Lucy's right. Apples and crabapples need stratification in order to germinate, and this can take as much as 3-4 months of cold to happen. You will also need to scar the seed coat some before planting (scarification). From Iowa State University: "Most apples and crabapples will not reproduce true from seed. They are usually propagated by grafting and budding. However, seed of most apples and crabapples are viable, and can be germinated. Collect fruit from trees as they ripen. Remove the seed. Sow the seed in the fall or stratify the seed for 60 to 120 days at 37 to 41°F and plant in the spring. Sow the seed 1/2 to 1 inch deep." Matt

I absolutely love using the library's online features! With 3 small children, I either have to make an extra trip down to the library after they are put to bed which doesn't give me much time before the library closes or I have to try and keep them quiet in the upstairs adult section which doesn't usually work very well. Imagine VERY loud voices asking questions like "Why do they have so many computers up here?" "Why do we have to be so quiet?" "When is it time to go hoooome? *whine*" Once I realized how easy it is to do things online, I started using it all the time. I can renew our books online so that I don't have huge late fees. I can put things on hold at our library like popular DVDs or new releases. They are always on hold for someone so it's much easier to get my name on the hold list than it is to find it on the shelf. And of course, the interlibrary loan system is great! I've found so many books using that. Besides the ones I was looking for, I've also found some by using the features "nearby items on shelf" and "find more on these topics". They have a pretty nice setup. Our library also has an ongoing used book, magazine, and CD sale near the front desk. I once found a whole stack of gradening magazines like Garden Gate and Organic Gardening for 25 cents each! And you can check out magazines also. In fact, I just quick bumped over there and put the last 4 issues of Garden Gate on hold (from Waterford library). Oh, and Julie, if you do a search using the words "fine gardening" that magazine is available at Burlington library plus a few others so if you need some reading material this winter but don't want to shell out the money for a magazine that you only read part of, it can be transferred to the Racine library for you. There is also a series called "Fine gardening design guides" that seems to have been put out by the magazine along with a few separate books titled "The Best of Fine Gardening: Perennials", "The Best of Fine Gardening: Shrubs and Trees" and a few others. Does Sturtevant have a library or do you use Racine's? If the bookmobile comes out near you, you have the option of choosing where you want to pick up the items and can switch it to Bookmobile. It's funny, most of the libraries only seem to keep the last 2 years of issues but West Bend has copies of Fine Gardening going back to 1997! I wonder why? Perhaps they have more gardeners in that area or just most storage room. There's a new book by Melinda Myers titled "Month-by-month gardening in Wisconsin : what to do each month to have a beautiful garden all year". I'm going to have to put that on hold. I wonder if they have Birds and Bloom magazine. Well, I'm going to quit bouncing back and forth between websites and just send this before it gets any longer. Kimberly P.S. My library's SHARE program covers these areas: Dodge, Jefferson, Racine, Walworth and Washington Counties. But I'm sure there are similar programs for the other parts of...

Fun and light: anything by P.G. Wodehouse. Agatha Christie's memoir "Come, Tell Me How You Live" is laugh-out-loud funny. She was a "plus size" woman traveling with an absent-minded archeologist husband in the 1930's ... but some situations (shopping for reasonably fashionable travel clothes? choosing a new purse? packing for your husband?) never change. Lindsey Davis has a mystery series set in Rome around AD 70. The main character is the equivalent of of private detective. He's working himself out of the lower class, his wife is a Senator's daughter -- so she's scandalously chosen to live below her station. You don't need to know any "History" to enjoy these, because these are about the common people anyways. M. C. Beaton has two popular series -- quite a few books, easy to find. For her, I'd recommend finding book #1 to start each series because that gives you the set-up, but after that it doesn't matter too much if you stick to proper order or not. Rhys Bowen has several mystery series I like. The breeziest is her "Lady Georgiana" series set in the 1930's ... Georgie is 32nd in line to the British throne, penniless, but can't "work" for a living lest she bring shame to the royal family. Plus women at that time didn't have many choices when it came to earning their own living. Steve Hockensmith has an interesting series. What if a very intelligent mid-western cowpoke becomes inspired to be a detective after hearing about Sherlock Holmes? Cool, except this cowboy can't read or write, because in the early 1900's young boys sometimes had to leave schooling early to support their families. They're kind of hard to find, but Simon Levack has a series of four mysteries featuring an Aztec slave, set in the days immediately before the spanish conquest. Funny, but sort of heart-breaking too since you know the destruction that's coming. Enjoy your holiday -- sitting in a ski lodge with a book/Kindle and a warm drink while the family knocks themselves out sounds fantastic!

These are a couple chairs I really like. This is my favorite, but is this one too "grand" for an everyday eating area with my kids? It's a bit pricer too, but I like it a lot. My preference is the grey chair on the right. Thoughts? I really like this chair as well and it's very well priced, but I'm not sure if it's plush enough or the look I'd like. Our previous chairs were actually living room accent chairs and we really got into lounging and talking at the table long after dinner. Again, this grey is my color preference (far left), but they are only available in a charcoal grey (looks black in photo on the right, but one review says charcoal, not black). They may make my life easier with kids, but not my golden retriever! I question if the dark grey may be too harsh for our space though.