Carol, They are ready. I've already picked twice, but I used the first two rounds (small numbers like 4 to 6 peppers each time) to make some hotter-than-usual Annie's Salsa. My plants have been heavily loaded with green habs forever and ever. When we came back from the fires yesterday and I saw the pepper plants had wilted, I noticed a lot of the green habs had turned orange. Prior to that, I had to crouch down and look underneath the foliage to check them, but with the wilt, they were right there in the open for easy viewing. The habs wilted more than the jalapenos. Their foliage was limp, limp, limp, and a lot of it revived in late evening after heavy watering, but some did not. One reason I picked as many orange ones as I did is that I was worried about sunscald on the wilted plants, and even though it was 105 degrees, the humidity was 21% so it didn't feel that bad out there. I have enough ingredients cut up and prepared in advance, and frozen, for six batches of Habanero Gold---except for the habs, which I'll be cutting up this morning after I make some food for the firefighters. I've been stockpiling dried apricots for a while. I have 3 bags from CostCo in addition to the 6 batches already diced and ready. I did the prep on a day when I was canning something else because that's when I had the red sweet bell peppers (they were purchased). The only Habanero pepper I plant now is 'Chichen Itza' because it is much earlier--maybe by three weeks--than the O-P habaneros, and the peppers usually are about twice as big as those on OP habanero plants. I believe I harvested the first ripe habs righ around July 4th. I am sure the habs will wilt today, so likely will run out there in a few minutes after I get a batch of something in the oven, and put up the shade cloth over the peppers. We are starting to have fires, so I need to get busy making the Habanero Gold as soon as I can. The sooner I start, the sooner I'll have enough jars done that I won't worry and fret if this summer's fire season is like last summer's. Since it is starting later, maybe it won't be as bad. Chris' department fought a very difficult brush fire (50 acres of burning trees, including tons of cedar) last night in Grapevine and he is driving home totally exhausted. I think the fire trouble down here is just beginning. Now that the habs are turning orange, I notice some of the sweet bells also are coloring up orange and red and gold, so maybe I won't have to buy any red sweet bells from this point forward. I did get a good deal on them. CostCo had bags of six very large red sweet bells for under $6.00 a couple of weeks ago, so I bought them and cut them up and froze some for Hab Gold and used the others in the Habanero Annie's Salsa. At the time I bought the 2 bags of red sweet bells for roughly $12.00 for 12 peppers, our Wal-Mart was charging $1.78 each for red sweet bells. This week I think they were $1.48 each, so CostCo is still beating them on the price. I haven't looked in Sam's Club for red sweet bells. We usually go to CostCo because our animals like their store brand of dog food, which is a high-quality pet food similar to Science Diet, and they have a few other things that Sam's doesn't have. I love CostCo. Dawn

Don't accuse the mason of incompetence; that forces you to set standards for the work after the fact and the contractors will simply disagree. Instead, ask the General Contractor what cold weather brick construction standard he has asked his masonry sub to use. If none, ask him to find out what standard the mason did use. The standard referenced by the IRC and the IBC is "TMS 602/ACI 530.1/ASCE 6, Article 1.8 C" and is written by the Masonry Standards Joint Committee (The Masonry Society, the American Concrete Institute, and the American Society of Civil Engineers). This standard requires that new brickwork be covered in the conditions you describe. There are reference standards but they usually based on the above standard so the requirements are essentially the same. A typical architect/engineer written specification would establish TMS 602/ACI 530.1/ASCE 6 as the standard for all brickwork and often it will include a requirement that when the air temperature is expected to go below 40 degrees, before laying brick, the contractor must submit for approval a written description of the precautions to be taken. Even though TMS 602/ACI 530.1/ASCE 6 is the industry consensus and building code standard, I doubt your GC owns a copy of it since it costs $100 but for the masonry contractor it should be his bible. Why owners let home builders write contracts that omit virtually all standards and owner protections is a mystery to me.

I know EXACTLY what everyone else feels... My reno headaches so far: 1. When moving our new stove and fridge at the SAME time...in my boyfriend's truck (he thinks the Tundra god can do no wrong) the straps holding the fridge in place slipped and the fridge hit the front of the stove. BIG dent...and I was driving... 2. The wall oven cubby hole...great gw's here AGREED with me that that huge cabinet should be recessed or broken up so it doesn't feel weird when you're cooking at the range (besides we won't have a wall oven anymore). DB (boyfriend) didn't like that Idea because it meant more work. After about a week and threatening to stab him in the eye with a pencil i won and of course now he agrees that it's much better. 3. Get appliances in....dent still in stove. Now oven doesn't work because it's not just a dent...but messed up the digital parts, so now on back order for that part...maybe 3-4 more months without an oven...=( 4. The worst part: During demo, the downstairs heating unit went out...which meant we couldn't do the floor, AND 2 days later the well pump went out so no water. I could have pulled my hair out and just died, so after 1200 on the heat unit, and 600 for a new pump we were back in business...until the new pump caused a voltage spike and blew a breaker and we could not find a new box to fit in the same spot.... Now we're finally back on the right track 2 1/2 weeks later..floors down...countertop is getting templated Tuesday. I was so hoping our reno would be done before my dad left for afghanistan for deployment...but he leaves 7am March 3rd and our countertops will not be in then. *sigh* guess he'll see them in 18 months!

valzone5 - LMAO!! I do believe they are meant to place hand towels in. :) That lovely piece of "furniture" has since left our home...well actually it sits in my garage begging to be burned. walkin yesindeed - I will gladly send you a big section framed once i get it pulled down! :)