As I mentioned above, I only know of one approved sweet preserve that calls for gelatin and is canned. It's comparing apples and oranges to think of gelatin in a refrigerated preserve (which was the original recommendation in your recipe - a Ball recipe, by the way) as opposed to canning something like venison, which as Linda Lou points out, requires a pressure canner. That's a world away from 10-minute boiling water bath. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Canned Fig-Strawberry Preserves with Gelatin

Thanks Rodger and Martin - I picked all the beans I could find (bit of a jungle in there). I'm going to be able to use some of them whole, the rest I'll try as shellies - it's good to know they're still edible, even if not as I had intended! Happy Gardening Provence p.s. I haven't been on the web for a while - good to hear from you again Paquebot.

We put in outlets above the kitchen cabinets for rope lighting (on a timer), and also had some on an architectural feature in our old house (it looked really nice at night to have a glow up high). Also, what about low-voltage lighting outside? Where are you going to put the control box? And do you have enough electric in the garage? Take the time NOW to walk through your house, opening doors and walking into rooms. Think about the placement of outlets and switches so that they are most convenient for you. Also think about what the wall will look like after the drywall is in... will an entire wall be screwed up because there's one switch there? Can you relocate it if so? We also put an outlet about 4' high in the pantry so we could put the dustbuster in there and keep it charged. Very handy! We did not do structured wiring in this house since we did it in our last one and never used it. If you want it, though, do it now. You'll need to account for speakers, wall control switches, etc. As for how to do it without seeing the equipment -- there are other pieces of equipment you buy that control everything, but we didn't realize until after we did all the wiring that they were out of price range (after deciding to have kids... lol). They use IR with small (pencil eraser sized) receivers that you point your remote at, and then it relays the command to the DVD player or receiver that is hidden in a closet. But, as you note, you still have to go to the closet to change the dvd. I also realized that unless we bought a REALLY expensive remote, we wouldn't be able to see the display on the system, either. So if there was a problem, it would be a PITA to troubleshoot without physically going to the closet. So, for now, we'll keep it simple with prewired speakers in the ceiling and wiring for wall mounted TVs in the LR, FR, and MBR.

Like dcarch, any scraps that the chickens don't want go into my garden, but the chickens really like the fat. Since they live in an unheated coop in Michigan, I think the fat is extra energy to help keep them warm, even though they are Rhode Island Reds and are extremely cold tolerant. Heck, they go outside and scratch in the snow and sun themselves sitting on top of snowbanks, so I like to help them out with extra nutrition if I can. Annie