But Al, knowledge isn't like a football ..... when you hand it off, you still get to retain it. So does it really die with us if we're sharing? ;o) NOT GUILTY! (your comments above) ;o) I attend at least a half dozen learning events each year that are a day (or more) in duration. This year so far: Winter tree ID Insect ID by damage evidence Emerald Ash Borer Progress Advanced Pruning Grafting Propagation plus all the Master Gardener related symposia & speakers the several clubs I belong to bring in. I've also found that when called on to put a presentation together, I end up learning a lot. For that reason, and as an active member in the clubs I belong to, I often encourage the 'powers' to suggest that members weak in certain areas put together reports to share with the rest of the group on things like insect control, pruning, fertilizing, or maybe an experiment using different media ...... The research required to do the presentation that they likely wouldn't have done otherwise, is very valuable. In the end, I suppose our level of knowledge in large part comes down to decisions. The order of importance re. how we spend our time is so varied and different that no two people have the same set of priorities. Intelligence isn't what we know, it's what we CAN know, and I know a fair number of rather intelligent vegetables ............... whose idea of learning something is watching "Manswers" on Spike TV. ;o) Al

Well, well - hello, Louise. A pleasant surprise to see you here .... ;o) By the length of what I wrote, you can tell I'm as snowbound as you. Louise (I'll let the cat out of the bag and tell you that's her middle name, so it sounds foreign to me) and I are good friends. We've traveled together to far parts of the country, mostly in search of knowledge, but for new experiences too. We've also attended dozens & dozens of educational events together. She is (next to the 'Fred' we both mention) probably the best person I've yet met at identifying plants by name and being able to tell you what their cultural wants/needs are. I wouldn't think of going on my spring pilgrimage to Detroit to buy all my plants for the dozens of containers I put together each year as garden display plantings without her. She's a skilled plantsman & is always very eager to learn. ;o) I really intended for the thread to address keeping up with what's new, and being open to new ideas, techniques, innovations - not being stuck in the rut of being insistent that there is only one way to do something and that change is bad, but it looks like the experience:knowledge thing is winning out, so we'll go there. Louise asked: "Als friend Fred, and mine, at 94, is still learning, and hes thoroughly enjoying every moment. To me, that is poignant proof that seeking knowledge has some interesting, and beneficial, side effects. What do you think, Al?" I thought Fred was 92 and here I find he is 94. I was at his 90th b-day party, but I guess the years are passing more quickly than I realize - and women are sooo much better than I, at keeping track of important things like birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates. Why is that ......? I think that Fred has passion. He is passionate about people and he is passionate about his plants. He loves nothing more than to be among his plant friends, learning and teaching. He was the first person to actually give me any guidance in my bonsai endeavors, and the thing he told me, tried most to impress upon me, didn't sink in at first. I don't remember his exact words, some 15+ years ago, but what he told me was: if I want to be successful in growing bonsai, I MUST learn about plants. I must learn how they work and how soils work - otherwise my efforts will be, at best, only frustrating. I didn't have the sense to believe him then, so I jumped right into bonsai & soon learned he was right. It took only a few short months for experience to teach me just how much I didn't know. I could have plowed blindly ahead & depended on experience and trial & error to guide me, but I started studying, and I can say that (like Louise asked about) the side effects of what I learned have been so very beneficial. I NEVER could have come to where I am today as a plant person w/o my focus being primarily on knowledge. That doesn't mean I'm inexperienced, at all, and every day my experiences validate some piece of knowledge I already have. It's the same for you guys. You can read something in these forums that one of us has learned and all of a sudden, a light goes on, or you might retain it in your memory & a month from now, your experiences might cause you to recall what you read & you say "Oh Yeah! NOW, I get it." This is another case of experience validating knowledge. Louise & Mentha both mentioned cooking as an analogy, so let me paint a picture: Imagine two people who know nothing about cooking - no experience whatsoever. The first person (I'm going to make him a guy, because I'm the cook around here) ;o) is put in a huge kitchen with all the utensils & everything needed to create a 10 course gourmet meal including a fancy desert for Louise and Mentha. Not gonna happen - right? The second person is schooled in all the cooking techniques - knows how to make the sauces, studies presentation, knows exactly how baking powder makes the biscuits rise and how proteins in meat break down to make it tender - this person is essentially an educated idiot. So, if you put him in the same kitchen ...... It prolly STILL ain't gonna happen - right? Which will come closer to being able to present an edible meal ... The person with no experience or knowledge, or the educated idiot with no experience? Let's take it a step further. The person with no experience or knowledge is left to his own devices, but he doesn't seek knowledge beyond what he learns by his own experience. He plods through the kitchen day after day making mistake after mistake ruining meal after meal and having failure after failure, until after a lifetime of trying he might have figured out how to make a presentable gourmet meal. Back to the educated idiot now .... ;o) He keeps studying & studying - learning fresh, new things & techniques. His first meal was a dismal failure, but a week later, he makes a meal that's pretty good. A year later, he is still studying and making fancy dinners with wonderful presentations. 5 years later he's a chef at a fancy restaurant. 10 years later, he has his own cooking school and is teaching other chefs what he's learned so they can benefit from his knowledge and experience. Why is this? His meager, but growing experience is validating time after time what he already knows and he has eliminated 90% of the trial and error mistakes the other cook depends on almost exclusively for knowledge. Where is the cook who embraces nothing new & refuses to learn? Still stuck in a rut, plodding along and unable to even make proper sense of the results of his actions or what he observes in the kitchen. I could easily have made the analogy about greenhouse operators or hobby growers like us, but as a friend is fond of saying, "We work with what we have." and a cook is what I was given. ;o) Al

