I'm not a red oak fan. I don't like its smell, its stringiness and its lousy burn. I much prefer white oak or choke cherry. I had a fire going in the Defiant, cherry from a blow down in the front yard last winter. I could smell it whilst car crawling. Smells like a maraschino cherry . I replaced the broken latch on the Defiant's side door with a bolt and washers. I caulked the door edges with gasket material and pushed it in as I tightened the bolt. This has restored a great amount of the stove's "airtightness" . I have more repairs to go, but that was the most bang for least effort. The stove was rated at 40,000 BTU and heated a 1200 sqare foot house. That was 40 yrs ago . Most of the plates are cracked. The inner baffle burnt out years ago I snapped off the worst of the warped piece, I intend to strap it roughly back into place with lots of slack built in to accomodate expansion. Heating oil is about 3.40 a gallon. I have a hot air system . Firewood is 275 $ a cord. Most of the house also has 220 Volt electric baseboard. The chimney was put in an enclosed porch. Then a few yrs later, I rolled the porch away, and put in a 28 x 28 , 2 story addition on a 20 X 28 with a 12x12 ell. Story and a half New England farmhouse built about 1870 from local pine. So the chimney is in a center of the house now. Thanksgiving of '85 I tended a mason who corbled the last 5 feet over 4 inches to clear the ridge pole Instead of splitting the ridge each course of brick was hung out about 3/8 of an inch.to the north. The masonry is great. It retains heat and heats the sheetrock plaster in the stairwell.

I'm thinking one of those display stands, like the libraries once used to display the huge unabridged dictionaries upon. Cut it down to table top height and equip it with wheels and a large 10-diopter magnifier, with enclosed fluorescent light and I would be all set! My DH is very handy at that sort of thing and he likes to putter in his shop, with all of the woodworking power tools. Maybe, then the only strenuous effort I would have is flipping the pages. Do they have a device for that, too? Kidding aside, it is a handful to wrestle that tome from the bookcase to the coffee table and back again, each time I want to check on a Hosta. It may just wind up as a permanent fixture on the coffee table. I agree about the eyestrain, even though I have megawatts of CFC lighting in my den, I have to limit my reading to a few minutes each time, which is probably a good thing, as my garden needs my undivided attention right now, from daybreak to dusk, as we experienced a very, very long, difficult winter here and cleanup is moving very slowly! Hostas must have enjoyed their long rest, as they are looking good this year, for the first time in several years.

Thanks Bill, but I doubt you would like my work ethic. Do you allow nap times :) I swear I don't know how you do this all the time. It sure looks easier than it is. I spend hours on it and after having just gotten up a couple rows, I stand back and say "What in the heck took you so long!" And I am serious when I when I said my arms were sore. I kept thinking about Karate Kid... "Wax on, Wax off". Thanks for not picking on my for the crooked tiles. Can you see them? The mosaics to the right of the soap dish had slid down to the right and I did not notice until the next day. Grout hides a lot of sins huh? I asked my husband to get me a new blade for my tile saw the next time he was at Harbor Freight. He asked why. I said, this one is about done. No rush. I just will need one before the next project. He said "WHAT NEXT PROJECT!!!". Yeah, like there's not going to be a "next project". He's dreaming!

Thank you. It is definiltely worse tonight, in the same areas but more sensitive. Still no visible signs. Sometimes the pain is very intense but lasts only momentarily. Today I had a vague sense of not feeling good, maybe it was just the pain in my arm affecting me that way. I sure hope it is just temporary! Jen