I took Windcatcher's advice and checked out Smallenginewarehouse on the net and this morning after talking to Briggs & Stratton tech support, I bought the 20 HP Vanguard for $699.00. My cooked motor is an 18 HP. The engines at SEW are 2006s which is fine with me if it saves me $1,000.00 since they're still brand new with a two year warrantie. Shipping is free and they said it should take four days to get from Indiana to SE Ontario in four days by Fedex. No customs hassle. It should arrive and be installed in time for when my four acres needs to get mowed next. Don 1 2006 "Seems to me if you were checking the oil as recommended before use you would notice a nest or two in the engine compartment. Isn't this normal procedure"? It's not that easy to see a nest or anything else between the engine and cowling. My first clue was that the engine seemed to be slowly going through oil (I use synthetic). The second and final clue was it seemed to have less power than normal so I was surprised to learn the one cylinder was hardly working at all. That's a good testimonial to the Briggs Vanguard motor. johntommybob ... I've always used Bounce and mothballs in my boat when I store it in the garage for the winter. I've never had any signs of mice in the 7 years I've had the boat. Maybe I'll ram some Bounce in the tractor too. I've heard that it has to be only Bounce and not any other clothes dryer cloth do-dad.

Hi all, I just came back to the computer after a few days of hard-core tomato-picking and processing, and no computing! (I am already sick of tomatoes.) This has been a fascinating thread to read. Linda, I know well your thoughts on Bt and its destructive power, but I grow three corn crops...early, mid-season and late. Usually the early corn ripens early enough that I don't have to worry about corn earworms or corn borers. But, without Bt, I wouldn't get any mid-season or late corn worth eating. If some desirable caterpillars die in the process, that's unfortunate but that's jsut the way it goes. I try to keep the killing of all insects to a minimum, but there's times it's necessary. I refuse to feel guilty for dusting BT on a tiny portion of our 14 acres, since the rest of the acreage is not treated for anything. OKC1, what incredible helpful advice you offered in your post! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us! I always love reading what you write. Susan, What am AMAZING amount of DE information you packed into one post! I love DE because I know I'd have to use more "hard-core" bug solutions were it not for DE. And, I'm with you on it being a bad year for the moths and butterflies. I'm wondering if it is drought-related? We have fewer butterflies this year than ever, and it is very sporadic. We'll see a few for a couple of days, and then not see any at all for the longest time. And, it is TOO HOT outside for man or beast now, isn't it? Hi again, Linda. I haven't seen any hornworms in the garden yet either, which seems sort of odd. I do have 3 plants out of about 100 that have some sort of damage that certainly looks like hornworm damage, but can't find one of those caterpillars anywhere. I know they can disappear into the green foliage of the plants, but usually I can spot them anyway. Not so this year. Hope y'all are having a lovely weekend. It is too, too hot and dry here. Dawn

Diane, we had something similar happen here a few years ago. A man was found dead in his burned car down an embankment. It was supposed to look like the car crashed and burst into flames I guess, but it turned out his wife and her brother planned and did it. They're both in prison and her small kids had to be given to relatives to raise. There was no abuse or anything. They just wanted his insurance money.

Well, it's been a week since my last update and the plants are still with us! Most of it. The normal tsangii is fine. One of the variegated plant started to die. Naturally it was the one I don't have a back up. Of course. It was the one with the inner variegation. I was lucky enough to find another plant of the outer leaf variegated (albomaginated? is that the term? ) variety so I had a spare but of course, that one is pulling through... That's if they really ARE tsangii of course.. lol. Won't know until I ever get flowers and if I'm gonna keep trying to boil them alive them that's not high on the plants list of things to do.