Ok..I could of sworn I answered questions yesterday and posted! Where in teh world is it?lol Jodik, thank you so much for that! My goodness, now I can't remember what I said, but it was good..lol I know that the only success I have evr had with roses was a welcome back from winter with dead branches or once I cut them off, to see the trunks hollow! Is this some kind of borer, or from cold? Will it affect self rooted ones. In the citrus world, own roots do horrible in the soil with nemetodes and teh such, and that is why they use grafted ones. I always thought the same applied to roses? I am just grateful I can have a mentor such as you to finally be successful with mine here at home:-) Jojo...My cat is very well behaved, but what I do when I am not there is another story..lol I know he is not even interested in my plants, that is except if I do not feed him first thing in the a.m Believe me, it is only then that he has a way of letting me know that he shoukld eat before I do. But I must admit, I have to keep all palms and spider plants away from him. I never saw a tea rose before? Just what are they? Do they have that distinct very 'sweet strong' fragrance? That is what I would love to smell. Chris..You are too funny.lol Jodik, beautiful pics by the way! I'll bet you look so forward to the solsticand the return of the sun! I am sure counting the days...:-) Purple, great points made! I am not even sure if anyone sells them here. But all I need is Jodik to hook me up:-) By the way, the plants in my room are starting to flower like crazy! They love the cooler temps, breeze, humidity, and lack of bugs! My sister just dropped off three citrus trees, and two jasmine about 3 feet high because she couldn't care for them. Oh, what to do? Cut them way back, spray, and then store them in that room? Or cut them back, and store them in my cellar close to lights and let them rest? Arg! Mike

Hi there- I am happy that those of you who have received your return envelopes have found some treasures enclosed! We who selected seeds for the traders in this swap- either before the envelopes were mailed in- or here in MN, did our best to ensure that! This swap was a group effort! Every one of us did a great job! We still have 11 participants who have not reported receiving their packages- remember- I do have confirmation slips if we run into trouble- you know how to contact me for that information if needed. 2 of those 11 (Tammy MN and Sandys Garden) are MN folks who I will be getting together with to go though my seeds boxes to fill up their seed packets sent in and then some! That is a great way for us to "garden" in MN this time of year! Not to mention- looking through and sharing each others seed boxes is just plain fun and highly recommended! Barb- tell you daughter to visit the MN Gardening Forum!!! There are so many great folks (and gardens) in MPLS and the surrounding areas. I think we have a great garden community there. Oh Lisa- I hear you loud and clear about the hubby factor! Mine is constantly exasporated- and yet, still continuously supportive- and extremly handy with building cold frames from recycled building supplies- lighted shelves in the basment- and a great addition of 2 plastic coated steel wire shelves the length of the garage, which a clear plastic "curtain" can be rolled down to protect seedlings from the elements! I secretly think he is pleased that it costs so little to keep me so fully entertained! Till later then- Holiday activities beckon...... Julie

I am sorry to hear that Joy wasnt able to get her seeds out,of course it is understandable,but I am happy to hear she will get a cheer package!I am glad the first big swap I ever did is with people like you guys!Thanks for making this so positive for me! Lisa,when DH's gramma died,we thought it would be hard to go through her things,but we ended up having a blast! We felt her presence with us the whole time we were laughing at old pictures and trying on jewelery,we know she was right beside us giggling away,celebrate her life,she was a wonderful woman that thought of others, so I am sure that she would want you to go through her things and relish in the sweet memories when she was with you here. Patty thank you for all of the hard work you have put into this,it is so appreciated!:)

