Tomatoworm, I currently have no plans to plant anything although I'd love to plant loquats sometime in the future. Our usual rainfall is about 38-39" and we've only had 14" this year, so it is a struggle just to keep the plants we already have alive, and I won't know until spring just what has or has not survived. Our clay soil is as hard as concrete and has cracks varying from 1 to 3" in width. A long, dry winter lies ahead of us. We've lost one peach tree but the plum trees are still alive so far. Most of our grassland is a dry, dormant wasteland at this point, and our woodland isn't much better. Even my prickly pear cacti withered and dried, although some of them are starting to show some signs of recovery. Very little rain has fallen here since May and the last 365 days are our driest since we've moved here, and officially our area's 1st or 2nd driest year ever, so most of my daturas are so small that if I took a cutting, I'd be cutting off the entire plant because the surviving plants are so small. My tall datura plants died to the ground in July or early August. They have regrown a little since then and are blooming but are only about 6 to 8" tall so the flowers aren't even very big either. If they make some growth in October, I might be able to take cuttings for you then. They are just in pitiful shape, as is everything here. I'm so far beyond worrying about any specific plants that it isn't even funny. I'm just trying to water enough to keep some green around the house for fire protection, and am spending whatever time I have at home just keeping the bird feeders, hummingbird feeders, and 10 wildlife and bird waterers and birdbaths filled, as well as putting out feed twice a day for the wildlife. All our creeks and ponds, except for the lily pond which we keep filled with water from the hose, are long dry, and I've been hauling water jugs out to fill the wildlife waterers since July. It takes a lot of time and muscle, but the wildlife need a reliable source of water since Mother Nature isn't providing them with any. At night, this place looks like a wildlife refuge although during the day you only see a few deer, a couple of armadilloes and some cottontail rabbits out eating with the birds. There's significantly higher activity at night. I haven't seen many moths the last couple of weeks either, but am seeing plenty of monarchs. I might be able to find seedheads from some of the summer daturas this fall when I rake leaves under the pecan trees, but can't rake until after a freeze or I'll likely encounter more timber rattlers, and I've had too many close encounters with them in August and September as it is. I'll let you know if I find any seedheads or if the plants grow enough to take cuttings from them. No rain is in our foreseeable future, so I'm not very hopeful the daturas will grow. They're all in a non-irrigated area. Scott, My pecan trees have held up better than anything else this summer and have produced pecans, but since we have so little else for the wild things to eat this year, I'm letting them have the pecans. I'm amazed we even have pecans with so little rainfall, but now the squirrels are busy gathering them and the acorns from the trees in the yard, so the squirrels aren't eating as much of the deer corn as they were a few weeks ago. I've even put out unroasted peanuts for the squirrels this summer. Even the squirrel population is very low this year. I've only seen a handful of squirrels this summer. You know it is a bad year when I am feeling so sorry for the squirrels that I am feeding them. Dawn

Hi, found this thread during research as I began to notice perspiration odors were not coming out of high-tech sports clothing - a typical problem as those fabrics have a long-standing reputation for retaining sweat odors. Some of the clothing was given to me, perhaps because the original owner couldn't deal with the problem, so I inherited the smell. But two shirts have been mine since new and I guess I let them get sweaty recently. So thanks to OP for bringing up the topic and for all the helpful answers. I've long been a fan of natural fibers, but being an active outdoor hiker and backpacker, have finally started using the polyester etc. high tech clothing. Many may not realize that for extreme winter snow sports, we avoid cotton, even as undies. It is called "death cloth" because it absorbs moisture and then loses its insulation value and can even freeze. Thus the move to fabrics that wick moisture away from the body and do not retain it. (And those are just the ones that get stinky.) I used a baking soda mash on the pits, then washed all the shirts normally. That did not work. So next I put them in the front-load washer in hot water with about a third of a cup of Oxiclean dissolved in it - a strong solution - and let them sit overnight before washing. Now no pit odor. Could've been just the Oxiclean that was successful or perhaps the action of the combo. Meanwhile I realize that prevention is the best idea so am rethinking my antiperspirant/deodorant, which for years has been unscented Mitchum roll-on. For some reason it is not quite as effective as it used to be, so I will acquire both Certain Dri and the Secret Clinical Strength to alternate with the Mitchum. I realize that I need to be careful to use both an antiperspirant AND a deodorant since I can't shower daily during the winter due to extremely dry skin. (Itching prevents sleep even after the application of lotion, usually Walmart's version of Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion!) Again, thanks.

