I can't speak for Al. I hope he or someone else who has used this mix for a while will chime in. I always followed the advice to add one tablespoon of lime per gallon of mix and I prefer to measure five gallons of bark to three each of perlite and peat. My formula was closer to what he describes as a small batch: Small batch: 3 gallons pine bark 1/2 gallon peat 1/2 gallon perlite 4 tbsp lime (or gypsum in some cases) 1/4 cup CRF (if preferred) You will notice this is actually 6-1-1. Al has said many times that these formulas are really more of a general concept. I suspect he didn't want new gardeners to get hung up on making exact formulas. I don't think you should repot anything you just put into the mix you made. It is fine the way it is. I was mainly trying to explain why there was a difference in your measurements between the two batches.

judijune, be careful with all those snakes! We get some venomous snakes too. My scariest situation was maybe 5 yrs sgo at my old farm when our Lab had cornered a huge Timber Rattlesnake out by the chicken coop. It was all coiled up rattlling its tail -holding its black rattler up high. It had a different sound than other snakes and from a distance without contacts/glasses on, I thought it was a black hornets nest lol! The dog was barking its foolish head off in that snakes face! Im shocked it didnt bite her..or me! I was at a loss of what to do because the dog would not back off, so finally I walked around the coop and up behind her and grabbed her tail pulling her backwards, away from the snake, until i could get hold of her collar and back up towards the house. That snake took off into the woods quick. I later learned that although massive and one of the most venomous rattelesnakes, The Timber rattler is not aggressive and will sometimes even play dead rather than strike. Good thing lol. I dread seeing another one. Diane, I Love those goat photos and their guardian dog! Its a smart thing getting the goats out there to keep the wildfire risk down. The silly photo: We had just got a new overgrown pasture section ready for the goats, a few days ago. We let them out, into it for the first time and they were all going nuts running around tasting everything. Some goats were rubbing their heads on the tall weeds like a scratching post lol. Somehow, this little guy got a big weed stuck on his head. Then he went up to the girls and they would try to eat the weed, then would run and they would all chase him trying to eat the weed. He tried it with the older female goats and they were not impressed and would butt him. They kept us laughing with their goofy antics!

I have a Mac, but assume this would work on a MS system as well. I keep two documents called MISC open at the bottom of my computer. One is a word processing document and the other is a draw program document. (I use the free Libre Office suite.) Whenever I have a long email I first compose it in Word and then copy and paste. It's also handy when I post the same reply in many places on Facebook. The drawing program is handy when I want to copy and paste an image from the web. Amd either is also handy for copying and pasting text from the web, as well. I also can relate to spending considerable time composing an email only to lose it. Not fun!

I'm going to chime in here. I don't read fashion magazines either. For one reason, I don't think they are indicative of what is in style at our "tier", if that's what you want to call it. Perhaps it has to do with where you live also. For instance, I won't say that nude hose are outdated. Yes, in years past I have seen alot of black hose (which is what I try to wear if I absolutely MUST wear hose), tights (which you can't wear with every type dress), and my favorite - pants. LOL!! I still see alot of nude hose on ladies in this area - ladies who are fashionably dressed. I also think we've heard so much about Katherine and Pippa and their nude hose, that we will see more of them. What's in-style or current, etc. in NYC is not what is the look here in Tennessee. I have to say re jeans, I see many more women here wearing the slightly flared leg than the skinny jeans. You may remember that I work at a college, and I do see girls there in the skinnies. The skinnies that are tight enough to look like leggings LOL. IMO, that is who they look best on, the younger girls. I don't think at my age (staring 50 in the face!), that skinnies are the look for me. Another trend - we talked about maxi dresses earlier on this forum, well after that conversation, I started looking more closely at what people were wearing. Again, I saw many more under 30 gals with the maxi dresses. Most were younger than that. They were popular with the college set. I really think they are cute, but I am too short to carry that look off, plus I don't think I could stand all that fabric around my legs. Things like that bug me. Age wise - I'm not so sure. I want to have an updated, current look but I really prefer to have my own style and don't worry about having/wearing what everyone else is wearing or what someone says is the style. Some trends, I like and are favorable on me, some I don't and they're not LOL. I like classic seperates that continue to look current through the years, and update them with trendy jackets, sweaters, accessories, etc. That's just me. While I don't read fasion mags, I will admit to being slightly adicted to home deco mags. LOL Recently downloaded two trial subscriptions to my nook. It IS cheaper!! Just my two cents worth on fasion! tina