I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to chime in here. I don't think there is anything wrong with buying inexpensive power equipment as long as you aren't asking the equipment to perform above and beyond what it was designed for. For example, I own a weedeater leaf blower ($99) a Poulan "Wood Shark" chainsaw ($99), and a homelite string trimmer ($79). All of this equipment is over 10 years old and with the exception of the leaf blower, needed no repairs. I did have to rebuild the engine on the leaf blower a few years ago. IIRC it cost less than $35 for the piston, rings and jug. I guess they aren't "disposable" if the manufacturer stocks engine components after several years! My point is that I don't use these tools commercially, and I take care of them. The chainsaw starts every time I need it because I always empty the fuel tank and run it dry after every use. My other equipment gets drained and run dry at the end of the season. They always start right up in the spring. I routinely pick up relatively new blowers, trimmers and mowers out of the trash and most of them only need fresh gas, air filters and possible a carb cleaning to get them running. Some of them are Echo's, Tanaka's and Stihl's. It was the neglect of the homeowner that caused the tool to fail to operate. I wonder if any of their original owners end up buying them back when I have a garage sale. Too many folks just run them until they stop. Oil changes? What are those? Heck, they don't even check the oil! I just picked up a Poulan Pro snow blower with a blown 8 HP engine. Owner let it run low on oil and with all the snow we got this past winter, the engine let loose when trying to move 12+ inches of heavy, wet snow. I am going to re-power it with a Harbor Freight engine and sell it. It looks brand new - what a shame. Once again, even if it were an Ariens that was twice the price, the same result would have happened from the neglect. My "cheap" Craftsman snow blower is 16 years old, runs great, starts every time. It's all in the care and feeding.

Hello again nice people, I have a question. Since Zep has led me through so many steps and has helped me clean up some of the junk on my computer my question is this. What will the results be if I can find no way to get Java downloaded? Is it absolutely necessary that Java be on the computer for things to work right. I see no results from NOT having it, other than not being to play some games, I play most any game I want without any trouble, most of them very graphic. I still need to delete the Firefox Beta version and keep the right version, but I've got to straightened out the shortcut Icons on my desktop, they're both intertwined. Other than that I don't seem to be having any problems. I don't know if there is something else on the Hijack list that needs to be addressed, Zep didn't say so I assume that there is not. I did get the problem with Incredimail straightened out. That also was a register error. After today I am headed for hopefully a wonderful trip to Yellowstone National Park. I will check on this thread as soon as I get back to see what you think about leaving well enough alone. Thanks again for your time and sharing your knowledge.

lydia -- the 100+ food Elisa test sounds very interesting. I may give that a try, eventually. I'm convinced that I have quite a few food allergies. I used to throw up when I was given white milk as a child. Never drank any once my mother figured out the cause. Except in elementary school when I was forced by a teacher and I threw up. Funny how I was able to drink chocolate milk, though. I read later (as an adult) that in fact the chocolate in chocolate milk reduces the allergic reaction. Anyway, regarding food allergies, I know I'm sensitive to wheat though I'm not a celiac. I am also sensitive to dairy. (Ask me why I can't give up my goatsmilk yoghurt, this is the last frontier for me, hope to give it up eventually.) I subscribed to the test at http://www.enterolab.com/ which is where I got the results about wheat and dairly. The test was expensive. I think over $300.00. Glad I did it though. Sounds like the Elisa test may give you the same results plus some. This food allergy thing is tricky, I think. One of our dogs now it seems has food allergies. I asked the vet to test and she said that testing for food allergies is not very reliable (for dogs). I wonder if this is true for humans? A food elimination diet was the only thing she could recommend plus eating only a particular type of dog food that was "engineered to have a small enough molecule size so it doesn't trigger the allergic reactions" (her words). I was amazed and am wondering if raw food has "smaller molecules" than cooked food, HA, HA. Perhaps moite's methods that she got from her doctor about measuring her pulse rate may be the best way. I'm going the simple route with this raw food diet (for now) because it meets many other needs also. I had a great day yesterday. I went the whole day without the "wave of tiredness" that comes over me every day after lunch. I hope it wasn't an anomaly. Bad news is that with the raw food diet, there is a "detox phase" initially where some claim that you are ridding your system of toxins. The detox phase can produce acne which is what I just got yesterday. I haven't had a pimple on my face for many years but I have two now. Oh well. If my energy level stays good, I'll have to add that as one more reason why I'm glad I found this diet. I was craving cooked food day before yesterday but managed to get by without it. Hopefully those days will get less in number. This was kind of like craving a cigarette after quitting, as I remember it many years ago. Keep us posted about your food allergies. I'm becoming more and more convinced that for some of us, they are literally killing us or are reducing our quality of life (for some of us) to a very very large extent producing chronic problems and diseases that mainstream medicine doesn't have a clue. In my case, I definitely feel like I've become a guinea pig for trying out different "cures". I'm hoping that raw food will by my answer. I realize that because there is no definite proof, I could be wrong on this but as my DH says, it's gotta be better than being so overweight and hungry all the time. We were killing ourselves eating cooked food so how could this be any worse.

Mtn, that looks wonderful! I have a question about technique though. In these directions from that recipe: Pour the cream into a clean large bowl. Add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Using an electric mixer, beat until soft peaks form. I understand that the cream has been soaking up the tea flavor, but what's the likelihood that it will actually whip up properly if you're adding the sugar and vanilla before beating? Seems like when I have just dumped everything into the bowl at once and attempted to "beat until soft peaks form", it just turns to mush, and my understanding is that the sugar needs to be added after the peaks have formed. So what's the best way to do this? Also, do you find that it makes any difference whether you use a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer to whip cream?