It's still too early for me to start peppers, I wait until March because my 90% frost-free date is May 30th. Wanted to share my own DIY, though I haven't had a working camera in a couple of years so no pix. I made my own heat mat with a 7' incandescent rope light using materials I had on hand. The lights are anchored to a coated-wire basket from my closet. Used velcro tape to attach the rope light to the wire grid. [I love the velcro tape. It's sold in a roll for plant ties and is nearly as useful as duct tape. :) Re-useable too.] I attached the lights to the inside of the basket and turned the basket upside down. A throw pillow and fleece blanket fill in the basket and insulate the lights from below. Seed trays go on top. The rope lights are rated for outdoor use in wet weather, so my main worry was fire. The temperature stays steady though. No overheating. Soil temp measured with a meat thermometer is a cozy 80 degrees F. I currently have a four-foot shop light propped on a wire kitchen shelf over the heater, to help the seeds that need light to germinate. I started begonia seeds with it already this year and just seeded coleus and a few other decorative plants.

Diane, It is a challenge to figure it out, isn't it! It is safe to say that I could grow zero brussels sprouts and my family would be delighted...so that one is easy to figure out. (I like 'em fresh but no one else cares for them. LOL) Today we were looking at fresh produce at Central Market in Fort Worth (yes, I was in hog heaven, thank you very much) and Tim sampled a tiny cup of black-eyed peas. Now, several thoughts ran through my mind. First of all, do they "have to" give away samples of black-eyed peas to get people to try them? Secondly, doesn't everyone know what blackeyed peas taste like? LOL Finally, when my dear husband looked at the bag of more-or-less freshly hulled black-eyed peas (maybe a pint of fresh peas in that bag) and saw they were $5.99, I practically purred like a kitten, thinking of all the pint bags of freshly-shelled (then frozen) black-eyed peas in our freezer.....all of which grew right here in our good old Oklahoma soil with no chemicals, etc. I felt smug and content (in a good way, NOT in a conceited 'holier-than-thou-because-we-grow-our-own" way) but more than that I felt grateful that we are able to grow our own and process/preserve them to be eaten later on. It is the most wonderful feeling in the world to be feeding your family from your own garden and to know where your food came from and how it was raised. I have a pressure canner but have only done BWB stuff this year along with tons of dehydrating and freezing. I go on canning binges....can a lot some years, less in others. With this year's recurring rains, I've put up more food for the 'off-season' than in many prior drought years, and I am really happy about that. So far, one thing I've learned is that no matter how many beans and peas I plant, we eat them all long before the next gardening season rolls around. So, I am planning on lots more next year. Yesterday I picked Roma beans from the garden...and I don't even remember which variety I have except that they are the bush form and that it was from Franchi Simenti seed, and they are so good that I know I must plant many more of them next year. I can only remember one year in recent memory....and it might have been 2004....where I put up enough beans to get us from one gardening year to the next without running out. Growing the soil is why new beds take me so long to build too. In the long run, it is worth it of course, but turning clay into great garden loam certainly involves a long commitment! And, yet, I don't know how we could have done it any differently. I have found very few (almost no) spots in Love County that have a nice, rich, humusy sandy loam that is naturally occurring. For most people here, there are three choices: very sandy soil that drains too quickly in dry years and is prone to nematodes, heavy, thick red (but highly fertile) clay like we have here, and caliche clay full of rocks. So, with those three to choose from, I'm glad we have the clay, but I also appreciate our one small band of sand that cuts across the yard. I greow pecan and fruit trees in that band of sandy soil and they love it. Got your eye on a specific brand of canner? As for jars, I collect them. hee hee I can't walk past jars or lids without wanting more......"just in case". Even if I have plenty of empty jars sitting in storage waiting to be used, I almost have a panic attack when the stores start putting the jars and lids on clearance in the fall. What if I need jars a month or two from now and can't find any? (This has never happened--I always have jars tucked away in the pantry or in a closet, but "what if?" LOL). I always thought I'd have a smaller garden as time went on and we got older, but now I'm growing enough for 2 families instead of 1, so I'm growing more. (Although, DS and his wife and their daughter don't eat as many veggies as we do, except for french fries and green beans...and salsa.) My all-time favorite dedicated kitchen garden spot was an 8' x 8' raised bed in which I planted a "Salsa Garden". It was just outside the back door and in it I had tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and cilantro. If you had a sudden urge to make salsa, everything was right there. I later planted a few rose bushes in that raised bed and enjoyed that, but I liked it better as a salsa garden. Dawn

