I pick them out too. My bins are outside and I noticed a huge increase in slugs when we had those really warm spring days. I was pulling them out of the bins and stepping on them left and right until my conscious started to bother me. Now I don't want to sound like a tree-hugging fanatic, but I figure most things in nature have a positive purpose EVEN when I might find it difficult to figure out what that POSITIVE purpose might be - so I stopped squashing the slugs and began tossing them into a small wooded area that borders my property. (Wish I knew someone with chickens :-) If I could find a way to keep the slugs on the poison ivy that doesn't want to die no matter how many times it's dug up and cut down, I'd be happy. If you didn't find the slugs in your worm bedding, I'm wondering how they got inside your house??? I don't think slugs would want to come inside and would find it difficult to do so even if they had joined together and made a plan to invade. I'm thinking you must have brought them inside on some plant material. Perhaps the two you found were an isolated incident? FYI: I've found that if I store my leaves up off the ground there are fewer slugs to deal with. Once I picked out all the baby and adult slugs in early spring, I haven't had any to deal with since. (I am curious about the coffee grounds as a slug repellant. Hopefully someone will explain this.)

This is nice! I'm so glad to see many of you are as honest as one could possibly be. I'm one among you. I don't like to keep anything that is not mine. Sitting in a wheelchair, I often use my wheelchair as a shopping cart. One time, I found an unpaid pack of battery on my wheelchair as I was getting ready to put the chair in the van. Right away, I felt uneasy. I went back to the store, explained that it was overlooked and paid for it. The funny thing was, people just don't know how to deal with an honest person. They have this "lost" look on their face. Oh, I'm sure they would know exactly what to do with a dishonest person. One time, I was taking money out of an ATM at the bank. The ATM spit out more money than I requested. I went into the bank to return it. The teller checked my account and didn't see any overdrawl. She checked and checked on the computer and didn't see any error. She looked at me and told me I can keep it. I refused. I explained to her that eventually, it will show up a lost somewhere at their end. She talked to other tellers and no teller knew what to do with the money. So, I requested for the manager. He came out, apologized for the error and accepted the money. Although, he too, didn't know what to do with it. The whole ordeal was so odd to me. A bank that wouldn't accept their money because at the time, there was no record of a lost in their computer system. I'm sure they eventually found it when they started looking in the ATM machine. LOL....

Whoa, if you get a degree in industrial arts you get to acquire carpentry textbooks along the way?!? Sweet! Kim, I've always enjoyed/appreciated your contributions; given the wisdom of trial and error that was behind them, I see why they stood out. My mom got us a couple of the Reader's Digest fixit books (have to run downstairs, one of them might be the very one you have); I like the way they are encyclopedic and detailed. I know Jane Powell but not the Small Houses books (do you mean The Not So Big stuff by Susanka, or the Small House anthologies from Fine Homebuilding?) Thanks for mentioning books; I think I might start a reference book thread for this forum. Hey Casey, THANKS for taking the bait. And you are NOT a bloody genius, you are an old house DEITY for crying out loud! Would you please start your own show on youtube? Or maybe just a house tour? Even Petch house has youtube videos. Or, do you already have a project blog and everyone knows about it but me? Actually for someone with a degree in historic preservation, I am impressed with how low-key your posts come across; they read more like an old friend who's "been there" and wants to pass along lessons learned along the way, it's really very nice and encouraging. But if you ever want to browbeat me feel free; I would take it as a compliment. To be honest if I post about something I'm thinking of doing to my house, and you don't opine, I figure one of two things is going on: 1) you're not on the forum; or 2) you're politely disapproving. Most of the time I assume it's 2 because you seem to be pretty consistent around here. But I just want to say, and I hope I speak for many, that I love love love your posts, especially when I'm searching on a problem I'm trying to solve and something from you pops up! (PS I finally got around to using that general finishes gel varnish you recommended and it was fantastic, thank you; I will post photos to the woodworking forum sometime before the next census.) Oh, and I love the way you "aged" the color tones in the new pine beadboard in your kitchen; reminds me of the pine in my grandmother's kitchen. When I was really little I used to look at the gleaming pores and think it was the closest wood could get to 24K gold.

Here are the rest of the loads that I measured. Light Blue load: 1 flannel shirt, 9 athletic shirts, 1 dress shirt, 5 pairs underwear, 1 pair of pants, 1 pair of shorts Wash 2 rinses Wash .793 gallons, spun out 2.1 gals total 2.9 gallons Rinse 1 2.1 gallons, spun out 2.3 gallons total 4.4 gallons Rinse 2 2.1 gallons, spun out 2.6 gallons total 4.7 gallons TOTAL 12 gallons Red load: 6 athletic shirts, 1 flannel shirt, 2 pairs underwear, 2 bath towels, 1 hand towel, 2 washcloths, 1 table cloth, 2 place mats Wash, 2 rinses Wash 2.6 gallons, spun out 0.793 gallons total 3.3 gallons Rinse 1 3.1 gallons, spun out 1.3 gallons total 4.4 gallons Rinse 2 3.1 gallons, spun out 2.6 gallons total 5.7 gallons TOTAL 13.4 gallons Light Grey load: 6 pairs underwear, 4 shirts, 12 pairs grey socks Wash, 3 rinses, water+ Wash 1.8 gallons, spun out 1.5 gallons total 3.3 gallons. Rinse 1 2.9 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.7 gallons Rinse 2 3.1 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.9 gallons Rinse 3 2.9 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 4.7 gallons TOTAL 17.6 gallons White Load: 2 dress shirts, 3 athletic shirts, 7 undershirts, 9 pairs of socks, 9 pairs tighty whities. Prewash, wash, 3 rinses, water + Prewash 1.3 gallons, spun out 1.05 gallons total 2.3 gallons Wash 2.1 gallons, spun out 1.8 gallons total 3.9 gallons Rinse 1 2.6 gallons, spun out 2.3 gallons total 4.9 gallons Rinse 2 2.6 gallons, spun out 2.6. gallons spun total 5.2 gallons Rinse 3 2.6 gallons, spun out 3.4 gallons total of 6 gallons TOTAL 22.3 gallons