After reviewing my records, I've made a few changes to my list as well. Since I had an early start this year - which doesn't happen often - I'm growing some longer-season varieties. This mostly affects my soybeans, which I have yet to list. Trials are bolded: Beans Bird Egg#3 - pole, shelly Champagne - pole, flat green-podded snap Czechoslovakian - pole, flat purple-podded snap Dolloff - pole, shelly Fortex - pole, main crop snap Grandma Robert's Purple Pole Isla (a long season pole shelly) Light Brown Zebra - bush, dry Madeira Clem & Sarah's Big Bean - bush, shelly Poletscka - pole Portugal - pole, shelly Schwarze Witwe - pole, wax Soissons Vert - pole, shelly & dry Uzice Porcelain - a.k.a. Uzice. Shelly. This year's trial will determine whether it is a rangy bush, or a weak climbing pole. Uzice Speckled Wax - pole, wax Added: Woods Mountain Crazy Beans - bush, snap Limas Cave Dweller (Black Seed Coat) - bush Sieva, Mottled - pole Runner Bianco de Spagna - pole, white seed (thanks to Drloyd) Gigandes - pole? white seed, from Greece (thanks to Fusion) (both will be trialed as shellies) Cowpeas / Yardlongs Bush Sitao Var. BS-3 - semi-bush snap, tan & white seeds, from Philippines CES-18-6 Fagiolino Dolico Veneto - semi-bush, very early eyed pea) MN 157 - bush, purple podded calico, dry Yardlong, Galante - pole, red & white seeds, from Philippines Yardlong, Sierra Madre - pole, red & white seeds, from Philippines Yardlong, Yard and 1/2 - pole??? red & white seeds (thanks to Grandmotherbear) Yardlong, Yancheng Bush - bush (duh! ;-) red seeds Peas Black Eyed Susan - shelling Bill Jump - soup Golderbse - soup Purple Pod Parsley - shelling (unstable, I'm still selecting for all-purple pods) Vantana Matar - soup Added: Prebohaty - soup Limestone - pod Miscellaneous Adzuki, Buff Adzuki, Takara Early Black gram Chickpea, Brown Popping (the popping chickpea mentioned in Carol Deppe's book) Plus 27 soybeans planted for edamame & dry seed. The cancellations are rescheduled for 2013. And most importantly... it's all planted!!! :-) No repeat of last year's calamity.

OK - I thought the PH reading might have been quite too far acidic based on how well other things have done in the same soil (different location in the yard) and the meter was well, crappy. I have not done a legit soil sample (I'm lazy, yeah) however... I did still have a jar of soil in water I used to gauge the soil particle consistency. (Laziness might have paid off) I saw it sitting around after these responses and decided to try this out. I shook the jar, which has been sealed since I took the dirt out, and divided the portions equally in two containers. You might guess what happened next. Baking Soda into one - Vinegar into the other. Neither of the samples reacted before or after agitation, except for the ghost of a pop in the cup with vinegar added, but certainly no vigorous reaction. In the spirit of bad science, I added a little of the opposite to each, and got the expected fizz. This can't possibly mean that my soil is close to PH neutral, can it? I figure I'm missing something here. I will certainly try and educate myself on legitimate fertilization as well. I hadn't really thought about the hard water we have here, and though i was planning on doing the gradual timing as mentioned, looks like i still have quite a bit to research. As far as the stink bugs... they just take bites from everything, leaving puckers on the fruit, which is lame. I think that the large part of my infestation last year was my own fault from bad practice, but that's been amended. The foil sheets are more for bugs that do ground egg-laying. May be an old wives tale, but i've seen chatter that it can help prevent bugs from laying eggs in the roots. but who knows. Either way, I've been using nematodes as well, and that seemed to help. All i have to do now is handle the first wave of cucumber beetle invasion without losing all of my cucurbits again.

