When using Splenda, be sure to taste the brine. Splenda has the unique ability to STRONGLY sweeten a vinegar brine. When I use Splenda for something like B&B pickles and the recipe calls for 3-4 pounds of sugar, I use maybe a half to one cup of Splenda, and its more than enough sweetening power. I don't even have to add sugar.

Carol, It is true that it never ends. I think my poor non-gardening husband thought for a long time that at some point we'd get to that point where all we do is just plant and harvest. Ha! The list of things I want/need/must have is long and I normally am not someone who wants a lot of stuff....unless it is gardening or cooking related. I'm low maintenance too. Tennis shoes, blue jeans, tee shirts, hats and gardening gloves. Well, and seeds and stuff. You know what I mean.... Tim does laugh at me, but he too buys me what I 'need', and even those things I 'want'. He even listens to me talking ad nauseum about gardening even though his gardening involvement tends to be limited to (a) rototilling soil to make new beds and such, (b) pounding 6' and 8' metal fence posts into the ground for me, since I'm only 5'3", (c) lifting heavy stuff like hay bales and bags of mulch, (d) eating the harvest. I have a long list of wants including a greenhouse, a high tunnel, a cold frame, a hoophouse and cattle panel arches to grow things on. I really, really want a real root cellar, but don't know if that will happen unless we win the lottery (and we don't even play the lottery). I'd be really low maintenance if it wasn't for the gardening addiction. George, I really like the way you have your seed beans on an easily distinguishable support so nobody gets confused. It is good you're seeing some rebound with the bean plants. Now if only the warm mild weather lasts a long time before cooling down! Glenda, I overwinter a lot of plants in the garage because it is very well insulated and we are zone 7b. Last year (admittedly a warm winter here with only a few nights in the mid- to upper-teens) I overwintered my brugs in pots and had blooms all winter, but had to drag them outside every morning and inside every night. I normally start seedlings inside on a homemade light shelf in the guest room. (The guest room really doesn't have any room for a guest!) It is upstairs though, and when I start carrying them outside to harden off, that's a lot of trips up and down the stairs. I also have a screened-in porch on the west side of the house. It has two real walls and two half real-walls with the top half of those walls being window screens. We cover the screens with greenhouse plastic in the winter and it is great during the day but cools off too much at night. If we ever take out the screened portion and put in real windows and turn it into a sunroom, it'd be a great place to raise seedlings in winter. I've always wanted a hoophouse, but your comment that they don't hold heat backs up what I always "knew in my gut". That's why I haven't got a hoophouse already....I felt like it wouldn't hold heat very well. I have built temporary hoophouses using PVC pipe and 6 mm clear plastic to use as a season extender in early spring when a severe late cold spell threatened after plants were already transplanted into the ground OR in the fall to get past the first freeze and then have several weeks of Indian Summer left for growing. Ilene, I need a book like that. : ) I don't know when we'll get around to building one, but one of these days we will. Before Tim joined the local volunteer fire dept. in 2004, we had all the time in the world to work on projects like that in the winter. Since then, not so much. He loves the fire dept. though, so I can't complain about the 'to do' list that he never quite gets around to doing. Jay, It is all your fault. All of it. Cease and desist from posting photos of your cold frame and then I won't want one so much. : ) Of course, after you build your high tunnel or greenhouse (or both!) you must post photos of that. It'll give me one more thing to nag Tim about. Dawn

Don't feel bad. Three of my tomatoes staked to bamboo poles fell over when the bamboo poles broke at the ground during a storm we had the other night with a 72 mile wind. The power was off for 7 hours. The tomato ties stayed in place. See my Flicker Photo of how to make tomato ties from grocery bags. Karyl ===== Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato tie photo.

Oh I made short ribs yesterday, Pam, hope yours are as good as ours were! They are one of my favorite meals! After I removed the ribs I added in ox tails, a half dozen or so marrow bones and cooked it all very slow. I put it all into my stock pot with bay leaves, onions, celery, garlic and carrots. Cooked it all down, cooled it, defatted it and added mushrooms, maters, green beans, corn and the kitchen sink.....browned some chuck roast and tosed that in too! So we had Veggie Soup!