If the plant is grown on a slant the water will fall out from the leaves, these usually grow on hillsides, and their heads will face the sun. The more water you give it this time of the year the more bottom leaves it will lose, the fan is not helping it at all, they do need circulation in an inclosed room, but not directly on them. Check the soil, if it came directly from where you bought the plant change the soil, the plant may not even have roots. These grow in the spring, and like it on the cool side growing on cliff sides or hills of rocks, in Mexico mostly. I also live in So. Calif. Los Angeles Area, we grow ours in the greenhouse and it gets morning sun, and sun from a glass roof top that is high. My training is from the Huntington Gardens for the past l8 years, this plant may be started by cutting off the top and leave 2" of stem, them putting it into an empty pot until it gets roots, then replanting it into a very gritty mix, with very little potting soil . Follow the directions given just above. I have kept my own out all winter long and it did just fine. I check my soil, by putting a chop stick in the soil or a pencil, leave it in 5 minutes. Remember the root ball must get the water that is where the roots grow, not just the sides of the pot. You have a very small plant at this time. So give some time to grow. Best of luck, Norma

Caboodle, I feel your pain. That dressing sounds awful. I am in search of a good recipe for the cornbread. I found this one and would like opinions. I have a cornbread recipe I like made with yogurt but it is more cake-like than perhaps it should be for stuffing. Southern Buttermilk Cornbread http://andreasrecipes.com/ I grew up on my mother's and grandmother's Southern cornbread, and I'm devoted to it. Southern cornbread has no sugar and is cooked in a cast iron skillet, which renders a lovely crunchy crust. You can eat it by itself with butter or apple butter, or you can eat it with beans or chili and spoon either on top of a slice. This is another recipe that I've played around with. Many cornbread recipes call for 1 cup cornmeal and 1 cup all-purpose flour. However, all that extra flour seems to detract from the corn flavor in my opinion. So I split the difference and I like the results. Equipment mixing bowl 9 or 10-inch cast iron skillet Ingredients 1-1/2 cup cornmeal 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour 1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 egg, beaten 1-1/4 cups buttermilk 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (or bacon drippings if you happen to have any) Preparation 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 2. Stir together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in mixing bowl. Add the beaten eggs and the buttermilk, stirring just until all the dry ingredients are wet. Do not overmix. 3. Add vegetable oil to the cast iron skillet and place in the hot oven for 3 to 4 minutes. You want the skillet hot, but you don't want the oil to start smoking. 4. Remove hot pan from oven. Make sure that the pan is thoroughly coated with the oil, bottom and sides, then pour the excess oil into the batter and stir. Pour batter into the hot pan. 5. Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

This is a funny story about Stove Top, I'm wondering if the people that say they don't like the stove top dressing would say the same thing if they didn't know it was actually Stove Top. One year my sister was telling me about going to her friend's house and eating the dressing...she said it was absolutely delicious and asked her friend what it was and she told her "oh it's just Stove Top". I don't have to worry about making dressing because my husband won't eat it unless it's stove top...HA! But since it's really not very high up on his list, I most likely won't make any. It's just the two of us for TG dinner!

I hope others reply - I built mine very similar - shelf, straight sides. Where the liner shows above the water is more annoying than you might think... even with the rock overhang. Especially when water drops due to evaporation or whatever. If I had it to do over, I would have the liner go around the top shelf rock instead of over it (ie rock goes in the water instead of the dirt - black foam around sides and back of the rock.) Or maybe have two rocks instead of one - bottom rock in the dirt, top rock in the water. Where are you located? Footings ideally go below frost line - or just be prepared to readjust rocks every now and then, may not be a big deal.