I just wanted to say thanks everyone!! Very informative articles and so much knew stuff you learn each day comming here...I never understood this about bark and wood.. All I can say is thanks! I FINALLY found some! Fir bark... I remebered buying orchards from someone I met in my area over 5 years ago that was growing beautiful and citrus back then, and I remembered him saying someday he was going to sellevery good supply he could think of for orchards and tropicals, to help people be sucessful at these plants. It was a dream of his. I saved his number from then. I called him, and come to find out, he is a big supplier of YES!! "fir bark"...We were both happy to hear from each other besides. He has fine and or small and medium grade...He says it's real real good stuff. He specializes in this bark..NICE ha. Now I am excited. I get a FREE delivery of three bags within the next couple of days... I will take a pic, and you can see if it as nice as he says when I get to using it.... If it is, then I would be willing to tell you where I got it privately, since it can be VERY difficult to obtain this hard to find good stuff..:-) A secret he shared. I asked him how his plants were doing. He said better than ever before, since he waters his plants once a month with, ready? Seltzer water, sodium free.... He explained the benefits in detail, hard to remember...Hummm.. As anyone ever heard of this, watering container plants with seltzer water?

Congratulations! As Rebecca said, yes, weave in your tail. Be sure to go up and down, not side to side. Side to side will take away from the stretchyness provided by the ribbing at that point. (I once did side to side weaving on a sock where I changed colors frequently, and it really make the sock hard to get on.) Can you join at cast-on so you don't have the dip? I join by the trading stitches method. I don't know how others do it. Yes, picking up stitches for the gusset is the hardest part. I usually pick up 2 extra also. I bought double sets of needles and worked on each sock alternating back and forth so they were both done at the same time, but I have never had "second sock syndrome" where I didn't want to start the second one. He wants to play with your masterpiece, your fabulous creation!!!??? LOL! Oh well, at least he takes an interest in what Mom's doing. Tell him you'll knit him a pair to wear one of these days. Cute story.

Hell'o Lulie, So Sorry to hear about your Mother. I lost my Mother about a year ago. She was so talented in many fields and I am too. However, I took up painting about 1.5 years ago and have really enjoyed it. I know Mother would have encouraged me on too. Keep painting.... I feel your Mothers watching. Put your paintings on for us to see. Do you paint oil, acrylic or what? I really like acrylic. I especially like Christmas or Halloween. However, what I really enjoy painting is WINE BOTTLES, with grapes, flowers, fruit, animals etc. Whatever comes to me at the time. I have 3 Grandsons and 2 daughters that have lovely homes that enjoy my paintings. I noticed this topic is still going but not heavily used. I hope it is not discontuined and maybe others will jump on line with us. Good luck. Grama

OK, how old is TOO old? I'm pleased to see that so many posting here are looking at this as unfair to the child. Recently a single forum member of 40+ posted, wondering if it was feelings of 'last chance' or if she really wanted to have a baby with her 50-ish male friend. I got flamed for looking at this as less than fair to a child. Things happen. Sometimes children are born to less-than-optimum-age parents (young and old). It feels different when someone *deliberately* creates a human life (s)he will almost certainly be unable to parent long or well. In addition, the child in the OP has no father to parent him -- and will never know who his father was. At a reputable adoption agency -- one where a child's best interest IS put first -- a 66-year-old parent wanting to adopt an infant would have to have a 14-year-old partner to meet the "Combined Age of 80 or Less" rule!