Ditto what Morz8 said. After the "Snowtober" storm last year, my neighbor and I cooperated to have some tree work in both of our yards, using my usual tree guy. They finally got around to doing the work in January. There was hardly any snow cover last winter, and most of neighbor's lawn wasn't even fully frozen. The tree company drove the bucket truck right over his side yard to get to my damaged silver maple, and left big track marks. They used a long handled pitch fork to lift the compressed marks. They also drove over the corner of my front garden with the chipper. That I "fluffed" up with the pitch fork and raked over. I also like to top dress the lawn with compost or good loam, especially where the grass is crappy or the ground is uneven. This helps to even out the grade and build up the organic matter in the soil, which encourages the turf grass to fill in and dominate over time.

SeattleSuze and Wild Rose: Even if you don't have a scanner, I think you could take it to a Kinko's and have them scan it and place the file on a CD for you. I'd make sure the drawing to be scanned is done in black ink on a white paper, clean lines - have it scanned at a resolution of 600 or 1200 and saved as line art (NOT in pixels). It can be saved as a line Photoshop file (an .eps), at which time you can reduce the resolution to 300. Then it can be placed into a file in your word processing program (on a Mac, something like PageMaker or QuarkXPress - I'm not familiar with the Microsoft programs). The beauty of this type of Photoshop file is that you can use it as though it is transparent, with just the lines showing, and you can place colored or patterned background behind it to show through - say, a pink background, with a dark color chosen for the line, say crimson. Of course, that is just playing around. For a plain workaday chart, you can just place the file into your WP program as a plain black-and-white illustration. Either way, once your art is placed into the WP program, you can just type in the names where you want them. I should mention that it's been a few years since I was doing this kind of work, and I imagine there have been some changes in these programs, the world of software being what it is. But if you know someone who's into all this, or if there's a Kinko's nearby, something LIKE this can be done. I don't know for sure if Kinko's performs a scanning service, but I do know that they used to have "design stations" where, for a fee, you could work on their equipment. Good luck. Laura

Wantonamara, we need to cue up Michael Jackson's 'You Are Not Alone' song --- cause I'm sure we all got a scattering of 'i'll deal with you later' succulents and cactus, lying around, literally. Not proud to say it... but it can happen too often with certain aloes that pup like crazy, ya fling 'em to the side and there they sit. On the bright side, how many other types of plants can you do this with besides cactus and succulents, so at least we are neglecting survivors. My favorite 'survivor' memory --- was cleaning out a long-neglected potting table/area and found a haworthia that had been without soil, and essentially water, for a long, LONG time... the crazy part, it looked better than the haworthias that I ehhh hmmm, take care of... So the first picture you posted --- is that a Senicio Himalaya by chance? One 'rescue' that I'm happy with is a variegated Aloe that was a big mess when I got it. Last summer though, I blew it and it got a bit toasted in a strong heat spell. When it recovers AGAIN, I will post a before and after pic... Sure is fun to see the beat-up-ones come back around...

rhome, that sure is true. We all have our desire to share and help others get the most out of their new kitchens . It doesn't matter at all what the skill level, we can all learn and grow and enjoy. I see tons of talent everywhere I look and I keep looking even though I know I can't begin to make or don't want to make what others are able to do. I still love to look. I hope that everyone realizes that it is out of a sense of community spirit that we all post here long after our kitchens are "done", also I am not sure we are EVER done :) Here is part of what we did this afternoon. DH's fingers were still sore but he wanted cookies ! He has perfected his Italian Seed Cookies and wanted to make them. So here are some of the steps and the finished product. shaping the dough: place in water/toasted sesame seeds /parchment finished : These are almost exactly like the cookies from Brocato's bakery in NOLA. We just had 4 bags of them from SIL's visit and it sure was hard to tell the difference. The Brocato cookies are a tad sweeter but I like DH's best :) It has taken him years to get them perfect. He purchased ammonium carbonate as the rising agent and also twice bakes them. It makes all the difference. I wanted to show you Alto and Sax ! They are my starters. They are now about 2 yrs old. WOW do they love me LOL. Here are pics of them before and after feeding and then of the 2 breads I am in the process of making. It is a couple day thing to make bread with wild yeast starter so stay tuned to tomorrow . before feeding - fresh from fridge: after just 3 hrs: San Joaquin Sourdough auto lyse ( I let it set about 30 min) Polish Country Bread ( a light rye) auto lyse - Polish Dough is beaten in the KA mixer for 4 min on speed 2 and then let to rest 40 min. Then you do 2 stretch and folds. Rest 40 min and again. Then rise 2 hrs or so and bake. in KA: First way to do stretch and fold - pat flat : fold like a letter: Here is another way to do S and F. In the bowl with a spatula. Do 30 turns with the spatula around and around quickly bringing the dough up and over a little each turn. Do this every 30 min X 3 times. You will be amazed at the strength the dough acquires with a small amount of work. Here are pics DH took :) Tomorrow I will show the finishing touches and the final product. Hope everyone has a lovely Summer Friday night. c