When I want plastic and/or cardboard, I make a trip downtown to our local hardware store. They're always glad to see me coming to take away their things that would otherwise go in the dumpster. It's not so much that they care about things going into the landfills as much as the fact that my taking their boxes away saves them work. What a waste of perfectly good materials when they go in the dumpster! I'm making a lasagna garden and need cardboard so have made some trips down there on their days when they get their shipments in and they always have lots of cardboard boxes and usually some plastic that something was wrapped in. It got up to 40° here yesterday, so I worked putting down more cardboard and leaves on top of that. I knew it was going to rain or snow today and that will help pack down the leaves so they don't blow away. I'll be ecstatic when it's all ready to plant (hopefully by June, but I don't know). I guess it will just have to be ready because I'm not holding all of these plants over another winter crowded in the containers that they're in now, and I don't want to do a bunch of transplanting either.

I had a slight debacle, if there can be such a thing, after bringing my wrapped tubers into the basement to warm up/eye up. I had lost about 20 total in the winter, but all of a sudden they started molding like crazy- rot soon followed or was already happening internally and I had to throw out about 150, maybe more. That's about 15%, so still not bad. Could have been better though! It was quite disheartening to lose some varieties entirely, but I have enough to keep me entertained. My lesson learned: unwrap if you store in saran and bring them into a warm environment! The very few I stored in vermiculite in a bin were a bit dry, a couple died. I'm still a Saran fan for space saving. Jroot, you should see me whipping out masterful paper pot liners thanks to your photo lesson last year! Still not an artist, but I learned enough to make them fairly neat LOL! I am wondering where Bernie is hiding? I've been admonished for posting such an inquiry in a thread title, so I'm sneaking it in here :P Anybody heard word on him?

I saw this done on Emeril Live about a week ago. He had chef Jacques Pepin as a guest and he made a Truffle and Pistachio Sausage with this technique. Here are the instructions for the sausage. When he took the plastic off, the sausage was beautiful. Put the ground pork into a large bowl. Add the wine, garlic, pepper, curing salt, pistachios, and truffles, if using. Mix well with your hands. Divide the mixture in half. Form and press each half into a sausage about 8-inches long and 2-inches in diameter. Take care to press the mixture firmly enough to eliminate air bubbles, which would result in unsightly holes in the sausages. Wrap individually in plastic wrap, twisting the ends to enclose the sausages, and then roll each of them in aluminum foil, twisting the ends of the foil. Refrigerate for at least 3 days to cure. (Freeze 1 of the sausages, if desired, and thaw it slowly in the refrigerator before cooking.) The very important part of poaching these sausages is to do it at a low temperature for a long time. This makes a big difference in the taste and juiciness of the meat. Bring a pot of water to between 150 and 160 degrees F. Lower the wrapped sausages into the pot, and place a heavy lid that is a little smaller than the top of the pot on top of the sausages to weigh them down in the pot and keep them immersed in the water. Cook in the same temperature range, checking the pot occasionally, for about 1 hour, or until the internal temperature of the sausages is close to the same temperature as the water, about 150 degrees F. To keep warm, let the sausages sit in the 150 to 160 degrees F water until serving time.

LOL! Sorry I'm late, but this thread is hilarious :) If you plan to live in your house...design it for living. If you entertain, design it for entertaining. If you live alone and never have anyone over, no kids, no pets, etc...then you can have a show home. But take lots of pictures, because it's the only way anyone will ever see it. Just my two cents.