Wayne, here's the headline...Crystal power Palmtop Nuclear Fusion Device Invented By Michael Schirber LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 27 April 2005 01:00 pm ET The nuclear reaction that powers the Sun has been reproduced in a pocket-sized device, scientists announced today. Researchers have for years tried to harness nuclear fusion to power the world. But its cousin, nuclear fission -- the breaking apart of atoms -- is the only method so far commercially viable. The latest invention is not in the same league as efforts to build complex commercial reactors. The new device creates a relatively small number of reactions, and requires more energy to operate than it produces. The Real Deal (AP) - Previous claims of tabletop fusion have been met with skepticism and even derision by physicists. In one of the most notable cases, Dr. B. Stanley Pons of the University of Utah and Martin Fleischmann of Southampton University in England shocked the world in 1989 when they announced that they had achieved so-called cold fusion at room temperature. Their work was discredited after repeated attempts to reproduce it failed. Fusion experts noted that the new UCLA experiment is credible because, unlike the 1989 work, it did not violate basic principles of physics. "This doesn't have any controversy in it because they're using a tried and true method,'' said David Ruzic, professor of nuclear and plasma engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "There's no mystery in terms of the physics.'' -- Associated Press But the configuration is so small and simple that its creators think it may inspire unforeseen applications. "I certainly find it interesting that you can heat a cubic centimeter crystal in your hand, then plunge it in cold water and it will cause nuclear fusion," Seth Putterman from the University of California Los Angeles told LiveScience. Putterman's lay description greatly oversimplifies how the compact apparatus works. Specifically, Putterman and collaborators heat a pyroelectric crystal, lithium tantalite, from minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit to plus 45 in a matter of minutes. This generates an electrical charge -- 100,000 volts -- across the tiny crystal, which is housed in a chamber filled with deuterium gas, a heavy form of hydrogen. The high voltage is focused onto a needle-thin tip, which strips electrons from nearby deuterium nuclei and then accelerates them at a solid target containing deuterium. When two deuterium nuclei collide together at high speed, they fuse to form helium. The Sun also fuses atoms in thermonuclear reactions that create light and heat. The byproduct of the newly discovered lab reaction is a particle called the neutron. The scientists detect about 1,000 neutrons per second. Because neutrons are so penetrating, Putterman said that a hand-held neutron source might one-day be used to do geologic surveys or to look into cargo containers for nuclear devices. "Current neutron generators are extremely cumbersome," Putterman said. "They are about as big as a dentists X-ray machine, so you canÂt carry them into the field." Pyroelectric crystals could also provide a beam of ions for use as a microthruster in a miniature spacecraft. The research is described in the April 28 issue of the journal Nature.

Yes, Jwvideo, I'm finding the vocabulary stumblesome (how's that for a new one?) Space is definitely a part of this consideration. Our kitchen isn't ginormous: It's 13' x 14' 7.5", with 2 of the walls being partially unusable because of doorways and walkways. This is where my thinking (at the moment anyway) leads to a 48" range being the best choice for this space. We'd get 8 burners. We'd get 2 ovens, too, without the sacrifice of the space taken up by wall ovens. I'm not sure where to put wall ovens without compromising the layout in some way.That's probably a question for the kitchen forum. I don't mind not having a self cleaning oven. I've read too many horror stories of oven failures after using the self clean function, so I would avoid using it even if I had an oven with self cleaning ability. And I still remember the awful smell of trying to use that feature in a townhouse oven in college. Yuck. Ventilation is the mystery component to me. I'll probably need some help with that further down the line once we decide what to get. Make up air, oh my. I feel in over my head. Glub, glub. Nycbluedevil, my current thought is similar to what I stated above: A 30" oven plus and 18" oven under the 48" cooktop might be the most efficient use of the space. I could go down to a 36" 6 burner stove, but...I'm not sure I'd utilize the 36" oven any better than I would a 30" oven if the 30" can hold full size baking sheets already. With the 36" I'd be increasing the preheat time for little benefit in the larger size. I'm not sure that we'd use all 8 burners at once (doubtful, really), but I do think we'd benefit from the large space to spread out some bigger pans: giant stock pots, 15" skillets, etc. that might be crowded if they were sharing a 36" rangetop. Does that sound like clear thinking?