One of the Walmarts near me has removed their tanks. On the Bettas, I know they probably don't care for them properly, but if ay of you ever saw how they were imorted you would be horrified. They are packaged in bags that are about as wide as the betta is long. There is maybe 2 ounces of water (many are nearly dry because the water leaked out), and the inflated bag was about 2.5 inches high, most have deflated. There are 2 layers in each box of 250. There are supports and a piece of cardboard between the top and bottom layers, but many of the bags in the lower layers get flattened. 4 of these boxes fit in a large shipping box. If the box gets too hot or to cold along the way losses can be heavy. Some show signs of fungus right off, and we used to put them into cups with medicated water, if we didn't use medication, losses would usually be very high. The whole way they are shipped really sucks, but no one wants to pay $10.00 for a betta so they keep shipping them poorly. Speaking from experiance after owning a pet shop for 10 years, all I'll say is, you can have a 100 tanks of fish, and no one will tell you that 99 of them look good. You will be told all day and all week long about the one tank of sick fish, over, and over, and over again, even if you have a note on the tank telling people that they are sick, and not for sale. There are always a few "EXPERTS" that are willing to guide you, with what is usually either very old remedies (just add salt to the water), or what is really poor advice (just move them to another tank) are a couple of examples. So please, think before speaking. Also keep in mind, that Lady at Walmart, probably doesn't know anything about them, doesn't care about them, and is just stuck trying to take care of them. Not everyone shares our interests. Walmart, and the "Chain stores" have ruined the hobby, there are fewer and fewer Mom and Pop stores, where you can go and get good solid advice, and healthy fish. Think about that next time you even think about patronizing one of them. Thank goodness for Aquabid! Where you can find high quality fish from breeders, beacuse all you'll see in those stores is the same old stuff over and over. Why are you even looking at the fish at Walmart?

I think you have two main hurdles. Soil and critters. Is there enough topsoil to grow ordinary garden plants? How do you protect your plants from deer, etc. if you are not there? I'd look around at what other gardeners are doing and ask a lot of questions. I'd join a local hort society and ask a lot of questions. And I'd check out the locally owned garden centres and ask a lot of questions. Most of all, I'd look at the fascinating array of unusual native plants that thrive in the deep north and almost nowhere else and consider creating a garden based on those.

Northern Pike tastes fine if it has been prepared properly. It is easily ruined, however. As a deterrnet measure, Pike carry glands under their skin that are inactive until the fish is in the throes of death. When the fish is dealt a death blow or wound, these glands release a foul tasting, fishy oil, that permeates the flesh. What to do: Immedaitely after the fish has been killed, it must be skinned within 5 minutes. If this is done, the meat will rival perch, but if not done, it will have a bitter, fishy flavor. Often, the tail piece is strong tasting anyway.

thanks, everyone. My agent warned me that we wanted to keep the furniture out of the contract and negotiate that separately, so I'm not sure why it is now important to have a price list this early in the game, when there are not even any offers. I agree that we should not "muddy the waters" of the more important negotiation for our house. I frankly feel like all of this is premature and I'd rather focus on getting offers in, rather than pricing furniture, which can be done later down the road as we need a 45-60 day escrow period since we are remodeling our new home. weedyacres, I haven't discussed my concerns with our agents as they had our house open all weekend and we've been out of town and just returned, but I plan to discuss with them and let them know that we'd like to hold off on providing a price list at this point. chispa, thankfully we have some furniture in our new house left over from the old homeowner that we'll use in the interim. We're ok with living with out a few pieces for a few months while we bridge the gap. Frankly, I just don't want to move this stuff as it does not go at all with our new house style, and I know we will be getting rid of it eventually. We are only keeping our piano, our personal belongings, electronics, kitchen appliances/accessories and artwork. Pretty much everything else we either want to sell to the buyer or sell on Craigslist. I'd do an estate sale, but it seems like those companies take quite a bit of profit!