approach to this and is it by prescription only?

I took Femhrt for one year and really never had a problem with headaches nor did I ever stop taking Tylenol or Motrin when needed. I think it is too soon for the FemHRT to have that kind of reaction on your body, since you only took one pill. I have not heard that about HRT and headache medicines, but I will ask my doctor next time I visit. I have stopped all HRT now and I did have terrible headaches when I stopped. Now I am feeling better. Good luck. Lou

I have used black and white film a lot lately. We've been buying the Kodak 400 35 mm black and white film that you can get at Wal-Mart. We've been taking mostly scenery pictures (tip...scenery looks much better on a semi-cloudy day) and have started taking a few of the kids. I'm really happy with the results...key is to be sure the light is right, and that you have a good camera. We have a Nikon with a zoom lens (forgive me I can't remember the model...we just bought it..LOL) and it takes really nice pictures. I think I will probably do more black and whites just because I love the old-fashioned look they give my scrapbooks. Have fun! Becky T.