Very nice to meet you both! Two very well respected profiles on Gardenweb. Calliope, I remember you from many years ago on the Professional forum. You have the greatest candor about you, professional, right to the point, and you rise above any dispute. Ironically, just after reading your kind response, I get my Park Seed Wholesale catalog and right on the front page is a photo of a new Geranium called 'Calliope'. I remember you saying that you raised children of your own, then took in foster children, all the while operating your business! Wow! You and Dave both have a lifestyle I aspire to. SIMPLE. Making something out of nothing. No wasting, recycling, reusing everything, and making every hard earned dollar stretch. A life where a frill truly is a frill. I've learned that you can have daily frills, at home, just by preserving Mother Natures bounty. People can argue the costs and hard work involved in gardening and canning. Those people just don't understand the difference between home grown corn and store bought stuff. Or a vine ripened tomato versus a hot house one. You CANNOT replicate home grown flavor! And my children's interest and excitement in this is the icing on the cake for me. :-)

I love my all KA kitchen too. Congratulations!

We are making fewer trips out in the car and try to do several errands in one trip to save gas. Haven't done much camping this year but are trying to stay closer to home when we do camp. We talked about joining a gym toward the end of last year but DH hurt his knee and we needed to wait. By the time his knee was well I fell and hurt mine so we had to wait again. By then the gas had started going up so we didn't join, knowing we wouldn't make the trip. Yesterday we bought a Bowflex machine. In the long run it will be cheaper, more convenient and more likely used. We got a great deal. Academy Sports had them advertised in the paper for $599 - regularly $1299 (I check the Bowflex website and the price was accurate). Sale was limited to the ones in-stock and we got the last one in a box. Someone called while we were there and was coming to get the one on the floor. Glad we went when we did. Now just got to learn to do those 65 exercises. I've also given DH instructions that we are eating the meats we have in the freezer before we buy any more. He does most of the grocery shopping and tends forget what we already have. He has been baking the 5 Minute Artisan Bread instead of buying the Publix Sourdough he is so fond of. I like his better and Publix used to sell theirs for about $1.98 and now it is over $3!!! We are buying most of our fruits veggies from the local produce stands. I don't really have a garden space but managed to plant some patio tomatoes and a couple of cucumber plants. I have fresh herbs growing as well. Linda

What's that "LEAP OF FAITH" I see mentioned? Winter Sowing is more than an adaptable and easy means to produce a limitless amount of seedlings at a penny-pinching cost, it is ALSO a capable means of producing a more positive personal outlook. I am not trained as a psychologist but just from a layman's observation of reading the forum posts and my own emails I can say positively that Winter Sowing has shown to have an extremely beneficial effect upon mental health. Gardeners who previously felt trapped inside their homes during Winter and shut down from their outdoor connection are going outside into the fresh air on a daily basis and are staying connected with the soil and the natural environment. They're getting vitamin D and all the beneficial rays that keep our spirits up helping to prevent or lessen winter depression. Being creative by choosing seeds and making the little mini-greenhouses from recyclables is soothing. Sowing seeds at the sink is similar on a subliminal level to making mudpies when we were young....it's comfort food for the soul. Bringing seeds to life through our nurturing satisfies the parent in us. It's that reward for "keeping the faith" of seeing the emergence of green seedlings that is so stimulating to our minds and hearts. Faith rewarded feels incredibly good and inspires us to efforts that also produce similar feelings....it inspires (in an almost addictive manner) continued creativity and success. Trudi Davidoff