I am getting ready to "re-do" my terrarium. I know there's a dedicated terrarim forum, but it seems really s-l-o-w. When I started the terr forum up a number of years ago it was quite active. The slowness is, I think, unavoidable. Afterall, one can only make so many terrs before running out of room. :) And since they tend to be low maintainence, there again is less reason to constantly be in attendence. So since yours is so super lovely, I am going to ask you because I am not an expert. While flattered, I hope you aren't putting me in the 'expert' category! LOL! There are many folks out there with truly breath taking terrs & vivariums. Its in a 35 gallon aquarium. I cemented all sorts of stuff to the glass in the back and on the sides...mainly cork bark pieces and grapewood pieces etc, and stuffed sphagnum moss into the crevices. My biggest failure (kill me now) was not installing the "octopus" tubing to make the back into a drip wall. Hindsight is always 20/20 as the saying goes. Are you thinking of redoing it, or modifying it or skipping the drip wall? One third of the floor is a layer of gravel overlayed with a layer of treefern shreds about 2 inches thick. The gravel is under water, the treefern isn't. In the middle is a "waterfall" of fossil coral I've collected from Mexico, SOuth FL, etc, and a chunk of driftwood. The other 1/3 is tumbled river rock, neat shells, etc, which are in water. There is a mini-fountain pump hidden there that pumps water over the coral waterfall in the center. That sounds cool! I really wanted a waterfall in one of my terrs but think I'll have to forego it -- it would take up too much room I fear. All I have in there at the moment is a very well established Angraecum orchid, and one bromeliad. Ah, the minimalist/understated approach! :D But I have a ton of stuff out in the greenhouse I could put in there, like Dischidias, Scindapsis, Hoya, other creeping mini-orchids like mini-dends, bulbos, etc. And with a tank that size it won't take much to fill 'er up. LOL It always surprised me how fast an empty tank becomes full. When empty, ya figure "Wow. There's all kinds of room in there." Then you start putting a few items in and all of a sudden it's full and you didn't even do half of what you thought you would. For the vines, would you suggest actually planting little rooted sections in tiny pots of soil and sinking them into the treefern? I will probably also put in some aquarium plants (swords, etc) in the water part. Most vines, assuming they like the terr lifestyle, will likely require frequent trimming. (Just a heads up though you've already thought of this I'm sure.) In a 35 gal, personally I'd still plan on using miniature plants and small-leafed vines. Ferns I've planted in small pots to restrict their spread by rhizomes/runners. If you have a vine that spreads this way a pot might help prevent it fom popping up where you don't want it. Otherwise you could probably just plant the vine directly in the media. As long a the treefern stays moist -- and it sounds like it should -- the vines should root just fine. If the roots would stay confined to the pot there could be some advantages there, but we now they won't be that cooperative! LOL I'd thought about maybe getting a couple of fire belly newts. they're cute lil things! I'm not sure if you would need to do water changes, use a filter, or if you could establish a healthy enough microfauna to breakdown their wastes. [Though I know in a larger tank it can be done] I have a double hood on top, one has a straight Natural Sunlight tube, the other a Flora Glo. I'm not sure if that will prove sufficient for flowering plants. However, lighting is still something I'm experimenting with. Presently using cfls -- 6 in both my 55 gal and 90 gal terrs. Don't know yet if I'll need to put 2 more in the 90. Started off w/ 13W [equivalen to 60 W incandescents] but am shifting them over to 23W (100W equivalents) as they burn out or as the burnouts of other lights in my apt give me places to use the 13Ws. The AVs bloomed under the lower wattage but some other plants haven't. I have stuff like Ludisia, Macodes etc out in the greenouse I could pull from and put a few starts in there. I suspect the Ludisia would get too big for a small tank but it sure couldn't hurt to give it a go. Should it not grow too rambunctiously, the color contrast would be very nice. I'd like to see more photos of your different plants in yours, for ideas. I'll try to get some pics taken and post for ya, Bihai. :) Right now, I hand mist from a spray bottle every day. The temp is pretty much 75F, all the time. You're much more dedicated than I! I should mist daily but generally don't. I'm sure some of my plantss wuold perform better if I did. Well that's all for the moment. Not sure if I adequately addressed you questions, Bihai. Let me know. :)

