Dan, If they are eating well, you must have them on starter mix--good for you! The feed bag has information on the back that will tell you when to switch to layer mix (at about 17 weeks, as I remember). The bedding shouldn't be slick, like newspaper. I used shredded paper and it worked well, plus its compostable. Pine shavings are good, too. You will need to change the bedding almost daily, and the water perhaps twice a day. Chicks are notoriously messy (and they don't get much better with age, either!). If you are worried about the temperature in the brooder, you can put a light blanket or sheet over part of it. That way the chicks can move to a warmer or slightly cooler spot as they want. Your chicks won't be nesting or roosting for a while, so you can relax on that score. Follow any advice Velvet gives--she really knows poultry! Wait until you get your first "real" egg--the taste is incomparable!

Hi , It is a datura and I know it's a white one if it survived a winter. There is only 1 sure shot datura that'll grow back over our winters. Up to zone 4 so I've read (with lots of mulching) There are two white datura's. The innoxia and what your neighbor has is probably the Belle Blanche - the hardiest white. I have both whites this year. The innoxia have a very very light purple tinge around the very edge of the white flower just before it opens, the belle blanche has a very very light yellow tinge around it's outmost edge up until just before opening. The annoxia grow no taller than 3' (in my garden and from seed this year) but branch out much wider than the belle blanche, of who's branches tend to prefer up and out equally. My belle blanche have reached 4'+ when you include blooms, and all this in their first year from seeds, not from a big overwintered root. Although the innoxia are very beautifully fragrant, the belle blanche are hardier (my innoxia severely wilted over one evening of a low 40F temp. The belle blanche are as nothing happened which is the same with my brugs up until this date (I live in a zone 6 pocket, but as all pockets go, can easily have a deadly evening of zone 5 low temps anytime through a winter). I'm sure I have my info accurate though, except what is only observation in my own garden (size) and a neighbours experience as I've seen it. The belle blanche are from a root that grows thick in the ground and will come back next spring, though I'd through some mulch on. The annoxia, I doubt they will as there leaves already speak of a tenderness to cold, though I was told they would (an iffy would) for my zone. But the foliage looks horrible right now, which is about 1/2 of it's blooming season, so I'll stick to potting these or not at all. I'd rather have my pots used for the yellow or purple. Mulching will only do the roots good!! Karyn's picture shows you what all brug pods will look like, that's the one thing that pretty much looks the same on them all. The datura's are prickly ball things that I remove most of while they're in flower. Even 1 pod will be more than sufficient, there's dozens of seeds in 1. I don't find any datura easy to grow, more because of not knowing when they're going to germinate. Make sure you let your pod start drying out, though I did get mine from a fresh big fat green one a neighbor gave me of who's returns every year from the root. He says it get's to be a big invasive root, and we're up in a zone 6 pocket of 5. I plan to move my roots around come next spring as the place where the innoxia are is going to be bare. Happy Gardening - Sandy

