OMG Sandy, Just read this post and you talked about thrush. That is a nasty, nasty word in my book. I supposedly have asthma and am on the inhaler Advair. After too many, too many bouts with thrush I went cold turkey off of Advair. I got thrush back in February. It got so bad it went to my throat and tonsils. Even my gums were bleeding. I couldn't even drink tea I was in so much agony. I lost 5# because I couldn't eat. I still had thrush in May after a month of being on Diflucam to take it away. I could eat but it still hurt, and forget about taste. I lived on applesauce, jello and pudding. On Father's Day this year I thought I had a small stoke. It felt like someone had stabbed me in the left side of my head with a sharp pencil, then my whole left side went numb, even my tongue. The MRI showed I had a slight brain aneurysm that had healed itself. That was it. I decided the Lord gave me a second chance at life and I wasn't going to abuse it. I am now on a strict low-sodium diet. I have lost 30#. It seems like the pounds are just melting away. If it ain't natural it ain't going in my body. I gave up diet pop, and anything with splenda, neutrasweet or aspartame in it. I have been told I have had asthma and allergies my whole life, and I can't believe the difference. I haven't used an inhaler since February and don't have a problem breathing. I haven't had an asthma attack (thank God) and this is the first year I haven't sneezed my head off during allergy season. I am up to 1.60 miles on the manual treadmill and can bench press 50# on the Bowflex. I don't care what my allergist tells me, I refuse to put anymore steroids into my body. That's what caused the thrush in my mouth and throat, steroids in the Advair inhaler. I feel like I have been reborn. Jenny

They are 'good guys'.......the eggs of some insect eating beneficial like lace wing (I'm drawing a blank here and I remember answering that question over on the pest forum some time ago). The reason they are on stalks is to protect the newly hatched youngsters from eating each other. LOL.

Roselvr: If you sent an email, it did not arrive. I had the phentolamine test about a year ago. Since it has to be done in an OR setting, that may be why more drs. don't do it. This was a double-blind test. The nurse administering the drugs thru IV injection was the only one who knew what drug was given and when. I can't remember the name of the other drug they used. Since I had a remission, I did not have to go thru the nerve block procedure. As it is, there are five nerves that control the foot and they run down the spine against the vertebrae. Hitting the wrong nerve could have left me with more damage than what I had. I'm so thankful that I didn't have to go thru it. Since pain is a subjective issue and your pain level is different from another's, doctors are cautious when it comes to treating it, especially back pain. With RSDS, the brain reroutes nerves and blood supply around the injured area. That's why it is so difficult to treat. Once the brain goes into repair mode, it can rewire other simple injuries. It is a very strange situation. Upon reflection, my ankle was the second episode for me. The first was after a breast biopsy and I thought the pain I experienced for months was from scar tissue forming. Both surgeries required metal implants of some sort. The biopsy required a wire to be implanted prior to surgery to mark the abnormal tissue. With the bunion surgery, I had a steel pin projecting from the instep into the bone they severed to shorten the big toe. I had to deal with that for seven weeks. I am senstive to all metals except gold so I wonder if that triggered the rewire response. As for the situation here, the population has thinned out dramatically. The caregiver's last day was last Friday. Dad flew to Montana the next day. It is so quiet around here now. I have a ton of work to do to get the place back in shape, but I don't have to deal with "them" anymore. No more insurance or employer paperwork, no more go-fer runs to the pharmacy or dr. appts 35 miles away. I may have one casualty : my tv is on the fritz. Probably not used to being off so much! Had two appointments with different real estate agents to try to put the property on the market again. One had to turn down the opportunity. Don't know the reasons yet. The other is waiting to set an appointment with my infamous vanishing brothers. To top it off, Lil Bro almost blew himself up when a can of black powder he uses for his home-made cannons blew up in his face. I don't know the full extent of his injuries. I offered to help and he got nasty so I removed myself from the situation. I wonder if I'm living in a soap opera! H&K's to all! Carol

Tracey, Since you are brand new to canning or pickling, I'd start out with the Ball Blue Book. It usually is available on the canning supply aisle at Wal-Mart, or you can often find it at a bookstore or order it online from Amazon. It costs about $10.00. All the recipes in the Ball Blue Book have been tested and are safe for canning when following precisely. The best online source for canning information is the website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It has all kinds of instructional information, recipes and how-to videos. All the recipes on this website are tested and proven safe. The most important thing about canning is safety. Improperly canned foods can contain pathogens like botulism or listeria (and many others) that can be deadly even though the food looks and smells perfectly fine. So, use only safe, approved canning recipes. There are many recipes available on the internet (and also sometimes found in magazine articles and books) that I wouldn't use because they haven't been tested and proven safe for canning. Once you're experienced at canning, you'll recognize them because you'll be able to look at the ingredient list and tell, for example, that they don't have enough vinegar for the amount of ingredients being pickled, or whatever. Sometimes I'll see a canning recipe is a magazine and can tell at a glance that is not safe and I'll say something to my DH about it. Then, in a few weeks, the next issue of the magazine, or the next one after it, will arrive with a printed correction. I wish they'd be sure of the safety of their canning recipes before they print them to begin with. Also, be sure to use the precise form of canning recommended. Some foods can be canned using a boiling water bath while others must be pressure-canned. Once again, this is a safety issue. Boiling water baths only work for a few types of veggies and fruits, and you have to use pressure canning for others. Each recipe will tell you whether to use a boiling water bath or pressure canner. Also, just remember you cannot substitute anything in a canning recipe unless the recipe says such a substitution is safe and is allowed. Safety is based on the pH of the ingredients and on the density as well. If you make any change that alters the pH or the density, you alter the safety of the recipe. I'm not trying to scare you---canning is perfectly safe when you use approved recipes and follow them precisely. A lot of folks like to freelance though, and while that is fine with regular cooking, it is not fine when canning food. I'm going to link the Ball Blue Book so you can see what it looks like. As of last week, they still had them on the canning aisle at my local Wal-Mart, but often they only have them during the height of the growing season and don't stock the book year-round, so you may or may not find it in your local store. Canning is fun and is a great way to preserve food. I canned over 700 jars last year when the garden was producing much more abundantly than it has this year. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: The Ball Blue Book