When I was growing up, we had a garden that was the same every year. Nothing new. Ever. Everything was always planted in the same spot. And it grew a lot of vegetables. There was lots of canning and we grew most of the vegetables we ate. Finding what works and sticking with it works if all you want is vegetables. I've been thinking of starting a thread of "What I learned this year" and realized I have about 50 different things I learned. That would be too long. So I'll pick one. Using beans as an example. I planted about 48 sq. feet of beans on Apr 1st. Surprisingly, they sprouted, made it through a few frosts as they were popping their heads up and then prospered. I had too many beans. Then I had no beans for a bit as I was late planting the next group. Then I had too many beans again. Now, I plant 3 feet square of beans at a time. As soon as they get their first true leaves, I plant another patch. Right now, I have 9 patches of beans in different stages of development. Some are inter-cropped between things like brassicas and corn, so they don't take any space. As soon as one patch starts to produce well, I pull out the oldest patch and plant something else. I also have 2 little spots with pole beans. I've started using a similar approach to most things now. The exceptions are long season crops like potatoes and tomatoes. Rather than planting a week apart, I prefer to let the plants tell me when to plant the next crop. It's easier to keep track of.

No ash, but it always smells like smoke, and visually it looks like fog in January. In some places, mostly the foothills, you can only see a couple of blocks. In Colfax they are getting smog readings almost daily above 300 (!) and I guess the air readers broke because they got so clogged. (Below 50 is good, 50 to 100 is moderate, 100 to 150 is hazardous for sensitive, and above 150 is severely hazardous for everyone) I went to Home Depot this afternoon and it was actually a little hazy INSIDE because of their open doors. Carla in Sac

* Posted by jerrod6 (My Page) on Sat, May 24, 08 at 18:23 "I wonder if it is possible to compare TL or FL made 1 or 2 years ago to the ones made today because the energy requirements are stricter. I think washers made for the 2008 market must use less water than washers made for the 2005, 2006 or 2007 market. In this process they must use less energy which has made some manufactures define a hot wash as 90F. Sorry, but any temperature below my body temperature is not hot." My F&P Aquasmart purchased a couple of weeks ago defines hot as "Incoming water from faucet". I assume you could crank up your water heater to whatever temp you wish, although I still wish it had an internal heater. Couple things I dislike: No FS dispenser. I thought this was very low rent for such an expensive washer. Even people who don't use FS may use vinegar. There is no feedback on programming. You can program in an extra rinse but there is no way I can see to look at the machine and tell if it is going to do one rinse or two. F&P recommend deep fill for sheets, whites, bulky and Easy Iron. So maybe 50-60% of the washing sees an energy (water)saving? I like that it has 1000 RPM spin... clothes dry faster. As for cleaning ability... it seems adequate. I haven't had it long enough to have any challenging tasks. If I could change anything it would be to add a fs dispenser and an internal heater to easily reach sanitizing temps.

KKNY I don't know what to make of you. Of course we don't make the skids 'spy' for us. They brought the subject of smoking up themselves, we usually don't ask about those things (BM's drinking, the smoking - while pregnant of course, and other negative trades). That is because we'd feel bad knowing that the girls would probably feel like defending their mom. So therefore we wait till they volunteer the information and then we might ask what they think about it, or how they feel. The therapist has given us really good advice on how to be supportive of them, and how to adress these kinds of issues without criticizing their mom. However we do ask the girls general questions to show an interest in their other family, which is important for them. Like about their little brother or what they were up to on the weekend? Is that allowed?? Ima already explained it very well. It's about the power of brainwashing,I guess you're not that familiar with it. Like Ima's SD saying it is raining when the sun is clearly shining (that was your post Ima, right?) Also what is the significant difference for you between Stepmom or SO? I'm FDH's SO and stepmom to the skids. They actually started calling me that without my encouragement, they think it's 'cool' and so that's fine with me. You always think that it's the SM's vs the BM's here, and I don't understand why? Surely you're not that shallow to assume all Stepmoms are on the same page and all BM's are on the other? Just because I'm Dutch doesn't mean that I'm on the same page as all other Dutch people, right?