OK, Ronnatalie - What I was calling joists are the ceiling joists. Because this is a prefabricated shed, the ceiling joists are 2X4s, not 2X6s. Let me start again, please. The service main panel is a 200 Amp, Challenger box. Breakers 29 & 30 are double pole 30 Amp breakers. These two breakers feed a sub panel using 12/3 wire. Black to a hot lug, red to a hot lug, white to neutral bus and ground to ground bus. My current plan call for an R&R of the 30 amp breaker in favor of a double pole 20 amp breaker. The sub panel hold four breakers, At present two of the breakers are 30 amp breakers that I'm going to replace with 20 Amp breakers. The other is a double 20 amp breaker, it services all the 110/120 for this room. I'm going to replace that breaker with two individual 20 amp breakers. There should be no 30 amp circuits needed. Breaker #1 will be a dedicated double receptacle for my laser printer. Breaker # 2 will service the right side of the shed receptacles. Breaker # 4 Will service the left half of the shed receptacles. Back at Service Main, Breakers 31 and 32 currently a double breaker 30 Amp. feeds a baseboard 220 heater. The run is made with 12/2 cable. Black goes to Breaker 31 and white / with black tape goes to breaker 32. I'm planning on removing the double breaker and replacing it with a single 20 breaker. Removing the black tape from both ends of the white wire. Next I'll install a double receptacle to function as a dedicated line for the window AC and the ceiling lights. Sorry if I confused you.

I have three cats. Amy, the 16 yr old has been eating Hills Prescription Diet T/D Dental Health for most of her life. You buy it from the vet but the good thing is the last time her teeth needed to be cleaned was when she was two.They are in great shape. The two siblings who are now one and a half, do eat some of the older cats food and their dry food is Royal Canin Indoor Adult Cat. I tried Wellness dried cat food but they didnt like it. To be honest, since I got the younger ones, I think they all are eating both kinds.Which isnt a bad thing. We keep bowls of it out so they can nibble whenever they want. Also bowls of water. The three share one can of Wellness tinned food in the morning. The older cat is extremely fussy, she was a rescue cat from the SPCA and very loving but only to members of this family. She will hop on your lap for a quick cuddle but doesnt stay long and prefers to rest by your head (on the back of the couch) or by your side. It is a serious chore and fight to try to clip her nails, and even brushing her is hard though I can tell she likes it. She spooks easily and if strangers come to the house, she hides. She licks the gravy only from the wet food, leaving the rest. I have tried everything because she needs thyroid medication and it would be a lot easier to slip it into her wet food. I had to give her brother heart medication pills for years (he has since died) and he would practically open his mouth to pop the pill in. No way you can do that with her. We have been giving it to her using a gel on her inner ear because she tolerates that. The point I want to make is to give your cats both dry and wet food. They get stuck in their eating habits and trying to change them can be hard later on. If it ever comes time to give them medication, it would be easy to give it to them in the wet food, which they usually gobble up right away. Plus the extra moisture in the wet food is great for them. If you want to go away for a day or two, you know that they wont starve since they have lots of dry food. All of these cats are at a healthy weight and aren't gluttons. They eat when they are hungry. Check the ingredients of your cat food. I think it is better to pay a bit more for decent cat food because you will save vet bills in the end.