What a Lovely Story.... one that warms my heart !!! Congrats on the family history and the Loving Memories that you can pass on too some day....!!! Thanks for sharing the great pictures.... and Thanks for sharing some of the Love from your family with us.... Mostly the old things that are new... are the Best Blessing we can get ! ! ! Yea for you !!! God Bless You & Yours ! Susiesunshine

I have my mother's jars, my grandmother's jars, probably my great-grandmother's jars! I have my (now deceased) mother-in-law's jars, and some new jars and jars that were given to me by elderly ladies in my church who no longer can but happily swap those empty jars for home-canned goods or freshly baked bread. I occasionally find jars at yard sales or second hand stores, but not so much any more. Robert, it's too bad you threw away those zinc lids, they are worth more than the jars! I do use the old blue jars and zinc lids to store dried beans, rice, lentils, dehydrated onions and garlic, etc. Many have chipped edges so I can't use them for canning, but they remain useful for storage. Cast iron is coming back with a vengeance. I've cracked a coule of relatively good pans by placing cold pans into coals, or once by taking a pan from the fire and putting it into a bucket of water so the children playing around the campfire didn't burn themselves. It was irreparable. I recently bought several pieces of Le Crueset enameled cast iron for less than $30 a piece at a local on-line auction. I just bought a Squeezo for $24.00 there too, and have picked up a couple of old Griswold's for less than $20, but they are few and far between. I usually only find them because the listing sellers misspell the names. Annie

Why not tell her the truth: you are interested in it as it is and not fixed up (you don't have to say why, but there is always the explanation of for a photo shoot or something), and would she please tell you how much she wants for it as is? Make it clear you are not sure you will be interested in it after it is fixed up. Ask, though, how much she thinks she would ask for it fixed up. Because if you really want it, that may be the magic number that you have to reach: the amount she thinks she is going to get. Her time is probably free, at least to her, and if someone else would buy it for more if she fixes it, she has no motivation to sell it to you for less. If you want her to treat your request with respect, I think it would be better not to lowball. Karin L

As I understand it, thrift shops etc., will still be restricted from selling recalled toys, etc. . . that's probably a good idea but how will it work out in real life? I work for a nationally known donations re-seller and we already check every donation against a list of recalls. It's gotten to be a huge burden because so many toys are recalled, but we have text lists as well as photos of the recalled items posted at the sorting area. Inspectors make the first sort, but anything that might be on the recall lists, like toys and some appliances and children's clothing that may be more than a few years old, is also checked by a supervisor. Recalled items go to a shredder/compactor so they can't be sold. We take this very seriously and every thrift shop or used merchandise shop should. I can't speak for small, local stores but I hope they are just as careful. Even with the changes it looks like we may have to stop reselling toys. Clothing that has no metal (buttons, for example) should be OK. The changes allow for items that are only made with natural fibers, like cotton, silk or wool, to be sold without testing so those of you who make quilts or similar items are OK. Because testing labs have to be certified and inspection equipment has to be calibrated periodically, companies would not be able to do their own testing. Any thing to be tested would have to be sent out to a certified testing facility. There's another good discussion about this same topic on the Quilting Forum. I included a link to that post below. Here is a link that might be useful: CPSIA discussion