Damon, the link below should help and there's lots of other links re tomato pollen storage/viability if you do a Google search. And if you don't have Keith Mueller's excellent description of how to do crosses that's something that might help if you're just starting out with deliberate crossing. Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Pollen Viability

Please don't misunderstand - the farm people valued their animals and cared for them well. On the other hand - the cattle provided milk and meat, and local dogs that got together and travelled in packs, chasing cattle, would be dealt with severely (read, "shot"). They tried to train the dogs to herd cattle - some would go to the pasture at milking time and bring the cows to the barn for milking. It could well have been that the Grandfather felt a deep sense of love for the young lads. I thought that the Grandfather's act was a bit severe - but he had a reason that was logical to him, and his reply to the boys likely would have been, "Get over it!". As several have said, life was hard for such people and there was little margin for soft-heartedness. Would you be willing to have soft-heartedness and hunger co-exist? Quite likely the Grandfather was marksman enough that he could have shot the dirt beside the dog to have been thrown up and both stung and frightened the dog, but he took more direct action, as many did. Life didn't have the nuances for them that it does for many of us. The idea of someone shooting over the heads of kids invading their land was quite foreign to me. I have four barn cats, one of which loves to be scratched and petted - but if I pick her up, she jumps down. Another cat lets me pet him, and enjoys it some, but is a bit reluctant. Drat him, he's a bit of a scairdey cat, but when I pour feed into each of three or four dishes in turn ... he has to be there to eat immediately from all four dishes in turn! A half-grown kitten that I didn't see until it could run pretty well has got to where it'll let me pet it when it's looking for feed, but not at other times. Its mother will follow me around, even quite closely ... but if my hand gets a bit too close ... she draws blood. It is nigh impossible for modern, city-raised people to understand what life was like for such impoverished people who, as several have said, hunted for meat in the woods and fields. I'm glad that you felt comfortable enough with this place to have come to share your question. By extension ... many people who live in other parts of the world look at life very differently than we, and I think that at times it would be well if we were to sit down with them to learn of their ways - and to share our viewpoints. It seems to me quite likely that we would find that we had more in common than appeared at first, as I think we came to realize regarding this situation. When I was a kid, some folks in town had a metal-lined wooden box that looked something like modern fridges and men drove horse-drawn boxy wagons with tons of ice in them down the street, carrying a block into many houses to put into the top compartment. We on the farm pumped cold water by hand from the well in the yard to put into a pan in the basement, where we stored butter, meat and other perishables in bowls floating in the water, changing it as it warmed. Within a few years, they built refrigerators. Within a few years after that, they were building them to last for 40 years ... now they build them to last for 10 years. I've heard that for the world's people to live in the fashion to which we've become accustomed (in about 3 generations) ... we'd need the resources of four planets similar to that on which we live. We are hugely wasteful. We have a lot to learn from those people who lived more simply. And as more jobs are shifting overseas, our descendants are going to be learning them. Several areas of the seas that used to teem with fish are now almost barren - we didn't practise conservation. Our kids and grandkids will suffer the consequences. We still have about the cheapest food in the world ... but one doubts whether that will last much longer. Currently, many thousands of U.S. and Canadian families are about half a dozen paycheques from being on the street ... but we've forgotten how to forage for food, as our forebears did, out of necessity. We are much more brittle, less resourceful and adaptable. Good wishes for a really fine week ahead. ole joyful

I did not deal directly with the fabricator, my kd did, so I don't know what to tell them. But it was a local stainless steel fabricator who made it.

Love this thread, it was so fun to read! DS thought the MIL’s house was BEAUTIFUL, “Especially the creepy lady in the corner because It’s so unique.” Years ago I started slowly (and obsessively) replacing anything that couldn’t go in the dishwasher with items that can. Smaller cookie sheets, glass/stainless measuring cups, silicone tools, etc. It took years of careful purchases and I kept a list and watched for sales because some of those items were pricey. The only thing I use on a daily basis that doesn’t go in my dishwasher now are sharp knives. Anyway, I just knew hand washing dishes would always be my weakness, but I’m great about loading the dishwasher every time I use something. So, pots and pans that do well in the dishwasher are my friends. My second weakness is unloading the dishwasher. That job became my kids’ first ever daily kitchen chore! Starting in preschool they did it together before school while I made breakfast. Now they switch off days. We make a great team! At Christmas my mom offered to wash crystal goblets and asked where my drying rack was. I do own one, but it collapses and was way at the back of the sink. After rummaging around to pull it out, and rinsing it off because it had dish soap on it, I gave it to her. She asked where a towel was to lay under it. That’s when I remembered that earlier that day I opened the towel drawer to find that half the towels had been used once and thrown back in the drawer with the clean ones by my kids. In annoyance I dumped them all in the wash, along with the ones in the bin in the laundry room, and I forgot to put them in the dryer. I told my mom it was fine to use the rack without a towel. It was NOT fine with my mom. She bought me 2 dish draining mats for Valentine’s Day, which is really only a gift holiday for romantic relationships. Whenever people are coming over and it’s messy I tell them they should feel complimented because I’m treating them like one of the family.