Ack, lost another post somehow... hmm... Anyway, what I wrote was that I use a chopstick (as in Chinese food) and stick it into the soil at an angle so the point is directly beneath the seedling to transplant. I then move it up and down a few times to loosen up the soil. Then, I gently pull on the seedling to transplant. If it resists enough that I think roots are going to break, I work the chopstick a little more, repeating until it comes loose freely. I then immediately put it in a hole in its new pot, fill in the hole, gently tamp down the soil on the old pot, and water well the new pot. Once all seedlings are out of the old pot, I water it lightly. Only rarely do seedlings die in this manner, in my experience. In the past week, I transplanted about a dozen basils and a ronde de nice squash in this manner, and every one of them survived. A couple weeks ago I transplanted about two dozen tiny english daisies, and they did quite well too.

Milk prices are down for dairy farmers by 30%. They are working for 1970 wages and paying 2002 prices. Someone in the household needs to make money and cover health insurance. Farmers sell wholesale, but have to buy retail. The dairy industry is in sad shape! We import milk from New Zealand and other countrys. Cows are a worthless commodity right now. They are not worth the feed you have to feed them! I am not a dairy farmer, my wife works for a cow breed assosiation. In New Hampshire you can sell raw milk from the farm, I think in Vermont too. You can go to a dairy and buy fresh todays milk and maybe a dozen eggs here. Just like the old days, The cream floats to the top, you shake or stir then serve. More people should buy direct. When my children were small they loved going down to the farm to buy milk! You would have to bring your own container and if you went at mlking time you got warm milk. If you wanted to try milking they taught you. If you went when no one was around you helped your self. The milk would all be dated. The old milk would be fed to the pigs. A good cow makes alot of milk and when she freshens you get another animal! If you have a pasture, live on a homestead, like animals and have children a couple of cows and a flock of chickens go along way. Throw in a dozen pigs and a large garden you will not starve! You feed the pigs, grain, milk, hay and garden vegies. They love greens of any kind. You keep what you need and then post to your milk customers live ready to butcher pigs in the fall. They pay for the butcher and pick the pork up from the butcher. This is true country living that we need to get back too.

I am a full time teacher during the school year Mid August through Late May. I am a full time market gardener Late May- Mid August and the rest of the time I am a Full time teacher and Market Gardener! We garden intensively on about 1.25 acre. We live on 4.5 acres. We also have close to 7,000 square feet of growing space under high tunnels, in a year. We grow/harvest year around now. The hardest part about working full time and market gardening is managing the high tunnels. In the spring and fall they need to be opened and closed almost daily. Then comes storms. I can handle winter storms, it is the severe weather that hurts. If you do go with high tunnels, make sure you have a plan for this. I am married, have 4 kids and my wife is in school for another year. The garden/micro-farm allows her to stay at home in the summer and allows us to take trips, pay for winter propane, and all those things you never have money for. It is our living savings account. We also eat good too! Check out our blog, you will see what we do. Here is a link that might be useful: Jay's Jellies

I got only SSI because the judge ruled that my disability started more than 5 years after I quit working. I quit working in 1996. The judge ruled that my disability didn't start until 2002. So it was ruled that my disability had started more than 5 years after I last had a job. This 5 year limit made me inelegible for disability benifits. But I was still elegible for SSI. SSI is based on household income. So Cindy can only make a certain amount before my SSI check is reduced. SSI is a maximum of $521 per month. If Cindy makes over $600 in a month, then that amount is reduced for us. The $600 amount is derived from a formula that takes into account household expenses such as rent, utilities, child support, etc. They base each month's check on what household income was last year. Or what it is projected to be. And we have to periodically send in Cindy's paycheck stubs. If they estimate a month high, and Cindy's actual income is lower, they will make it up. This month, based on last years income, I only get a little over $300. But Cindy will still make under $600. So sometime in the next few months they will send us the difference between this month's check and $521. You SSI and disability checks are retroactive. The payments will be for the period of time from the day your disability started. So if it takes 2 years to go thru the process of applying, you will get the payments for all that time back to when you became disabled. If you get approved you will get a really big backpay check at the beginning. This will be the back pay. They split mine into two checks. If you used a lawyer to help with your claim, he can only charge up to 25% of the backpay. You will get a letter from SS telling you how much he can charge you. I was told it is very hard to get approved for a physical disability. The questions for them is "is there any job you can do". They consider if you can sit at a desk and work then you can get a job. The standard was even higher for when I applied to have my student loans discharged because of disability. They told me unless you are comatose you can forget it. I was denied and I am going to see what other options I have. Pooh Bear