debrak_2008, Why not simply add a recirculation system to your hot water line? This will ensure every tap in the house has almost instant hot water. gates1, I don't think you'll get much build-up from powder detergents. For the most part, when you add water to a substance and then evaporate the water, you're left with the original substance. Liquid detergents are so gooey and sticky that they are bound to cause build-up problems in the detergent drawer as well as the machine. I've never had powder detergent cause build-up in the drawer, ever, and it's unlikely that it would cause problems in the washer either. I also think overuse of cold washes and fabric softener are definitely factors. Fabric softener is released during the final rinse. That means whatever is left in your machine after the final rinse will evaporate and leave a slight oily residue in its place. If the next wash uses cold water, it's unlikely to pick up that residue and may actually deposit more residue on top. I think this whole issue starts and stops with fabric softeners and liquid detergents. Hot water washes in themselves don't necessarily solve the problem, but can prevent it from happening in the first place by limiting the amount of residue left in the machine. Cold water washing exacerbates the problem because it is not hot enough to remove the fabric softener/liquid detergent buildup left from the previous wash/rinse. Use powder detergent, dilute the fabric softener or use less, and wash regularly on HOT. For those using liquid fabric softener, it may be advisable to start your "laundry day" with a load of whites on the HOT cycle and progress to cooler cycles and darker colors. The reason for this is simple. The last time you did laundry, your machine had a very slight fabric softener residue left in it from the final rinse. To have the best shot of removing that residue, start out with a HOT wash.

As PP mentioned above, the average joe just doesn't care - they load the machine, drop in a dose of detergent (and in a lot of cases, actually overdose above what the manufacture states) comeback to wet clothes to move to the dryer and as long as look and smell clean - they're happy/not bothered. However, for those who do care, it becomes just like chemistry - everybodys laundry is completely different: detergent type, water type/temp/level, machine type, cycle type/temp, load size, fabric type in the load (and what's loaded in together or not), stain types and even down to how long an article has gone between last wash, what its been subjected to, and even what its made of (2 items of 100% cotton could be different due to manufacturing processes and dyes etc) - I'm waffling, but this list won't even be all that's at play. Detergent manufacturers are a business, they need to make money; they have stakeholders, employees, suppliers, contractors and marketers to pay - so they must drive value and revenues. Don't' suppose it'll ever be proven (or ever admitted), but it's in their interest to give customers what they're happy with/what is acceptable, whilst maximising revenue - end of the day, if they dont make money, what are they doing it for? I did read somewhere (and I wish I could remember where) that a certain big manufacturer of a very famous detergent was starting to see revenues drop to a level below what they were aiming for/happy with, and it was centred around the launch of single dose detergents - on the one hand, they carry a premium price tag and it guarantees that a user gets no more than the stated amount of loads - but what they actually found was customers weren't purchasing detergent at the store as often due to the fact that compared to when the same users were using powder/liquid format, the overdoing (just dumping 1 full cap in) was causing people to repeat purchase more often than that of pod users. And what do you know, the dosing recommendations for pods were increased - going from 1 pod for any load, to 1 for medium, 2 for large and 3 for high capacity/extra dirty. The same has now become true of liquids - dose increased - line 1 for medium, 3 for large and line 5 for "full he loads" as "they are a higher capacity than standard top loaders and of course more clothes = more dirt)" --their tag line-- All this in a time when detergents are becoming more "concentrated" and front loaders use as much as a quarter the amount of water than that of a TL. Now how can detergents be being concentrated, Used in machines that use less water (which is what will ultimately determine the strength of the solution that detergents are dissolved within) and the doses are going up? Add this to the fact that washer manufacturers often say use less than recommended. Makes you think.