That's cool about your ancestor, Hoov! On my Dad's side we apparently have a headless ghost that haunts some northern town, lol. My Dad's cousin played for the greatest Yankee teams ever, with Lou Gherig and folks, '36 to '38 and got traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers that year. Dad knew him, and I see his closer relatives all the time out here, where he was born. Kemp Whicker [misspelled Wicker often]. I get motion-sick, too! Or did, rather and now it will be a migraine instead. Still the same ole triggers. Embarrassing asking to sit in the front seat as an adult ;] I can see computer refresh rates and flourescent light flickers at a frequency that is odd for humans to see... goes back to migraines, lol. Not a good superpower ;] ealoudermilk, I'm actually that way too, to a certain extent. It's scary how goofy I am in real life. I'm goofier here than in real life in public 'cos I don't much care, lol [not a bad thing to y'all, I assure you]. Oh, I'm definitely mored scared of smaller aircraft. I want to skydive but would have to be pushed out and I'd throw up and scream at the whole first part. Still want to do it, though. The 2nd part sounds worth it. I adore Chicory coffee! I like blackstrap molasses in mine! More than 3 answers is great, too, LOL and appreciated to see all y'all folks!!. I use TV as background noise 'cos I always have tinitis. Can stand silence but prefer white noise so I don't hear the constant high beep. I'm definitely a dork. Dorks unite! I figure if it's more fun than being contrived [which I have to do to be undorky] than so be it! I remind my Dad of his eccentric silly aunt with 11 cats in a very small house [& she was loaded] down to her never having kids but always having a ball with the neighborhood children. It's OK, I LOVED her :)

In this economy I think many folks will be staying home more and will look to ways to save on food. Vegetable plantings is a great way to go. I learned many of my techniques simply watching shows like Gardening Naturally (thanks for helping me recall the name of that show Marg). In that show I learned more about proper composting, the use of manure, seaweed of all things, and other stuff. Sure it certainly may not appeal to all audience, but it was very imformative. Too bad we no longer have such shows. The new Victory Garden - well it's simply rehashed segments with a new host - Jamie Durie, a well known garden designer/landscaper from Australia. The show focuses mainly on designing on a grand scale - although it does emphasis green techniques, water conservation, etc.. It does have a small segment with Kip as the actual gardener and Chef Michel cooking the organic way. However it just doesn't have that 'Organic feel' to it. It seemed too Hollywood or too New Age. In my opinion -- good eye candy, not much on substance. There is good show on PBS - called Cultivating Life. While it is short, it does have everything, from building trellis, to planting, to cooking. It's good enough - although not close enough to the shows of the past. I've pretty much given up on watching shows on TV. There's hope however, and it exist online. Look at such places such as Youtube and someone is most certainly going to upload a specific gardening technique. Ianna

I also have raised beds in Connecticut and have a couple of them (4 x 12 ft) covered with low tunnels, 4' high, made from 1/2" PVC pipe. I've used them for many years but only as season extenders. I was never able to get any crops to reliably grow during Jan and Feb because of the single plastic cover and no heat. I found that spinach is one of the hardiest crops to winter over if it is about 2 or 3 inches tall in November, but it didn't actually grow much until early March, then it took off like a rocket. I also used the tunnels to start seeds in early March of cold-tolerant vegetables. There was no provision for automatic venting on sunny days and that caused big temperature swings by the time April rolled around. Very heavy wet snows also caused structural problems since the PVC was only half inch. I had a coldframe for a few years with an automatic vent and that actually worked better because it was lower and had less heat loss, but it was not large enough. Last fall I build a large hoop house over two of the raised beds; it is 12' long and 10' wide and about 7' tall and is made from 1" PVC and 6-mil single-ply construction plastic. No heat. It has survived some heavy snow loads without any bending or distortion. I didn't have time to plant anything in it last fall because it wasn't finished until December but I planted lots of cold-tolerant seeds in early February. They were covered with Remay to get the extra protection that Coleman suggests. A min/max thermometer showed the temperature got into the low twenties at night. This week I expect the night temps to stay above freezing. The seeds I planted in early Feb are doing well but the ones I started indoors in late Feb and put in the hoophouse 2 weeks ago are doing just as well or better. I intend to remove the plastic in summer and replace it in November so I don't cook the plants. Temperature control is tough without fans and I really don't want to get involved with electric heat and ventilation (I might change my mind some day). I just built an automatic window this week and installed it yeasterday; it is 30" by 36" with a univent opener. I really needed it because the air temp might be freezing when I leave for work and get really sunny and warm by lunch time. I am working on the second one this week. This is a challenge with a PVC hoophouse because of the difficulties involved in making a window on a curved surface. This summer I am going to dig around the raised beds and put foam board vertically around them as far down as I can dig (about 18" in my stony soil). This should keep it warmer in the winter. I will also put low tunnels inside but I only need thin plastic covering because it won't have snow on it. But they will have to be well sealed especially at the edges of the hoophose where it is coldest. Maybe I'll give in and put a small electric heater in the low tunnel but I will use it to keep it from freezing rather than try to grow things like tomatoes. Then I will be ready to try real 4 season growing; I recommend the book because of the interesting ideas in it and will be looking at this forum for best crops to grow. I'll let you know how It turns out. Bob B.

Jasdip, I just have a cheap inside antenna. Some of my friends in the county pick up more stations than I do. I also can't pick up our local ctv station in my living room which I find strange but when I had a television in the bedroom I used to be able to get it a 5 am. I got rid of cable in 2004, my neighbour bought me the analog box and the antenna years before the stations changed and set it up for me. I couldn't believe the all the new stations that appeared. I am in a good location. I am always scanning for new stations. I get better reception and more stations than some of the people i know who are paying for cable or digital and they don't get any of the local Detroit stations. I just think of all that money I didn't give to the cable company haha it now goes to Bell for my internet