Thanks, the only problem with inventory check is that they barcoded *all* the fabric the same, so someone has to physically go look at what they have and try to figure out if it's what I'm talking about (if I could email a picture it would help but no one's suggested that). I *did* call the 3 stores closest to us, 1 said maybe (but DH didn't see any), 1 said they thought they had 2 pieces and would hold them for me but didn't, the last one wouldn't even try to check but DH is heading there today. I wasn't feeling well enough yesterday to call the main office, but I will on Monday and ask where they got their fabric from - if it's not multiple sources I may be able to go to the original store/manufacturer and find the rest. Or, it may have been discontinued and I'm out of luck :-( I'm feeling normal - actually had a bagel with margarine for breakfast! Though I'm not brave enough for coffee. Lost 4 pounds in 24 hrs - not the kind of diet I want to recommend though. DS still has some lingering effects, he's sticking to dry toast. DD is acting fine (which is why she went to swim lessons) but I gave her a bath before I got sick, she must have lost a bt b/c she seems skinny, I mentioned it to DH and he said her eyes are still sunken and dark circles under *and* over so he was trying to push fluids on her. At least she got her appetite back - ate banana, strawberries, grapes and some turkey yesterday though I told him no cheese or milk. She wanted kielbasa last night with him, wisely he told her no.

I've had a very busy month, trying to get my greenhouses cleaned and put to bed after a good spring season. I've been meaning to sneak up to the sewing room every day when I get up, but then a little voice tells me that if I work really hard now doing the outside chores then I can buy me a lazier summer for a change. LOL. Problem is I keep finding more things I need to do, so guess I'll just accept the fact that the business is not going to let me have a full summer off. I have a quilting project underway with a good start on it, and would like to get back to it before I lose my momentum. It's to be a gift for relatives when they come over from England in late summer and I really need to get cranking on it. When I am not up in the g'houses getting things cleaned and shut down, I am in my veggie garden hoeing, or the most enjoyable activity of all, babysitting my new g'child an evening a week. I have daydreams now and again of a quilt I'd like to start and I guess like in Ecclesiastes there will be a time for everything. I've been peeking in on the forum a time or two each week, and anxious to be able to get back into the block lottos.

The 7q Pro Line 1 1/3 hp DC motor is an amazing matching BTW - I've been using it for going on two years. It's the same exact mixer as the 8qt commercial save for the power cord color, the bowl size (the 8qt bowl also fits on the 7 - its the same machine) and the residential has the 3yr warranty instead of the 1 year for the commercial. The 7 and 8qt machine also has a 5qt bowl, which I picked up for smaller batch mixing. The motor is incredibly smooth and quiet but the power/torque is amazing. I had the KA 4.5 for 15 plus years, still works and have it in the attic, but it would labor through a single (3-cup flour) batch of pizza dough. This new one has a much more effective dough hook design (IMHO) and with the DC (direct current) motor, it smoothly powers through triple batches (9-10 cups of flour) of pizza dough with ease. It's crazy for a residential machine - we love this thing. I bought the machine from Sonoma when it first came out, but some of the extra accessories, like the 5qt bowl from the webstaurantstore because that's more of a commercial thing and wasn't available. I researched the heck out of both the residential 7qt and the commercial 8qt and even contacted KA directly and they are fundamentally identical except for the cord, the stop behind the speed switch, the bowl size, and the commercial has a shorter warranty. So the warranty won the day for me. If you're not happy with the 6qt, and when I was researching I did read some reliability complaints with the 6qt motor, then at least consider the 7 Pro. Good luck

Just thought I'd post the results I had in one garden bed that's clay-loam. Last year I had amended this bed with home-made compost. Everything did well last year as first year plantings. This year they suffered from too little light. (I just put the roses there to get them through the winter and hoping they might like the eastern exposure. Heathcliff, Sugar Moon and Falstaff like sun in my neck of the woods, it seems. I'll probably be moving the viking Queen next Spring as she's a fraction of the size of her sister in full sun, and hasn't bloomed since Spring while her sister would be non-stop if not for the midge.) Anyway, the soil was very dry even with rain. I thought the heavy leaf layer prevented water. I stuffed the empty holes with alfalfa hay, compost and leaf mold until I decided what to plant. I also put the alfalfa under the leaves in the rest of the bed and gave it additional compost. Wow, when I went to plant Lavender Lassie and two hydrangeas, all the soil was so soft and fluffy and moist, even though we had less rain that earlier. I'm now prepping my holes in advance of next Spring and filling them with the same and covering the entire bed with alfalfa hay, etc. The new plantings have taken off even in the reduced light of late summer. I repeated this in another new bed and Mme Alfred Carriere and Awakening seem to love it even in their NE exposure. (Of course, they could just be responding to being in the ground vs. in pots. : ) ) Lesson learned. : ) I'm also trying gypsum on some new beds I'm prepping since they're on an incline. I'll report back.