Hi Lady, I think just about everything here has been talked about. I'll mention one more thing, and that's horse manure. It does wonders for soil. If you can get it on in Fall and rains seep it into the soil along with spring rain and melting snow, that's the ideal time to do it. You may also do it in spring or any time else if you are able to water often. The key is to get it into the soil. In spring though your whole yard will stink to beat hell. I know because my Mom used to do it each and every spring of my entire childhood. And like Barbara and I'm sure others have mentioned "anything organic" you can get on clearance, especially come fall as the stores are trying to get rid of bulk, just keep adding it to your beds. Broken bags are always on my mind while shopping. Pick them up anytime you can find them for 50 cents or whatever you can get them for. Eventually that manure will have done the work for you and you'll be able to use a tiller. ...for the next years ahead keep adding as much organic as you can when you till in the spring and come Fall, till and then spread horse manure over the tilled soil. Once your soil is gem-like...throw more manure on it each Fall and any organics you can scrounge up. As a side note, if you or anyone is preparing a veggie garden with horse manure, you must spread it during Fall and let it work it's way in over the winter and spring. Adding fresh horse manure to a veggie garden in spring can be toxic to humans when eating harvests. Not always, but the potential is always there for toxicity.... Dax

At long last. I'll try not to write too much as most of you have probably sent your books back to the library or have become hazy about the plot. My copy started with 'Camera' which was just as well as I think 'Eye' would have been difficult to start with and put me off continuing. BTW my 'picture' at 'Eye' . . the odd pair of eyes . . . is taken from a del Cossa picture of St Lucy who's eyes were gouged out when she was put to death. I checked out the various friezes mentioned in the book and available to down-load. Not easy to get clear images but at least I felt I had a better idea of the various characters del Cossa had painted. Did anyone notice there is quite a bit about the detail of St Francis Ferrer in the 'Camera' section, as George studies the painting in the National Gallery but little mention of it by del Cossa in 'Eye'? I had no trouble in accepting the 1960's pre-theme and didn't read anything too special in it. It provided a period in which Smith based Carol (the mother) who is quite hippy-ish in her way of life/outlook. Nor did the lack of speech marks and odd words scattered about . . . once I had got used to them. In fact it forced me to be more alert to the various 'conversations' in case I missed something. The 'Camera' setting of Cambridge is where Smith lives and presumably mixes among the intelligentsia so I suppose it isn't surprising that George is much brighter than the average teenager. The hospital, Addenbrookes, where G's Mother dies and where G cycles round part of the lay-out of the gene and photos the double helix, are all there in real life. I wonder if this part of 'Camera' is telling us about the 'twist' in history (as the DNA spiral is depicted) when G says "What if the received notions of history were deceptive." As to the characters. I felt very sorry for both Georgia and Henry (who at first I though much younger than he actually was . . more of a toddler). Their Father seemed a distant rather ineffectual figure and G is left to look after the boy/cook the meals etc. although Smith doesn't make a big thing of it. And what was it about the damp patch on the wall in her bedroom? Did it have some significance that I've missed? The Mother, for me, seems quite a believable 'her-own-woman' sort of character. How many people would just up and take the children away to Italy for a few days? She shows guts and obviously is happy to put two fingers up at authority, in true hippy style. She tries to make George think at an adult level, which perhaps leaves G more vulnerable after her death. Helena, another very bright girl, comes in and out of G's life too briefly. I feel, if Camera had been a story on its own H could have played a greater part/been developed more. Mrs Rock? Did anyone mention her? Is her name meant to imply some sort of security for G; she seems to have no one else rooting for her? I liked the way she answers a question with a question or repeats back the same sentence. I have a friend, something of a Social Worker who does that same thing; it can drive you mad. Lisa Goliard? Obviously someone who Carol was attached to in the past, but so little information is given about her and why does G thinks she was/is a spy? Is she maybe the link between the now and then? George sees her in the National Gallery and apparently follows her to her house . . or so del Cossa 'says'. Very confusing. I cannot think that the second part (for me) of 'Eye' is meant to be written by George and Helena, they wouldn't have had either the skill or knowledge of mid-fifteenth century Italy. Why has del Cossa been taken forward in time? No idea, unless it is just because of the length of time G spends staring at the St Francis picture, as though he has been temporarily resurrected. I couldn't see the point of making del Cossa a female, nor the mention by some here about pornography; I hardly noticed it, (although the male review writers in the papers did!) I was more annoyed by del Cossa' using the word cause instead of 'because' on almost every page. Finally I think 'tomatoes' was just an error. I also noticed 'breeches' which I don't think were worn back then; still to be invented! So, I've still written too much but must say it made me think outside my comfort zone, but I don't think I would read this type of book again too soon. Rather too clever for everyday comfort. Final thought; all the way through reading this in my mind's background I kept 'hearing' I am a Camera

Hi Plllog, If there are comments shown, I just click Comment to get to the bottom of a thread. I prefer my setting to be the "left" view so that I see numerous threads on my page, much like GW was. I just click on the topics that interest me, as I did before. The center view lets pictures show but also limits the amounts of postings to only a few showing on my page because of the space taken my the most recent comment.

But I guess the next time someone asks if I've built a particular plan and I haven't (and I haven't built a house like any of the plans in here, and never will for good or bad). I will just not say anything no matter what. But if that's how these threads are going to be handled there are going to be threads with no responses. LOTS of threads with no responses. And lots of grumping that nobody here is willing to post help. At least weekly, someone posts "their" stock plan and asks for feedback on it. 90% of the time they want validation, rather than assistance with what might be wrong with that plan. Inevitably, they refer to it as a "popular" plan, although I'm not sure by what metric this is measured, especially when they get no responses from anyone who's built it. There ARE a few plans on here that do indeed seem to be popular - posts with 300+ comments on ongoing builds, with photos. So it's no fun at all to ask more about those. Really, there are two types of people that seem to pop up here. People who are thinking about or in the process of building a home, and either get chased out when their ideas are critiqued or leave when their own project is complete (which is perfectly rational). And people who either work in the industry or have enough interest in it to have learned how to see beyond the latest HGTV trend and unwise but popular styles to be able to speak to actual functional issues with both of the above. Many of them have their own personal quirks about things, but usually will say so. And most of them have been doing it long enough to no sugar coat things. This is a dynamic that is unlikely to change. So what tends to happen is that the hardier of the first group, who can withstand a little critiquing and learn from it, tend to stay and learn something. And the snowflakes melt away and go back to posting their stock plans on facebook or the HGTV forums to more Universal Approval.