Carol, I don't like to use much of anything in my garden either. This year, when I sprayed the entire garden with Bt during the massive cutworm outbreak, it was the first time I'd sprayed the whole garden with anything since we moved here. If I "have to" treat something, I usually only spray that specific crop, and not the whole garden. I also used neem once or twice in the spring, but only on specific plants. I've found cabbage worms and cabbage loopers on cole crops this past week. I was going to spray all the cole crops with Bt 'kurstaki', but instead, I've just been hand-picking them. I hate spraying anything. Like you, I do drown a lot of pests in a bowl of soapy water--usually it is either cabbage loopers or imported cabbage worms, or sometimes it is Colorado potato beetles. The cold has finally shut down the grasshoppers for the most part, and I haven't seen a scorpion in about 2 weeks now, but the garden is full of butterflies, bees in all sizes, yellow jackets, predatory wasps, green lacewings, lady bugs and several kinds of flies (like tachnid flies and Southern robber flies, both beneficials) but also a few cucumber beetles and stink bugs, which I just ignore. There's been a little bean beetle damage on some of the remaining beans, but I just ignore them. It isn't enough damage to warrant action. We also have oodles of butterflies. I am glad I took the time to cover up a few zinnias and verbena bonariensis along with the southern peas and beans because everything else froze and the little flying critters fight over the few remaining flowers all day long. I left some henbit in the bean bed when it sprouted there in early October, and now it is just starting to bloom. That's a relief because once the beans are finished, the bees and little winged insects and butterflies at least will have the blooms of the henbit. There's also some chamomile that sprouted about the same time and it is about to start blooming, so that will be a few more flowers for the wild things. I don't get too concerned about fall pests because the cold weather pretty much takes care of them anyway. I have dug up a surprising number of cutworms in the fall garden, and have killed every one. Maybe I'll have fewer of those suckers this spring than last spring, which was epic in its horrible-ness (I know that likely is not a word) but it is appropriate. There's still tons of spiders too, so at least all the beneficial critters are hanging in there, and there's both toads and frogs lurking in the garden every day. With the salt issue in self-rising flour, it is a much bigger problem for those of us who have certain kinds of alkaline soils that are more sodic in nature, so I never would use flour in my clay for that reason. I used flour in about 2002 or 2003 when the grasshoppers were so bad, and it just ruint all the foliage of my beautiful tomato plants. They looked crappy the rest of the summer, long after I'd hosed off the flour....and we still had tons of grasshoppers too. A friend of mine doesn't have chickens, but she has an old mother coyote who has raised many dens of pups in an area near her pond, and she always puts out the stale bread and stale crackers for that coyote. I also have used an organic fungicide (Greencure) and once or twice have used insecticidal soap, but I'd rather flick the pests into the soapy water in a bowl than spray the soapy water on my plants. I don't think I've sprayed a lot of garden plants with a soap spray in about 10 years, though I have sprayed an occasional single plant in a pot. Our chickens are having garden withdrawal because the fall garden is doing so well that I haven't let them into the garden yet to dig and scratch and hunt for bugs. At the rate its going, the chickens may not make it into the garden until January. This evening we came back from a fire (it has been a very busy fire week since about Tuesday) and had some unhappy chickens in the chicken coop. They were up roosting but were chattering even though it was dark. Usually that means a snake is in there, but this time it was a little possum curled up in the corner of the coop. Tim showed him or her the way out and then closed the door. I guess the little possum thought he'd found a nice place to spend the winter. Hawks have been trying hard to get the chickens so they haven't been out free-ranging much, but I planted 5 rows of winter greens in the big garden for them, so every day I cut them a bunch of greens and toss them into the chicken coop. The greens might make being cooped up a little more bearable. When I let them out to chase bugs around the yard, I stay with them as much as possible to keep the hawks away. In this drought, the hawks are having trouble finding enough food and it is going to be a long winter for the chickens with those hawks hovering over the yard. Dawn

Laurel, sorry, I was gone all morning. I salt and pepper my meat (top of round steak), both sides. Then spread mustard on one side. At one end put a half of a pickle (depending on size) sliced long ways, some onion (about a table spoon full) chunks or slices, and 1/2 slice of bacon (last time I used ham, cause I had some) then roll it up from that end. Secure with metal pins, you know, the kind you can also use for closing a turkey, or use string/thread. Brown in hot oil, or bacon grease turning frequently to get it brown all the way around. Add about a cup or two of broth for gravy. I cooked mine for 15 minutes in my pressure cooker. My cookbook calls for a simmer time of 45 to 60 minutes. Thicken the juices with a mix of cornstarch and flour. Red cabbage Last time, I made a whole head, and had plenty of left overs. :) Quarter a head of cabbage, remove the white rib. Slice the cabbage very thin (my choice), unless you have a good shredder. Dice about 1/4 cup of onion peel and core an apple, and dice it too. Depending on your dietary restrictions, heat oil (any will do) or bacon grease, about 2 to 3 tablespoons in a large pan/dutch oven. add the onion, and as soon as it starts browning add the cabbage. Saute for a bit, add the apples just before adding about a cup of broth. Put the lid on and let it simmer on low for about an hour. When I cooked Rouladen and Red Cabbage for my friends earlier this month, I served them with boiled potatoes. Sorry, forgot to take pictures of the finished meal, we just dug right in.

Since I needed to make a decision on this fabric and hadn't heard back from Connecting Threads, I called. I'm sure they will respond but I need to get going on this project. The women I talked to said that they were told today (I'm thinking I wasn't the only one asking the question) that this fabric comes from Mexico. Because they have bad water ( her words not mine) they have to add something to the water to make the fabric. This additive gives the fabric a fishy smell, her term for what I called a petroleum smell. She said if I "air" it out the smell will come out. Also about the design she said all of their fabric has painted on designs. I've gotten fabric before from them ( christmas wall hanging kit) and I didn't notice that the design was painted on. This CLEARLY is painted on. She said it shouldn't come off with washing and using. Because this quilt project is for my loved daughter-in-law, I am returning the fabric. I have never purchased fabric that smelled. Well maybe Wal-mart but just once. Unfortunaltely they may have to give me a merchandise credit and I don't plan on buying from them, certainly not fabric. If anyone else buys it and "airs" it out, please let me know.

I did go to see the movie, and was not blown away by any means, but also not completely disappointed by it either. I was curious how they were going to apply the book so it made sense in a film version and I think they did the best they could. I went with two friends who did not read the book and both of them really enjoyed the movie. I explained to them that it was a "candy-coated" version of the book. Everything portrayed in a much lighter way than in the book. It lost a lot of the charm of the book but I wasn't upset by it like I usually am after reading a book and watching the film adaptation. I've seen far worse than this. Johngalt: As far as your issue with the wedding playing out with the older Henry, I think you forget that even when his future self is present in the past, that is the way the past happened, even if he isn't aware of it at the time. Remember that as Clare grows up she knows Henry without the present Henry being aware of it. He doesn't meet her until their 1991 meeting although she knows him intimately. So, even the first time around, the wedding occurred with the future Henry stepping in for the present Henry. Which is why Henry has no free will outside of what is happening to him at the moment. His future is decided as well as his past.