I take it you had guests over Christmas? No, actually, we dodged a bullet there. DH had to work Monday, so we kind of didn't want the craziness of houseguests. So there were just 2 of us, not 6. Whew! The toilet had been acting up a bit over the weekend, and we'd gotten some stuff to try to clear it (toilet-approved). Seemed to work somewhat. We were just about to go to his mom's when I heard him screaming curses. Nothing really unusual there, except it sounded like he really meant it. Came into the bathroom to see the water spilling out the bowl. "Get me some towels!!! Now!!!" So I got some bathmats and we piled them on the floor to sop up the water. "Alrighty then." Closed the lid. Left. Tried to do all our 'business' at his mother's before heading home. I was actually relieved to go back to work. This has never happened before in history. Here's another lesson: When the Roto-Rooter guy starts making unhappy grunting noises while snaking your pipes, that means it's going to cost money. They're coming to dig up the septic tank next week. Yes, I remember that lesson about pumpkins. The outside skin keeps it looking pretty good while the inside is busily rotting away. Then you try to move it and the whole rotten mess floods out all over. It was actually in a box w/ some other winter squash, so it theoretically could have stayed there for quite a while w/o us noticing if I hadn't gone in looking for orchid stakes. "Hm, where's that water coming from in that little bucket? P-U!" etc. Jodik's story reminds me. Here's another one that we learned several years ago: When you move into a house owned and previously lived in by your DH's wacky older sister, do NOT attempt to cook a Christmas roast without thoroughly inspecting the stove and oven *and broiler.* Otherwise you'll wind up with a tray full of petrified black walnuts from who knows how many years ago catching fire (flaming merrily, in fact) and turning everything in the kitchen--especially the aforementioned roast--black w/ soot. Your DH will then have to heave the flaming mass out the back door into the snow to avoid burning the house down. You will not be pleased. Yepper. This is one of many reasons why we bought this house. Now, however, it seems like the PO has decided to haunt the plumbing for some reason. Anyone know voodoo?

LOL, Liz. Your clivia story is (please forgive) too funny. I'm glad it's recovering. Actually, I did something like that to a phal spike a month or so ago. Meant to keep a spike on a violacea hybrid, and in a mindless moment, snip! What a coincidence! Great minds and all that. I just this second started a thread inspired by this one. Please add your clivia story to it. You can get tree ferm from Carter and Holmes or from Cal West. Get the coarse or medium kind. The fine is too powdery. If it's too long, you can break small portions of it with your hands or by pushing on a pile of it with something like a clay pot. The smaller pieces then fall to the bottom. I use pieces broken down to app two inches or so. You can also get various sizes of perlite from Cal West. They call it Rok, I think. However, I confess I couldn't figure out their grading system as they offer grades by number, so I'm not sure I really got the biggest kind. It was a little bigger than the HD kind. However, the HD kind seems ok to me. I had a bag around that I used before buying more. It's not terribly expensive if you are going to do a number of orchids. 1/4 cubic foot of either tree fern or perlite will do a lot of orchids. And you use less sphag. I think just the act of mixing the sphag with the tree fern and perlite fluffs it up so you use a lot less sphag. Which is mostly good, unless you are a severe underwaterer.

For a reddish rain barrel on Amazon, see link below. One of the reviewer described well on how to use a rain-barrel: http://www.amazon.com/Upcycle-Gallon-Terra-Cotta-Rain-Barrel/dp/B005U6EU1Y "Kenneth L. Willitts says: It has three outlets, two of them one at the top and the other at the bottom are for hose connection. The other outlet is at the bottom and is fitted with a spigot, which can be shut or open and also has the ability to be connected to a hose. I keep the very top outlet connected to a soaker hose that goes into my garden, so if there is an overflow, it will go into the garden. I have three of theses and they are very easy to connect to any gutter system. The other important thing to consider and it is a good and bad problem, it has a nice screen on the top to keep dirty and trash out of the tank, but if you have heavy foliage the trash can block the screen, so about one a month, I just brush off the top and that solve that problem. Hope this helps. PS by the way if you were to connect two or more, use the top outlet connected with a standard hose with two female adapters, if you need help let me know. Ken" See below link for a reddish rain-barrel different from Amazon, it's 50 gallon Terra Cotta Snap Lid Rain Barrel, sold for $79.95, free shipping. Here is a link that might be useful: 50 gallon Terra Cotta Snap Lid Rain Barrel This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 11:28

Debelli, You have made so many of us feel better about our lapses of memory! I spent an hour searching for a screw that, all on its own without any help from me, jumped out of its proper place and buried itself in the carpet. If I had only put the screw in my pocket . . . . Yesterday I spent a lot of time looking at unlabeled paint cans, trying to figure out which one was the primer. It was the last can I opened! At least I didn't keep opening cans after I found what I needed . . . . I still have a partially assembled weedwhacker--took the handle off to replace a screw and couldn't get the devil back together. Right now the handle is wrapped heavily with duct tape, the solution to so many problems. Isn't human nature wonderful?