I have found newbalance running shoes are lightweight, well ventilated, excellent arch support inserts and their very robust cushioning allow me to be on my feet all day... if they get wet or muddy I just hose them off, take out the inserts and let everything dry overnight in the garage. Don't laugh, but i change from my clean clothes to my garden clothes in the garage, work in the garden, hose off outside, remove all the dirty garden clothes in the garage and change back into the clean clothes before going inside. Just wish I had installed a sink and shower in the garage! I never tried it , but as a boy scout was told eating the tips of blue-tip matches would help keep the bugs away (something about ingesting the sulfur and the subsequent odor via perspiration). Maybe I will look for something like long sleeve surgical scrubs that are lightweight cotton that can be sinched at the wrist or ankles to keep the bugs out and yet still be comfortable in the heat . I have noticed my raised bed garden close to the house has fewer bugs than the garden area further away or closer to the tall grass/woods areas. The raised beds are easier to garden as you don't have to bend down all the way!

I'm not looking for anything in particular, just sort of looking and hoping to see something good someday. I am so impressed at what others find in other parts of the country and so not impressed with what turns up around here. There's not much good quality old furniture here to begin with, and there are a lot of poor young people who are only here because they like living here -- not because they have great high-paying jobs. Lots of students and former students who stayed on and maybe they're starting to get rid of their student furniture. Not many stores that sell very good new furniture (my opinion only). It seems that when something good does turn up on craigslist, it's way overpriced because someone is trying to raise some money. People seem to have such inflated ideas of what their things are worth. I've seen stuff like a saggy stained old leather sofa, only one tiny cigarette burn on one arm, hardly noticeable if you put a pillow over it, paid $1500 five years ago, willing to let it go for $750, really comfy, lots of life still left in it, would never sell only I'm moving and have no room for it. Oh well, no use complaining, we don't need anything anyway. I'm just jealous, that's all! And yes, this is a great place to live, other than inferior craigslist and no Trader Joe's. :)

So, I went ahead and took a chance. Armed with a flashlight and a playing card, I drove to look at the bed that night. (And it's just the frame, not any mattresses, btw.) It was so gorgeous and so cheap, I ignored my paranoia and bought the darn thing. (I DID peek briefly into the cracks with a flashlight and run the playing card between any seams.) And really, you'd have to be a pretty horrible person to sell a bed to someone, knowing that you had had bedbugs, right? Of course, I guess it's always possible that you can have them and not know. The bed is still outside. I spent a lot of time that first night running out there with a flashlight every so often, inspecting, inspecting, inspecting. Maybe I AM a crazy person! But so far, it seems to be bug-free. And to top it off, the lady told me that she was surprised that she had gotten so many calls about the bed, because she thought that sleigh beds were out of style these days. Great - now I have something else to be paranoid about. Are sleigh beds "out"? Whatever, I still love it. I'll post some pics later on today. Thanks!

juddgirl2 - I have been on vacation and am now seeing this thread. Now I am traumatized by just reading it! Try putting a freshly cut apple in your sons desk drawers. Leave them inside for a few days. This little trick was giving to us by a car dealer to remove odors from cars. My daughters cat urinated on her back seat. We removed the seat cover and shampooed it, but the smell was still slightly detected. The apple worked, although my daughter forgot about it and it attracted fruit flies! segbrown - If you have the stomach, read my story about our outdoor grill. Beware...it is heart wrenching, but the grill lives on, even though it took several hose and dishwasher cleanings to be presentable for me to cook on. I wanted to get rid of it, but DH wouldn't hear of it. Here is a link that might be useful: The grill versus the birds