Well, when I move the germinated seeds the rootlets are almost microscopic. I did let the first batch go too long and ended up cutting the paper towel around the little rooties to avoid handling. (Paper towels are incredible tough when you're attempting fine work.) Maybe breakage isn't much of an issue, but it can't help. And fingers are dirty things. I do have one immortal(?) BJ seedling. It came up with serious helmet head. I used small nippers to cut around the seed case and two tweezers under a magnifying lamp to pull the case apart. I didn't expect it to survive - this was an experiment. Yet it did survive - with two little stumps where the cotyledons would be. Okay, not the first time for that. But then the ADHD cat got hungry and ate it while my back was turned. No roots, no cots, just a stem. But it wasn't badly chewed so I stuck it back in its little cell. Where it resides to this day, green, upright, and laughing at the Reaper. I expect to see a leaf in a few days. There is definitely variation between varieties, too. Some don't seem to like the colder temps (if that is what it is) and some (like alma) just want to grow through the roof. I'm not clear on your overall yield, though. Are you seeing over 50% net after germination and planting?

I think of 1940s and 1950s houses being rather modest, because this was the boom era for a typical middle class income person to be able to own a small modest house. Prior to that era, home ownership in the cities was not high. People did not have the money to have a well-done craftsman-ship type of products. I was in a waterfront custom-home near-mansion from the 30s or 40s (?). The woodwork and workmanship in that house was exquisite. I don't consider this a typical home of that era. The typical cabinets from that era are slab front plywood cabinets that are site built. This was before they had modular cabinets. Modest homes had laminate/linoleum with metal banding counters. Linoleum floors were common. Slightly upscale homes had tile counters. I lived in one of these in the 1970s. (my parents' first home) and again in a rental in the 90s. I really like the feel of these homes. The way I would decribe the feel of homes is "honest" and "integrity", if left intact. There is usually hardwood floors and good tilework throughout, ie bathrooms. I presonally think that most over the top kitchens that are going into these modest 1940s and 1950s houses will scream 2011 many decades from now. If you "redo" the entire house to 2011 sensibility so everything flows in and out of the house, then the house will age better, IMHO. But redoing the entire house is very expensive. Most homes from that era are not MCM. If the house is MCM inspired, i think you need to take queue from that. MCM is a very specific type of look from that era. Dianalo, can you post picts of your kitchen. I am trying to convince my DH that we can get the "feel" and the "look" of 1940s kitchen with Ikea...

Thank you, ladies. We all have different roads to travel. Until I was 17 I'd never travelled over 30 miles from home ... then my Dad, who had bronchitis and incipient asthma and felt that his farming days were numbered in our location ... ... moved 1,600 miles to the Prairies in Saskatchewan, where he share-cropped for a while, then bought his own farm - and had 40 years of good health. And we react to the experiences of our lives in different ways. I was away to Univ. when Dad remarried, and we got a ready-made (pretty, vivacious) sister in that deal, a bit younger than we three boys. We didn't get along too well with stepmother (but sister, who became a school-teacher, didn't like her very well, either). She loved Dad - said that he never treated her any differently than the boys. Spent several years helping some refugees with nothing get their lives operational again, just after the Korean War. Met a somewhat younger woman from Iowa at Cornell Univ., married in Korea, and son, who was born there, later needed eye care, so we settled in Canada and I became a clergyperson. Later Sue, who became head of food service in the Psych. Hosp. where my Mom had been incarcerated 30 years earlier, felt that she needed to live on her own and we scarcely spoke for 35 years - something of a shame: life's too short for that. That caused disruption of my career - clergy didn't do that, almost 40 years ago! When, over 20 years later, they talked of closing her establishment or another a few miles away, she took early retirement, had a happy 10 years of life doing various things, including spending winters between FL and TX (later also AZ when our daughter lived there for a time) in her RV. Contracted colon cancer, died at 66, just under 3 years ago ... kids said that in the ordinary course, Mom would have retired "last year" ... and I added that she'd have been sick for most of that year. I'm very thankful, as I approach 80, to be enjoying good health. Dad said that he wanted to leave his farm better than he found it - he felt that way about his community, also, though I never heard him say so. Though I am thankful, proud and happy to be Canadian, I also consider myself something of a citizen of the world, as well ... and I hope that I can leave it better than I found it. And here I am ... hijacking a "Mother's Day discussion" thread! Sorry, folks. ole joyful

"It sometimes feels like we're made to think that we're imagining things. But my S/D has now admitted to things she did that my wife vehemently denied was happening. Here's a classic one: my s/d did not like when my wife and I spending time together. She would try to divide us in some way...usually with some distraction. She denied doing it...my wife denied it was happening...but a few years later, in a moment of honesty and reflection, she admitted it." Very true -- It's easy to see how this happens... "Is it possible that your SD just wanted to spend time alone with her mother? And maybe SD picked up on feelings that you didnt like her?" Also true -- though I'd eliminate the 'just' as SD admitted there was an element of 'divide' in there. That's what's so heartbreaking about the whole dynamic. It starts with a small slight that's natural enough, but is interpreted through a critical light, then the seeds of hurt and resentment take hold and begin to grow. And now there's a self-feeding cycle... At some point, someone just needs to say "STOP! -- I think we've both got the wrong impressions of each other and have gotten our feelings hurt as a result of a whole long series of misunderstandings. Let's start over with a clean slate." Naive, I guess, but wouldn't it be nice?