Some will tell you that all ants are beneficials, do no harm and are your friends. I say B.S. Fire ants in particular are bad. Even those little black ants have killed any number of my plants by making a nest amongst the plant roots. They did not eat on the plant, but tunneled out all around them so that they could not take up moisture and nutrients, basically starving the plant to death. Some varieties may do little more than be a nuisance in stinging you if you stand too long in their area or trying to get into your house. There are any number of insects that eat the surface off leaves leaving the veins and in some cases looking like you describe. You would just have to inspect them closely a few times per day, or until you find which ones are doing that. Good luck in identifying and handling your problem. Bill P.

Well then, that must have been my problem because I did double the recipe!! I didn't realize you couldn't! I know you're not supposed to fool around with amounts in recipes so you keep the acid ratio correct, but where this was just strawberries and sugar and nothing else in the recipe I figured it was ok! I guess not! And I measured out 4 quarts of whole strawberries. The recipe was 2 quarts of strawberries and 6 cups of sugar. It didn't say to cut them or mash them before measuring - in fact (I'm remembering off the top of my head here as I don't have the book with me) it said to crush the strawberries one layer at a time and then to mix with the sugar, so it sounded to me like you measured the whole strawberries, then crushed them and that's what I did. I'm not going to fuss with what I already made - as I said, it won't go to waste as hubby will use it as pancake topping - we've even been known to plop a spoonful of jam in a bowl of oatmeal, so this stuff will work for that as well. But I'm glad I spoke up because for future adventures in jam, I wouldn't have known any of this and would probably have given up on it if I kept failing! And I thought it was weird that the jam recipe that used the pectin used an extra cup of sugar from the one without pectin. I've learned so much from just this thread - thanks so much guys! I want to take my next adventure into the realm of peaches! Peach jam sounds yummy and if I fail again, hubby does like peaches, so he'll have more pancake topping than he knows what to do with lol!! Lisa

Yes, the beans are great. A couple other tips that help. First the most important one. Make sure when you put the crust into the pie that you ease it in. Don't stretch it. Give it plenty of slack in the bottom of the pan then just easily lay the sides on. The stretching makes it want to spring back when you bake it. Of course dock it plenty too so you don't puff up. The last tip is to bake it after it's been chilled well. A room temp crust can tend to slump easier. Those tips and the beans should give a nice crust. One of our faves for holidays is pudding pies so we are always making blind crusts. Well them and lemon meringue. Good luck and have fun at the party. With a strawberry pie though you could stick it in the worst lookin crust and nobody would care. LOL.

I only need to get the pictures uploaded to snapfish... it's possible the bowl of the boy's is going to be not grouted...we don't know yet, cuz court is in an hour and a half..it'd be a fine bowl, as is..... I need to leave in a few minutes, to the juvenile court house...if his mom gets custody, they will be leaving for Oregon this afternoon. this girl/lady is the same age as my oldest daughter..eleven days apart and is the daughter of a friend of mine, that I've known for 40 years... my friend lives in Corpus Cristie and advised her to call me, when she was at the CPS office, here in town and needed a safe place, right then...man, expedited background checks and a visit from the case worker and CPS case worker, here at the house and my place was approved, right there on the spot... ( I swear, they must have had blinders on...lol cuz my place is filled to the rafters with art supplies and not a lot of space to do any square dancing, in my front room!!) that was last Monday..and here we are, 11 days later and the future is unknown for them but it's a new beginning, either way... Zach went through trama and I watched a transformation, while he worked on his glass piece.. here, on this forum, we all talk about how doing mosaics is a healing process.. Zach got a broken finger, when he blocked a blow to the head, when his dad was beating him up... the dad had also taken everything important to Zach, including little clay pieces he had made, from first grade on...the kind made in the classroom, with clay, glaze and firings...all of his favorite games, his laptop (I think I mentioned he's 14 and is a very sensitive boy)and made Zach ride with him to the landfill...then threw all of his belongings in the dump and said he would have to work to pay for the trip to throw it all away... it was a cruel and needless assault on Zach, both physically and emotionally.... This week's journey helped him take something broken, both from himself and other things and make something beautiful from it.... he first walked in the house with a rather empty look in his eyes.. this morning he's full of hope... I only wish and pray the judge sees the same thing.... I have his bowl and some of my projects, in a display case right now, with an overhead light and it's so pretty... it's a 6 hour drive to where she lives and we've already been talking about her coming up to visit friends and an aunt, or me driving there for a couple days..but not in winter...I would take grout with me...lol the lexel is in a tube just like the GE11 and is 5 oz...it was under $5...I think it was like $4.85 or so.... it's a lot cheaper if it can be found in a 12 pack but then again, I'm not going to do that...lol it's gone a very long way, with just the 5 oz... the number on the tube is 13013, evidently to be sure which one it is, between clear or white or something... at least that's what I noticed, ....it's on the bar code and this one says 31525 13013 super elastic sealant it also says it sticks to wet surfaces...guess that would be in an emergency, to maybe fix an aquarium...?? I'd better be going now, to get to the court house...