Sounds like you are on a roll. If I gave you any ideas you did not already have, I am glad you could use them. I have not used them all myself. Here are things that I have done: Someone's bags of leaves once blew onto my property. I was going to put them back on the curb, but I put them under a tree - the trash bag! My husband has picked up veggies scraps at the health food store. Mostly lettuce and tomatoes, but it helps, even if not all that bulky. I have had a tomato volunteer because of this. I already mentioned the moldy hay, and grass clippings. I stay home due to my severe reactions to man made chemicals, so I order stuff on-line a lot. I save the boxes. Any I can't use, I free cycle. Many sell stuff on ebay, and love the free boxes and packing peanuts. Someone once told me you can compost those corn packing peanuts, although they just melt when you add water. I use my own tree leaves but I hate doing this as it leaves the ground under the tree bare. I am going to promise to let the trees have their own leaves this fall. What else... I also save all organic food scraps. I am the only one that eats organic in my house so it is not much. Bean pods, beet peelings, broccoli peelings, squash shells and seeds, etc. End up with lots of volunteer squash. I also use trimmings from giving my houseplants hair cuts, and dead houseplants. I save this stuff in a zip lock bag in the frig. This saves me from making many trips to the garden to dump it there. I compost in place. I also hate the idea of one of those compost buckets under the sink. I am allergic to mold, so this would not work for me. I almost forgot all the garden debris. You know, the plants that are done for the year. Corn stalks, sunflower stalks, beans plants, squash plants, beet tops, tomato vines, etc. I plan to plant a lot of sunflowers next year to block the wind, slow water flow a bit, and cause they are pretty. They should provide lots of mulch material. I will also be planting lots of wild flowers next year to attract the beneficials. Hmm, will make great mulch! I would like to get to the point where I am no longer begging for mulch, from outside sources. I used leaves last fall and by spring I had nice humus. I don't think using compost, if you don't already have some, is really necessary. I saw a hug pile of wood chips in the park down the street. I called the city to see if I could have some. He said, please take it all. Apparently they had a bring you tree limbs day and they mulched up every one's limbs. I am using this under my trees due to my allergies. He also said they always have mulch there so I I wanted some to call and they would open the gate. So if you do not have a local free cycle, call the city to see if they have free mulch. I have already made 2 trips with my new yellow garden dump wagon to the park, to get chipped trees. I must be a sight, dragging mulch home for over 10 blocks in my wagon. I wear dirty garden clothes. I must look homeless. On the organic subject: If mulch materials are left to decompose the (man-made) chemicals will be detoxed so to speak. I was talking to a person that raised worms to sell them and their castings on-line. She said worm castings have been tested for chemicals and their were none. So the worms made the stuff OK to use I suppose. Kinda neat. I think the cities should have garbage, and regular trash separated, and feed the food scraps to the worms, and sell the castings. Cities can always use more revenue. I am a firm believer in governments working for their money, not just taking our money for free. Many schools already have worms eat their cafeteria waste. Enough rambling for now. Mary

I have a friend on AOL....and she sent four emails (all the same) about 8 minutes apart. After the four came in rapid fire, there were no more. I notified my friend. I didn't know what was going on, so I told her to run a virus scan. It has not happened again. I am not sure if she found anything or not. I will be interested in following this thread to see if someone can come up with an answer. Larry

Nothing. THEY are having an issue. E-mail technical support and tell them what is going on. You will find the link at the bottom of this page. Scroll down tot he Green box. Look to the right--see the link that says "contact us?" click on it. That will take you to to page that says "Mailing Garden Web." You will find an e-mail form. In the form there is a line that says "Nature of Message"--with a pull down arrow. Scroll down until you find the topic "Technical difficulties with our site." Highlight it--and then tell the admins what the issue is. I went through all the steps, because it's not very intuitive. (At least I don't thinks so!) This is also the form you can use to reprt abuse of the site, such as someone who is OBVIOUSLY using the site for advertising, or a blatalnly political posting--that sort of thing. melanie

Bac, I doubt that anyone would question your handling of your CL items. You do the best you can do with a situation that can become a little tricky when you have lots of interest but little follow-thru. And I agree.......the scenario where you list your item, get one response, and the person buys right away, is super nice! I listed an old buffet back in April and that's how my sale went. (I did get an email from a scammer, but after I replied to them, it became apparent what they had in mind.) Someone emailed a question, I replied and told her to give me a call if she wanted to come see it. Soon, I got a text from her and she wanted to set up a time. I texted back, we went from there and she showed up--bought it on the spot. No other replies, but, as my husband noted..........you only need one person with money and a truck to haul it off! To date, I have bought 3 buffets and one dining set off Craigslist, where I have had to really travel. The dining set was 90 minutes away in a storm, the various buffet trips were each about 3 hours. Now, that's where you need to have a committed buyer and seller and work out details very carefully. In each case, after the initial email where I asked more questions, got back answers and phone number from the seller, I told them where I lived and asked if I could come see it (Saturday or whatever day I had in mind) if they still had it at that time. As a buyer who has other obligations, (work, children in school, distance to drive, etc.) you really have to connect with the seller right before you get ready to leave to come see. So, you must face the fact that that seller might have another buyer 5 minutes away that is in the right place at the right time to buy and your item won't be there when you find the time to come. I see that just in the same way as a "Macy's Super Saturday Sale". If I can't get there on Saturday, I don't get the benefit of the sale. No matter how badly you may want to buy their item, if you can't get away to see it before others start banging on their door, you lose out. Anyway, once I had phone numbers (love people who put them in the ad, saves so much time and hassle!) I called and we talked. I asked about coming on my chosen day and told them to call me if there was a problem. I also told each seller that I would call as I left town and they agreed to that. To me, that guaranteed that I was serious and on my way. Each person was waiting and in expectation of me when I arrived. And I had no fear that they would sell out from under me once I was en route. On the other hand, when I am local and can't get away right away to view the item, I tell the seller that I would like to come see after work, and that I will call to make sure it is still available. Red