sydalicious, you really MUST turn the eggs at LEAST two times a day during the hatch. Three is best, but no less than two for sure. Otherwise you just aren't going to have a successful hatch--the turning keeps the developing chick from sticking to the inside of the shell and dying. You don't want to go to all the effort and then have nearly fully developed chicks that die in the shell just short of hatch, do you? Of course not. Just turn the eggs before and after school. It only takes a minute. :) I personally don't candle my eggs, because my hens lay eggs with darker shells that are impossible to see through--also, I am concerned about handling the eggs too much and either dropping them or letting them get too chilled. So I just wait and see what comes out on hatch day. :) I figure if I'm already doing everything I can, and correctly, me candling isn't going to do me any good since I can't see through the shells. But if you get some light-colored eggs and want to candle, by all means try it--here is a site with candling info and great pics: http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/b1166-w.html I use great big cardboard boxes for brooder boxes, and just throw them away when I'm done with them. I've got info and pics on my site about how I do my brooder box setups. I just use a large piece of chicken wire for a top (unless you have small children, cats or dogs that might get to the chicks, then use something sturdier) that I can lift on and off. I also like to cut a window in the side of the box and hot glue a piece of hardware cloth over it so the chicks can see out--being n a box for weeks without being able to see out is BORING! And overcrowding and boredom in chicks can lead to pecking, which is a bad thing. Basic brooder box setup: I use a couple of bricks to elevate my food and water containers, it keeps them cleaner by helping keep shavings out of them. Using either a quail waterer (see it in the pics, it has a smaller drinking ring area--or adding marbles to a chick waterer is a MUST--chicks can and do easily drown in water dishes. For heat I use a gooseneck desk lamp with a 75 watt bulb in it, and just adjust the head of the lamp up or down--if the chicks are huddled under it and peeping, they are too cold, if they are avoiding it in a big circle and gasping, they are too hot. In action! :) Here it is from the outside, Millie my Belgian d'Uccle is visiting the chicks: You can easily use wire to partition off a large box: In this case I had three 3 week old chicks and was going to add newly hatched chicks. Velvet ~:>

Bed Of Nails also known as Solanum quitoense is a relative of eggplant native to the mountains of South America. The story I heard is that the original plant in the wild did not have "nails" or spines at all. Through cultivation some forms developed the nasty spines. Throughout the regions where they are grown in S.A. there are many varieties, some with smaller leaves, some with spines only on one side, some with tons of spines. Most countries grow them for their fruit which is called by many names, two of the most popular are Naranjilla (little orange in Spanish) or Lulo in Columbia. The one growing in the plot is from "that place in Sanford", because of the high heat and dry this summer the fruit on it have little flavor. In cooler times the fruit tastes like a kiwi and is a popular flavoring in drinks down south.

I normally don't do it, but in this case I'm glad I clicked on the link provided by the previous poster. Let me try to clarify... For typical tile, the clay is stamped or cut, then fired. During the firing process, the tile can shrink in this dimension or that, or even slightly warp a bit, so the tiles may not be perfectly uniform or perfectly square, or even perfectly flat. Because of the non-uniformity, it's difficult to lay non-rectified tile with a small grout line. The varying dimensions of the tiles will throw your lines off and you'll get a helter-skelter installation. Rectified tile is cut to size after the clay has been fired. So the tiles are all perfectly uniform in size and they are all perfectly square. And flat. This dimensional perfection allows them to be set with small grout lines for a very slick looking installation. Even with rectified tile where they are uniform in size, setting tile tightly together also requires that lippage (differences in height between adjacent tiles) be minimized. With 1/4" grout joint, a slight difference in height can be "hidden" in the width of the grout. With a smaller grout joint it can't be hidden. So installing rectified tile, which normally gets installed with a tight grout joint, is more labor intensive. Not just in getting the layout lines dead on, but in getting zero lippage as well. More labor means a slower installation which means more money per square foot to install. Mongo

Weedyacres, I agree that a good tile installer does a dry layout first to assess the best way to install the tiles to create as little cuts as possible. If the tile installer would have started the diamond design at my door next to the rug area and worked his way forward so that at least the door area had tiles right up against it and most of the rug area did also, the window area would have no gaps and there would only be a 2" gap by the wall opposite the door. That gap would have been covered up by a 1 7/8th diamond cut of the tile in a few areas leaving the 1/8th width between the other tiles. The tile would have not fell out after being glued and having a quarter round on top. The installer started in the middle of the floor and then told me if he did not due the border I would waste so many tiles since he would have to put tiny pieces about 1/4th to 3/4th all along the edges. After he was done, I only saw spaces of 1 3/8th to 1 1/2 spaces at the door so he was wrong. He also forgot about the other wall on the other side of the door not having to have the tiles 1/8th from the wall since a quarter round would be covering the area. He tried so hard and I know I could have never cut those tiles so I feel very bad but in person, the problems were more noticeable. I also did not want a border in such a little area and I had shown him a picture of what I wanted and he told me 1/8th width was no problem for him with the spacers. I wish when the installer asked me where we should start the tiles, I wish I would have told him, let's lay them all out first and then we shall see how they fit and then I would have realized the tiles should start at the door. I was busy with ear plugs on trying to work but I could not work once he started the border since it was upsetting me. If I had a bigger foyer area, the border would have been nice if it was straight. Once the quarter rounds would have been put back on the sides of the wall, the tiles would have not looked centered anyway and the 3" wide X 12" boards would have not been the same size any more as on the other two walls without the quarter rounds. I now have no tiles and only cement floors blocked by gates but I could not let him do the middle foyer that had 4 doors since I do not feel he knew how to handle doors. Here is a link that might be useful: Album with some pics of the uneven grout lines mainly due to putting a border in that I did not want that created more cuts of the tile making it busier