That seed site is a really good link for you! Once you start collecting for awhile you kind of learn your way around and you'll find it much easier to identify seeds. There is a great big group that form pods and the hardest part on those is waiting for the pod to ripen. (Snaps, delphiniums, nicotiana, bellflowers come to mind). You'll notice that you start watching your flowers die and you keep on checking where the spent flower is to see what develops. Sometimes, in your early years, you can't wait for the flower to die to get the seeds hahaha. If you notice, the pods will go green, then start to brown up but still will be soft. You have to wait until they get crumbly before you pluck them or your seeds won't be ready. If have a lot of pods on a plant, you can pluck one pod to open and examine the contents. You see how the plant progresses to seed. When they are all white and mushy, they aren't ready. Another big group are the daisy type flowers (shasta, helenium, rudbeckia). On those, you don't get a pod so you have to wait until all the petals are spent. When it's good and dry you can run your finger over the top and the seeds fall right out. The Coneflowers sort of fall into this catagory but they have a built in ouch-factor. All of those spikes (that poke your fingers) are not the seed. Almost everyone new makes the mistake on these! I let the seedheads dry completely in their bags on these babies before attempting to get the seeds. I take my thumbs (you can wear thumb-protectors like those rubber fingers lol) and grab them in the middle and pull it apart. You'll see off-white (almost grey) seeds fall out. They are rather large so you can spot them easily. I left most of them on the plants this year to completely dry but the finches made a breakfast out of them! No, the chaff doesn't make a difference for me if I plant it. If you think about flowers growing in nature, no one is there to pluck the seeds out. I crumble it up into a finer powder with my fingers and sprinkle it so I know the seed touched down on my soil. If I'm trading, I try to do a better job with the chaff. I do the group swaps so I don't know who's getting the seed. I know some traders stress a little over the chaff and I'd hate to ruin someone's day :) There are things that you just can't help to send chaff with. I send the whole flower part out on the astibles and I get them in trade that way, too. I can't overwinter butterfly bush but that's another one I've gotten the whole flower part in trade. I graduated to the big daddy seed box a few years ago and it was truly the best investment for my seed collecting hobby. It's like Julie's plastic one on wheels but it has 6 drawers. I found it at Office Max for around $30. The top 2 drawers have my baggies and stuff in them and the rest are seed folders. Those priority mailers cut in half length wise fit perfectly. I do them in alpha order also. Everything I collect each year has it's own folder so I don't have to keep remaking them. I just add to it when I get more. If you pre-make your trade bags, they fit right in so it keeps you organized. I have a generic "A, "B" etc. folder also so when I get a big trade in I can file it right away. I'm really trying to get everything with their full names on them, after so many years I've forgotten what is what. So that's a warning for you that you forget! I started putting the info right on the folder as I collect it so it's there when I want to send it to someone. I also did a lot of on-line orders so I copied the info down so I'll always have it. It's so very hard to keep all of this straight until you find a system that works for you! If you find you end up falling into the obsessive-compulsive seed collecting hobby, like so many of us :) think up some methods that will keep you more organized. People have some great systems so if you keep reading you'll pick up on some ideas that will work great for you. Some people are very content with being unorganized, too! It all just boils down to having a pretty garden :) ..and a cute cat!

Well, I woke up to my truck being covered in ice. When I opened the driver side door, you could bear all the cracking of the ice breaking! This is so not right. It's not supposed to happen so soon. My mom and her boyfriend are hoping for an Indian Summer...but I think we're screwed. Even though there was ice all on my truck, neighbor's yard and everywhere else absolutely covered..all my stuff is fine. Not one leaf damaged. whew! Karyn, your plants are in denial and hoping for that Indian Summer too, lol. Traumatizing her? LMAO! I think I have totally screwed up my 4 yr old, lol. Maybe she does think she's a plant. When she asked me about how I 'got' her, lol..I told her that I was having an adventure through the rainforest.. one night I was in my tent and I woke up to find monkeys put her at my tent door. The monkeys had had her, and couldnt figure out how to make her grow fur or a tail. When they realized this & saw me, they gave her to me since we looked to be the same type of creature. So fun to mess with kids.

Teppy, In my gut I know that I will not do as good a job as you did if I try to paint on my own. You have excellent taste and are very meticulous. Me....not so much. I do have a laundry room I can experiment with if I need to. I am definitely going to get a quote from a painting company, think I found one, that paints woodwork, cabinet and such. They do a lot of work for builders and had excellent pictures online. I have to get an exterior quote as well. When I get closer to actually beginning I'll post before pictures. I tried previously but couldn't figure it out. Maybe I'll take a look again this weekend. Yes, there is enough room for walking if the seating is added. It would be so nice for entertaining, cooking with the kids, kids doing homework etc. We have an eating nook that accomodates only a 48" round table comfortablly so the extra space would be nice plus it's just more social. I want to compare the painting cost vs. refacing. I'm actually hoping it's not that different because then the KD w/the refacing company could be the GC for the whole job whereas if we go the painting route I'll have find a GC on my own. Will defenitely try to figure out the picture deal so I can post. Thanks for the responses. Z.

If I get to the coast, I have a really hard time leaving paradise and making day trips to see other places, so I'd probably never make it to Astoria, except it's on my way DOWN to paradise...but if you get bored, or the weather isn't great, maybe you'll venture out. I ate at a nice restaurant in Astoria recently and while searching for the name to post here, (it's Bridgewater Bistro - good food, nice place!) I came upon this recommendation as one of the 10 best restaurants outside of Portland. I'd definitely try it on my next visit. Albatross Albatross (address and info) Astoria Helmed by the dude behind Thistle in McMinnville, and ex-PDX Chef Eric Bechard, this cooly laid-back, brick-walled eatery is heavy on the reclaimed touches (an ancient cash register, a retro stereo, etc.), and on farm-to-table eats like boldly flavored clams, and one of Oregon's best burgers w/ caramelized onions & a smooth white cheese sauce on a pillow-soft bun.