THANKS everyone! I couldn't of done it without you. That is right. It was here and the friends that I have made that have made my growing experience better than I could ever imagine. For me, it is fun to come here and show you the rewards to your great support and my effort to apply what I am learning here with the wealth of info. Jojo: I am not sure.lol I do know that a Doctor that I met, and might I tell you a wonderful man, sent me rare Clivia this past fall, and I think there are Salmon and Peach in the mix. I can't wait to see what they bring me. They are all in the gritty mix, thanks to Al. I love the color too. Laura: I can't wait to re-pot my plumerias into bigger pots into the gritty mix. I have a surprise for you very soon:-))))) Jodik: Hello! I never gave it a thought to pollinate them. Hmmm. I would need someone to tell me how though. Thank you for your nice comments and I can include you as one that has made growing like this possible, year in and year out, everyday of the year! You are right. Light is a limiting factor and is such that they will double in size once they are outside. But I am glad that we can keep them in tip top shape all winter, while we wait for robust growth come soon! Looking forward to seeing your bulbs!:-) Hey Jess! How's it going? Thanks for that. I am still here if you need me to help you with that citrus.:-) Good to see you. Gail: You are so right, lol. It is that time of year you start to get a bit excited. I can't wait to see what yours do.

Thanks for all replies! Long post with specific methods & ingredients below! OK, what I did was stick 13 jars on a cookie sheet in the oven at around 200-225. Then, I had the canner heating up and 3 jars in it with some water so they don't float. When simmering, I took the 3 out of the canner and dumped the water into a bowl for the lids--I already microwaved some water for 4 minutes then added the lids & added to it the water from the 3 jars to keep the lids hot. Then I filled the 3 jars, put lids & bands on, and put them into the simmering canner. Then took 2-3 more at a time from the oven and repeated until all were filled and in the canner. I understood what Ken was saying about the flat sides against each other, as well as Shirley's reply--if flat sides touched, they wouldn't curve. But I realized he meant all the flat sides facing each other, as opposed to the corners facing each other or mixed directions. I tried many different ways, thinking it was like a jigsaw puzzle and only 1 way to fit 10, but obviously newer jars only can fit 9, which is a little stupid for fairly new canners! Don't know who to blame--the canner mfr or the jar mfr. How many current pint jars fit in a Mirro brand? Zabby, Annie's Salsa was the thing I made more than anything else this year--I think 41 pints + leftovers (as opposed to 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce as an example, though still have a gallon of tomato puree frozen to use for something.) I used to go thru maybe 1-2 jars of Chi-Chi's salsa per YEAR, but Annie's is so good that I go through a pint per SITTING! I know it's subject to modification, like with the # of jalapenos, ratio of onions to peppers, etc. I have made maybe 5 batches and all came out great and I wouldn't say any 2 were identical! Some I used different types of peppers to get different heat levels, and some I used just the paste and no sauce. All turned out great. This last batch had (for a double batch) about 5 cups mix of Red Bull & Ailsa Craig white onions, about 3 cups total of an Orange Bell, a red-ripe Big Bertha huge sweet bell, 2-3 red-ripe Joe E. Parker NuMex peppers, 1 red Big Jim NuMex, 1-2 brown Eclipse NuMex, 4 red Jumbo Jals, 3 red Primavera lo-heat jals, and 2 Yellow Peru hot peppers. For the black pepper, I doubled it for the double batch, less about a teaspoon, then ground up a dried jalapeno & a dried Boldog Hungarian Spice pepper in a cheap coffee bean grinder from ebay. For a double batch, I doubled the cumin. Half cup canning salt instead of 2/3c. I used 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar and a half cup sugar--I started with a quarter but then figured after the vinegar & chipotle I added another quarter almost. For the paste & sauce, I used 30oz of paste but no sauce, but 24oz of diced tomatoes & it's juices from 1. I only had about 1/4 cup of cilantro left after chopping just the leaves, probably could have used more if I had more, though I can't stand the smell or taste of it alone. I think I realize now that my yield is always less than I expect (even after draining the heirloom tomatoes many times before measuring) because I start heating the salsa mixture before I have the jars and canner ready. I used almost a gallon of chopped tomatoes, plus added 1 drained can of diced tomatoes and 1 16oz can of diced tomatoes with the juice. I think the heating breaks down the diced tomatoes and the water evaporates, thus leaving less. I must be cooking it too long... I ended up with twelve full pints instead of 16, and maybe less than a half cup left in the pot--though the ingredients add up to over 8.5 quarts I think. Next time I'll reverse the procedure and heat the mix up after the canner & jars are ready. I had extra jars ready that I didn't need. As for the Ball Hot Chipotle seasoning, it smelled great when I opened up the packet, but I think a packet only makes like 4 pints or so, so it probably got diluted in a double batch, though it did taste great before I poured it into the jars, but can't say if that was from the Ball seasoning or my pepper assortment & fresh ground chile powder. Mark

Ladyronnie, Your link is the same place I got my idea from. Course mine is not going to be so wonderful as her's is. I wanted to just do something really simple. I have a second fountain and will get more pipe and do another one for it later on when I feel like getting tedious.I just love what she did. Hoping to get back to work on mine soon as our company leaves.I am so glad you put up the link. I had it on my old computer and lost it. The glass checks are still just sitting on my dresser in the office. The more I look at them sort of uneven the more I am liking the look. Weird I know. I do not think I ewill make myself crazy trying to get each square perfect. Can't wait to work on that too. I need some more purple glass so will have to finish the fountain first and wait for a trip to town. Chris

They basically duplicate over a period of approx. 6-10 years so as long as you buy one of the editions from say 2012 on you'll be fine. Just buy the newest edition you can afford. There are usually a few organizational changes in each new edition and some editing changes to fix any previous edition errors. Plus there will be a few new recipes in each depending on latest research or new eating trends. For example, older editions won't contain salsa recipes. the info on why you shouldn't use electric pressure canners, or the newish rules on squash canning or soups. So Easy to Preserve from NCHFP is always recommended and for other favorite canning books see this past discussion: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/1951103/best-canning-preserving-books#n=40 Dave