Good success! It's not the normal time of year for growing seedlings - you might want to consider giving it supplementary light to extend its 'daylight' hours, from the current natural to about 14 or 15 hours/day. You're doing right to keep it just moist, not wet. They are very susceptible to fungal root diseases in wet soil ("damping-off"), and keeping it on the dryish side is the best way to avoid that. Resin

Same storm, Ken. I think Hillsdale county got it even worse, as we were without power for six days. Yup, our place. I hate those elms. It took me a year to get all the limbs from that storm cleaned up and burned. I would replace those elms with cataplas or P. abies 'Cranstonii' if allowed. The only non-conifers that did well through all that were our huge cottonwoods. Those pines grew more that following spring than I had ever seen before. They definitely dealt with the ice a lot better than they did this past year's heat/drought.

Thanks for giving me some feedback. We are kinda done with the "design" of the house. If you stand on the roof you can see the ocean. Our original plan was 2 story with 3rd story walk out deck..but it was too costly. I did just put in an outdoor shower.So Happy cause I have kids. The yard is huge. One of the reasons we bought the house. I loved the back yard and can hear the ocean although I can't see it. I am not a gardener..but am hoping to do some major landscaping. The windows are in the living area..which is just one big space. I love my neighbors house it is 2 story cedar shake on top and painted brick on bottom. My DH said we should paint ours the same way, But I don't want to be a wannbe...kinda feel like I already am. Her house is fantastic. Any ideas would be appreciated. From House with Shingles & Backyard

No judgement can be made because we don't know the size of the photo that was scanned, nor can we see the original and a print of the digitized one to compare. The file size will be porprotional to the area of the scanned object plus some overhead. I've had good success scanning B/W photos at 300 dpi (dots per inch) and using 256 gray scale. A finer gray scale can be used but there won't be much difference in the final tonal scale. Scanning to a jpg format reduces file size and you can control how much reduction to make; jpg files are 'lossy'; defintion loss increases with increased file reduction. B/W photos can be scanned in color which will pick up any yellowing or color tinges at the expense of a much larger file. I have found that 256 gray scale is quite acceptable. I will switch to a color scan if I wish to preserve color tinges. (My scanner always scans in color. It then writes the digital file depending on user selection. It converts the color image to gray scale for writing the file. Therefore, once the image hs been scanned, I can flip back and forth between color and gray scale.) After a photo has been scanned, it should 'played back' in a photo editor to check the result and to correct the color or gray scale balance. If the technician did not take time to check and make adjustments, the result may be disappointing. This brings us back to your monitor. If you display the digitized file on your monitor, the result can be puzzling. For example, the picture when printed on your printer may not match what you see on the screen. That's because your monitor was not color corrected and needs to be adjusted to a standard. Some older CRT monitors may not have adjsutment range. In some cases, best result is achieved by adjusting the video display card. This is done by software supplied with the card, if it is adjustable. The quality of the copied photo depends greatly on the skill of the operator both in making the copy file and printing thereof. If you have only 10 pics or thereabouts, it may not pay to buy a scanner. If you have 50 or more photos to digitize, then a scanner purchase is recommended. Once you have a scanner and become familar with its operation, you will find uses for it.