There's a lot in favor of being eccentric. I have a book somewhere that was written about eccentric people being happier and healthier. Some wild stories. Toomuch glass you are an artist though and that's why people want to know how you do it. Occassionally I have plants that are show stoppers. One day some women were on my lawn having their picture taken in frontof my crown imperials! Turned out that they used to live here. I wish I'd gotten their address cuz since then I've found a bunch of old orphan photos in the attic of the garage. So far no one's asked about my junk. Oh well. kathy

Dandelions are packed full of vitamins and minerals, including flowers, leaves and roots. The leaves are delicious. Taste great fresh in salads. You can even toss in the flowers. You can steam them and eat them like "greens", and they are good, but are better for you raw. You don't cook away the vitamins (heat destroys vitamins). Many "weeds" like Dandelions, pump nutrients up from deeper in the ground. They are beneficial to your garden plants. Earthworms also use their roots as tunnels to access the surface. Two other examples are Pigweed and morning glories which are beneficial when grown in with corn. Pigweed really is a fantastic mineral pump. Anyway, try a leaf of a dandelion and you will see how good they taste. Very much like Bib lettuce or Romaine. Not only do I eat them, but they are one of the main greens I feed to my rabbit & now the goslings. The rabbit loves the flowers too. They have a light taste of sweet honey. Smell like honey too. That is why honeybees love them. They can be dipped in a batter and fried. The sticky sap in the flower stems contains a latex that can help get rid of corns and warts, like milkweed sap. You can crush the leaves and apply to wounds or sores to fight bacteria and help heal. The list of bacteria it can kill will blow your socks off. Remember the royal DANDY-LION. The roots can be dried and ground and used as a substitute for ground coffee. You can also make a tonic from the roots and use it to treat ailments of the stomach, gallbladder and kidneys, to name a few. Dandelions are power-packed herb. There are many herb books and websites that have information about eating and using dandelions medicinally. Looks like you have a veritable food larder and medicine cabinet at your disposal in your yard! :) Lucky you! Your daughter is simply adorable. Your photography is wonderful. ~ sweetannie4u And they are among my favourite flowers, too.

We use ERV's here in the south. Most homes do not require this because although they claim to be built tightly ..they simply are not tight enough to require this. Homes have to be tested with a blower door to determine the tightness of the structure. If the house is .25 air changes per hour or less fresh air or make up air is required. The only homes I've tested in my 10+ years that met this low air infiltration rate were sips homes. Or homes that incorperated lots of attention to air sealing from the outside of the wall to the interior of wall. an example is foam sheathing with seams taped holes sealed, sill plates gasketed to the slab, conventional insulation and air tight drywall to interior. even foam insulated homes do not always meet .25ach it is the details that make homes tight.usually the homeowner is the detail person not the builder. you don't know how tight the house is until it is tested. let me say that again...you don't know how tight the house is until it is tested. build tight..ventilate right! that is efficiency, and efficient houses are healthy houses. ASHRAE 62.2 ventilation details the specifics..Manhatten can tell you exactly what it says...Hey Manhatten where yat? Oh and wouldnt a HRV be used for your climate? best of luck.

It isn't only with books that people can influence you. Musical tastes as well. I was exposed to all kinds by my family. -- Annpan Everything indicates this is true, I think. Do you hold with the theory that the influence on a person's lifetime musical preferences will most likely always be those formed from about the age of 10 through about age 25? In my case those years were from 1960 through 1975. Of course, it doesn't mean a person won't like or develop a taste for music that came either before or after those years, but perhaps music that is most nostalgically pleasing to them will fall within that range of taste development. My mother was a music teacher, and if there's such a thing as a musical gene I inherited it. My family was immensely influential on me, no doubt. I like a wide variety of music (with an active dislike of a few styles and perhaps a dislike of quite a number of individual songs). When I've analyzed why I like or dislike particular types of music, sure enough the ones most deeply imprinted, in my case, are the ones most influenced by my peers of 1960-1975. These might not have been the greatest musical years in history, but as far as I'm concerned, they are probably the most vivid and vibrant. Maybe there's a similar correlation with books and reading preferences, but I think I've gone through a lot more reading phases than musical ones. Probably everyone's experience is different, however. What do you think about yours?