Interesting, davidrt28. If you don't mind saying so, whereabouts are you located? My marschlinsii are planted in sandy loam which, as far as I've been able to discern, drains quite well, even though the field in question does slope down to a wetland area, and at least some of these larch are near that portion of the site. I'm inclined to think that for conifers generally, the land I happen to have purchased is exceedingly well-suited. Your comments regarding the current status of crosses leading to the Dunkeld-type trees pretty much mirrors one I've had with the guy up in Minnesota who, so far as I'm aware, is the only source for L. marschklinsii. In fact, he was going to cancel it off his list when seed availability became an issue, going so far as to inquire as to the sexual maturity of my trees. BTW, some cones are happening already. In any case, I'd asked him pretty much the very question as to whether the plants he was offering were really true Dunkeld larch, being several generations away from the initial cross. He took it pretty much in stride that these plants, even though now distant from that F1 generation, were still the genuine article. I like them but I'm not sure I agree with that assessment. Leastways for now, they continue to put on magnificent growth increments each year. My one caveat with these trees-they seem to have some trunk strength issues when very young. A freakish wind set up out of the north a couple years ago which managed to permanently bend some of these guys, including two or three which are now supine groundcover larch! But in the main, truly exceptional trees by my reckoning. A little aside: I wouldn't be terribly upset if at some point, my marschlinsii's were to cross with the nearby tamaracks in my woods. I don't know enough about synchronicity of flowering between the two, to know if this is even possible, but I find such thoughts intriguing, if a little opposed to the all-natives bible. +oM

Whitegarden, send me an email about winter sowing anytime. All those seedlings, including the tomato seedlings, you've brought home from my plant swap, the past 2 years are all wintersown seedlings. Just think about all those containers, inside my fenced in yard in the back and those are all wintersown seedlings. Though, the term winter sowing implies that you "must do" this during the winter months, it really is a misnomer to think that. Unless you are sowing seeds that truly need a long cold stratification, you don't really have to start sowing seeds, even perennials until April, if you don't want to. I've been wintersowing for 8 years, year 9 is coming up this year and I've found that the overall germination of the seeds doesn't change much. That is to say, depending on the seeds, they will germinate at the same time each year, regardless of when you sow them. Seeds sown in January, February, March, even starting in early April, will germinate when the time is right for them and the conditions are right for them to germinate. So if the seeds would normally germinate around the second week in April, getting them out in January vs April 1st will not make a difference, they will germinate around the same time each year. Some seeds germinate earlier than others, and nothing but mother nature will change that. All of the seedlings that I had for the swap, the ones in my back yard that where not for the swap, all where sown from April 8th on. Just lots and lots of things well out of my control prevented me from doing any Winter sowing before April 8th, and the results where no different than if I had started in January or February. ONe other thing, the containers for WS must be outside in the open to get the snow/rain, etc directly on them. inside will not work, such as a barn, covered porch etc. Fran

Woo hoo! How exciting for your son. I wish him well on this endeavor and hope he has a fabulous experience. I emailed by daughter, who replied today, but your post above answers many of her questions. She taught ESOL in Thailand for 2.5 years, staying on for an extra 6 months because one teacher cancelled at the last minute. She had a wonderful experience. She is now living and teaching in a private school in Arezzo in Italy and loves her job, teaches all ages, etc. Here is her response, though some of the info might be too late for your son, it may benefit someone else reading this. "As for the guy going to South Korea...it could be that someone quit halfway through the year. Who knows! It might depend on what kind of school it is - would he be teaching in a public school, or is it a private language institute? I know there are (or definitely were when I was looking a few years ago) lots of jobs in southeast Asia, and it's a lot easier to find work there than other areas, like Europe, due to demand. It does sound like he might be jumping into the job just because his girlfriend is leaving, but is that really such a bad thing? If he's not putting his degree to use, in my opinion teaching English in South Korea would be a better/ more enriching alternative than working at Best Buy! A good life experience, even if it doesn't lead to anything career-wise. It would be good to check out the school as thoroughly as possible - have they got a website? Are you sure they're a 'respectable' school? What kind of contract are they offering? Will they help him get a work visa? That would be one of the most important things to find out. Will they help him find accommodation, etc.? Can he get the email of other teachers working there and write them to get a firsthand account of what living there is like? How easy is it to get around if you don't speak Korean? etc." Terriks, I second Sherry's recommendation for Skype if you don't already have it. That is how we usually communicated with her. With the video, we could also 'see' her apartment and friends. Don't forget to start planning a trip to go visit him! - Elisabeth

I'm 6-0 and find it comfortable. There is enough of an incline from top to bottom that allows you to lie back nicely. However, comfortable depends on how you like to sit in a tub. The inside dimension at the top of mine is about 5-7, and less of course at the bottom. You obviously can't lie completely flat on your back, but since you said you are looking for a tub that is 6' or smaller, I doubt you could find one where that would be possible unless it was close to straight sided, and that might not be comfortable to lean back against. When you have a tub with a certain maximum length at the top, increasing the lean decreases the effective length at the bottom where you sit. So you want some lean for comfort, but not too much. Do you live somewhere that has showrooms where you could at least eyeball different style/shape tubs, if not sit in them?