I try to cover a wide range with a relatively limited number of plants and only have the ones that taste good (to me). I like at least one early and one hybrid and a grape or cherry so Early Girl is my early and my hybrid. Grapes and cherries also tend to be early. Once I have that covered I look for med to large good tasting fruits in a range of colors, at least a couple each of reds and pinks, a yellow/orange and a black. I would like to add a green or stripe this year. I find the variety makes for very pleasing bowls of tomatoes and fun, appetizing dishes and sandwiches while still tasting wonderful. I find I can cover that with only about 8 or 9 plants. I don't want to plant more than I can keep up with, and I live alone, so unless I start canning big time, its enough plants for me. I would decide how many you want to plant, and make a list by early, mid and late season, as well any other features you are trying to include and start narrowing down the ones you want try and the ones you want to plant again from last year. Try to keep your real favorites from previous seasons and add at least a couple new ones each year. I just learned about the different Brandywines last year and plan to start trying the different varieties. I will start with the Suddarth, and you may want to continue that one and add one other each year until you find out which ones work best in your area which taste the best to you. Some people like sweet tomatoes, some dislike the sweet ones and like very acidic ones. Its all pretty subjective, but you will find about 2 dozen or so that well liked and are repeatedly recommended here, like Brandywine Suddarth, Kellogs Breakst, KBX, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, etc.

This is a fun post. I will say that in my busy working military life, I could get up, shower, shave underarms (daily), legs (3x weekly)makeup (eye shadow, mascara, foundation, powder, lipstick), hair (washed and blow dried, very short), dressed and out the door in 25 minutes. Now, years later, I use far less products and it seems to take far longer. When I was stationed in Spain I could get waxed, from top to toes, for about $7 so I never had to shave of pluck or anything. That made getting ready for work a real breeze. Now, in a typical morning I use: face wash - I use an Oil of Olay-type face cloth. hand wash - Dial Complete on all the sinks, two baths, mudroom, and kitchen. bar soap - I use a liquid soap; DH still uses the bars. :( shampoo - Daily conditioner - Perhaps once a week. hair serum - Never heard of it. hair mouse - No, but I keep a can of hairspray for the 3-4 times I year I might use it. toothpaste - At least five times a day. floss - Yes, but should more often. mouthwash - Listerine; twice a day for gum protection. shaving gel - Ha! The few times I shave I use shampoo. deodorant - Kept in both bathrooms and the bedroom. Wherever I dress I'm ready! body lotion - Rarely, but more so in winter. foot powder/or lotion - Gold Bond all over. face cream - No; but Mom says I should. foundation - Very rarely; 2-3 times a year. blush - I'm taking treatments for Rosacea so I'm good on the natural blush! LOL powder - Very rarely; 2-3 times a year. eyeshadow - Very rarely; 2-3 times a year. eyeliner - No; never liked the look. mascara - Can no longer wear. lipstick - Every day. I love lipstick with colour, but not the pale, dead looking non-color most gals are wearing now. I wear earrings daily, too. I love lipstick and earrings. And that's the daily stuff, add to that the occasional: hair coloring - I stopped coloring three months ago. I'm liking the "salt and pepper," heavy on the salt look! tooth whitening strips - No. nail polish/ base coat/top coat - I cut my nails as short as possible and push the cuticles back once a week. When I worked I kept them short and polished with a pale pink color. I did it my self. I do get medium length dark red gel nails for the Christmas season. nail polish remover - No need cuticle cream - No, but about every four months I'll get a manicure that does not include polish or false nails. They just soak, trim, work off the cuticles and do a hot wax dip. hand lotion - I keep bottles on each sink

A Charles H. Ullery paper presents a thorough assessment of water hardness classifications for the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. The ASAE Standard S-339 is: soft: 0-3.5 grains per gallon (gpg), moderate: 3.5-7.0 gpg, hard: 7.0-10.5 gpg, and very hard: over 10.5 gpg With your water @ 17gpg it is REALLY hard and that's without knowing the iron and manganese content. That means that most solutions to your water heating problem are doomed to shorter service and more frequent maintenance from the start and that is EXACTLY what you are complaining about with a softener... except a softener requires you to walk by and look at it once a week. You can opt for the storage tank and that will give you hot water and false security because all your plumbing, every appliance, and fixture will be seeing ludicrously hard water and that will cost you $$$ and usually at the most inopportune time. Like the old FRAM commercials said... you can pay me now or you can pay me later. ROs don't have to mounted under the sink. They can be installed in a basement or through the wall behind the kitchen sink. "... and that's one more thing to forget to do each week" Well, think of it as taking vitals... we can have a water doctor write the order for you. Without knowing the details of your water usage I can say that a correctly sized industry standard softener could be had for between $500 and $1000 online plus the cost of local install and at a higher price locally installed. "I understand softeners definitely have benefits and are very popular here on this forum. There seem to be more posts on that than anything else" As the cost of appliances and fixtures go up people seem more interested in getting the longest and most trouble free service life from those purchases. Few of us have more money than we know what to do with so we look for the best bang for the buck we can get. With respect, a correctly sized and set up softener with a modestly priced stand alone water heater is the most cost effective, simplest, and easiest to live with solution you can get. Let us know what you decide.

Thanks for the suggestion. I like the colors of that house, it is very calm and appealing. Blends well all together.