Proper bulb care after blooming is essential for a healthy bulb and beautiful flowers the following bloom period. This includes plenty of good light and fertilizer, not to mention a possible re-potting if needed. Think of your bulb as a battery that needs to recharge after blooming. Some shrinkage is normal... it takes a lot out of a bulb to produce such large, lovely flowers. Proper feeding and care should fatten up the bulb over summer. After your bulb finishes blooming, place it in an east or south facing window and allow it to grow its leaves. (If you live in a southern zone with warm winters, you can grow these bulbs directly in your garden, or at least take it outdoors to recharge.) You'll need to feed your bulb well with fertilizer. Miracle-Gro is fine. Follow the package directions for houseplants. Water carefully... Hippeastrum bulbs prefer to dry out a bit in between waterings, and can rot if kept too wet for too long at the root level. Once the danger of frost is past in your area, take your bulb outdoors and let it enjoy some sunshine, taking care to water and feed when needed. You'll need to bring your bulb back indoors before the danger of frost in fall. For Christmas blooms, you'll need to put your bulb to rest about 16 weeks before you want the actual flowers. 6-8 weeks of rest in a cool, dark basement... then 6-8 weeks of growth in warmth and light for blooms. There is a recent post on forcing and dormancy that explains the entire process, or you can do a search here in the forum on dormancy and forcing. I hope this helps to some extent... there is a lot of great culture information here in the forum... do a search for the info you require and you'll find tons of posts directed at the subject you're seeking.

Owbist: I asked because I think I should know how to create a zip file. When I was troubleshooting issues on the my laptop and my daughters, it seems that folks helping me asked for zip files of various logs. So this xmarks situation isn't the first time I've been asked for a zip file. Best to know how to do it. Zep - you jogged my memory to remember that previously I was able to right click and send to zip file because in both cases I was on a Windows 7 computer. Now I know how to do it for XP. Doable, but certainly not as simple and elegant as Windows 7. Thanks everyone. Lynn.

The wood could shrink or swell 7% in width. This will occur seasonally. Meaning every winter it will shrink as the air dries out, and every summer it will swell back. This is why narrower boards are preferable, as the let this shrinkage be spread out among more joints. One joint for every 10" of wood is not a happy situation, but spread that among 4 boards, and it would be tolerable. Vertical grain planks shrink less across the width, which is why antique houses got away with it, using that type of plank in wider widths. The boards would shrink halfway out of the T&G joints, and that was about it. Vacuum all the debris out of the grooves before the wood starts to swell again in the warm weather, or the junk will compress the wood fibers resulting in an ever-widening gappage. Casey

DD50: That sounds ideal, but we don't have a Home Goods store in the small ocean side town that I live in. Unfortunately we have already lost 4 businesses in this small town, and a furniture store bearing a sign, asking for a bail-out, believe it or not! We DO have an antique store that is closing and right now it is 40% off. The woman wants out, and I did find two pieces of furniture that would work for my situation, but her prices are still too high. I will check again with her in a week to see if I can get her to drop lower. I have tried Freecycle and Craigslist and am active with both, and the file cabinet is a bit rusty that I don't think anyone would want it. Lena: You are most certainly correct. My words exactly!! We are headed for Depression. Closet space is ample, 'busy' but not crowded, but not an option for the file cabinet as I already have a small chest in there holding extra linens, one box of photo albums, etc.