I guess I qualify as an OB now although I didn't start out that way. We wound up firing our contractor halfway through the job due to his massive incompetence and dishonesty. It then took us several months to convince our bank to let us finish the job ourselves rather than risking getting involved with another crooked builder. Being a general contractor is far more about project management than it is about construction. The GC lines up sub-contractors, makes sure they show up and do the work they're supposed to, handles paperwork, and makes sure everybody gets paid when they're suppoesed to be paid. Many GCs probably couldn't hammer a nail in straight if they had to. To be a GC you need business skills and project management skills, and you need to know (or be willing to find out) what a construction job should look like when it is finished. It helps in dealing with subs to learn the lingo but you don't have to be able to hammer, saw, hang sheetrock, run electrical lines, or anything else. If you OB, plan to spend at least 20 hours per week and possibly more than that on the job. I just WISH we had just gone the owner-builder route right from the start. Neither DH nor I have any construction experience whatsoever but we had looked into being our own general contractors before we hired our builder. We even took a class on building your own home but then decided that we just didn't have the necessary time to devote to the task. Was that a mistake! I had done my homework and had spent a huge amount of time on this board before we ever broke ground - so I had a good idea of what to look for in quality work. It quickly became evident that my builder didn't have a clue and apparently he couldn't have cared less. His subs were obviously the cheapest he could find and often, I suspect, were undocumented day laborers. They didn't follow installation specifications for installed materials like Tyvek sheathing, my Jeld-wen windows, or the roofing shingles. I know because when things didn't look right to me, I got the specs from the manufacturers and checked their work myself. They also often didn't follow building codes - which I found out because I had put it in my contract that I would separately hire a third-party inspector to inspect all stages and that any work not meeting code would have to be redone at the builder's expense. The framer hired by my builder used I-beam trusses between the first and second floors instead of the open-web trusses I had specified. The framing was completed while I was out of town for two weeks and by the time I got back, the house was already sheathed and the roofer had started work. So it was too late (eg., economically unfeasible) to make the builder have the entire roof and second floor taken down so that the right trusses could be put in. My plans called for the HVAC units and all ductwork to be within the heated/cooled envelope of the house. When I demanded that my builder check with his engineer to ensure that holes could be cut through the i-beams large enough to accomodate the HVAC ducts, he assured me that would be "no problem." That was a lie. Even the holes that had to be cut through the i-beam trusses for plumbing drain lines weakened them enough that my third-party inspector insisted that extra trusses be installed to bear part of the load. No doubt putting those in was a major expense that the builder had to eat. There was no way HVAC ductwork could be run between the floors as designed. Instead, the HVAC units were put in the unairconditioned attic along with massive amounts of flexible ductwork. Instead of an attic that could someday be finished out to add a couple more bedrooms, I have two big HVAC units and what looks like a massive silver spiderweb totally filling the attic space. I also lost closet space in all my bedroom closets because ductwork chases down to the first floor had to be put somewhere. When I exploded about the lost usable square footage and the additional on-going costs associated with having the HVAC and ductwork up in the attic (we live in central Texas!) my builder tried to tell me that EVEN IF the framer had used open-web trusses, the ductwork still would not have been able to be run through the trusses and that "everybody puts HVAC units in the attic." DUH? Open web trusses are designed to allow ductwork and plumbing to be run them!! Had the man NEVER read anything about energy efficient building practices? Nope. He just trusted that his framer - who hardly spoke English - knew what he was doing. Despite all this, my builder kept telling me that he was a "professional" and that I should just relax and let him do his job. HAH! I can't think of a single task that ever he actually handled completely correctly from start to finish. Then, shortly after the HVAC units were installed, I got hit with a $54,000 lien because builder had not paid for my windows and patio doors even though he had been given draw money specifically for that purpose! That lien was immediately followed up by threats of two smaller liens from two other subcontractors (the portapotty provider and the exterior paint contractor)! And the builder admitted he didn't have the money to pay any of the three. At that point I was more than ready to fire him but my bank insisted that I could NOT do so. We paid off the liens and the unpaid subcontractors and I took over handling ALL monies and paying the subcontractors and suppliers directly instead of having draws go to the builder to pay them. No more money was going to flow into the builder's hands until my house was completed, at which point anything that was still left of the original contract price would be his "profit." By that point, the only thing the builder was doing was hiring subs and ordering materials. I was paying a third party inspector separately to check all work that I didn't feel competant to inspect myself. I was handling all the paperwork and making sure everybody got paid. But then the kicker... I discovered that builder was having materials delivered to my build - which I was paying for - and then having his subs (whom I was also paying!) move them to a spec house that he was building and install them there. I had had enough. I fired him. After taking over as GC, I had to spend as much time/effort on UNDOING some of the mistakes he made as on moving forward to finish the build. And the money he wasted/stole from us has forced us to cut back on the level of finishes that we had originally planned to have. My advice: Go take a course on building your own home. Spend time reading and learning everything you can about the building process. Learn the language. If you are reasonably intelligent and willing to devote the time, you CAN build your own home. Plus, there are businesses (Owner-Builder Network and UBuildIt.com are two that I know about although I've not used either one) that will help you by providing you with pre-vetted lists of sub-contractors and guiding you step by step through the process. If your state or your bank requires you to have a licensed builder, these organizations will be the builder-of-record for you. Of course they charge a fee for their services. I don't know how much but it is significantly less than a builder's profit margin. You can also hire a third-party inspector to make sure that you're getting everything built to code. Just make sure that all your subcontractors know that they don't get paid until your third party inspector signs off that the work is up to code. I designed my plan myself and I would love to see the house built as designed. The house we are in the process of finishing will eventually be "okay" but it will never be the house I dreamed of. So there is some chance that when we get this house built we will sell it and rebuild the same design in a new location. But next time I will definitely OB from the get go.