Anyone can stab some shots into a dog- you can buy vaccines from the feed store and do it yourself for very cheap. The vet who has time to assess every patient's risk, perform a complete PE, and develops an appropriate wellness plan tailored to that individual's needs is worth the extra money IMHO. If the rescue clinic's vet has the time to assess everything- your pet's lifestyle and risk factors, carefully evaluate heart, lungs, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, look for orthopedic or neurologic problems, palpate the abdomen, etc., discuss diet, exercise, and any other issues your pet may be facing, discuss HWP and flea control options, dispense or Rx those things- for $10 then by all means take advantage of it! They may be subsidized by donations or taxes and can afford to offer full service because of that. Otherwise, I'd not risk missing potential serious health problems caused by overvaccinating or performing a quick PE and go to your regular vet at least for the PE. Most dogs and cats don't need annual vaccines, anyway. There are potentially serious risks to vaccinating too much, just as there are serious risks to missing other vaccines or health care. The most important aspect of pet health care is the PE and developing an appropriate wellness plan. Vaccines are only a small part of the wellness plan. Personally, I think vets who emphasize vaccines are missing the real deal. Like I mentioned before, anyone can give a vaccine (not Rabies but everything else) but not everyone knows which vaccines, how often, and what to do beyond that.

I'm a lot like Lys. Or maybe like many people. I do have criteria of course..for example I REALLY liked one house, I fell hard for it, I stayed there for an hour I guess, running around like a very joyful agitated hamster lol..but it was 2 bedrooms plus a den while my family needed 4 bedrooms..:) So, I do have criteria, location, architecture, layout, how it will function for my family, whether there is some even remote feeling of privacy..and then there is this intangible feeling. You can quantify the rest of the criteria so other people will understand it. You can't quantify this intangible feeling. Yet it's this feeling you're after. It makes you compromise with many things you'd found uncompromising otherwise. Not the essential things that make you move in the first place-but many others. Sometimes you need to spend time, a lot of time searching for that feeling. Yet it is a bit in the stars-my second home, the duplex condo-it was the first place I saw upon selling our very first apartment, and starting to look for a new home. I saw it and I knew. It was perfect. I did spend several days in looking at more places-just for the good measure. By the end of that week I was back, and brought my then-husband to look at it. He spent there 5 min, said "yes" and we bought the condo. We lived there less than a year-his company sent us to work in the US. we rented it. the renters didn't take a good care of it. to put it mildly. in the end, we decided to sell it-we needed the money, the appreciation was huge, neither of us wanted to handle the renting anymore, and I wanted it to be somebody's who loves it so yes, it was perfect, and it was the right financial move(which was something pretty unpredictable-again, just luck)-but it didn't mean that I got to enjoy it. I tasted the enjoyment of living in a perfect home-and then it was thousand miles from me, and there wasn't much I could do about it. You're not very picky, melle. You just want to love your place. And you want to spell to yourself what do you need for it. But a big part of this is intangible. And unpredictable. And you can find all your boxes checked, but not to like the place enough-or you can't but you love the place. Or as in the experience I tried to share-you can fall for the house that is perfect for you, and just get lucky, and then you stay put -or you don't, because life happens. Continue to look, since our home should bring us joy (and you're very lucky to be able to choose. we all are. i'm deadly serious right now). be prepared with your finances-just in case, and treat it a bit as something that will happen as it pleases. once upon a time(c)