lol ya'll:D i looked all over for a church key type can opener...Hoss even went shopping for one for me. finally.....one of his buddy's said he had something.....omg i need one of these...it's a larger type church key, on the end of a BBQ fork. so i borrowed it and commenced punching holes in all the ones i'm making feeders out of....and i even took apart the ones i already made, and redid them if i could. oh i remember the aluminum sprinkler cap on the soda bottle. and...we had this huge piece of child-eating machinery called an "ironer"..about as big as a chest freezer. i can remember ironing my dads dress shirts in it when i was so young i had to stand on the kitchen step-stool! and the wringer washer.......my twin and i had to hold each other up to run the clothes through the wringer on the back porch, then carry the basket out to the line to hang them :D what an ordeal! and i don't know if it was just my household, but how did we manage to survive childhood with so many things that shocked the #*@! out of us:D plugging the iron in, our metal play oven..with sharp edges :D...touching the handle of the freezer .....lol kudzu i'll probably make a tutorial for these for next week. happy yard sales! kudzu

Ok! So now the dirt and the sweat is washed off, and the garden is "where it would have been at the beginning of any other olde year!" Time for a break--and a few slow walks to admire the Fruit of Your Labors! There's not many things I delight in more than walking past the things I've finished---over and over and over---to just look at what I accomplished---and the longer it took and the harder it was to do, the more fun it is! This year I decided I was gonna de-clay my veggie garden! Ok! That's not entirely true, but I decided I was at least gonna try to get the potter's clay out of it! It took me 3-4 weeks, but I went out there day after day (whenever the weather was halfway decent) and dug up one shovel full at a time, down about 8-10", and then sat down and went thru it clump by clump with my hands, breaking it up into tiny pieces, and throwing anything that changed shape rather than "breaking up" into a big pot, and lugging it to the dumpster. Had to space the crummy stuff out in the dumpster every week, 'cause clay is HEAVY, and if the truck can't pick it up, they might get out and look to see what I had in there---and I don't think we're allowed to put "dirt" in the dumpster! So for several weeks I was dumping a bunch in, and testing the weight, and dumping more in, and testing the weight---and saving the left overs in other big pots for the next week. Shovel full by shovel full, and clump by clump, I got half of the garden done! That's an area about 3 1/2 by 14 1/2, so it's really only about 50 sq. ft., but, oh, my, what a job! When I started, I was gonna do the WHOLE veggie garden (minus the tomato/eggplant area), but, uh, that's not gonna happen this year! The cukes and carrots and beets and parsnips and squash are gonna have to bide their time for one more year in the BAD clay! That side's a little bit bigger, more like 65 sq. ft., and my hands and back are simply not gonna consent to doing that this year! BUT--oh boy, is it ever FUN to walk out there now--over and over and over--to look at the good (for MY garden) soil that's on the lettuce/spinach/pea side of the garden now! And all those things are planted now, tho it's been pretty chilly since I put them in about a week ago, so definitely no action yet! But, cold or not, I have something to stare at every day now! :-) It was HARD work--when I was doing it---but it's SO much fun NOW! Next year the other side!!! With all the massive gardens you plant--every year--I have trouble believing that you're "round the bend" at all! Yeah, the bod hurts in a couple new places every year (found out a couple weeks ago I have bursitis in my hip--I already knew it hurt, but now I have a NAME for it! Woohoo! And found out last week I have four seriously deteriorated discs in my cervical spine! Woohoo?), but the joy of going out there and looking at what I've accomplished somehow seems to make the pain go away---for a while at least! And if I didn't have the garden, I wouldn't have anything to "make the pain go away!" Definitely time for a break and a chocolate Easter egg! And that's from somebody who just finished a very large piece of Marie Callender Chocolate Silk pie! (Chocolate helps with "that pain" too! LOL) Tomorrow sounds like it's gonna be a wonderful day for a long walk to look at all you've gotten done, Skybird

Sorry to take so long to get back to this thread. Very happy to get so much input. Thanks! Sandy, good to know that you've used Seventh Generation and good to hear that Sears has one that seems to work for people. Thanks for sharing all the comments you have heard on different machines. cynic...Yes, I've heard that from the appliance store that we have dealt with over the years. They also do the service calls and he thought that a good portion of the probs people have are because they are either using cold water or too much detergent or not the right kind of detergent. Going to spend some time this afternoon looking into Speed Queen. Thanks mattstarr as well. Liriodendron....hello fellow gardener. [g] I LOVE to hang clothes outside. We bought two retractable lines for outdoors and haven't got them up but hope to soon. What's better than fresh sheets and towels off the line? We also try to buy no chemicals on our clothes and hate the 'no iron' clothes that are more and more the norm. No seasonal allergies here either. I also love sleeping with open windows. My mother used to tell me stories of how their family always had windows open in the winter but kept snuggly under thick comforters. I will make sure to look for that heater and figure out if it functions correctly. Thanks. Yes, I hadn't thought of the fact that using the front door dryer is already a fact of life, I suspect as suburbanmd points out, it would just be more of what we would like to avoid. Something to think about though. I have been told by the appliance dealer that with new Top Loaders you are not supposed to shove all the clothes in, but carefully load by dropping clothes in one at a time. Still they come out tangled and wrinkled according to some.

When I posted my mostly finished kitchen, I was actually a little put off by all the people who posted just to say how fabulous my OLD kitchen was (of course the added the obligatory 'but your new one is nice too' line :). The old kitchen was circa 1947 (when the house was built) and yes, the 8' of counter it had (including the 30" wide sink) was the type of 40s tile that's a very hot retro look right now. Yellow with black trim. And the cabinets (also original) had been painted yellow to match. What didn't come across well in the photos, I guess, was that the tile was in very poor condition, there was ZERO counter space, the room was tiny (we took out a wall and though we only expanded the edge of the kitchen by 7" it made a HUGE difference), the range was in a drop ceiling alcove that was a dark hole, there was nowhere for a refrigerator except basically in the middle of the room, the 'charming' cabinets had so much paint on them that they didn't close right (or stuck shut when they did), the piping for the solar hot water heater had been installed down the vent pipe over the stove and came out at the bottom, went down about 8" and then straight out the wall into the garage, and the floor was very poorly installed stick on fake parquet tiles. It was a disaster. I never had anyone come in my house and say 'what a cool retro kitchen'. More like 'when are you going to re-do the kitchen?' Your 'before' kitchen does look like it could be an after kitchen (though my experience proves that things aren't always as they appear) but if it didn't work for YOU then that's fine. It does seem a little wasteful to redo it but since you donated everything I think you offset that fairly well. If you're curious, here's my 'before and after' from the same spot in the kitchen: