I am having a hard time finding info on less grown crops like black eyed peas lima beans sweet potaoes strawberries in the south (north texas) eggplant peanuts celeriac sunflowers shallots first companion ideas for the above would be helpful and good web sites or info on how to grow the above would be greatly appreciated Do sweet potaotes need something to climb on? If so, what do they like to clinb on? Do black eyed peas climb, or better left to sprawl? Are egg plants caged like tomatoes? I have read on strawberries and sweet potaoes, both have me stumped. I am having to learn so much already, maybe I will figure that stuff out later. I grew up on a strawberry farm in Vermont. But it was chemically grown, and vermont and texas two different creatures. We are hot hot hot here. 95-100 all summer. We do not have much of a spring or fall, so cool weather crops are tricky. Winters can freeze or be in the 80's. Hard to keep plants happy here I think. I am a brand new gardener and have no clue. Well no clues, beyond my mistakes I made last year with my only crop of squash, and what have read on-line. So many conflicting opinions. Plus most info is geared for the north or europe. I am planting the black eyed peas and limas in a three sisters garden with corn, squash, melons, cucumbers, green beans and radishes. Had trouble getting the radish to come up direct seeding, so I presprouted in a paper towel and that worked. So radishes are so small not to be of much help now. 4 beds, a different legume and differnet curcubit in each bed. It is an experiment at this point. So far I have had to pull the squash, all were full or evil borers. I replanted the squash. The corn is getting little tiny bugs in the stuff that is heading out at the top. And they are leaving a dust. Either it is too hot for the corn, it might be a northern variety (I have golden bantam, and country gentalman) or maybe soil fertility is not great yet. I am a no til gardener, so it will take a while for things to get just right. I have hilled the soil, but mised a hill and they fell over. I have those staked, and I put in pole there to help the beans climb, since the corn is weak. I wonder if any will produce despite the problems. Beans are not appreciating the shade of the corn, and neither are the black eyed peas. Melons are taking forever to sprout, so I am trying presprouting. Taking forever that way too. The pack was free with the order. Maybe they were old seeds. The cucumber pack was also a free with order thing. They are slow to sprout too. I am behind in my planting due to a bad case of poison oak I got on may 2 and I still itch. Almost gone, thank the lord. I am no longer doing any spring gardening. I have bad tree alergies in feb and march. So I can sart the corn in april and be ok. The spring veggies did not do well anyway. Too hot. I have nice sized tomato plants, only two small tomatoes now though. I think since it is upper ninties the fruit is not setting. I have in the same bed as the tomatoes, beets, scallions (not too happy in the heat), basil, borage, a 6" sunflower plant, chives, garlic. The chives and garlic are under the tomatoes someplace. They were not under there when I planted them. I had no clue tomatoes spread so. I wish I had paid the slightest bit of attension when my grandma gardened. I am just planting the remaining presprouts: beets, scallions, radish, borage, basil, cukes, melons. I know the cool veggies are a long shot. I just kept trying to get them to sprout, outside, and now that they have, inside, it is too late in the season. I directed planted them outside two or three times. By the time I got the idea to paper towel them, it was april or was it may? too hot. All those guys are mear babies, not even true leaves yet. I know to avoid the cool spring stuff now. I know I do not have enough humus from the mulch breaking down, for all that I am trying to grow yet, but I just wanted to get started. I do not buy compost and or manure from the store as most of theat stuff at the garden store is watse from the toxic factory farm industry. Some compost is now made from human sludge. They also pasturize all the good microbs out of it too. I find the idea of companion planting neat, but do wonder if it works. One can only experiment with it I guess. Have to try to grow with the companion plant and without to be sure the combo helps at all. I like the way the garden looks interplanted though. I do not have too many of the same kind of plant in any one place. I need to go on over to texas gardening to see how to get strawberries, sweet potaoes, and peanuts to work here. Celeriac is probably not going to do well here. I just want to try everything to find out for myself

I have tried Photoshop home edition (not the best) I have tried irfanview and now the one that was linked above picnik. One eye comes out good, the other one seems to be very white not red. Not sure what the problem is. It is the only shot I have a daughter and this visiting niece (baby) so I would really like to save it if possible. Thanks

