The best thing I've found to cook on is my Coleman single burner camp stove. Tried a variety of other things, portable ranges, a terrible whirlpool stove-top from many years ago, but you just cant beat that camp stove. The thing is basically a single burner that sits atop a green propane cylinder. Its only 10,000 BTU's, so it wont burn your pot up if you use it correctly and it uses about half of that bottle for a really long canning job. Ive done two canning jobs now and the thing runs perfectly for regulating the pressure. You just place your canner on it on a level surface, load it up, open and light it, set it to a decent flame and get your head of steam up. Once you have vented out the air and have the steam coming out for about ten minutes, place on your weights and let it pressurize. Once you reach operating pressure, lower the flame a to a reasonable level keeping the weights rocking and let it go until done. One word of caution though. Make sure you use the little stand that the bottle sits in to give your stove a good wide base, and don't let children bump into this. As long as its centered and you don't kick it or something, it will stay there with no problems. You can get a stove like this at any wally world :) If you don't like the height of the thing, Ozark Trail makes a two burner camp stove with two 6000BTU burners on it that sits flat and low. It's in the ballpark of 28 bucks. It takes longer to heat obviously, but you cant beat a gas flame for heat regulation. That's just my 2 cents. I'm sure everybody has their favorite way of heating PC's, but for me a gas flame does the best. I hope this helped, and don't be afraid of your equipment. There's nothing really fancy about it, Just get to know it and go to town. Just set up your gear and follow the recipe timetables and pressures.

I overwintered an Endless Summer last winter in my unheated garage. I was just experimenting to see if it might bloom better (it didn't). It overwintered fine. I actually forgot about it in the spring and I brought it out a little later than I would have liked. But it leafed out just fine. Sounds like a pretty big pot for a 6-8" plant. Make sure you do not get root rot with too much wet soil. ALl my garage overwintered pots get packed in styrofoam peanuts to insulate the root ball somewhat.

Loved the pictures. Are there fewer raccoons than there used to be? Did anyone else read Sterling North's book 'Rascal' when they were young? Wild life books were once very popular, Farley Mowat may ring a bell. Raccoons used to be plentiful, when I was a kid. I saw one driving home, er, as I drove home, one night a few years back, and tried to get the neighbor kids to guess what it was. What animal: washes his handlike paws, and his food weighs about 30 pounds climbs trees can open latches wears a mask.....? might live in sewers? ...................not one, eight or ten year old, had any idea. Their tails were used on Davey Crockett's style of cap. That! finally brought one response. There seems to be a wideniing detachment from wildlife as it disappears. How do we interest our kids? They are inside, not learning outdoor rythms and norms just by hanging out. Here is a link that might be useful: Rascal by Sterling North

Congrats on the fledging and the second nesting. I am very anxious for the fledging of our nestlings, because it will be our first successful fledging. I'm also bummed that we will most likely be on vacation when they fledge: we are leaving for a week starting on the 11th, and today is their 8th or 9th day. I have no idea if they will stick around or not...hopefully I can atleast see them once when we get back just to be sure that they made it and are safe. Maybe mine will fledge late so I get to see them, however it is very doubtful since it is late in the season and I'm providing mealworms; I'm really just hoping for healthy fledglings. I think my TRES will be fledging today or tomorrow. I have been seeing heads poking out and hearing a lot of wing-flapping.