In the spring, I actually collect our dogs' poo and bury it about 6 inches below the surface in my tomato beds. Plants love it and I feel there is no additional risk because our dogs are regularly wormed and sleep with us anyway but more importantly, plants do not uptake pathogens through their root systems. It is one thing to be dumping carnivore waste directly onto a leafy green that you will be eating and another to feed a fruiting plant with waste that will never contact the fruit you eat. Stray cat poo is a little different because you do not know the health status of the animal but I still don't think it would be a problem if there was no contact between the poo and the fruit. Americans can be a little squeamish about nature and make generalizations about benefits not worth risk but with reasonable care, I really don't think anyone can draw up a specific scenario that could lead to a harmful result.

lasershow, Yes she sees a doctor regularly. She refuses to go to senior citizens center probably because she feels she wouldn't fit in and she probably wouldn't. The first year I did everything myself including her baths then I got home health started which was a real blessing. As for respite; it's available but I don't think I can subject her to that because I think it would be too trumatic for her. If she has dementia what can be done for it? When I signed her up for home health I asked for daycare a couple times a week mostly so she could be around other people her age but they say they don't have anything available for her and of course she didn't want to do that either. I didn't know there were volunteers for seniors but I will sure check into it real soon. I have a lady coming out Thursday to spend an hour with her so she can get to know her and hopefully she will come back next week for a few hours so hubby and I can go to a bee keepers meeting for a few hours. I don't feel comfortable having a total stranger coming in and leaving right away. I hope this works out and it will help this lady out and us too. I'd say her retardation is severe when she doesn't know the difference between a commercial and a TV program. She has no idea what's going on on the TV programs. I always felt I would take care of Mom someday but I didn't know it was going to be so hard. I didn't realize the extent of her retardation until I started taking care of her because sometimes she's pretty good at covering it up. She has good medical care and excellent care at home and I'm particular about the aids that come out. I know I've vented here but I love her dearly and want only the best for her. I'm learning more and more how to deal with her but if she had her way I would spend all my waking moments with her and heaven forbid in the past I should take a nap during the day and she hates for me to be on the computer. The first year I ordered some quilt tops off the internet for her because she likes to quilt so now the computer to her is just a place to buy something. Well she says she likes to quilt but I wonder about that because it sure takes her a long time to get one done. I'm talking about months and she has nothing else to do. There's only 4 things that make her feel good; spending money, food, talking on the phone and giving orders. I'm as kind to her as she will let me be but I do have to be firm with her just like a little child. Thanks for responding to my post and God bless you too. I know you must be taking care of someone yourself to be on this forum. Rosie

Personally, I really dislike those garbage to energy incinerators. It sounds smart, but it doesn't seem to work so well. Generally the things consume vast quantities of waste, and much of what they require to burn well is plastic and paper, things which are normally recyclable, but when the local council have to feed their waste to energy plant there's little incentive to promote recycling. If they were to achieve any successful levels of recycling the plant's fuel supply would dry up and the little remaining would be mostly comprised of random inflamable materials such as used electrical goods. You'll notice when looking at recycling statistics that areas with these plants have little or no recycling provision. These plants are just turning valuable raw materials like paper and plastic that can be used again and again in to a pile of toxic ash, thus we must chop down more trees and pump up more oil, all with various environmental and energy costs to replace what has been incinerated. Plus, the toxic ash still has to be disposed of, although I also dislike the term 'disposed' as really nothing is disposed of, rather it's dumped in to the environment. Landfills are the global equivalent of dumping our weekly rubbish in to a pit in the back garden and pretending it's vanished. It's not gone, it's in the way polluting the environment and costing us tax money to maintain the site. The only sustainable option is to keep reusing materials so that they're never landfilled. I really do believe that a closed cycle for almost all, if not 100% of consumer waste is possible. If packaging was limited to just glass, paper, metal and polyethylene (it's 100% recyclable with no loss of quality, unlike other plastics) then we could recycle just about everything. More re-usable containers would help as well, rather than the use once packaging everything seems to be provided in. If companies passed on some of their savings to consumers who bought back their containers for re-filling, then I'm sure it would become a common way to save money at the store. Equally importantly, I believe that large scale re-using of packaging would save vast amounts of energy, plus recycling where needed tends to use far less energy as the materials are allready refined and processed. I'm convinced that the end energy savings would far surpass the energy extracted from incincerating all waste in one of these plants. Waste to energy isn't a good solution to the mountain of waste we produce, places like germany are now averaging around 80% recycling, and potentially the percentage could be higher if the materials used in packaging were better regulated for recyclable content.

Hi Cathie, Sounds like the cable co sure has you upset. Is Satellite an alternative? The cost of cable and alternatives have been discussed here b4...I just did a search on cable tv, and there may be some suggestion found. It is against the rules here to link to another message board similar to the one here. Compare that to linking to Jenny Craig from a Weight Watchers Board, (or linking to that 'other' gardening site from here....so your post 'may' disappear...they do that from time to time. If you would like to get a hot political debate going right here on this site, you might stop by the Hot Topics Forum. Things of that nature are allowed there. Sue...who has had some frustration with Satellite TV Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Topics Forum