Yep, you're right Alexis--it's 'Sea Gulf Stream' and if you see a pic. of a 'good and mature' one you WILL be 'faint of heart'! Carol--look at the leaf with the very faint 'stripe' going along the vein--that's it! I've got that leaf in a clear glass custard cup of water right now, with the timer set for 1 hour. Then, we'll see--but I have NO DOUBT it's the neems. I found a couple of other leaves with even fainter stripes--just the beginning of the infestation coming to light!! Oh well--SGS is a lot like my 'Jimmy Crack Corns', I've decided so it will GO--very quickly if I'm right--which I will be!!! Whaaaaa! I really don't have SUCH a problem--just a few that I've done away with! This is the first evidence of a re-occurence in an area where previously I had an infested one. The other occurence, the hosta had not been in place very long at all--less than a couple of weeks it showed evidence and it was gone, and boiling water poured in the area it had been and SO FAR, 4 yrs. out, no further ocurrences. Same as in the first case--new hosta, within 2 wks. I found out for the first time about foliar nematodes and it was history with a heavy dose of boiling water in the planter and no re-occurence there either. Sigh!!! Oh well!!! I think the 'Maui Buttercups' brought the neems with it, from the area where a 'gifted hosta' was planted with 'neems'! I didn't realize it was infested for many weeks before my sad discovery! The MBC was moved to the front of the octo-deck, about 20 ft. above where it had been--so it HAS to be that it contracted them from it's previous planting!

Camlan and jmc01 -- excellent idea, to assess the need first. I had made a list of what space I'd need for what items a few months ago when I was doing the same for the kitchen, but it was mostly off the cuff instead of actually looking through drawers to see what needs to stay and what can go. I have been avoiding the purge-and-consolidate process. Blah. lol. Last night I started emptying out drawers to see how much space we'll need for the things in them (in addition to the things that have no home). We already have a desk, it's very old and it is enormous -- too deep, as we lose things in the backs of the drawers and never see them again. We also have an antique wooden file cabinet (also full of stuff). I don't think we'll keep either one; I like their looks OK but they just don't meet our needs now. The file cabinet drawers don't slide very easily. You know how it is with antiques sometimes. About custom work -- we are in an urban area, and the last time we had a cabinet quote from a carpenter (for a bathroom) it was very high. But that was many years ago and things may well have changed, so I will definitely keep it in mind, thanks! Camlan -- that is a very good point and I agree with you. What we need is a place to put the "action" items other than the middle of the kitchen. The desk (surface covered by books and toys at the moment) is not in the main walk path of the house, though it is near it. The kitchen peninsula is for all intents and purposes not part of the kitchen at all; it is nowhere near the prep/cook areas and functionally it is more a part of the den. It IS right in the main walk path, so we tend to drop things there. I am planning to do a (hopefully not too major) kitchen rearrangement when we replace our chipped countertops. One of the things I would like to do is to get rid of the peninsula entirely. That should help force a change of habit. And you are quite right that things like mail and library books don't need to be stored (I'd forget them too, if I couldn't see them) -- those are things that I envision going into either cubbies or open shelves or vertical slots. Just not flat down in stacks right in the way of everything. And some of the stuff on the peninsula HAS no place, mostly childrens' things. The house was decently well organized when there were just two of us in it. lol. (DH once looked at the stacks, then at me and said "But your house before we got married was so neat. What happened?" lol. I told him that I can deal with MY stuff just fine; it's handling 4 people's stuff that gets overwhelming, especially when there is no designated area for it. I might have also mentioned offhand that I am not the only one capable of putting away [somewhere] the kids' things.) Anyway. My car, at least, is still neat as a pin. Forhgtv -- I never in a million years would have thought of a closet company. I looked up a local one and what do you know, they have pictures of this kind of thing on their website. And they're near our house too, so at some point I will run over and check them out. Thanks for the suggestion! Hmm, reading over all this makes me think we need to rethink the storage-ability in the kids' rooms too. Great. Need new kitchen countertop, therefore must reconfigure children's closets. The usual logical progression of remodeling.

I transferred the comment above to the thread with the photos. I thought I could delete this original post, but apparently not. Sorry for the duplication. If no one comments it will soon drop off the page.

Thanks for your response, Annie. For the dilled beans, the ratio was 3 (for recipe for 4 pints) was 3 Cups of white vinegar (I could only find 5% from the grocery store, it might have wanted 6%; and 3 Cups of water; and 2 Tbl pickling salt. Do you think the 4 pints of dill pickled green tomatoes sans 2 T salt will be okay? I can keep it in a 50 to 60 deg. F cellar and in the dark. What if I eat them after only 6 months? Less? wild Concord grapes. They are all over the place since the owner of acres behind us logged his land. He was being taxed for "buildable lots" on land that the town told him they'd never allow him to build on. He sold the wood to help pay the tax bill. Anyway, we suddenly got views (for a while), bluebirds (as it was open and sunny to our southwest) and new vegetation (which included the Concord grapes). The vines persist and have gotten huge and thick. I keep meaning to go and harvest some vines for "crafty" stuff. Some of the grapes can be gotten by just reaching up, others require more aerial skills, pulling strength or ingenuity. Unfortunately, it seems that most have them have been hit by heavy frost, robins and advanced maturity. Next year, in August and early September, I will have to remember to harvest them and do as you suggest. I made a jelly bag some years ago for crabapple jelly and I have lots of muslin on hand. I do understand about not squeezing the bag (forcing solids through), but patiently allow the juice to drip along uninterrupted. A few years ago, while snacking on bunch of them fresh off the vine, I came upon a worm. I had to wonder how many more worms there were in them, but imagine that even with cultivated grapes, one comes across worms. Which reminds me, there is a type of large, brown moth that loves these grapes. I'll see if I can find the name. Would you still use the grapes if some of them had worms? Thanks.