my $.02 too first thing i always tell anybody who asks me about what to do in their yard (i'm not a pro ) is: 1. live with it until you decide how you are going to use it and start making a list of what you wnat to do. 2. live with it some more until you know how it works- where is the sun/shade,wet/dry etc. 3. draw a map of your yard/house, circle and itentify what you want to do where-- will it work in that area. examples. i live on a city lot 50x125. the house was built in the 20's, it's 25 feet from the street. the drive runs from the street to the rear of the back yard, but there is no garage. we had twin 2 year old when we moved in. #1 need was a fence to contain them. thats what we put up as we moved in. after living there for a year we knew we wanted an area to dry clothes on the line. an area for the kids to play in -- including a swing set/sandbox and fort. we wanted an area to grill in/eat out. an area to relax in that wasn't in the sun. all this we wanted to do in the back yard. in the front yard we wanted to use as an entry way that welcomed people. I was willing to spend 1-2 hrs per week doing yard work as well as a spring and fall clean-up. in reality i' only willing to spend about 1 hour perweek. This means i need to rely on perinneials and tough plants that don't need lots of care. our 3 major problems with the yard were too many trees, the back third of the back yard was low, slow draining, and never got sun (think mud for 6 months of the year or more) and heavy clay soil.` year one we cut down 42 trees from the lot -- most were over 8" in diameter. We kept an ancient hickory (58" diameter), a young hickory (14" diameter) a maple(12" diameter) and three pin oaks (all about 14" in diameter). we ran a clothes line along one side of the back yard. since the back third of the yard was in heavy shade and only mud. we topped it with 18 tons of pea gravel-- put in the swingset, fort in the maple tree and a large sandbox. also we made a sitting area and put the wading pool there. no sunburns while the kids played, no more mud, cool and shady. we use the drive as a patio. but all this took us three years to achieve-- time to observe etc. nowe that the kids are 18, i can replace the fort/swingset with a shed for storage. the sand box is used for forcing winter publs and as a temporary holding bed. the lay out of the clothes line is being changed so i can increase the area where i have flower bed and so that it isn't so obvious now that we can entertain. also i'm finally able to start putting in plants i truly want as the soil has been built up over the years with many applications of compost, mulch, topsoil, sand and peat. i'm losing my big hickory-- maybe 10-15 more years, but i started a replacement for it in a better spot that a future owner will appreciate. but what you need to do lis figure out what you will do in the yard, what you want to see from the house, what you whant to see from the road. where do you always go into the house from? where do you want guest to go when they arrrive? where do you needx a shovel in the winter. then you need to read read read about plants and ask questions. as some one said you can always move the plant-- i'm ready to rip out my front flower beds for the 5th time because i finally think i have a plan that will work right for me-- i have homes for all the plants in these beds in other areas of my yard. so cut rake compost plant annuals stick in bulbs find plants you like and learn for a year or so then satart putting in the 'bones' of your garden and then start filling in the gaps. diggerb

Oh yeah, homemade ice cream is definitely worth the trouble. I like the mocha brownie chunk, I got the recipe here. Elery loves butter pecan, I make it with brown sugar from another recipe I also got here. I have one of those little Cuisinart ice cream makers that you put the insert in the freezer. 20 minutes and I can have ice cream, or that prickly pear sorbet that Sol pointed me to, or frozen yogurt or a zillion things. Oh yeah, definitely worth it. I seldom top ice cream, although I've been known to make a chocolate malted out of it. The Monkey Princess and Bruvver like fudge sauce for their ice cream, and sprinkles. Annie

we have Brighthouse Road Runner Turbo, close to 30 Mbps downloads & 2 Mbps uploads. we did have lightning at 40 Mbps downloads but for the cost we decided DH could live w/ turbo for classes. if you have anyone using the net for either viewing classes or uploading classwk you can not have less than 20 Mbps or you just can't do either. DH still gets a lag time on viewing at Turbo but 2-3 minutes is not too bad to wait... it isn't cheap, we bundle w/ digital cable w/ no special movie channels for $125 mo. Turbo is about the slowest I can stand anyways... we've looked at Uverse, they are not in this area yet and my sis has them in the Indy burbs w/ terrible reliability but they are cheaper. i would give them a try if they offered a trial period, otherwise we absolutely can not have our service not work for even a couple of hours. DH has classes to be logged into, tests are taken and submitted at specified times, homewk has upload deadlines etc... i'll pay more for what has never ever let us down in 10 yrs. ~ liz

My new individual molds came and I made the green bean popsicles a few days ago. They're fab! Green beans are a fruit, after all. I'm the only one eating the popsicles. When I want something frozen, it's usually the freeze I'm looking for, not sugar, so I didn't make any invert sugar or simple syrup. I was just winging it, and didn't measure, but I think I had about a qua of a pound of green beans after cleaning, maybe a pint loose, and I'm guessing about 36 mint leaves on the stem. Into the Vita-Mix. It was clear that after a quick chop I was going to need more liquid just to run the blender before enough was released from the beans. At this point it tasted really good, with the flavors of both the mint and the beans playing well together, and I didn't want to change the proportions. Water sounded wrong and juice sounded too sweet, until I bethought me of a small bottle of unsweetened pomegranate juice lurking in the back of the fridge--it's less sweet than the raw beans. Maybe a third to half a cup of that. Not enough to change the color or flavor, but added a lot of depth of flavor to the minty green beanness, and maybe a hint of an idea of sweetness, mostly from the latent bitterness. When I checked it at the pulpy sludge state it was so delicious I didn't press my luck and go on to liquefy. The only tall space I had to stand up the new molds for freezing was the top shelf of the main freezer right in front of the air vent. That's often the coldest place. I think the fiber and pulpiness kept it from getting to that overhard icy place we were talking about. Even right out of the main freezer it was nicely biteable, or suckable, without being drippy melty. I have since moved them to the warmer, ice cream chiller for space management and so I'd have the tall space available for other popsicles. but haven't had one at the warmer temp. As to the general outcome, it's just as delicious as before it was frozen, with that lovely freeziness added. The bottom of the mold had some minty water separated out. I think it was more than the residual water that might have been left on the ingredients from cleaning, but probably separated out from the pulp. It's pleasant, though without it the pulpy part a bit too pulpy and needed more chewing than a popsicle should. Next time, I'll make it liquidier. There will definitely be a next time. I don't know what mad faerie prompted me to make green bean popsicles, but they're really good!