Ken, What is that weed growing in your yard?? I can let you use some Roundup if you can't dig it out!!! OH, that is one of them there companion plants, isn't it? Looks good. Are we allowed to go OT again? Dave

I don't understand that drawing. Is that a wall with nothing on it at the right side of the kitchen? And what's going on with the island? I don't understand what those little things along the bottom row are (below the DW, sink, etc.). Here are some issues that jump out at me from this layout: - Two tables so close to each other? That seems weird. Why not put seating on the outside of the island instead of that little table at the end? You would get a lot more island seating that way, and also you wouldn't have someone sitting IN the kitchen right in the traffic path between range and fridge. - Sink across floor from range (instead of on same counter run or around the corner). This is a safety issue. It can work in certain configurations where the traffic pattern allows or where there are no kids or pets in the household, but your kitchen is open on both sides (so people can come towards the cook from either direction), which makes it more of a safety issue, and your kitchen has plenty of room to put the sink on the same run as the range. So I'm not seeing the point of putting it on the island. BTW, you can keep the DW on the island--it doesn't have to be next to the sink, just near it. - MW all the way across the kitchen from the fridge. Normally these are close together because the MW is used to heat leftovers, frozen meals etc. that come from the fridge. Putting them far apart creates a lot of unnecessary traffic, and that traffic will cut right through the main work area. - Pantries and hutch on other side of island from range. If you plan on keeping anything in these pantries that you would ever need when cooking, such as canned goods, oatmeal, baking supplies etc., this setup will get annoying fast. Also, why such shallow pantries? - Trash/recycling pullout: in this configuration the cook will do most prep work between the sink and the DW, because people naturally tend to prep between sink and range and that's the stretch of counter that is closest to both. This configuration means no one can access the trash while someone's cooking (or that is, they will have to ask the cook to move). Also, the cook will have to move every time she wants to throw something away. And of course, with the natural prep space being between the sink and the DW, no one can do dishes while the cook is prepping. In other words this configuration scrambles the zones, which creates inefficiency. You have plenty of room to keep the zones separate, and that will be far more efficient. See, the thing is, you might expect prepping to take place on the counter to the right of the range, since it's not far from the sink either, but that would require the cook to pick up all the freshly washed stuff and carry it across the aisle. That's just not what a human being is likely to do, especially because you often also need the trash while prepping and the trash is on the island. So what this configuration does is work against natural human instincts--in other words, natural human instincts would lead a person to use this kitchen in an inefficient way, by doing almost everything on the island, which scrambles the zones and leaves that whole nice long counter run to the right of the range unused. The way to solve this in a kitchen of this shape is to put the sink (or at least A sink, i.e. a prep sink) on the same counter run as the range. So I think your needs might be better served by a U-shaped kitchen (i.e. attach the island to the wall on the right, get rid of any wall that extends beyond the island, and put the pantry/hutch inside the kitchen on the closed end of the U). Making the pantries deeper, with pullouts, would mean you might only need one of them, so that closed end of the U would not need to be super long. A U-shaped kitchen with the closed end facing the garage will mean you can't walk straight into the kitchen from the garage, but if the fridge is on the far end of the kitchen you will be carrying groceries that distance anyway. It is no more effort to carry them on the kitchen side of the island or the outside of the island (or peninsula, since with a U-shaped kitchen the island would become a peninsula).

I saw some incredible semi-precious granites/marbles with embedded fossils while shopping. The embedded sea shells (some quite large, like 8" or more) were very iridescent, like mother of pearl. I asked about one slab on display and was told that the slab alone (no fabrication, delivery, etc) was 60k :-) Those slabs still stand out in my memory as some of the most beautiful and precious things I've ever seen.

I just went through the garlic listing in SSE's 2017 Yearbook. Most of the stock I presently grow came from other collectors there. Two of the varieties I lost in the 2012 aster yellows outbreak - Chrysalis Purple and Carpati - are now listed, so this will complete the restoration of my previous collection. Heritage Farm also had two other varieties that have been on my 'want' list for several years. Barring crop failures, they will all be shipped in the Fall. The garlic bed is already about the largest that I can maintain, so to make room for the new arrivals, I will be eliminating a few of the varieties this Fall which have failed to size up. Best case scenario, they all do well... in which case, it will be a tough decision. Several garlic collectors with large collections have dropped out of SSE in recent years, so SSE itself has been offering more varieties from its preservation collection to fill the gaps. This suits me fine, since I know garlic from their collection is free from some of the garlic pests & diseases (such as garlic bloat nematode) that might be present from other sources.