gardenamy, looking forward to hearing of your further adventures in canning! Beth, love your username! I am a dirtgirl myself --- love messing with soil. My DH often accuses me of gardening and canning just as an excuse to compost. And, Jim, I think a little orange zest sounds like a fine addition! Jim's Maple Cranberry butter, here we come.... (Though, legally, you may be interested to know, anyone can make any recipe and call it what they like, other than using someone's registered trademark or protected brand name; copyright laws cover a creative work's "fixed form" --- the words used to describe a recipe, but not the INFORMATION of how to make it. And patents protect certain PROCESSES if they've been registered. But people have been freely exchanging combos of ingredients and cooking techniques ever since Cave Lady A saw Cave Lady B stick her mastodon leg over the fire for a while before eating it and thought, "Darn, that smells better that way ! I'll have to try that." ;-) ) Z

I purchased what was labeled as an American Cranberry Bush from Home Depot this past spring after the late freeze. It looked healthy and was on sale for $6.00. The picture looked really pretty and the information said birds love the berries. I was not surprised it did not flower after planting but am hoping it does next spring. Reading through this thread makes me wonder if the cranberry bush needs a pollinator? I am sure someone here can answer that question for me. We are having very hot/dry weather here in TN and even though I believe I am keeping it well watered some of the "older" leaves are turning a "reddish" color. The planting directions said full sun. Does this plant really do well in full sun? Thanks in advance to anyone who replies.

When the effluent rises it has some velocity, and hence momentum. When it enters the hood it has a tendency to "reflect" and curl downward and potentially escape. If the hood is deep enough (top to bottom) and the hood fan flow is high enough (cfm) the curling effluent will remain captured and will be exhausted. The barrel design in the picture looks to me (without examining one) like it has adequate depth. W.r.t. ya think's question a few messages up: First I would say that the change from vertical to horizontal should be as large a radius curve as you can fit to minimize pressure loss (as well as noise). The effluent momentum (which is a vector) is being changed in direction. This is akin to stopping it and starting it up again. If it can slide along a curve, the momentum loss is significantly less. There is one commercial ducting source I came across once that uses 90-degree transitions, but embeds a curved shape within the duct to improve the flow. I find it hard to answer the question of what questions to ask. Usually, the answers aren't available. Ideally, one would want to know the fan curve (flow vs. static pressure) and try to estimate all the pressure losses (including the pressure one might pull the house down to with or without make-up air) to see what the real maximum flow rate will be. This can then be compared against estimates of effluent generation rate calculated from the reference below. The power used might be adjusted to represent your cooking style, as rarely would one have all burners on maximum and cooking at the highest pan temperature. One thing is certain, flow rate in the hood has to at least equal the flow rate from all the active burners and pans, and arguably should be higher due to imperfect effluent collection. Implied above is that the hood manufacturer can supply pressure loss of the filters vs. flow rate, as well as that of the hood transitions. Getting that data, even if it were ever measured, would be unlikely, me thinks. I suggest that various hoods be "audited" in showrooms to gain a feel for their noisiness versus their designs. The reference worth reading, even if one doesn't intend to use it for calculations, is "Thermal plumes of kitchen appliances: part 2 cooking mode," by Risto, Hannu, and Pekka. (I've found it on-line whenever I've looked for it. Part 1 is also interesting.) If you do use it for calculations, please note the following apparent errors in their Equation 1: The constant should be 0.05 not 5. The units of phi should be kW, not W. (these corrections make their tables consistent with the equation) You will need a scientific calculator or counterpart software to do the exponents (unless you are very old school and know how to do logarithms). You will also need to convert BTU to kW and cubic meters per second to cubic feet per minute. This is left as an exercise for the student. [insert sociopathic laugh here] kas

My view is that it would be like an extension of living in one's own home - if one had a serious stroke, or developed Alzheimer's, it would not have been possible for that person to continue to have lived alone in his/her (former) home. Similarly, it would be part of the agreement that people could continue to live there as long as they could pretty well maintain themselves. I can see the other members of the household doing all the chores and carrying food to a member who was ill - for a temporary period, if there were substantial hope of the person being able to recover and able to resume their share of the duties related to maintaining the home in the foreseeable future. Actually, it might well be possible for one to live longer in such a home than alone in their own home, for the chores would be shared, so less onerous on each resident. And if there were concern for the person suffering some trauma with no help immediately available, that situation would be of deeper concern for someone living alone that if there were three or four others in the residential unit. It would be similar to the situation in a residential home - when the inhabitant isn't able to maintain themselves any longer, but need more than a minimal amount of attendant care, they would be required to move to a nursing home. If you aren't able to pay your way in the average residential home for seniors - you aren't going to continue to be there very long. Lacking some kind of governmental support. Actually - it would be much cheaper for the government to pay such a group home for the needy person to continue to live there, rather than moving to a residential home, as it would be much less constly than care in a residential home (but dealing with the red tape would be a major issue, no doubt, for this situation would not be part of the regular system). As for free-loading guests - I can eat with my friend in her residential home - but someone must pay for it. Of course, if that person comes to my place to eat, the nursing home does not pay me. There might be a fee for overnight, at the group's discretion, and a fee for outsiders to have meals there. Which the inhabitants might well ignore, if the guest's visit were a rare event. In many cases, if there were a guest for one meal, the other residents might consider the occasion sort of a bright spot in the day, and might choose to forego payment on the part of the resident whose friend the guest was. Otherwise, when settlement time came at month end, the number of guest meals would be part of the bill. Having a congenial person as sort of "house mother" would help in such situations - an outsider to blame for the rather unattractive, if necessary, action. Good wishes to you all - for continued health of body, mind and spirit ... and for making new friends (to replace the ones that we lose, unfortunately), joyful guy