My bottle of Tide HE liquid says to fill to line 2 for medium loads. This 2.95 liter bottle will wash 52 loads if filled to line 2. I'm just saying that if Tide was consciously telling you to use double what is really required, they would be much better off telling you to fill to line 1 and then labeling the bottle as able to wash 104 loads. That looks much better on the shelf sitting next to its competitors that only wash half as many loads per bottle. 2.95 liters = 200 tablespoons 200 tablespoons / 52 loads = ~4.0 tbsp/load If I cut that dosage in half, to 2 tbsp, that is not enough to get clothes clean in my 4.0 cuft machine in soft water. Even Persil Megaperls recommends just over 4 tbsp (65 ml) for a medium sized, normally soiled load in soft water. Tide's recommendations are pretty much in line with what's expected - not more, not less. I use the recommended amount of detergent (Tide, Persil, Vaska, etc) but reduce by 50% if washing towels. Towels generate a lot of suds when spun out, and reducing dosage for towels does not negatively impact cleaning since they aren't that dirty to begin with. For 80% of my laundry, however, I follow the dosage instructions on the package without any problems. There is great debate on how much is enough, and certainly water chemistry and load size has a lot to do with this. However, from what I've read, it seems that using too little detergent leads to more problems than if using too much.

TR, milk paint has always captured my interest,so I will look at that. BP: Gosh, at first I thought those were your kitchens, then realized. Nice pics and thought provoking. GD, that is really the issue here, how much yellow would be too much or would it matter, being that high up on the ceiling. PW: love your beadboard island. Oh my gosh, I can see why this forum is addicting and now the choices. Better made with lots of opinions though. Say, most of y'all don't use your real name on this forum yet it doesn't seem "stalker prone", lol. Well, too late now. Interesting though. Thanks, will keep thinking and hoping that others will chime in. Of course, the floor color will make a difference too. Ellie

Blanching destroys the enzymes that make the beans mushy. I blanch for 3 minutes, then plunge in ice water, dry on paper towels, freeze on a jelly roll pan then seal in Foodsaver bag. That reminds me I have to bag the ones I blanched and froze this morning. There is a discussion on Harvest about this from early this year. I have pickled some bigger beans, ran out of vinegar solution had to mix more up so stuck 2 pints in the fridge. We took some to a BBQ only a few days later and they tasted really good. Lemon Spiced Pickled Beans from Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp. We don't like canned beans either but these were good (of course they hadn't been processed, I'll let you know how the processed ones are in a few months). I figured they'd be good in 3-bean salad once my limas come in (or with storebought canned chickpeas). Here is a link that might be useful: Freezing beans on Harvest

Old Fixer, although I use the FamilySearch.org web site, and have also used the LDS Family History Library as well as a local Family History Center, I do not have a tree uploaded to their web site. So, I cannot say whether or not "just anyone" can edit information on a tree that is on their site. I will look into that, though. I do know with certainty, however, that if you have a tree on Ancestry.com, you can mark it as Private. No one can see info that is on the tree unless you send them an invitation to see it. If you add photos or images of documents, etc., to a Private tree, small thumbnails will show up when other people do a search on a name, but if anyone clicks on the thumbnail to see a larger version, they will get an error message that the tree is private. You can also have a tree on Ancestry.com that is marked as Public. When a tree is Public, anyone can see information/photos, etc., for anyone who is deceased, or presumed to be deceased (e.g., they were born in 1884 and you don't have a death date, but it's easy to see that the person would not still be alive - they'd be 130 years old this year). If the person is still living, or presumed to still be living, all anyone can see is a shadow profile of either a male's head or a female's head. For the name it would say Living Fixer, so no one can even tell what the person's first name is (this example uses "Fixer" as the surname). And, even if a tree is marked Public, no one can change anything on it, unless you invite the person to be an editor. You can invite people to just view the tree (they would be invited with a "Guest" designation); or you can give them the ability to add to the tree (they would be invited with a "Contributor" designation); or you can invite them as an "Editor" with full ability to add/change/remove information/people. People who are invited as Guests and/or Contributors can be given the ability to view living persons, but that's not the default setting. You have to deliberately give them that ability. Anyone invited as an Editor automatically can see everything.