To preserve leaves mix 1 part glycerine and 2 parts water.Submerge leaves in mixture in a single layer.Weigh the leaves down so that they are completly submerged in the solution.Leave them for 2 to 7 days until they have completely absorbed the solution and are soft and pliable.Remove and wipe dry with a soft cloth.Done correctly leaves should last indefinitely.Leaves done this way may be used in floral arrangements. I think this would be the perfect way to preserve the leaves used for the cement and hypertufa objects all of you are making.This really works.A florist friend told me about this. God bless...........Lillie

Darla, I have no idea where he came from. We have had a lot of rain so maybe he washed in or maybe he was someones pet. I really don't know. He is a lot of fun to watch. Moonie, no dead fish yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed. As I said earlier, he really doesn't seem that interested in the fish. Kalypsogirl, your above ground pond is very pretty. I don't know if this turtle will stay or not. He may decide to move on. Computerklutz, I can just see you chasing that turtle around your pool. The one in my pond ducks out of sight as soon as I get too close! flgargoyle, I am sorry about your waterlilies. My next door neighbor tried to get some lilies started in her pond, and her turtle continually ate them. growingup, I am hoping my turtle will make friends with the little fishies, too. I saw him sunning on a rock by my pool today. I have several flat rocks around the perimeter of my pond. Thank you all for your turtle experiences that you shared with me. I will just wait and see. Vicki

I am managing hundreds of trees both in the ground and in containers............sure don't want to have any mislabeled or the correct ID somehow lost. My in ground trees all have those Aluminum tags for identification. I also keep a map of my orchard for back up ID. Those aluminum tags are quite shiny and have caught the attention of some birds. They were trying to pull them off of my trees. Maybe they want to steal them to decorate their nest....who knows. Copper is more durable than aluminum and will not not shine with age. Maybe it is a better choice. I use a Sharpie pen to ID my fig cuttings while they are in rooting cups. I root hundreds of cuttings each year (lots of experiments) and will re-use these rooting cups. I use a Sharpie to write the cutting ID on the outside wall of the cup. A dab of gasoline on a rag will quickly erase a Sharpie writing on a plastic rooting cup (the clear "crystal" type). I tried to use marked sticks for young fig starts in containers. Don't trust that my four grandsons will not remove or switch them while playing. Much easier to write on my black plastic trade gallon pots with a $2.00 Prang metallic marker. Like I've stated earlier, this produces a permanent highly visible gold or silver metallic paint that will not come off under any conditions. This becomes very important when you manage hundreds of container figs.....and are looking for a cheap, simple, and 100% reliable identification system. Dan

Geraldo,,,When you say it takes more fuel and chemicals to produce corn than what the corn is worth, obvously you are following the same investigative reporting procedures as your infamous TV counterpart. I grew up on a 160 acre dairy farm in Greenford,Ohio that was totally self sustaining. Currently I am hobby farming on a small 60 acres farm in Youngstown, Ohio. Lacking the initial startup capital to buy modern farm equipment, we opted to get some basics on the used machinery market, a 1960 Mineapolis Moline 36 drawbar horsepower tractor ($2000), a 1966 ford 20 drawbar horsepower tractor (2.7gal/hr), 3 bottom 16" moldboard plow ($300 new), a tandem 9 ft disc ($50) and a two row John Deere corn planter ($300). The large tractor burns 5gal/hr and plows 6 acres per hour( $.83/acre), discs 12 acres per hour ( $.41/acre). The small tractor plants the corn at 5 acres/hr ($.55/acre) We practice crop rotation by planting corn one year, then timothy and clover hay for two years. The legumes provide a very lucrative cash crop of hay, which we bale in small bales targeted to the individual horse owner market. Five acres of hay will provide enough cash income to provide all the fuel used by our equipment for the entire season. In addition, the legumes replace the nitrogen that is taken out of the soil by the corn thus we have no need of buying fertilizer. (Though the concept of crop rotation is almost abandoned in commercial large scale farming in exchange for no till planting, chemical fertilizers and herbicides, in truth George Washington Carver originated the idea of crop rotation for self sustaining farming before the civil war. While tinkering with my antiquated equipment and outdated farming techniques will in no wise rival the fuel efficiencies of our commermercial counterparts on the mega farms with 200 horsepower diesel tractors, I can still produce an average of 100 bushels to the acre. (100 bu x 56lbs/bu = 5600 pounds of corn.) I currently have contracts to supply corn for home heating fuel through a small co-op of 20 homeowner neighbors. Based upon this little experiment I am discussing with 4 or 5 local farmers who are interested in joining our co-op to have a market for what they do best, produce corn. As a sideline, we are now applying for a Federal Gasohol" permit, which will allow us to own and operate a "Still" to manufacture corn whiskey, which will be used as the primary fuel for all our current gas burning engines. Federal law requires that all the distilled alcohol must be labeled as automotive fuel only, but no doubt someone may get a bit fueled up on a saturday nite tooo.