I think your stackers can be a good thing for you, but I do think you need some sort of "deep storage," and it does NOT have to be there. it might be easier if it were, but oh well. You live in the real world. So you'll need to find some other place to keep papers that are longer term, not needed for reference, but needed to access now and then. So use the file box or tote, and go get it when it's "paperwork processing time." And what goes in there is stuff you don't intend to refer to in the next four months. Stuff you *will* refer to can stay in the stackers. As I mentioned before, I think if you live with it for a while, your eyes open to what's working (which you have), you'll figure out for your own situation what's just permanently floating in the stackers and should get filed away (or tossed) You say you have more kitchen storage, which is great, but maybe spend a half a cabinet on a file box for stuff that's not in action at the moment? Insurance forms (unless you can download), etc.? I think a long-term, ONGOING project like the Girl Scout project *belongs* in the stacker. You need to look at it, put stuff with it, etc., every week or so, maybe even more often, so of course it goes in a high-profile spot. But paid bills don't go there. (some people even TOSS their paid bills) Personally I would--do--stick the report cards in deep, deep storage. "Heirlooms & Mementoes" storage, deep in the closet. I don't refer to them again, but if I needed them for some reason (not sure why--not even applying for a new school would require them), I could dig them out. I agree w/ you about your need to get tougher--I think most of us have a procrastination problem (well, mayb enot Ginger, LOL, but *most* of us). I have only JUST this year gotten good w/ schoolwork papers. I toss 'em pretty rapidly. Fortunately, my son's teacher has a "sign and return" stamp, so I know which ones she wants back; the rest go in the trash. I figure, if I haven't had time to discuss them w/ the kids in the 2 days following when the papers came home, it'll be too late to make much of a difference. I'm lucky, in that there's not usually much to say--"oh, I see you skipped over that one; watch more carefully" is about it--bcs they usually understand their schoolwork. They get sloppy, but I don't need to spend much time on that. I try to review the schoolwork briefly when I'm doing the school forms (the ones that you won't let leave the backpack? wise you! I got that concept last year, an am enjoying it this year), and try to deal w/ them the same way. It would be harder if I needed to review stuff with them--if they were struggling w/ the concepts. I used to try, to reinforce by reviewing, and finally just gave up--I never had time to, and decided that, since the kids were basically doing fine, I didn't need to be their tutor, too. It has saved me no end of time and guilt. I think if DD was having trouble w/ fractions, for example, and I wanted to sit w/ her for 15 or 20 minutes to coach, I'd have a tougher time, but I might still not want to keep the paper. Or, maybe that would be the ONE paper I kept, and the rest got tossed. I have gotten absolutely RUTHLESS about paper. I had a basket that was collecting paperwork I needed to "do something with" or "might do something with." And it just ended up really dragging down the house. Ostensibly it was for bills to pay, but other stuff went there, too, and it was just a huge mess. I went through it in early Dec. when my mom was here, and was amazed at how useless all that stuff was. I throw SO much out now. (I know what you mean about keeping your hands out of each other's paperwork, but are you SURE your DH couldn't give you one of his 4 drawers? Not for frequently used stuff--your stackers should help w/ that--but for deeper filing? You really need some place, and I bet he's got stuff that could go--4 drawers is an awful lot. Think about it, send up a trial balloon. You wouldn't have to OPEN the other drawers, so your hands would still be off his paperwork...)

Over time my eyes have become very sensitive and itchy. I've always worn eye makeup -- tons and tons. I never go out without eye makeup. Love it but the last few years, just putting on eye liner is very itchy. So I have some work arounds. First, I use Visine soothing drops before trying to put on any makeup. I like Make Up Forever Aqua Eyes liner pencils -- soft and not too expensive. Sephora has them. Then I fill in with Milani eye liner. It's inexpensive and has an accurate brush. Drugstore.com has it. I've gone around with mascara but always come back to Lancome. They have a base coat/lash conditioner that makes the mascara go on easier and say on very well without irritation. Another mascara that has worked well is Laura Mercier though it didn't thicken enough for me LOL. There are a few removers that work well. I find I need more than one. Lancome's Bi Facil is my longtime staple. It gets most any eye make up off very easily. But then I go over my eyes with the Eye Scrub Lyban linked above -- also from drugstore.com It's sterile in sealed pouches and removes the little bits. I also sometimes use Klorane Floral lotion which is very mild. My eye lids were awfully dry a few years ago -- my skin has become dryer over all. I use Mario Badescu Special Eye Cream V every night. It's sheer and doesn't irritate. Mario Badescu, in NYC., is a salon that makes their own products which are quite gentle. I order those online and usually wait till they have a % off sale and free shipping around holidays. Their emails let you know. They are the best quality/value I've found overall for skin care and the choices are extensive. They have 8 different eye creams depending on skin needs. They also give free samples with order. And their Glycolic Foaming face wash removes all traces of makeup after the two removers -- but leaves skin moist. But there's a whole menu of those too, geared to skin type. I also really love their face creams -- it's hard for me to get any that really moisturize but theirs do. So many suggestions! Will be interesting to see what you like.