Hi --I know what you mean. I just bought some sturdy plastic shelves about 6' high and store everything on there--The key is going through at least once a year and organizing everything. I keep small items like epsom salts, etc. in glass jars with lids and everthing else in clear plastic containers so i can see what's in it. You can find these at any big box store. The key is being able to look up at the shelves and see everything without diggin in it. I also stapled chicken wire to the ceiling of my garage out of the walkways and use this to hang stuff with S hooks I bought at the hardware store, or just bent clothes hanger wire will work. Good luck.

We were well set to coast through a three day power outage - even in winter, but before the phones went out the power company recording changed to "at least 5 days" and we had to scramble to prepare for that long of an outage at these temperatures. We lost phone in the middle of day 1 when a tree took out the line. No idea yet when we'll have phone service back and in this area there's not much sense in having a cell phone unless you live up on the top of a hill. On day 2 I ventured to town hoping to find a kerosene heater. It became obvious really quickly how that wasn't going to work. But I did find a store with a fresh load of empty gas cans in stock and a working phone line. They let me call and leave a message for my sister in Chicago to have her order and overnight a kero heater to us. I stood in a huge line for kerosene at the gas station and got my cans filled. Then tried to drive home. Ugh. I was almost home, coming down a steep icy hill and right in front the road was blocked with lines down. It was too icy to back up the hill and the dropoff next to the edge of the road was too steep to risk making mistakes. I had to go back to a larger road and flag down folks to try to contact the sheriff for help. One of then was going past our house so they stopped to tell hubby Pat what was going on and give him a lift up the road to help me. They found our house easily when I described it as "the house with the big garden in the front yard". :) I'll need to flag down their truck this spring and pawn off some surplus plants on them as a thank you. Getting stuck only took a couple of hours and then help arrived and the sheriff checked the lines to make sure they weren't hot and lifted them so I could slide on down the hill. A few hours later neighbor from up the hill came by and I went up to their house to use their cell phone. Sister got the heater ordered, but neighbor knew someone who had an extra in his shop so I got a local loaner and saved the cost of overnighting something heavy from Montana where it was in stock. I'm not sure Fed Ex could have got down the roads at that point anyway. Days 3-8 were spent living like third worlders - every waking moment going to the work of making food, staying warm, and tending livestock. Filling a five gallon water bowl with hot water from a tap takes a lot less time than building a fire and heating it two gallons at a time over the flames - especially when you factor in replenishing wood stores. The loaner kero heater kept the house a cozy 60 - 65 during most of the day and when we shut it off at night the temps usually stayed over 50. Not horrible temperatures if you are staying busy with farm work and have a nice pile of blankets at night. All of my containers in the front yard still look like they do in the photos. The wires and strings held fine and it was nice to think of that many plants already sown and out there doing their thing without me having to fuss over them. The animals are all doing fine. We were very concerned about our fence the first few days. A tree fell on a section of it. Pat did basic repairs but there was no power to the electric fence until today - not good in an area where there's a lot of loose dogs that will kill goats if they get a chance. Fortunately they didn't test the fence and now it's fully charged even if some of the repairs are still temporary. I'll leave the story of Pat climbing up icy hills carrying tools and a chainsaw to deal with a giant tree on the fence to your imagination. It makes my stuck car story sound like a picnic. I guess we should just be glad that we aren't in Kentucky. One of the toughest things was the sheer lack of information - and I doubt the folks with power out in KY have phone lines, cell phone reception, or radio stations that give them any useful information. ("Greatest mix of the 40's to 80's" and 2 minutes of CNN news a day is NOT a lot of help.) Fun fun. It will all seem like a distant bad dream once I get some sprouts. ) Lynda

Hi everyone, Thanks for the recent replies. Mo, I got the terracotta spheres on a road trip to New Mexico (to visit Santa Fe Greenhouses (aka "High Country Gardens" in their catalog)). I didn't get the spheres there, but at nearby Jackalope which sells all sorts of pots, terracotta, wrought iron, etc. If I see them locally I'll let you know. Brodie, sorry your first painted one was stolen. That's too bad. I'm glad your entire family has new ones now. Gldno, yes, I'm debating applying something on it to at least slow its rusting away. Pat, I love the idea of milkweed planted in one--very clever. This one has the lid (rusted on) so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. As an aside, it's also filled with fluid that doesn't drain out--seems like about 1/5th of the container. Maybe I don't WANT to figure out how to get the lid off, heh heh! A mail box might be a fun use for it too. I'm going to search online for pics! Harleylady, let us know how your final planting goes and how you incorporate the milk can. Thanks again for the replies, Take care, Grant and his rusted milk can filled with unknown, possibly nasty fluid. :)

Storage is a problem, especially when the house is small. Our house is single wall construction (vertical one inch thick boards where the outside of the board is the outside of the house and the inside of the board is the interior of the house - it works best in warm climates), however, when we remodeled the bath house (a separate building since the house didn't originally have plumbing) we put in "double wall" (2" x 4" stud) construction. I have found that canning jars fit real nice on shelves set between the studs. Loads of storage space is hiding in the walls. If you have any, tear out some of that drywall, put shelves in the wall and then new drywall panels hinged to hide with push latches or cabinet doors set into the wall. Presto! Instant invisible storage. I'm also planning on building a cabinet to fit the bigger pickle jars used for dry storage since those jars are too big to fit anywhere else. Since our house is old, the traditional "pie safe" style of cabinet is easy to build and fits right in. We also have earthquakes, so having the jars hide behind cabinet doors improves their survival rate. My friend strung wires across her shelves and her canned goods survived the last 6.7 earthquake. The wires aren't very visible and about two or three inches from the shelf. She said if the wires hadn't been there, she didn't think there would have been anything left on the shelves at all.