Jeanner, We are pretty much in the middle of North Florida. About 90 miles west of Jacksonville. We are just supposed to get lots of rain and some wind. And sometimes with this we lose power for a few days. Lots of very old trees that sometimes fall on lines due to the weight of the water and the wind. We don't anticipate any problems since we have generators and we don't have trees near the house. I might have to dump some water from the pond a few times, but that isn't a problem. Florida will probably develope some sinkholes from this, which can be very scary at times. Glenda

This is the best site for seed germinating info I've come across: Tom Clothier's Garden Walk and Talk. I find Datura odd. Sometimes I'll get nothing from a bunch of seeds, and sometimes I'll get 90-100% germinating. I've never figured it out. I have had no luck at all with any of the doubles - it could be my technique, it could be the seeds are bad. 'Belle Blanche' should be easier than 1 out of dozens, maybe you had an old bunch of seeds? Clematis from seed can be slow (depending on the sort), and it might not resemble the parent (or it might!), but it should be fairly easy. Clematis will benefit greatly from a cold period. I've never grown chinese lanterns fron seed, but I've grown two close relatives from seed many times: tomatillos and ground cherries. Neither of those get fermented, so I doubt that the chinese lantern seeds need it. I should say that though I don't ferment my tomato seeds, I do remove the jelly-like covering on them (placing the seed on a paper towel and mushing it gently with your finger does the trick for me). The jelly supposedly inhibits germination, but I've had seeds that didn't get it removed germinate just as quickly as ones without it. I'd still prefer remove it by mushing though, as it may cause the seed to rot if it's left there being moist. About the cold period - you can't just toss the seeds in the fridge in their envelope. They have to be sown in slightly damp seed starting mix. If the seeds are large enough to be carefully handled with tweezers, I use small 1-2oz containers, and carefully transfer the seeds to larger containers when they come out(some may already be germinating). If the seeds are too small to handle in that way, I put their sowing pots into a plastic baggie and put that in the fridge (takes up a bit of room though!). A really good book is the "A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants". But it's pricey ($66.50 at Amazon.ca), and it's HEAVY!!! I got mine as a birthday gift - I couldn't justify buying it myself, but I really wanted it. I have found that mant books that you find remaindered at the front of bookstores are good enough, they may not be the best out there, but they're cheap. BP

From our FAQ's: A good rule of thumb is to replace your sediment filter and carbon block after six months. A more precise way to maximize the useable life of these two filters is to use a pressure gauge to identify when pressure reaching the membrane starts to decline. This is your indication one or both of the filters is beginning to clog. Also be cognizant of the chlorine capacity of the carbon block. A good 0.5 micron carbon block for example will remove 99% of chlorine from 20,000 gallons of tap water presented at 1 gpm. Some original equipment suppliers commonly provide carbon cartridges rated at 2,000 to 6,000 gallons. Regarding your RO membrane, use your TDS meter to measure, record, and track the TDS (expressed in parts per million) in two places: 1. Tap water 2. After the RO The TDS in your tap water will likely range from about 50 ppm to upwards of 1000 parts per million (ppm). Common readings are 100 to 400 ppm. So for sake of discussion, let's say your tap water reads 400 ppm. That means that for every million parts of water, you have 400 parts of dissolved solids. How do we go about getting that TDS reading down closer to zero? If you do some experimenting with your TDS meter, you'll note that your sediment filter and carbon block filter (collectively called "prefilters") do very little to remove dissolved solids. So with your tap water at 400 ppm, you can measure the water at the "in" port on your RO housing and you'll see it is still approximately 400 ppm. The RO membrane is really the workhorse of the system. It removes most of the TDS, some membranes to a greater extent than others. For instance, 100 gpd Filmtec membranes have a rejection rate of 90% (i.e., they reject 90% of the dissolved solids in feed water). So the purified water coming from your 100 gpd membrane would be about 40 ppm (a 90% reduction). Filmtec 75 gpd (and below) membranes produce less purified water (aka "permeate"), but have a higher rejection rate (96 to 98%). The life span of a RO membrane is dependant upon how much water you run through it, and how dirty the water is. Membranes can function well for a year, two years, or more. To test the membrane, measure the total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water coming in to the membrane, and in the purified water (permeate) produced by the membrane. Compare that to the membraneÂs advertised rejection rate, and to the same reading you recorded when the membrane was new. Membranes also commonly produce less water as their function declines.

We're almost finished w/the kitchen nook we've made for our kitchen remodel. We've tried to restore the kitchen more to 1920-30's era. House is 1918. We took out island from prior owner remodel because there just wasn't space for it w/more than one cook. It was a nice place for visitors to hang out at though even though there was no seating at the island. So, we put in a traditional nook in a corner of the kitchen, but still facing the cooks. My husband built the bench and it has storage underneath for his books and supplies for grading papers. We bough 2 18 inch tall stools for the other side, so they can be slipped underneath the table when not in use. People on the stools would have their backs to the kitchen. Also needed stools because large radiator on that side wouldn't allow another booth bench. We also built becasue we thought it would be easier to clean around than a small table with four chairs. The table we built is just attached to the wall on one side and just had one leg coming down on the other. We kept the bench not-too-deep and not too high off the ground because I'm short and rarely fit most chairs well, but my 5 10 husband is fine in the bench too. We did not want anything upholstered in there, just nice shiny paint for sliding in and out of the bench. Don't need extra things to clean. Was worried about whether anyone would be drawn to the space. So far my husband enjoys reading the morning paper or grading there and my 10 yr old son does better remembering to eat his breakfast when he's sitting at the bench where it is harder to just jump up! So, we did the nook for the era of the house, but also storge, ease of cleaning and a space to hang out while others cook. We also have a large built in window seat original to the house in the dining room. Used to use it as the changing area when my kids were babies. Unfortunately now, it often gets piled w/papers that we're not quite sure where to put, or projects taken off the dining room table. We do use it when we have lots of guests because we can push the dining room table up to it for lots of extra seatingn on that side. We hope to make better use of it after we finish w/kitchen remodel.