I keep a small 4 litre pail by the kitchen sink. All of my coffee grounds, egg shells, veggie scraps, mouldy bread and other non dairy, non meat scraps go in there. I only put a tiny amount of this into my worm bin at a rate that they can handle. The rest goes outside to the compost bin at least every week. I never store food for the worms as there is always an endless supply of fresh scraps for them. Since I use small pieces of corrugated cardboard for bedding, the worms will survive for months and months just on their bedding alone. The worms don't actually eat the bedding and compost scraps; they feed on the mould, fungus and other organisms that are breaking down the bedding and the kitchen scraps. I add a bit of powdered limestone to the bedding as the worms use this "grit" to grind up their food. (Red wigglers don't have teeth for chewing). The limestone also helps to neutralise acids in the worm bin. I do NOT bring food for the worms back in from the outdoor compost pile as this can be a source of some nasties that I don't want inside my home or in my worm bin. At the first "whiff" of rotting material (like the inside of your garbage can on a hot day), my pail of kitchen scraps goes outside to the compost pile. If this smell should ever come from my worm barrel, it means I'm feeding them too much and the moisture content is too high. It's better that the worms have too little food as opposed to too much. The key thing to me is the temperature and the moisture level. I think that the commonly used phrase, that " A worm can eat it's own weight in food scraps every day" is somewhat misleading. Most vegetable scraps are mostly water and the idea that one pound of worms will eat one pound of lettuce (for example) in a day does not hold water ( Yes...... pun intended). Most of the vegetable matter simply loses it's water content into the bedding and to evaporation. Besides, it takes several days for the scraps to decompose to the point where there is food in a form that the worms can process (digest).

I searched under plumbing supply companies and found this one that carries whitehaus - don't know if they have the farmhouse in their showroom, but you could call Consumers Supply Co. 1110 W. Lake St. Chicago, IL 60607 312-666-6080

I believe this is the 4 th summer for the in ground fig and one fig in a 30 is 3 years, the other 4 in 30's are 2 years old and all the 5 gallon figs are in their 1st year. The first 2 winters the fig trees survived the winter of 10F and 9F. The 3rd winter I got 3 nights of -6F, one -5F and several just below zero. They were killed to the ground. The 4th winter I spread the larger limbs to the ground and covered the figs up with 2 feet of shredded leaves. This left a wagon wheel spokes of limbs the tree grew from in spring. Our low was -12F and the fig tree survived. My figs are just barely larger than a quarter. You must be doing something they really like. Last year I lost most of my fig to squirrels but doing better this year with a loss of 0 figs,

mdln how heartbreaking! I'm so sorry about your kitty losses - all else can be replaced. I've never been to Goods but understand that although the selection is enormous, their pricing is not as competitive as other stores. But that may not matter if it saves you running around. In Winnetka I like Material Possessions for interesting things - but they are $$$. The one bpathome mentioned in Barrington may be Honquest. Carsons had/has a furniture store at Edens Plaza in Wilmette with a nice selection. For resale you can check Anna's in Highwood or Village Treasure House in Glenview as bac717 will also recommend and just down the street from that is the Lazy Boy store. There's always Z Gallery, Pottery Barn..... If you go to Old Orchard and surrounding area you can hit probably every major furniture retailer and a number of small ones. And don't forget, many stores in the Mart are now open to the public but it may not hurt to get a designer involved and help you narrow your search.