1st: I would have to agree with what Asolo and Asylum said about the IMac..... for a "regular user" there is nothing better, "it" just works....Or maybe go to Sears Roebuck and get one of their brand new Linux PC's at less than $200(US) BUT......Right at $200(US) Go to: pricewatch(dot)com and click on "Computers PC no OS" since you: >>>> "I do not game, I do not download music, I do not want to watch movies or TV on my computer, I am the only user, only computer in house, I want a desk top." Pick out one of the systems that are less than $170 and increase the installed RAM to 2GB....I would at the least get one with a CDR/RW, but there are always USB CD/DVD drives if you want to stick with the lowest possible price. Now that you have the PC, get a copy of PCLinuxOS, LinuxMint, SimplyMepis7.0, ZenWalk, or VectorLinux or DreamLinux and do the install........If the CD doesn't have all the software you are looking for/want/need, LOL, check out the distro's repository...More than you'll ever know what to do with, and if that's still not enough, there is more than you could possibly imagine available on the WWW. A repository is where a distro maintains all of their compiled specifically to run with that distro software. (Yes geekers I know, but that's the simplest way I know to say it) Your new PC w/Linux will run extremely fast, much faster and with more stability and "robustness" than any MSWin version on the same hardware. Run the OS in RAM and all your MSWin-fan friends will be amazed and jealous of the lightening speed your "budget PC" will outperform their super whiz bang with all the high dollar bells and whistles, maybe even astounded when you offer them a FREE AND LEGAL copy to try on their own machine. Oh yeah, and you don't have to pay the MS or the Apple tax for your Operating System either...And, Linux requires much less high dollar hardware, and I can say this from personal experience.... There is never any need for "Security" software... no scanners, no "Anti-Virus", no registry mechanics, no de-frags, no nothing.....This thing has been running for just a few weeks now w/o being powered down or ever disconnected from the WWW. It is currently running 3 browsers/14windows/44 tabs (I just counted). I have gone as long as 10 months w/o ever shutting down or rebooting or disconnecting from the WWW, and other than an outgoing firewall, I run ABSOLUTELY ZERO "security" software The Linux "learning curve" is, quite honestly, a vastly overblown issue mainly bandied about by people who either: A) sell PC's and know that there is a lot more commission to be made on a $200 OS installed on a high hardware requirement PC than on a "naked" hard-drive PC w/o no need for unnecessary hardware "upgrades" B) that have no idea what they are talking about, or C) can only figure things out when somebody is there to step by step them through virtually every click... If you can figure out "Vista" you can figure out almost any Linux. SimplyMepis7.0 is a 4 click install that your Grandma could figure out how to install, run, modify, and download/install to. But some folks swear that the others mentioned above are just as easy an install, I just prefer SM7 Get a few LiveCD's and try them out, and install the one (or ones) that you like best.... But if you don't mind spending the money, for "Joe and Jane User", an IMac is pretty hard to beat. AMD Sempron 3000+ Computer System; SATA DDR2 PCI-e -MBoard; 2GB DDR-2 Dual Channel RAM; 40Gb Hard Drive; CDr/RW DRIVE; DeltaChrome 3D 256MB Shared Video; 6-Channel Audio; 10/100 Ethernet (LAN); MIDTOWER CASE Assembled & Tested! $210 (US) or, $230 to my door in 3 business days... But then again, there is that $0.1325 per CD for burning an ISO image of each Linux distro you might want to try.....Or you can order them from the vendors advertising on DistroWatch.com for real cheap...like you can get maybe almost 100 complete operating systems and all the included software for the price of JUST ONE COPY OF MSVista! Oh yeah....BTW.... with a Linux OS you are free to copy, modify, trade, sell, give away, install on 3256 separate machines. Ever actually read the MSXP/Vista EULA? You don't actually even own the contents of discs you just paid $200 for. And with Linux you can add/delete/change hardware devices at will and unlike with an MS OS, you won't have to buy a new OS whenever the MS decides that you have made too many changes and need to buy a new OS, as in MSWorld your clicking on "I agree" you agreed to give MS the right to determine the hardware changes make your old PC a new PC,and therefore to disable your system in in its entirety. And your new (or old) PC won't be "phoning home" everyday to report to MS what your software and hardware configuration was yesterday, is today, or what it is tomorrow. Go to your friendly local Barnes and Noble, or Borders bookstore and get a copy of one of the Linux mags, I would suggest "LinuxFormat" and get the multiple OS DVD with the mag and try whatever versions are on the DVD..or CD.... And while you're there, get a copy of "Knoppix Hacks" you get Knoppix5.1.1 with the book. Knioppix, never leave home without it...no kidding... Don't pay any attention to anyone telling you you need even more memory, a big video card or any such bull.....Unless you insist on getting a "MSVista" PC, in which case you need a minimum of 2GB RAM, and a pretty good video card would help too....And don't fall for all ANY talk about buying "Vista Home Basic", if you want a "Vista" that actually works at a speed you can tolerate (with enough hardware resources) you gotta "upgrade" for a whole lot more $$$. And for a whole less than what a free Linux distro will get you, except for a whole lot more money? HAGD! Here is a link that might be useful: OS 's for a new PC

Take a look here, this transformation is perfect for your son's kitchen. http://www.remodelaholic.com/update-builder-grade-cabinets/ Other suggestions- 1) find someone like Trebuchet to change out your double sink for a large single sink (perhaps the same manufacturer will have one that perfectly fits the existing cutout). 2) add pullouts to your base cabinets. Ideally change them to drawers with new drawer fronts that match. 3) change stove to slide in style with stainless hood. The counter is beautiful and likely cost at least $4k installed. Not worth changing if it is not his forever home. I love my sink on the peninsula, and do think it would work well for you if the space between the arms of your "U" is about between 5- 5 1/2 feet, but changing that is not within the possibility of your budget. I like the wood flooring but that decision can be deferred if you are not changing the cabinet layout. Also the upper cabinet opening from the center over the peninsula sometimes works in in these older kitchens because the hinges allow complete 180 degree swing. In my kitchen, I deliberately added inset pin hinges to my cabinets in that location to get the 180 degree swing, and tested my reach physically so that the contents could be easily accessed. I have hidden Euro hinges with soft close on the rest of my uppers, but they only open 135 degrees. I will bet that even here at GW, nobody has ever noticed that my hinges are different in that location (benjesbride kindly linked my reveal above, the pin hinges are on the mirrored upper cabinets over the peninsula). HTH