Hi I have been growing currants for years and have all colors. Red are some of the easiest to grow. Did you mulch it? That is important. Also weeding your currant. I know we all had a lot of water this spring, but many currants Like mine, look rather dead right now but they are not. If you look closely and see tiny brown buds on the stems that means it has already set its leaves for next year. Wait until next spring and if there are no signs of growth start again. They are a great fruit to grow. Also next spring move your currant plant to an iron free pipe dripping area if possible. If there is another heat-drought situation, hand water. Nothing lives without water. Mrs. G

DH and I have been discussing and we're contemplating putting the microwave to the west side of the fridge. I really wanted a tall pantry with big drawers and shelves - just like my Mom had and I'm not sure if I want to give that up for a MW yet. I probably will I just have to get use to the idea. Here is about the layout of the rooms. The biggest constraint we had was we could not move the plumbing. We had to come in from the bathroom above the level of the foundation. The foundation between the two areas is rocks. And I don't mean a rock wall, I mean rocks, as in very large boulders. Shifting one would have caused shifting in all of them and you can't just cut a hole through a rock like you can cement. So the plumbing actually comes through the wall from the bathroom, not under the floor. The other issue is all walls in the kitchen were once exterior walls, and the sink/oven walls are bearing walls too. The wall behind the fridge became the new bearing wall for the upper level floor for that section as the upper roof is actually supported by the old rafters and not the end wall. well, let's just say this house presented a lot of problems one does not normally encounter in a newer home. Removing the patio door was a spur of the moment decision. We had problems getting the door installed. The whole middle of the house leans to the north, about an 1" from top to bottom. It was that way all along and the other sections were built on to it that way so there was no way to pull the house back to level without pulling it apart. This was one of the first things we did with the house and silly us didn't think to make sure the wall was plumb before we started. We placed the door and in trying to get it plumb realized what the problem was. We either had to have the bottom sticking into the house about an inch or the top sticking out from the outside wall about an inch, or put it in matching the wall and hope for the best. We matched the wall and though we had some problems early on with water, DH did get it all sealed up and it had been fine for three years. It turned out to be one of those things that just didn't work out like one hoped. For one it eat up a big chunk of the end of the kitchen because you needed walking space. It also seemed silly from the outside because the patio door was right next to the front door. We also discovered after fixing the landscaping and leaking incoming water pipes that the front patio is sloped towards the house and in the spring and during rains it channels water under the house and it ends up in the cellar in the opposite north corner. The only way to fix this problem would be to bust out the existing cement and re-slope the ground. This fall we finally settled on putting tile in the kitchen and when we pulled up the OSB, DH saw evidence of the prior water damage, and he looked at me and said "we should just take out this door and that way we would never have water problems here again" and I looked at him and said "don't say that unless you are dead serious" and then we realized neither one of us were real happy with the door so out it came (it is in the shop right now). This is November 7th 2004 and November 7th, 2009 Now that we've had it gone for a while we both like the kitchen so much better. The windows let in more light than the door and now I can have a bigger island. The heater is now under the window and that freed up along side the window for a nice hutch or tall storage of some sort. So now the two choices for the MW are left of the windows on the south wall or left of the fridge on the north wall. One thing I have discovered through all this is that I really do not like upper cabinets. I think if I could get away with it I'd have none. However DH wants uppers all the way to the ceiling. I think he would love a "wall to wall" built in cabinet look and I would love a totally unfitted kitchen. He wants lots and lots of storage, I keep thinking I could throw out half of what is stored and never miss it. Since he is making the cabinets I have to let him have some say in the design. Cathy

That happened to me once... except it was my own kitty... Miss Kitty was her name. She would sit on a railroad tie wall waiting on me to get home, then jump down and run across the drive and be sitting at the front door to go in. This was an icy day and she slipped on the icy drive way and slid under the car. It was horrible.. I knew what had happened, I felt it. I could not even look, I just went in the house and called my husband at work. He came home and took the car to get it cleaned up, it was just awful.. a nice man that lived next door came and buried her. That was 30 years ago and I still feel bad about it...