I noticed that your Siam has red on her,Evelyn. Mine has red also. I do not have new pups on them but that is OK with me because I would think that new pups on such young plants would drain some energy from the main pups. I just called our extension office here in Marion county and I presented the question to a Master gardener. He said that the new pups would not pose any problems to the older pups. He advised to fertilize the plant and leave her alone. He said it is a normal cycle. So there you go. That is the voice of an expert. So now I'm jealous too. Felix

If you count Friday as the weekend I spent the day at my childhood friend Vicki's house in Essex. We laughed a lot, looked at old pictures, had a delicious dinner and then played games with her daughter and boyfriend and Vickie's husband. Other than that the best thing for me was on Sunday when my arthritis flare up abated. I hobbled around the house on Saturday because my knee and ankle were killing me and I couldn't get my shoe on. LOL I wanted to go out for a walk so badly because it was a beautiful day and I couldn't. My sister called me to do an errand for her and so did an elderly neighbour and I couldn't help them out. Sunday, the pain went away - a good day! Anne

My mother is a hoarder too. She was born in one house, got married, still lived in that house with Grandma, her husband (my Dad) and 4 kids. Around 1963, her mother died, she inheirited the house (an only child) , sold it and moved to a bigger house in the suburbs. Time went by, us kids married and/or moved out. Then Mom's aunt died, left everything to Mom, who took all the furniture out of Auntie's house and fitted it in among our own furniture. Then brother got divorced and came home, along with half his marital furniture. That got stuffed into an upstairs bedroom. The furniture in that room is so heavy it's cracking the ceiling below. Mom has three sets of kitchen cabinets in her kitchen, stacked up and down, every which way. She has a twin bed set up in the kitchen so she can watch TV from bed. She bought a new hutch for the kitchen-lord knows why, she already has tons of cabinet space. I told her the new one looked good, what did she do with the old one? Did she donate it to charity or throw it away? No, she laid it on its side and dragged it into the living room, where it's been for at least 15 years. My sister bought her new kitchen curtains but Mom said, the old ones are still good, take them back. Sis sneaked in when Mom was out shopping and switched the new for the old. Mom was mad when she came home. Sis had taken the old ones with her and threw them out. Did I mention Mom is a heavy smoker and there's a brown nicotine film on everything? I dread when Mom dies. We'll have to clean that house out and get it ready to sell. I'd like a few of the old photo albums, maybe some bowls from the kitchen. But there's nothing else in that house that interests me, nor any of my siblings, as far as I know.

cheryl E, I had two poor performing Fridgidaire Affinity front loaders for 12 years (not at the same time-2nd was a replacement for the first). They did not clean well. They also were prone to having an unappealing odor. I kept the door open when not being used. The only time the door was closed was when the washer was in use. The first washer did not have a 'clean washer' cycle. So I put a cup of bleach on my hot cycle with no laundry in it every two weeks to suffice. Still was not fresh and my towels became contaminated and smelled moldy. 2nd washer did have a 'clean washer' cycle that was hidden from the control panel. You had to press this button, while pressing that button and hold it in place for 30ish seconds then the clean washer cycle would activate. I did that every two weeks with a cup of bleach, then I upped my game and immediately did another clean washer cycle after the bleach one, but with a cup of vinegar. Still, not better. I kept at it though. I think there were two things that caused the issues. The first was that I was using liquid detergent exclusively and the second is that (IMO) they were simply not very good washing machines. I was using hot washes for my whites and lights and also using bleach in my whites loads and still, P.U. and dingy. The whites loads had detectable bleach odor as well which leads me to believe the washers did not rinse well. Moldy and bleach aroma on laundry--not fun. I used warm in my darks loads. I don't use cold wash cycles. Frequent cold washes can lead to funk build up, but I wasn't doing that. These washers, I think did not have dumbed down hot or warm cycles, but I don't know for certain. But I also don't think they had heaters to super heat the water. Super heated washes can help with laundry and washer cleanliness. Anyways, from what I've read on here (I found this group this year), the practices I used don't cause these negative issues in some (or is it many?) front loaders if they are good machines. Meaning the machines do their job well. From what I've read here, my hot washes and my bleach clean washer treatments should have abated the funk. They did not. At some point during my front loader sad and smelly times, I had read that if you use powder detergent and hot washes, along with occasional warm washes and keep up with the clean washer treatments, the problem should dissipate over time. The problem did not go away for me. I kept at it for two years. Using powder detergent was a nuisance for us at the time due to our laundry room configuration (much easier to store and use a tidy bottle than a messy box of powder when you have no place to put it), but I did not give up! I've seen videos of people with the same problem who did the clean washer treatments and all kinds of crud would release from the machine--to the point of it being visible on the video. I never had any visible crud release. I won't ever know if I didn't have crud or if the washer just never released it with the twice a month treatments since I FINALLY gave up and bought a top loading full fill washing machine. Everything is good now. I use powder detergent probably 90% of time now and I also use Borax in most loads. The Borax helps with odors for us--breaks down the body oils and sweat. My towels (the same ones that were funked out for 12 years) are fresh, bright, soft and fluffy now. Hurray! DH's white undershirts that are old and previously stinky and dingy are fantastic now. White, bright, fresh smelling. I did try Borax in my old front loaders a few times and didn't have any improvement, but I think I wasn't using enough. I use 1/2 cup in my current top loader and my daughter uses 1/4 cup in her front loader (with good results). Maybe give that a try? IMO, if you have a dud of a washer, you are more likely to have these negative issues even if you do everything right. Maybe if I was using powder detergent exclusively from the beginning, I wouldn't have had these frustrating issues since the funk would not have built up in the washer or the laundry in the first place. I'll never know for certain though. I've moved on. I hope something in here helps. Sorry to read things aren't going so great in your laundry room. I've been there and it's frustrating.