LOL....tell us what you really think :-) My feeling that is that forests in the southeast (especially Florida) see a lot of dramatic external influences and a moist fungi/microbe rich environment that greatly affect forest composition on a regular basis. For only two trees to make it 3500 and 2000 years respectively on a favorable site seemed statistically unlikely. I could see 800 to 1300 years old as still being extremely impressive though. On a side note, when my neighbor cut down his 3.5' diameter silver maple, I counted ~130 rings. If I had used exclusively the outer six inches and extrapolated, we'd have reached 500+ years.

guess it is a no go About an hour from Lakeland, maybe two but not heard from you. Think I will yet drive through the city, Is a little out of the way of Ft Myers, but I have never been through it before. Later today will be back to my southern home and see how my own Brugmansia have fared just didn't work out getting together maybe some other time

Robin - The bean soup sounds wonderful. And I love the pictures of your 'stash'. I hope to get my canning closet a little more full this year. I love soup and would like to try to can some. I just haven't ventured out into canning those types of things yet. Last year was my first year canning - I canned lots of green beans, tomatoes, and salsa. And also put up lots of jam and pickles. I've been putting chicken bits and bones in the freezer, along with onion peels, etc, in hopes to make chicken stock. Just haven't got up the nerve to try it yet. Really don't know why I'm so nervous about canning stock. But I really appreciate that you shared your whole process with us. It makes things easier for me to follow when I can compare notes along with the proper guidelines. Maybe you can give me some pointers on canning stock - I think I'm concerned that it will be too fatty and turn rancid. Ruthie - I've also been following the threads of all the exciting things you've been putting up. I think I need to just step out and give the soups and stocks a try. Keep up the good work. Happy Canning everyone!

I read the bill and did some research on the current law. IMO, all this bill would do, if passed, is take a lot of things that are already contained in current law but are being enforced by a hodgepodge of agencies and instead give a new agency responsibility for enforcing the laws aimed at protecting consumers. The current legislative authority for the USDA and the FDA already contains most, if not all of this language - YOUR GOVERNMENT ALREADY HAS THIS POWER. The concern, and the backstory behind legislation like this, is those agencies aren't doing enough to protect us because they are beholden to their "industry partners" - big businesses that guarantee that the regulations are easy for them to deal with while being difficult for small farmers to deal with, so they can push their small farmer competitors out of business. As I read it, all this bill does is take the current laws regarding food safety and put them in the hands of an agency whose mandate is to protect consumers - someone we can go to if salmonella creeps into the egg supply to ask "what on earth happened?" Does this law have the potential to shut down small organic farmser? Sure. So does the current law of the land. Ask any organic farmer. The red-tape requirements are insane at this point. And if your neighbor the chicken farmer is making a living without bothering with that, that's great for him, but he's violating the current law just as much as he would violate this law, if passed. This really isn't bigger government than we already have. It's just government that isn't controlled by multinationals. Will it be corrupted by multinational corporate lobbyists? Probably. But I repeat: your government already has this authority. The only substantive change is it puts that authority into the hands of an agency with a mandate to protect consumers. That is not the mandate of the USDA or the FDA at this point. And Ricky, all the best thoughts heading your way.